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A video featuring photos of famous jazz musicians from the 1930s-1960s including Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, Billie Holliday, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis, by several photographers including William Claxton, William Gottlieb, and Herman Leonard. "52nd Street" © 1978 Sony Music Entertainment.   This video may not be playable in the Safari browser.  Use Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer/Edge.

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Words and Music by Billy Joel

(...and our hands are set)
​They say it takes a lot to keep a love alive
In every heart there pumps a different beat
But if we shift the rhythm into overdrive
Well, we could generate a lot of heat

On 52nd Street
On 52nd Street

We're gonna have a little soul parade
Before they know the second bar was played
We're gonna slip it to 'em short and sweet

On 52nd Street
On 52nd Street

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Billy on "52nd Street" from SiriusXM.​

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     After a short pause the title track "52nd Street" comes on as jazzy and soulful coda to the album.  The song features a New Orleans-like clarinet solo by Richie Cannata and Billy's gritty vocals.  The song is well done and works perfectly as an epilogue to the album.   The mumbled words at the beginning are "and our hands are set" which acts as a count off like "one, two, three, four."

     Billy did "shift the rhythm into overdrive" for 52nd Street, echoing the jazz and blues singers that performed on that legendary street in years past.  The 52nd Street cover photos and other promotional photos of Billy holding a trumpet were meant to refer to and pay homage to the jazz musicians of the 1930s through 1960s whom Billy idolized including the pianists and organists Bill Evans, Oscar Petersen, Jimmy Smith, and Dave Brubeck.  

​     Billy is a jazz aficionado, and once said  that what The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's album was to most other rock musicians, Brubeck's Take Five was to him.  See NPR article (end).  He also stated in interviews that he put the cover of The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out (right) on his wall as young teen.   See this JazzWax interview with Billy on jazz music (article removed).

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Billy on 52nd Street from SiriusXM.

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Billy discusses Dave Brubeck on SiriusXM.

As a teen, Billy put the cover of  "Time Out" on his bedroom wall.  Cover: S. Neal Fujita.

Billy and legendary jazz pianist Dave Brubeck at the Mar Y Sol Festival in Puerto Rico (1971).  Photo courtesy: MarYSolFestival.com.

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