1970–1976

Cold Spring Harbor (1971)
Joel signed his first solo record contract with Artie Ripp of Family Productions, and subsequently recorded his first solo album. Cold Spring Harbor (a reference to the Long Island town of the same name), was released in 1971. However, the album was mastered at the wrong speed, and the album was initially released with this error, resulting in Joel sounding a semitone too high. The onerous terms of the Family Productions contract also guaranteed him very little money from the sales of his albums.

In order to get out of the deal with Family Productions, Joel moved to Los Angeles, California with Elizabeth Weber, and they married in Los Angeles on September 5, 1971. For six months the following year, he played in the Executive Lounge piano bar under the name Bill Martin. This experience is what gave him the material for Piano Man.

In addition, a Philadelphia radio station, WMMR-FM, started playing a tape of a new song, Captain Jack, which was taken from a live concert broadcast which became an underground hit on the East Coast. An executive from Columbia Records named Herb Gordon heard his music and made his record label aware of Joel's talent. From there he signed with Columbia Records. Hits such as She's Got a Way and Everybody Loves You Now were originally released on this album, though they did not gain much attention until released as live performances in 1981 on Songs in the Attic. Since then they have become big concert numbers. Cold Spring Harbor got a second chance on the charts in 1983, when Columbia reissued the album after slowing it down to the correct speed. The album reached # 158 in the US and # 95 in the UK nearly a year later. Cold Spring Harbor caught the attention of Merrilee Rush (Angel of the Morning) and she recorded a femme version of She’s Got A Way (He’s Got A Way) for Scepter Records in 1971.


Piano Man (1973)
His experiences in Los Angeles connected him with record company executives, who bought out his contract with Ripp with the condition that the Family Productions logo be displayed alongside the Columbia logo for the next five albums. Also in the contract was the agreement that Family Productions would receive a 25 cent royalty for every album Joel sold, which would come back to haunt him when he hit it big. His brief tenure in Los Angeles also inspired his signature song Piano Man. The album Piano Man was released in late 1973 and was certified Gold. To this day it has sold over four million copies. However, due to the large sums of money involved in the legal tangles of the contract buyout, Joel netted less than $7,000 in profit from his certified Gold record. Although this album is best known for its title track, several other future gems include Captain Jack, The Ballad of Billy the Kid and You're My Home (the b-side of the Piano Man single, which would later be covered by Helen Reddy, who would release it as the flipside of her single Keep On Singing), all of which would become staples of Joel's live shows.

As of January 2007, the song Piano Man is still in the top 100 rock songs on iTunes.


Streetlife Serenade (1974)
Joel remained in Los Angeles to write Streetlife Serenade, his second album under the Columbia label. References to both suburbia and the inner city pepper the album. The standout track on the album is The Entertainer, which picks up thematically where Piano Man left off. Joel was upset that Piano Man had been significantly edited down in order to make it more radio-friendly, and in The Entertainer, he refers to the edit with sarcastic lines such as, If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05. This refers to the album version of this song which is 5:37, and the edited single which is 3:05. Although Streetlife Serenade is often considered one of Joel's weaker albums (Joel has confirmed his distaste for the album), it nonetheless contains some notable tracks including the title track, with Los Angelenos and the instrumental The Mexican Connection. It also marked the beginning of a more confident vocal style on Joel's part.


Turnstiles (1976)
Disenchanted with the L.A. musical scene, Joel returned to New York in 1975. There he recorded Turnstiles, on which Joel used his own hand-picked musicians in the studio for the first time, and took a more hands-on role. Songs were initially recorded and produced by famed Chicago producer James William Guercio, who subsequently was fired. The songs were re-recorded and Joel took over, producing the album himself. The minor hit Say Goodbye to Hollywood echoed the Phil Spector sound, and was even covered by Ronnie Spector. The album also featured the New York anthem, New York State of Mind, a bluesy, jazzy epic that has become one of Joel's signature songs and was later covered by fellow Columbia labelmates Barbra Streisand on her 1977 Streisand Superman album and as a duet with Tony Bennett on his 2001 Playing with my friends: Bennett Sings The Blues album. Other top songs on the album include Summer, Highland Falls, and Miami 2017 (I've Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway). Songs such as Prelude/Angry Young Man would become a mainstay of his concerts for years.