Search - Billy Joel - The Essential Video Collection on DVD

Damn DVD producers!!!

William | Australia | 11/13/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This was released by the same distributor in Australia but ... it has a different cover, and some different songs to the American DVD release. We get 25 songs in total, compared to 24 on the American DVD.The songs on the Australian DVD that are missing on the American DVD are:- New York State Of Mind
- The River Of Dreams
- We Didn't Start The Fire
- I Go To Extremes
- Leningrad
- The Downeaster 'Alexa'
- All About Soul The songs on the American DVD that are missing on the Australian DVD are:- Sometimes a Fantasy
- The Night Is Still Young
- Pressure
- Keeping the Faith
- Big Shot
- Los Angelenos It depends on which Billy Joel songs you like, but for me I would rather have the American tracks because they capture an era when Billy was at his very best. Some American reviewers wish their DVD version had "River of Dreams", so the answer is to import it from Australia.I'm tempted to buy the American DVD as well but seems like a bit of overlapping just to get 6 videos not available on the Australian DVD. The real solution is for DVD producers to release one definitive DVD version including ALL tracks! And I agree with many consumers, we want music clip videos on music DVD's not concert videos (leave concert videos for full concert DVD's). I refer to videos like "Piano Man" which has been replaced with concert footage. Urgh!"

Good music, great videos but...

ashmel | Mountain View, CA United States | 11/29/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The content of this Billy Joel collection is more than you can ask for in a decent music DVD. It has most of his hits like Uptown Girl, Piano Man, Its still rock and roll to me etc. The visuals might look jaded but that has to be the case as these songs are old and videos were shot during the 70s and 80s. This DVD is a must for Billy Joel fans.
Now, I must explain the "but" in review title.. those of you looking for his later videos like We didn't start the fire, River of dreams might be dissappointed. What really made me drop one star off the rating was the missing "Shes always a woman to me" song. That happens to be one of my favorite and I was a trifle irked to find it missing.In short, a good buy for a B.J fan as its got almost all his good songs.. mark the "almost"."

Aside from three repeats, this DVD is awesome!!

Vickie R. Terhune | Northwest Indiana | 01/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having received a copy of Billy's "Greatest Hits Volume III - The Video" as a gift two years ago for Christmas 2000, I asked "Santa" for a copy of Billy's "The Essential Video Collection" as a gift for Christmas 2002--and I'm exceedingly glad that "Santa" gave me what I'd asked for! I've been pleased with "The Essential Video Collection" from the first time I watched it (Christmas-mid-morning).
The DVD is a great collection of original music videos, live concert performances and live studio performances from a legend of rock-n-roll, the "Piano Man".
Although I've never been a die-hard fan of Billy (I'm a true fan of his piano-partner, Elton, instead), at the time I got into the DVD format (April of 2000) there were more Billy discs than Elton discs available (but, thankfully, that's changed within the past two years); nevertheless, I do appreciate Billy's catalog of rock music.
Prior to experiencing "The Essential Video Collection", I had seen only a few of the orignal music videos on the compilation ('Pressure','Allentown','Tell Her About It','Uptown Girl'), none of the live concert footage and none of the live studio footage--so the DVD is a real treat!
The sound quality is up to par with DVD, yet the video quality varies from song selection to song selection, especially the studio footage from the mid-to-late '70s/early '80s and the original music videos from the early-to-mid '80s, while the live concert footage is passable.
Overall, this disc is a great Billy video release
Still, there is one little gripe I have about the disc compilation: three of the original music videos ('Keeping The Faith','A Matter Of Trust' and 'Baby Grand' w/Ray Charles) are repeated from 1997's "Greatest Hits Volume III - The Video" Since the same manufacturer (Sony/Columbia Music Video) produced and released the two titles, it's displeasingly surprising to me how such a content overlap could have occurred; I mean, come on, the supply of material from which Sony/Columbia had to compile this DVD couldn't have been so low that three other *different* original music videos and/or live concert/live studio performances of three other *different* songs couldn't have selected in place of the content overlap. Oh well, I suppose I will be thankful for the majority of the material that this DVD contains.
In terms of DVD features, I like the interactive discography and interactive biographical timeline; also I like the audio choice: PCM stereo (which I use) and DD suround sound. I don't really need fancy-shmancy things like subtitles, on-screen lyrics and different camera angles--pretty much a waste of disc space, if you ask me.
All in all, "The Essential Video Collection" is a solid representation of Billy Joel's indelible mark on the world of rock music--a mark that he could have further perpetuated had he not turned 'classical' with "Fantasies & Delusions" (2001).
In conclusion, "The Essential Video Collection" disc is a should-have, even for casual Billy fans, such as myself."

Good but not Great!

Mel Tenen | Miami, Fl United States | 11/23/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Billy Joel is one of the best performers of all time and this DVD presents a variety of his music videos for that reason. Unlike the past two DVD's "Yankee Stadium" and "Greatest Hits III" there are no lyrics to these videos. One thing I was dissapointed in was that for Piano Man, they decided to add the Yankee Stadium version to the DVD(which I already bought), not adding instead the original Black & White music video he made singing in a bar. I was really dissapointed there, but you can't go wrong with this DVD for all of his great songs. Lastly, considering the age of the videos some of them are not top quality but instead they give I guess a feeling of the time in when he made them."