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Billy Joel - 52nd Street Audio CD

A fair review of the Billy Joel "52nd Street" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Billy Joel reviews here, or go back to the Billy Joel tabs.

Billy Joel Band: Billy Joel
Title: 52nd Street
Rating:
Release Date: 1998-10-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Big Shot 2: Honesty 3: My Life 4: Zanzibar 5: Stiletto 6: Rosalinda's Eyes 7: Half a Mile Away 8: Until the Night 9: 52nd Street

One Of The Billy Albums I Love
This is something that I remember,along with Heatwave's Central Heating that I remember listening to a lot as a child on 8-track at our summer camp. Can't say that I love every one of Billy Joel's albums mainly because I've never heard them all. Hearing it now for the first time as an adult I am amazed how much my opinion of it has broadened and increased,not that I had a bad one in the first place. That comes from again having only heard a few of his albums and knowing him otherwise from his hits. During the late 70's the world of pop music was changing. Jazz and R&B were ascendant and,for those who were not interested in making disco or heartland rock style records those styles and the pop/rock of the day were beginning to bleed together and it turned out to be a wonderful combination. You could see that quality in records that explored that hybrid from Steely Dan's Aja,Gino Vannelli's Brother to Brother and The Doobie Brothers' Livin' on the Fault Line. This album is part of that same flow and,lucky for Billy Joel his sometimes over-reaching musical ambitions and edgy New York attitude really worked to great affect here. Even though the content of The Stranger was uniformily consistant it did have something of the feeling of a hit parade. At the same time the jazzy funk elements that permeate this album were creeping in even there and opened the door. Even the two big singles here "Big Shot" and "My Life" both have strong pop-jazz flavors in the production. "Zanzibar",featuring a jazz rhythm section in the arrangment featuring a solo by Freddie Hubbard allows Billy to stretch this musical concept out as far as he can take it with one of the best chorded hooks of his catalog next to perhaps "Movin' Out". On "Stiletto" and "Rosalinda's Eyes" the fusion flavor take presidents as the theme of girl watching comes up in various turns,twice. "Half A Mile Away" and "Until The Night" are the more pop/rocky of the tunes presented here but pop/rock with a very strong street funk flavor and also extend on the hopefully obvious Elton John influence in Billy's style. The album is rounded out by the swinging title tune and "Honesty",another of Billy's great ballads he seemed to do so well. Considering that jazz and funk on pop/rock albums can easily end up being gimmicky seeming genre exercises the fact that Billy chose to integrate those musical elements into his own sound is a sign that his often overbearing ambition,which often led to much criticism against his music,could take him to really good places.


Billy Joel's Best Album
he knows about life and how to just say f it sometimes go ahead with your own life leave me alone. this album saved my life. plus it was the very first album commercially issued on cds when they came out. need i say more buy this now.


Until the Night
52nd Street reached #1 on the U. 52nd Street is forty minutes and twenty-seconds long and released in October, 1978. S. Billboard 200 Album chart (spent seven weeks at #1) and went 7x Multi-Platinum. This was Billy Joel first number one album; also it won a Grammy Award in 1979 for Album of the Year. 52nd released four single and three of them charted. The style of the music is a pop\rock sound with some jazz background thrown in. This is classic Billy Joel for you all and well worth the money to buy it. 52nd Street by Billy Joel gest an AAA+++.

Side One

Big Shot
#14 U. S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Honesty
#24 U. S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#9 U. S. Billboard Easy Listening
My Life
#3 U. S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#2 U. S. Billboard Easy Listening
Zanzibar

Side Two

Stiletto
Rosalinda's Eyes
Half A Mile Away
Until the Night
Did not chart
52nd Street.


Another fantastic addition to your Joel collection to treasure- from 1978

He added a jazzy feel to his classic rock in this one which features such classics as the lively "Big Shot", the heartfelt "Honesty", and the assertive teenage statement of youth "My Life". Another fantastic Billy Joel album-- with Joel continuing his rocking of the world in 1978.
Another fantastic addition to your Joel collection to treasure.


Good, but one of Joel's top two records?
I can't argue with The Stranger--certainly Joel's greatest album--but 52nd Street? It does include some essential American pop songs (Big Shot, My Life), and my one of my personal favorites (Zanzibar with its rollicking instrumental solo and catchy chorus). Joel has a fair number of albums, yet 52nd Street and The Stranger are the two Billy Joels which Rolling Stone chose to include in their list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Furthermore, it is a coherent album (jazzy and cool and full of New York City) something that Joel sometimes has trouble putting together. However, if you're buying classic Billy Joel, I feel like 1) Glass Houses or 2) Piano Man are the better albums. Certainly, both have a greater range of musical styles than 52nd street, but ultimately, is musical coherency everything?.


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