The Stranger [Vinyl LP]

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Joel's fifth album, released in September of 1977, and Joel's breakthrough album, as well as Joel's first collaboration with producer Phil Ramone, with whom he would work on every studio album until 1989's Storm Front. The play ran successfully on Broadway for three years, holding its final performance on December 15, 2005 after a total of 1,303 performances. The songs were all recorded with Joel alongside his band which he had formed while touring, in addition to various other musicians who were brought into the studio for specific songs. In addition to bringing together Billy’s monumentally successful 1980s albums — Glass Houses (1980), The Nylon Curtain (1982), An Innocent Man (1983), The Bridge (1986) and Storm Front (1989) — alongside 1993’s River of Dreams, his final studio album of newly written pop songs, The Vinyl Collection, Vol.

Billy Joel – The Stranger (1977, Vinyl) - Discogs Billy Joel – The Stranger (1977, Vinyl) - Discogs

Joel had mostly worked with session players for his first three studio albums, which contained only scattered contributions from his own backup musicians, and strongly disliked the polished sound of these albums. Though never released as a single, "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" is a staple of his live set, named by Rolling Stone 's Rob Sheffield as Joel's equivalent to Bruce Springsteen's " Jungleland". And since Songs in the Attic was recorded with an early 3M digital recording system, MoFi’s digital link probably improves upon the original standard pressing.The second single from the album, "Just The Way You Are", peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, [7] having received a boost in popularity following Joel's performance of the song on an episode of Saturday Night Live.

The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 - Billy Joel Official Site The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1 - Billy Joel Official Site

BILLY JOEL - THE STRANGER (30th ANNIVERSARY LEGACY EDITION) The Stranger is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Billy Joel, released on September 29, 1977 by Columbia Records. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" went on to lend its name to a 2002 jukebox musical, featuring several of Joel's songs alongside narrative choreography by Twyla Tharp. The single for "Movin' Out" was later rereleased, after which it achieved higher success and ultimately became a hit. Only the Good Die Young" was written by Joel while opening for the Beach Boys in Knoxville, Tennessee, at which point it sounded slower-pace and more akin to a reggae tune, with Joel even singing the song's lyrics in a Jamaican accent. Unfortunately, Discogs keeps pointing me to a specific pressing, but I may have one that isn't accounted for yet?

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic praised The Stranger as a highlight of Joel's discography, noting that its lyrical shortcomings are outweighed by Joel's musical flair, and ultimately concluding that Joel "rarely wrote a set of songs better than those on The Stranger, nor did he often deliver an album as consistently listenable". The album's title track, according to Joel, was written by him without any core themes in mind and could be open up to interpretation, though he stated that it could be seen as a song about a man with schizophrenia. But if you grew up in NYC or the tri-state area during a certain era, you are to varying degrees trapped inside at least 5 of these songs. It contains two special editions: a two-CD Legacy Edition, and a Deluxe Limited Edition (which includes two CDs and a bonus DVD).

Billy Joel Exclusive Color Vinyl Editions At Walmart Billy Joel Exclusive Color Vinyl Editions At Walmart

After hearing the beat, he thought that the rhythm would be nice to fool around with, and wrote the song shortly afterwards.According to Joel in an interview with Today, the percussive rhythm used in the song came about while he was toying around with an Ace Tone Rhythm Ace drum machine, which contained a drum beat that he heard while scrolling through the machine's library of rhythm tracks. The photograph on the back cover of the album, featuring Joel, Ramone (donning a Yankees shirt at the time of the picture) and each of the band members, was taken at the Supreme Macaroni Company, one of several restaurants where the group would go to "have these crazy lunches and dinners". Joel grew to appreciate this group of musicians, finding that they had a high-energy, rough-around-the-edges feel that he hoped to capture in his studio recordings. S CBS 82311 and LC 0149 on label, CBS 82311 on spine, CB 271 54 on rear upper sleeve right, CBS 82311 on rear lower sleeve left, LC 0149 on rear lower sleeve right. The Stranger remains one of Joel's best-selling original studio albums to date, achieving a "Diamond" certification for surpassing sales of 10 million units.