Blast from the Past: Billy Joel's The Stranger

With Columbia Records releasing a special 30th anniversary of Billy Joel's The Stranger this week it seemed like an opportune time to talk about an album that I have adored since I was a wee little music listener.

As a young child, Billy Joel was one of the first musicians I truly latched onto. In part because his songs were played constantly on New York's classic rock stations and because Storm Front was released when I was the tender age of 9, Billy Joel has been in constant rotation for a huge portion of my life and no album got the play that The Stranger got. Each of these 9-songs is an absolute classic, it's undeniable so don't even try and fight it. Kicking off with Movin' Out (Anthony's Son)", The Stranger shows Joel's steadfast adoration of New York and his utter defiance to change of any sort. Which is a bit odd, because it was the change to producer Phil Ramone for this album that propelled him from a talented musician that wasn't living up to his potential to one of the biggest stars in the history of music. But, The Stranger is rife with odes that beg people not to change. "Don't go changing, to try and please me", he coos on "Just the Way You Are", and his pleas continue throughout the album.

Listening to The Stranger now it's easy to see why I would fall in love with it as a child. It's soothing with all it's varied styles, beautiful production, and easy to sing-a-long with tunes. From Broadway like show tunes, the jazz bits, to over blown ballads, it's got a bit of everything that I needed at the time. And it's all so tame and inoffensive that it's easy for a parent to let a kid listen to Billy Joel in peace. All of that fed my obsession, but it was two tunes that truly hooked me on this album. The first being "Only the Good Die Young", the single greatest song ever dedicated to Catholic school girls. Yeah I was nine, but I was in Catholic school, and starting to realize what the fairer sex was for. So that was an obvious draw into the album, but "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" was the one that really hooked me. It's an epic song, with so many varied parts that it could have been pulled straight from a musical. This song, the way it starts off all slow, then picks up as the song breaks into it's true verses, is absolutely addictive. There's so much going on here that it's impossible not to love this tune.

The Stranger is a great record, but you all knew that already, hell everyone in the world has told you so. It won Grammy's, it was rated in the top-100 albums of all-time by Rolling Stone, it has received a ridiculous amount of awards and accolades since it was first released. I haven't picked up the 30th anniversary edition yet, apparently it comes with a performance at Carnegie Hall from 1977, but I think I'm gonna. It's just that good.
Billy Joel - "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)"
Billy Joel - "The Stranger"
Billy Joel - "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant"
Billy Joel - "Only the Good Die Young"