Streetlife Serenade

Streetlife Serenade is Billy Joel's third album, and his second with Columbia Records.

Streetlife Serenade was released in 1974, as the follow up to the album Piano Man. Joel's third album did not enjoy the relative success of its predecessor and marked the beginning of Joel's frosty relationship with music critics and the music industry in general. In the song "The Entertainer," Joel mocks the entertainment industry and references the fact that his record label insisted on his single, "Piano Man" (Joel's hit song from his previous album), being released as a shortened version, noting, "It was a beautiful song but it ran too long./If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit./So they cut it down to 3:05."

"The Entertainer" peaked at #34 on the US Singles Chart.

The album contains two songs that were featured in many of Joel's live shows during the 1970s: the instrumental "Root Beer Rag" and the short song "Souvenir" which Joel often played as the final encore during that time period.

Two songs from this album, "Streetlife Serenader" and "Los Angelenos," would be featured on Joel's first live album, Songs in the Attic, in 1981.