Billy Joel albums and songs sales
A lot of things can be said about Billy Joel to start our new CSPC analysis. We can start by saying that his last proper studio album, not counting his side project Fantasies & Delusions in 2001, was released in 1993. Almost 23 years ago! And yet he has been able to maintain a gigantic status in the business thanks to his credibility as a live artist and, of course, the massive appeal of his most famous output.
He isn’t regarded as an album act in the dimension some acts are, especially groups like Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, but definitely not a singles act either like, for instance, Abba. He is a mixture of both, which means that he generated large sales through both avenues. A CSPC approach for someone like him isn’t just interesting, in his case it is almost an imperative in order to truly understand his level of popularity and how big some of his studio albums have been all these years after he started.
His popularity grew little by little since his first album back in 1971, accumulating a great success across most of his subsequent titles, with some high points during the late 70s and the 80s. We will see the extent of that success and I can guarantee you the average equivalent sales per album will positively surprise some of you.
ChartMasters’ method: the CSPC
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept (CSPC) in order to relevantly gauge the act’s results. It will not only bring you sales information for all albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming. In fact, it will really determine the act’s popularity.
If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, below is a nice and short video of explaining the concept. I recommend watching it before reading on and to the sales figures. You’ll get the idea in just two minutes.
And if you want to know the full method as well as formulas, you can read the full introduction article.
Now let’s get into the artist’s detailed sales figures!
Billy Joel Original Albums Sales
Cold Spring Harbor (1971)
- America
- US – 700,000
- Canada – N/A
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 100,000
- Oceania
- Australia – N/A
- New Zealand – N/A
- Europe – 140,000
- UK – N/A
- France – N/A
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – N/A
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 1,100,000
Piano Man (1973)
- America
- US – 4,450,000
- Canada – 450,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – N/A
- Oceania
- Australia – 300,000
- New Zealand – N/A
- Europe – 680,000
- UK – 175,000
- France – N/A
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – N/A
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 6,700,0000
Streetlife Serenade (1974)
- America
- US – 1,100,000
- Canada – N/A
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – N/A
- Oceania
- Australia – N/A
- New Zealand – N/A
- Europe – 150,000
- UK – N/A
- France – N/A
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – N/A
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 1,700,000
Turnstiles (1976)
- America
- US – 1,900,000
- Canada – N/A
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – N/A
- Oceania
- Australia – 100,000
- New Zealand – N/A
- Europe – 270,000
- UK – N/A
- France – N/A
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – N/A
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 2,900,000
The Stranger (1977)
- America
- US – 10,400,000
- Canada – 1,000,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 1,000,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 400,000
- New Zealand – 70,000
- Europe – 1,350,000
- UK – 500,000
- France – 125,000
- Germany – 200,000
- Italy – 100,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – 75,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – 15,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 15,300,000
52nd Street (1978)
- America
- US – 7,900,000
- Canada – 800,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 1,050,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 500,000
- New Zealand – 90,000
- Europe – 1,660,000
- UK – 400,000
- France – 275,000
- Germany – 300,000
- Italy – 75,000
- Spain – 50,000
- Sweden – 75,000
- Netherland – 60,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – 30,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 13,300,000
Glass Houses (1980)
- America
- US – 7,600,000
- Canada – 700,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 600,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 350,000
- New Zealand – 35,000
- Europe – 1,040,000
- UK – 300,000
- France – 100,000
- Germany – 175,000
- Italy –
- Spain – 25,000
- Sweden – 75,000
- Netherland – 50,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – 40,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 11,000,000
The Nylon Curtain (1982)
- America
- US – 2,800,000
- Canada – 225,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 600,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 175,000
- New Zealand – 20,000
- Europe – 530,000
- UK – 100,000
- France – N/A
- Germany – 75,000
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – 25,000
- Netherland – 120,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – 10,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 4,900,000
An Innocent Man (1983)
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- America
- US – 7,800,000
- Canada – 500,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 850,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 475,000
- New Zealand – 110,000
- Europe – 2,210,000
- UK – 1,350,000
- France – 150,000
- Germany – 250,000
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – 30,000
- Netherland – 60,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – 10,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 13,000,000
The Bridge (1986)
- America
- US – 2,600,000
- Canada – 275,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 400,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 225,000
- New Zealand – 20,000
- Europe – 450,000
- UK – 125,000
- France – N/A
- Germany – 100,000
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – 20,000
- Netherland – 20,000
- Switzerland – 15,000
- Austria – 15,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 4,400,000
Storm Front (1989)
- America
- US – 4,800,000
- Canada – 340,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 275,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 225,000
- New Zealand – 25,000
- Europe – 1,750,000
- UK – 425,000
- France – N/A
- Germany – 750,000
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – 15,000
- Netherland – 90,000
- Switzerland – 15,000
- Austria – 30,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 7,900,000
River Of Dreams (1993)
- America
- US – 5,150,000
- Canada – 380,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia
- Japan – 375,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 325,000
- New Zealand – 45,000
- Europe – 1,920,000
- UK – 375,000
- France – N/A
- Germany – 700,000
- Italy – 75,000
- Spain – 50,000
- Sweden – 55,000
- Netherland – 60,000
- Switzerland – 90,000
- Austria – 65,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 9,000,000
Original Album Sales – Comments
1971 Cold Spring Harbor – 1,100,000
1973 Piano Man – 6,700,000
1974 Streetlife Serenade – 1,700,000
1976 Turnstiles – 2,900,000
1977 The Stranger – 15,300,000
1978 52nd Street – 13,300,000
1980 Glass Houses – 11,000,000
1982 The Nylon Curtain – 4,900,000
1983 An Innocent Man – 13,000,000
1986 The Bridge – 4,400,000
1989 Storm Front – 7,900,000
1993 River Of Dreams – 9,000,000
Overall, Billy Joel released 12 studio albums which accumulated a massive 91,4 million sales combined.
In terms of markets, he was the first solo artist to truly break the main audience of non-English speaking countries. The first international act to ever release officially an album in China, he was also the first to release an album on CD format in the world when The Stranger came out in Japan in 1982. Often regarded as a pure American act, Billy Joel has been an incredible seller and opened the door to foreign artists in various places.
Figures listed here don’t consider Fantasies & Delusions which is counted in Orphan category during upcoming pages. Speaking of which, and as explained in the introduction, Billy Joel‘s appeal doesn’t quite stop here given that he also boasts quite a huge catalogue of physical singles, compilations, live albums, box sets, music videos and, more recently, also digital downloads and streaming. Getting into those formats is the only way to truly have a perspective of his real status in the business. And that comes just next.
Physical Singles Sales
By this point, it should be clear that the piano man isn’t only about albums sales. Far from that. If for someone like him it is almost imperative -as explained- to analyze his whole catalogue of records, one of the biggest avenues to go through is the physical singles.
With a very strong collection of massive hit singles, Billy Joel has sold over 36 million of them in physical form.
As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.
Cold Spring Harbor (1972) – 60,000 equivalent albums
She’s Got A Way – 200,000
Piano Man (1973) – 330,000 equivalent albums
Piano Man – 500,000
Worse Come To Worst, Travelin’ Prayer & The Ballad Of Billy The Kid – 600,000
Streetlife Serenade (1974) – 150,000 equivalent albums
The Entertainer – 500,000
Turnstiles (1976) – 240,000 equivalent albums
Say Goodbye To Hollywood & James – 800,000
The Stranger (1977) – 1,665,000 equivalent albums
Just The Way You Are – 2,500,000
Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) – 800,000
Only The Good Die Young – 600,000
She’s Always A Woman – 900,000
The Stranger – 750,000
52nd Street (1978) – 1,410,000 equivalent albums
My Life – 2,400,000
Big Shot & Until The Night – 800,000
Honesty – 1,500,000
Glass Houses (1980) – 1,380,000 equivalent albums
All For Leyna & Sometimes A Fantasy – 500,000
You May Be Right – 1,000,000
It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me – 2,300,000
Don’t Ask Me Why – 800,000
The Nylon Curtain (1982) – 450,000 equivalent albums
Pressure & Goodnight Saigon – 900,000
Allentown – 600,000
An Innocent Man (1983) – 2,265,000 equivalent albums
Tell Her About It – 1,750,000
Uptown Girl – 3,500,000
An Innocent Man – 1,000,000
The Longest Time – 600,000
Leave A Tender Moment Alone, This Night & Keeping The Faith – 700,000
The Bridge (1986) – 615,000 equivalent albums
Modern Woman – 600,000
A Matter Of Trust – 750,000
This Is The Time & Baby Grand – 700,000
Storm Front (1989) – 915,000 equivalent albums
We Didn’t Start The Fire – 1,700,000
I Go To Extremes – 650,000
Leningrad, The Downeaster Alexa, That’s Not Her Style, And So It Goes & Shameless – 700,000
River Of Dreams (1993) – 840,000 equivalent albums
The River Of Dreams – 2,300,000
All About Soul, No Man’s Land & Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) – 500,000
Orphan Album – 750,000 equivalent albums
You’re Only Woman (Second Wind) – 800,000
The Night Is Still Young – 500,000
All Shook Up – 200,000
Other physical singles – 1,000,000
Digital Singles Sales
Apart from looking at the old physical singles sales, in order to have a more complete perspective of what those songs’ appeal is, we also need to further inspect in his digital downloads sales, a format now in decline but which was significant from about 2006 to 2013 and is worth getting into.
This isn’t one of his biggest avenues. But he still sold around 21 million units worldwide.
As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1 ratio between one album and one digital single.
Cold Spring Harbor (1972) – 60,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 400,000
Piano Man (1973) – 600,000 equivalent albums
Piano Man – 3,200,000
Remaining tracks – 800,000
Streetlife Serenade (1974) – 135,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 900,000
Turnstiles (1976) – 150,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 1,000,000
The Stranger (1977) – 675,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 4,500,000
52nd Street (1978) – 150,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 1,000,000
Glass Houses (1980) – 180,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 1,200,000
The Nylon Curtain (1982) – 75,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 500,000
An Innocent Man (1983) – 510,000 equivalent albums
Uptown Girl – 2,000,000
Remaining tracks – 1,400,000
The Bridge (1986) – 45,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 300,000
Storm Front (1989) – 360,000 equivalent albums
We Didn’t Start The Fire – 1,750,000
Remaining tracks – 650,000
River Of Dreams (1993) – 135,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 900,000
Orphan Album – 75,000 equivalent albums
Total tracks – 500,000
Streaming Sales
Below table lists Spotify streaming of all songs from the five albums we are studying. The Comprehensive Streaming is reached by multiplying Spotify figures by 68/26. In fact, as shown in IFPI 2015 Report, there were 68 million paying subscribers to all streaming platforms by the end of 2015. While the exact count of Spotify paying subscribers by the end of 2015 is unknown, that figure reached 20 million in June 2015 and 30 million in March 2016, thus an estimated 26 million is used as of the end of 2015.
The equivalent album sales is the division of the comprehensive streaming figure by 1500 as it is now the norm in the new industry model.
Streaming Part 1 – Slow way to success
We open a new section with Billy Joel‘s first three albums. Two of which don’t seem to add much value to his popularity, especially because they lacked truly huge hits and consequently weren’t represented in his compilations and live albums like other efforts from this artists. These two albums are Cold Spring Harbor and Streetlife Serenade, both falling under 10,000 album equivalent sales.
Piano Man offers a different story. It has four songs above the 2 million mark, with one absolutely monster hit for him: the titled song, with over 85 million streams via Spotify. Mostly driven by that track, his second album achieves 170,000 equivalent albums sales.
Streaming Part 2 – Consolidation
On Part II, on the other hand, we see better and more consistent results. Turnstiles and 52nd Street rank almost on pair, both at nearly 40,000 equivalent albums sold, Surprisingly Honesty, whilst more than a decent classic hit at over 6 million streams on Spotify, didn’t boost its parent album to the level some would have expected.
The Stranger didn’t have any specific track as huge as the song Piano Man, but it contains five tracks above the 10 million mark, including Vienna with a massive 20 million. Plus, all but three songs on it reached 7-digits figures, which overall was enough to reach 184,000 CSPC sales.
Streaming Part 3 – Mixed results
This section includes what can be considered to be one of Billy Joel‘s flops during his impressive career. We are talking about The Nylon Curtain that, for example, had no more than four songs above the million mark in the Spotify era and produced only one reasonably great success, Allentown, with almost 5 million streams.
Glass Houses managed a very good 48,000 CSPC’s sales, driven by a number of hits, of which It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me, currently not far from 15 million streams on Spotify.
In the same way, An Innocent Man appears unsurprisingly high with 137,000 equivalent albums sales fueled by several hit singles, released in physical format at the time and still doing very well regardless in spite of their relative lack of representation on Billy Joel‘s concerts and live albums. Amongst such hits, of course, the winner is Uptown Girl, approaching the 50 million stream total.
Streaming Part 4 – Last three albums
The Bridge and Storm Front were far from his most successful albums back in the day, but the latter, at least, has some sort of revenge in the modern age of streaming. The reason? Well, mostly the inclusion of the signature song, one of his biggest ones ever, We Didn’t Start The Fire. The result? The album is about to get in the 100,000 equivalent albums sold territory.
River Of Dreams was a nice return to form more than two decades ago, but it doesn’t shine so much nowadays. The River of Dreams, no matter what, is at a very good 15 million total streams and accounts for about two thirds of the title’s 39,000 CSPC’s sales.
Streaming Part 5 – Orphan tracks I
We open the first part of Billy Joel‘s orphan tracks, which includes all the songs from his side project Fantasies & Delusions, which we decided to class in this category given how much of an unusual product this was.
Streaming Part 6 – Orphan tracks II
And here we have the rest. Counting both parts, his orphan tracks add up for some 23,000 CSPC’s sales.
Full Length related records Sales
As someone who has such a prolific career, Billy Joel has been no stranger to the world of other Full Length releases, in every possible format. He released numerous of live albums, compilations and also music videos. And some of them -I don’t need to even say it- have been huge. Time to go through them and see what the outcome is.
Part 1 – Live albums I
How to understand this table? If you check for example Songs In The Attic live album line, those figures mean it sold 5,100,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all songs included on this package add for 26 million streaming plays on Spotify.
The second part at the right of the table shows how many streams are coming from each original album plus the share it represents on the overall package streams. Thus, streaming figures tell us Piano Man songs are responsible for 37% of the Songs In The Attic tracklist attractiveness, which means it generated 1,887,000 of its 5,100,000 album sales and so on for the other records.
This first section opens with three live albums, where we see some of the already noted trends. Two albums appear to be the strongest sales generators of those full length releases. Piano Man, boosted by the song of the same name, and The Stranger, which performs very well due to a more evenly spread amount of tracks.
To a lesser extent, Turnstile shows a good shape. Remaining albums have mixed results and figures.
Part 2 – Live albums II
Two other live albums, albeit with smaller worldwide sales, confirm the above pattern. Piano Man and The Stranger provide the most attractiveness to those sets.
Part 3 – Compilations I
Greatest Hits I & II is one of the biggest compilations of all times and ranks particularly high in the USA. Again, Piano Man and The Stranger achieve the biggest share, representing a combined 54% of its appeal.
The same can said about the other four compilations, except of course A Voyage On The River Of Dreams, dominated by its parent album. Greatest Hits III has an unusual pattern too as it focused on his last studio albums, with Storm Front emerging as the biggest winner, again heavily helped by We Didn’t Start The Fire.
Part 4 – Compilations II
Three multiple discs compilations and in all of them, once again, Piano Man wins big time. This album doesn’t rank amongst his very best selling titles, but thanks to our CSPC’s approach we are starting to understand why. In fact, considering how it is boosted by the song Piano Man, it is a surprise to see its relative small sales. This simply means the studio album has been heavily cannibalized by his compilations. Had this essential track been excluded from his other full length records, the album would have sold much more without any doubt.
Apart from that, The Stranger faces some predictable competition from An Innocent Man, which suffered a little bit in the live albums category but has a very good showing in the compilation part.
Part 5 – Compilations III
We find now three final compilations with similar shares to the above albums, except that in this case, as opposed to before, they mean less because their worldwide sales were smaller.
Part 6 – Music videos I
Amongst Billy Joel‘s music videos, Piano Man finds yet another source of sales. The Video Album Volume 1 was dominated by his second album, whereas The Video Album Volume 2 puts An Innocent Man as the winner.
Eye Of The Storm, as its titles proves, got 100% of its sales from Storm Front tracks as its whole content is related to his 1989 effort.
Part 7 – Music videos II
Greatest Hits Volume III The Video, just like the Greatest Hits III album, is dominated by Storm Front songs.
As for the others, the trends aren’t quite different from the rest.
Billy Joel Career CSPC Results
So, after checking all figures, how many overall album sales equivalent each Billy Joel album achieved? Well, at this point we barely need to do the addition of all figures defined all over this article!
In the following results table, all categories display figures in equivalent album sales. If different, pure sales are listed between parentheses.
As a reminder:
- Studio Album: sales of the original album
- Other Releases: sales of compilations generated thanks to the album
- Physical Singles: sales of physical singles from the album (ratio 3/10)
- Download Singles: sales of digital singles from the album (ratio 1,5/10)
- Streaming: equivalent album sales of all the album tracks (ratio 1/1500 for Audio stream and 1/6750 for Video stream)
Artist career totals
See where the artist ranks among remaining singers
This is pretty much it. The Stranger, definitely his most iconic album, reinforces his status with a final CSPC’s total of 25,1 million. A total where it gets thanks to a strong 9,8 million equivalent albums sold via other formats as the album’s pure sales are on 15,3 million.
An Innocent Man registers a huge jump too, as it goes from 13 million pure album sales to 22,5 million with CSPC’s sales coming from other formats.
52nd Street originally sold 13,3 million. While this one added several more million sales from remaining formats, the final CSPC’s total didn’t match results of the two albums previously mentioned. Yet, 16,7 million is nothing to feel shy about. Glass Houses has similar results.
But the most impressive case is, without any doubt, Piano Man. At 6,7 million pure albums sales, it ranks as the artist 7th top seller. Still, mostly thanks to the song Piano Man, it gets to as high as 18,4 million once generated sales through compilations and the likes get factored in, even surpassing 52nd Street in spite of original album sales being only half of those of that one. With lower pure album sales than Storm Front, River Of Dreams and Glass Houses, its CSPC total crushes them all putting Piano Man as Billy Joel 3rd most popular album. This example is the perfect illustration of the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept with pure album sales of a record not fully representing its real popularity, an issue fixed thanks to our approach.
Storm Front shows an enduring appeal on the back of We Didn’t Start Fire, one of his most famous tracks. That song, combined with its great representation on the Greatest Hits III album, produced a jump from 7,9 million pure albums sales to a more fittingly strong 12,9 million CSPC’s sales.
Most of the other albums also managed to double or triple their respective original pure sales.
You may be wondering about Billy Joel‘s overall CSPC? It is a gigantic 146,7 million equivalent albums when everything is weighted accordingly. That is the final number. The number that makes this act one of the biggest of all-time.
Which is further proved by the average sales per album: nothing less than 12 million, a tally not many acts -with a catalogue of that size- can beat. As a comparison, among already studied acts with 10 or more albums, U2 is up to 14,7 million per album, Madonna and Celine Dion both 14,5 million, Metallica is on 13,7 million and Fleetwood Mac is at an average of 7,9 million.
Those averages though are often inflated by one gigantic sellers, while Billy Joel has been incredibly consistent. Indeed, his median is 12,1 million, a figure only topped by Madonna at 12,2 million while Metallica is at 11,8 million, U2 at 11,7 million, Celine Dion at 7,7 million and Fleetwood Mac at 2,2 million all drop below the artist we checked today. This shows that indeed Billy Joel is up there with the very biggest acts ever.
I hope you enjoyed it, as usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!
Sources: IFPI, Spotify, Chartmasters.org.
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