Tied up by a contract with his first record company, Billy Joel spent about six months playing piano in a Los Angeles bar under the name Bill Martin. That stretch produced the title track of Piano Man, his second studio album and his first for Columbia, originally released in 1973. Alongside it sit the bluegrass-flavoured Travelin' Prayer, the western tale The Ballad of Billy the Kid, and the long, bitter Captain Jack, which found its first real audience through radio stations in Philadelphia. The album set out what Joel would draw on for the rest of his career: characters, stories, and the piano as lead instrument.

This edition is an LP.