No reliable public source reviewed here ranks Billy Joel’s songs by lifetime earnings. His official site lists six singles by RIAA certification tier, but those awards are not dollar totals—and they do not establish a top ten. The evidence supports a narrower answer: which singles the site identifies as Platinum or Gold, and what those certifications can and cannot tell you about a song’s financial success.
Why a highest-grossing ranking isn’t available
A true highest-grossing list would need comparable earnings figures for each song over a defined period and across the relevant revenue streams. The official sources cited here do not publish that information. They provide certification tiers and career-level statistics, not song-by-song revenue totals.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II | $19.88 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
![Billy Joel - The Complete Hits Collection 1973-1997 [Slipcase]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413Wv+ME3uL._SL160_.jpg)
|
Billy Joel - The Complete Hits Collection 1973-1997 [Slipcase] | $24.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
|
The Essential Billy Joel | $11.71 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
The Hits | $9.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
|
Greatest Hits Vol. III | $12.00 | Buy on Amazon |
That distinction matters because a song’s financial returns may involve recorded music and publishing income, including sales, streaming royalties, performance income and synchronization licenses. A certification threshold measures qualifying recorded-music units; it does not disclose the money earned by a particular composition or the people who hold its rights.
Billy Joel singles listed by RIAA certification tier
Billy Joel’s official timeline names two Platinum singles and four Gold singles. It does not provide exact unit totals for these titles or rank songs within either tier.
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| Certification tier on Billy Joel’s official timeline | Songs listed | What the source establishes |
|---|---|---|
| Platinum | “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”; “My Life” | The timeline lists these as Platinum singles; it does not state each song’s exact units or earnings. Billy Joel’s official timeline |
| Gold | “Just the Way You Are”; “Uptown Girl”; “We Didn’t Start the Fire”; “Tell Her About It” | The timeline lists these as Gold singles; it does not state each song’s exact units or earnings. Billy Joel’s official timeline |
This is a partial list of certified singles, not a ten-song ranking. The available source does not establish that these six are the only Joel songs with certifications, nor does it provide enough comparable figures to order the titles by units or revenue.
What Gold and Platinum mean—and what they don’t
The National Music Publishers’ Association says RIAA single certifications count sales and on-demand streams toward Gold at 500,000 units, Platinum at 1 million, and Multi-Platinum at 2 million or more. Those are unit thresholds, not dollar amounts. The NMPA Gold & Platinum Program began in 2007 and recognizes certifications earned from that year forward; new certifications are entered quarterly.
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RIAA describes its Gold & Platinum Program as a benchmark for recorded-music success and offers a searchable database. Certification is useful evidence of qualifying recorded-music activity, but a tier alone cannot reveal a song’s total revenue, net income, royalty split or lifetime earnings.
Career totals are not song-level earnings
Billy Joel’s official biography reports more than 150 million records sold and 33 Top 40 hits. These are career-level figures; they do not identify how much any individual song earned or establish which songs generated the most income. Billy Joel’s official biography
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For a reader interested in the broader hit catalog, Joel’s official timeline records the 1985 release of Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Volume I and Volume II, and his official discography lists the compilation. Its inclusion in the catalog does not provide evidence of individual song earnings.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What would support a genuine earnings ranking?
A credible ranking would need a stated, consistently applied metric and comparable figures for every song included. Song-level lifetime revenue would require accounting across relevant rights and income sources; a simpler proxy would still need to be labeled accurately.
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- Recorded-music certifications: useful for identifying award tiers or verified units where available, but not a direct revenue ranking.
- Chart performance: could compare songs only with a specified chart, market and time period; a chart position is not earnings.
- Streaming plays: could compare activity on a named platform over a stated period, but plays are not interchangeable with royalties or total income.
Without such comparable evidence, calling any list “highest-grossing” would imply a financial ranking the sources do not establish.
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