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 The iconic and enigmatic front cover of The Stranger. Photo by Jim Haughton.
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The Stranger, Billy Joel's fifth solo album, was his artistic and commercial breakthrough. Released in September 1977, it went on to become Columbia Records' best-selling album of all time, surpassing Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. Billy teamed up with producer Phil Ramone, who was the first producer to embrace Billy's regular band, and it was a perfect match. The single "Just The Way You Are" won Grammy awards for Song of The Year and Record of The Year although it almost never made it on the album since Billy and his band originally thought it was too sappy. "Movin' Out," "Only The Good Die Young," and "She's Always A Woman" became hits as well, and the album gave us two of Billy's best songs: "Vienna" and the epic "Scenes from An Italian Restaurant."
Having heralded his return to New York in Turnstiles, in The Stranger Billy again wrote about what he knew best, New York and New Yorkers. He wrote about middle-class workers who save their pennies to get a place in Hackensack and the disillusionment with that life ("Movin' Out"), the young turks wooing a girl ("Only the Good Die Young"), and old friends reminiscing about what was and should have been ("Scenes"). In between, Billy explored the complexities of relationships ("The Stranger," "She's Always A Woman"), and wrote a love song for the ages ("Just The Way You Are"). He gently exhorted us to slow down and take in life's simple moments ("Vienna") and closed with a gospel-like prayer about the virtue of love ("Everybody Has A Dream"). The Stranger was a pop masterpiece, a defining album of the 1970s. |
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Billy had talked to other producers about producing the album before deciding to work with Ramone. He even spoke with George Martin, the producer of The Beatles, who agreed to produce the album -- if they used studio musicians rather than Billy's band. It must have been hard for Billy since he was a huge fan of The Beatles, but he declined to work with Martin and kept looking.
Ramone, of course, had an outstanding track record, having won Grammy awards for his work with Paul Simon and other artists like Barbara Streisand. Before working with Billy, Ramone had seen Billy and his band perform at a series of concerts held at New York's Carnegie Hall in early June 1977. Billy was a fantastic live performer, and the chemistry and rapport with his band was electric. But Ramone witnessed what Billy himself had thought: "I watched what he had done and tracked his past records," he says. "Everything I'd seen hadn't been captured on record." CNN interview. Unlike other producers in the past, Ramone embraced Billy's band (Doug Stegmeyer on bass, Liberty Devitto on drums, Richie Cannata on sax and organ, and Russell Javors on guitar) and worked with them in the recording studio. 
A bottle of red, a bottle of white – From "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant"
At the time, Billy had recorded four albums already, and his only real hit was "Piano Man" from 1974, which was not enough for the record industry executives in that era. Billy said in 2008: "I didn't know this at the time, but had it not been a successful album, the label probably would have dropped me. 'Cause you have to remember, this was my fifth album without having had a major hit," he says. At the same, he said: "I don't recall feeling this was going to be the breakthrough. We were just happy with the album we were making at the time. "
Ramone, who passed away in 2013, remembered in a 2008 CNN interview that the recording sessions were full of humor and that "his most difficult task [was] reining in the members of Joel's band." Also, as the CNN article states: "It was an accident that Ramone ended up included in the group portrait on the album's back cover, dressed in New York Yankee regalia -- "I only posed because I thought, 'They'll never use this,' " he says. "The role I played was kind of like the captain of the team," he says. "I doled out punishments -- it was a crazy, lunatic group. There were times I'd throw out [ideas] and they'd say, 'No way.' They all had great opinions." The public's opinion was unanimous as The Stranger became the best-selling album in Columbia Records history at the time. The album struck a chord with people of all generations and backgrounds. The Stranger captured and encapsulated our hopes, dreams, worries, memories, and emotions like few albums had. Most fans and critics consider this to be Billy's best album and one of the best pop/rock albums of all time. The Stranger is a timeless classic. * * * * * * * * * *
A special 30th Anniversary Legacy Edition of The Stranger was released in 2008. The boxed set version of the Legacy Edition featured a re-mastered version of the album, a Live at Carnegie Hall CD with songs from a 1977 concert, and a DVD of Billy's television concert in the UK from 1978 which also contains a short documentary about the making of The Stranger.
Listen to an in-depth "In The Studio" interview with Billy Joel about The Stranger. Listen to an even more in-depth series of podcasts (YouTube) on The Stranger celebrating the 30th anniversary of its release, from the Legacy Recordings site. And you can listen to Billy discuss The Stranger in this excellent interview from the radio program Today in 1977. Billy Joel performs on stage as the front rows of the audience reach out to him, in New York, December 7, 1977. Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images.
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 The Stranger publicity photo and inside sleeve (1977). Photo by Jim Haughton.
Billy performs "Just The Way You Are" and "Only The Good Die Young" on Saturday Night Live (1978).
"I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints"
Phil Ramone, Walter Yetnikoff, and Billy Joel (1977). Photo: WireImage\Bobby Bank.
"You should know by now, you've been there yourself"
Back cover. (L to R): Phil Ramone and Liberty Devitto. (L to R): Doug Stegmeyer, Richie Cannata, Billy Joel.
Photos above are Columbia Records publicity photos by Jim Houghton except as noted. |
Songs
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1. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) (3:30)
2. The Stranger (5:10) 3. Just The Way You Are (4:52) 4. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (7:37) 5. Vienna (3;34) 6. Only The Good Die Young (3:55) 7. She's Always A Woman (3:21) 8. Get It Right The First Time (3:57) 9. Everybody Has A Dream/The Stranger (reprise) (6:38) |
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Video Album - The Stranger
Click on icon in upper right of video for playlist.
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1. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) (3:30)
2. The Stranger (5:10) 3. Just The Way You Are (4:52) 4. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (7:37) |
5. Vienna (3;34)
6. Only The Good Die Young (3:55) 7. She's Always A Woman (3:21) 8. Get It Right The First Time (3:57) 9. Everybody Has A Dream/The Stranger (reprise) (6:38) |
Stream - The Stranger
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Spotify
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Apple Music
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Amazon Music
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YouTube and Others
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Interviews & Features - The Stranger
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Misc. Interviews
1. Billy discusses The Stranger from The Complete Albums collection (2011) 2. The Making of The Stranger (short version) 30th Anniversary Edition (2008) 3. Today radio interview (1977). This is a fun and entertaining interview. 4. Billy on "Vienna" (1997) 5. Phil Ramone on The Stranger and "Just The Way You Are" from a Japanese program, Song To Soul (2008?) 6. Billy on The Stranger: SiriusXM (2016) 7. Billy Joel Interview Complete (extended raw video that was condensed for 30th Anniversary Edition) 8. Phil Ramone Interview Complete |
Click on icon in upper right of video for playlist.
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The Stranger Podcasts (2008) - This is a series of podcasts coinciding with the release of the 30th Anniversary Edition of The Stranger in 2008. Several artists and music industry experts such as Sting, Diane Warren, Phil Ramone, Jimmy Webb, and Gavin DeGraw comment on Billy's music and The Stranger. There is some repetition here with other interviews, but this is a good collection.
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Click on icon in upper right of video for playlist.
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Live Performances - The Stranger
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Live at Nassau Coliseum (Nov. 1977) (audio only). This is a radio broadcast of a complete concert from Long Island's Nassau Coliseum held just two months after the release of The Stranger. For the June 1977 concert Live at Carnegie Hall, recorded a few months before The Stranger, click here.
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Click on icon in upper right of video for playlist.
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Live on The Old Grey Whistle Test (March 1978). Billy Joel in concert on the BBC television program. A DVD of this concert was included in the 30th Anniversary Edition of The Stranger.
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Click on icon in upper right of video for playlist.
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Live at Musikladen (March 1978). This is a televised mini-concert from Bremen, Germany, just a few days after Billy's appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test. This is also called "Live At The Beat Club" in some versions. There is some repetition in this playlist.
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Click on icon in upper right of video for playlist.
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Live at the Sonesta (March 1978) (audio only). This is another European radio mini-concert broadcast, from Amsterdam. The audio quality is quite good. "Scandinavian Skies" is also included here (the song was actually written around this time but not recorded and released until 1982).
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Click on icon in upper right of video for playlist.
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Live: The Stranger (1977-1978). These are videos and audios of live versions of each song from The Stranger, in order as they appear on the album, each from 1977-1978. I wish Billy's performance of "Only The Good Die Young" from Saturday Night Live in 1977 was on YouTube.
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Click on icon in upper right of video for playlist.
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AllMusic
American Songwriter Billboard (30th Ed.) (2008) Classic Rock Review MusicTap Rolling Stone (1977) Rolling Stone (30th Edn.) Rolling Stone (Top 500) The New York Times (mini) SuperSeventies excerpts 
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"The infectious, radio-ready material was complemented by a few vignettes that covered the middle-class ground that Bruce Springsteen was so successfully exploiting in the mid 1970s. But unlike Springsteen, Billy Joel also clearly constructed some artistic centerpieces that give The Stranger a feel of flow and depth." Classic Rock Review
"[H]is fifth album had the recipe for success: a bottle of red, a bottle of white and a sharp eye for the local color of New York street life. The piano man hones his storytelling gifts with a Scorsese-style sense of humor and compassion, whether he's singing about a down-and-out Little Italy hustler in "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," the femme fatale in "She's Always a Woman to Me" or the doomed Long Island greaser couple Brenda and Eddie in "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant." Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums
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Tracks
1. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) (3:30) 2. The Stranger (5:10) 3. Just The Way You Are (4:52) 4. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (7:37) 5. Vienna (3;34) 6. Only The Good Die Young (3:55) 7. She's Always A Woman (3:21) 8. Get It Right The First Time (3:57) 9. Everybody Has A Dream/The Stranger (reprise) (6:38) Background
Released: September 29, 1977 Recorded: July-August 1977, A&R Recording Studios, New York Genre: Pop/Rock Length: 42:13 Label: Columbia/Family Productions Producer: Phil Ramone Words and Music by Billy Joel |
Personnel
Billy Joel – vocals, acoustic piano, keyboards, synthesizers, Doug Stegmeyer – bass guitar Liberty DeVitto – drums Richie Cannata - tenor and soprano, saxophones, clarinet, flute, organ, tuba Steve Khan – six and twelve string electric guitars, acoustic rhythm guitar, high string guitar Hiram Bullock – electric guitar Patrick Williams – orchestration Ralph MacDonald – percussion on "The Stranger", "Just the Way You Are", "Get It Right The First Time" and "Everybody Has a Dream" Hugh McCracken – acoustic guitar on "Just the Way You Are", "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", "She's Always a Woman," "Get It Right the First Time" and "Everybody Has a Dream" |
Steve Burgh – acoustic guitar on "Just the Way You Are" and "She's Always a Woman"; electric guitar on "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" Phil Woods – alto saxophone on "Just the Way You Are" Dominic Cortese – accordion on "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and "Vienna" Richard Tee – organ on "Everybody Has a Dream" Phoebe Snow – background vocals on "Everybody Has a Dream" Lani Groves – background vocals on "Everybody Has a Dream" Gwen Guthrie – background vocals on "Everybody Has a Dream" Patti Austin – background vocals on "Everybody Has a Dream" Phil Ramone – producer, engineer Jim Boyer – engineer Ted Jensen – mastering at Sterling Sound (New York) Kathy Kurs – production assistance Jim Houghton – photography |
Single covers for "The Stranger," "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," "Vienna," and "Get It Right The First Time" are fictional.
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"Everybody Has A Dream" (1971)
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