Stranger No More: Decoding the Piano Man's 1977 Breakthrough with Billy Joel's The Stranger
- All Things Music Plus+
- Sep 30
- 3 min read
September 22, 1977 – Billy Joel: The Stranger is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5
# Rolling Stone (see review below)
LISTEN/BUY
The Stranger is the fifth studio album by musician Billy Joel, released on September 22, 1977. It reached #2 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart, and features four singles that reached the Billboard Hot 100: "Just The Way You Are," (#3), "Movin' Out" (#17), "She's Always a Woman," (#17), and "Only The Good Die Young" (#24). In 2003, the album was ranked number 67 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
While his four previous albums had been moderate chart successes, this was his breakthrough album, and is generally regarded by critics as his magnum opus. Much of the album's success is attributed to Joel's collaboration with producer Phil Ramone, whose innovative production methods complemented Joel's songs. This fruitful collaboration would continue for a decade. The seven-and-a-half-minute epic "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" began as the shorter "Ballad of Brenda and Eddie," a section that now forms the third part of the song. Joel came up with the signature whistle line for the title track, which he whistled to producer Phil Ramone, claiming that he needed to find an instrument to play it. Ramone replied: "No, you don't. That's 'The Stranger,' the whistling."
The Stranger contained nine songs, many of which are now considered "classic Joel." "Movin' Out," "She's Always a Woman," "Just The Way You Are," "Everybody Has A Dream," and "Only The Good Die Young" were all written prior to recording, while "Vienna," "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," "The Stranger," and "Get It Right The First Time" all came from short tunes or fragments of songs that Joel finished in the studio. Each song had stories attached to it.
He's known to many as an inoffensive pop balladeer, but at the arguable peak of his career in the late '70s, Billy Joel released his darkest, most emotionally charged album. The Stranger abandons the grandstanding and broad melodic sweep of Joel's earlier records for a more intimate, introspective sound, effectively communicating Joel's ruminations on the perils of life and love. "Movin' Out" is something of an existentialist anthem, chronicling the way people's dreams are often irreparably crushed. The ominous-sounding title tune examines the many guises with which lovers disguise themselves in their attempts to entrap and deceive each other. "Only the Good Die Young" is hedonism at it's most iconoclastic. Even "She's Always a Woman," ostensibly a romantic piano ballad, is full of thorny, less-than-complimentary observations about its subject. Joel's emotional honesty would never be this clear-eyed and unabashed again.
ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW Of Billy Joel's The Stranger
This is the first Billy Joel album in some time that has significantly expanded his repertoire. While Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles had occasional moments, the bulk of Joel's most memorable material was on Cold Spring Harbor -- despite its severe technical flaws -- and Piano Man, which gave him his only major success. This time, while such songs as "Movin' Out" and "Just the Way You Are" are forced and overly simplistic, the imagery and melodies of The Stranger more often than not work.
Together with producer Phil Ramone, Joel has achieved a fluid sound occasionally sparked by a light soul touch. It is a markedly different effect than his pound-it-out-to-the-back-rows concert flash, although the title song, "Only The Good Die Young" and "Get It Right the First Time" will adapt to that approach as readily as, say, such a Joel signature piece as "Captain Jack."
"She's Always A Woman," which sounds misleadingly tender, is the key to the difference between The Stranger and Joel's other LPs. We don't expect subtlety or understatement from him and, indeed, his lyrics can be as smartassed as ever. But Ramone's emphasis on sound definitely lessens the impact of the sarcasm, which in the long run may help boost Joel's career immeasurably. In the meantime, old fans will have to listen more carefully than usual.
- Ira Mayer (December 29, 1977)
TRACKS:
All songs by Billy Joel.
Side one
"Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" – 3:30
"The Stranger" – 5:10
"Just the Way You Are" – 4:52
"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" – 7:37
Side two
"Vienna" – 3:34
"Only the Good Die Young" – 3:55
"She's Always a Woman" – 3:21
"Get It Right the First Time" – 3:57
"Everybody Has a Dream/The Stranger (Reprise)" – 6:38
Comments