Artist: Billy Joel
Album: The Stranger
Released: September 1977
Doing this one in honor of tomorrow night’s Billy Joel/Elton John concert at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, which I shall be attending. This is actually the first actual Billy Joel album I’ve ever heard (I’ve previously stuck with the greatest hits collections). But in listening to said Greatest Hits comps, I’ve actually heard an overwhelming majority of the album. With the exception of “Vienna”, the filler tracks on The Stranger are nothing to write home about, but the hits on the record, like the jazzy suite of “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant”, or “Only the Good Die Young” which has been the anthem of every former Catholic school girl I’ve ever met, are positively first-rate. It’s hard to say what about Billy Joel and The Stranger are so likable, other than the fact that their terrifically crafted songs and Joel delivers them with such honesty and candor that he seems less like a budding rock star and more like the guy next door. Plenty has been said about The Stranger, and the music of Joel’s smash album has been heard countless times by countless people, and tomorrow night I’m looking forward to being among those who have heard him to it face to face.
Give you three guesses as to the artist at the center of tomorrow’s Album A Day.
Billy Joel – Only the Good Die Young [iTunes] (YSI)
==TJ==
Filed under: Album A Day | Tagged: 1970s, Album A Day, Billy Joel
Good stuff. I’ve always been a big Joel fan, despite what most critics say, though like you, until recently, most of that has been greatest hits collections (of which there are LOTS of hits!).
But I picked up “Songs in the Attic” in a bargain bin the other day, and the live tracks reminded me just how raw and passionate Joel’s songs were back in the day, and how tight his band was.
Word.