Billy Joel - The Stranger
This week we look at The Stranger, Billy Joel’s 1978 tour de force.
Joel started playing the piano at a young age, and by age 14 had joined his first of many bands. Joel started his solo career after signing an ill-fated contract with Family Productions that took advantage of a young, hungry, and naive artist. Thankfully, he caught the attention of Columbia Records in 1972 and eventually signed a contact with the label. His next three albums on Columbia contain some of his most enduring tunes, but were not commercially successful. Teaming up with producer Phil Ramone for his fifth LP The Stranger, Joel finally found his critical and commercial success. Recorded with his own band, the album contains such classics as "Just the Way You Are", "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)", "Only the Good Die Young", and "She's Always a Woman"; as well as fan favorites "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and "Vienna.” It represents Joel at the pinnacle of his art, resulting an album that would eventually sell over 10 million copies on its way to becoming Columbia's bestselling release of all time.
Recommendation for this episode: Cold Spring Harbor by Billy Joel.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE
Here’s a 15 year-old Billy Joel outside his home in Long Island, 1964.
By this time he had already joined his first band (the Echoes) and played as a session musician (including on the session for the recording og The Shanghai-Las tune “Leader Of The Pack.”
Here’s Joel talking about the first song he ever wrote when he was just 14 - “My Journeys End.”
Listen to “My Journey’s End” which was recorded when Joel was with the Hassles.
A publicity photo for the Hassles, who were signed by United Artists in 1967 . Joel is second from the left.
Here’s a promotional video for the Hassles song “I Hear Voices” from their 1967 eponymous album.
In 1969, Joel and the drummer of the Hassles Jon Small broke away from the Hassles and formed the heavy metal band Attila. The band had only keyboards, organ, and drums, with Joel playing the bass lines with a keyboard. To get the heavy sound they wanted, the organ was plugged into a Marshall stack and loading with distortion to make it sound like a Gibson Les Paul
You can listen to “Holy Moses” by Attila below.
Artie Ripp signed Joel, who was 22 years old at the time, to a horribly one-sided ten record deal. Joel only got out of it by letting Ripp hold on to his song publishing until the mid 80s.
Ripp released Joel’s first solo record, Cold Spring Harbor it knowing full well it was was mastered with voice sound at one-half of a semitone higher that it should have been.
Columbia Records got interested Joel because of a live radio performance on Philadelphia radio station WMMRof the song “Captain Jack” that caught the ears of someone at the label.
Here’s a picture of Joel signing with Columbia in July 1973.
Phil Ramone produced The Stranger and it was a match made in heaven. Joel first met Ramone when Joel played a run of shows at Carnegie Hall in 1976. Ramone had worked with everyone from Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand to Paul Simon, and told Joel that he loved the energy of the live show and wanted to capture that on the abum using Joel’s touring band. That sealed the deal.
Here is an alternative picture of the back cover of The Stranger.
Pictured (L to R): Liberty DeVitto, Doug Stegmeyer, Richie Cannata, and Billy Joel, Phil Ramone. Ramone was such an important part of the process that Joel wanted him include with the band [photo.
Here’s Billy Joel’s epic performance of “Only the Good Die Young” on Saturday Night Live in 1978.
