3. billy joel, "summer, highland falls"
why here? "autumn goodbye" has a slow fade and, since it was an uptempo song, i usually like to have it followed by something with an abrupt opening, like the piano chords here.
why this song? good fucking question. it's one of three billy joel songs i can tolerate: when used as a bonding exercise, i can sing along with "piano man"; if it were performed with sincerity, i could listen to "tell her about it." "summer, highland falls" is the only one i active like, though -- it plays to my weakness for wistful summer songs and for melancholic, winding piano lines. still, he's his own bernie taupin with lines about "either sadness or euphoria," and it features yet another of the cheesiest horn solos in the history of recorded music (cf. "just the way you are"). but, damn, that piano is pretty (and it also proves the causative link between joel and vanessa carlton that maura has proffered.)