Billy Joel - 52nd Street
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CD Details
Artist: Billy JoelEdition: Music CD
Format: Enhanced, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1998-10-20
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Big Shot
- Honesty
- My Life
- Zanzibar
- Stiletto
- Rosalinda's Eyes
- Half A Mile Away
- Until The Night
- 52nd Street
Music reviews of 52nd Street
Music Review: Outstanding Collection - many tracks underrated
Rating: 5 Stars
Billy Joel's fifth album, "The Stranger" was a landmark album for the man known as "The Piano Man". It established him as not only a critically acclaimed artist, but one that could be a major commercial selling one as well. Top to bottom, "The Stranger" was as good an album as any in the 1970s. The question would be whether or not Billy Joel could follow it up. This question would soon be answered when Billy Joel's "52th Street" would be released. Billy would use much of the formula that worked well on the "The Stranger" and produce a product that would be another legendary album.
I look at Billy Joel's career as having three phases. The first phase is what I call "Old Billy Joel". This basically includes all of his material from "Cold Spring Harbor" through "Turnstiles". These are perhaps the strongest days as the piano sound, but they also contain most of Joel's least heard material. The next phase is what I call "Middle Billy Joel". This was his most successful period and covers from "The Stranger" to "Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume 1 and 2". Joel would go through a transition during this phase - expanding his musical horizons and exploring different avenues. The final phase is the "Later Billy Joel" phase - this covers "The Bridge" to "River of Dreams". In this phase, Billy would start to incorporate some of his older styles of music while not abandoning his desire to continue to explore new avenues. "52th Street" definitely is a Phase 2 album that continues Billy's desire to broaden things beyond just the piano.
On "The Stranger" Billy Joel incorporated two main themes: 1) An "Old New York" style of music that can best be described as a street-sounding jazz sound; 2) A Melting Pot Theme - a mix of various cultural themes (Latin, Italian, Viennese, etc). From a musical standpoint, Billy provided a balance to his trademark piano playing with guitars and horns. In a lot of ways, "52th Street" continues these themes - without any loss of quality. Like its predecessor , Billy's "52th Street" will also provide the same high quality lyrics for the songs. The big difference I find between the two albums is that many of the songs on "52th Street" don't get the attention like the ones from "The Stranger" got - and that just isn't fair.
Here is a review of each of the tracks:
"Big Shot": This is one of the better-known songs. This has more of a guitar edge than a jazz sound, but it still has a "New York" sound to it. There are some nice horns in it. Billy provides almost an Italian-American/New York ("melting pot") sound when mid-way through the song he sings "You had be a big shot, didn't you" with a heavy accent.
"Honesty": This is a very powerful song that builds up as it goes along. This is more of a piano based song and can easily fit into it. The one thing that gets overlooked is some of the powerful percussion later in the song - especially some of the crashing cymbals. Lyrically, this song is as good as any Billy Joel song.
"My Life": This is a signature Billy Joel song. Billy piano is the more dominant instrument, but there is some nice guitar work. Many people forget this became the theme song for the TV show "Bosom Buddies". Many people don't realize that one of the terrific background vocalists is none other than Chicago vocalist, Peter Cetera.
"Zanzibar": After the first three songs, most of the songs are forgotten about. This song is in this category and is probably one of the best on this collection. This song has a terrific "Old New York" flair to it. There is is almost a piano bar feel to this song. I love Billy Joel songs with "characters" (i.e. "Piano Man" and "Anthony's Song"). This song introduces us to two characters - Ali and Rose. It starts out as a fast paced song. There is a beautiful soft interlude almost 3 minutes into the song with some horns, then the pace picks up again.
"Stiletto": This is also one of the best on this collection. This is another overlooked song. Once again - a definite "New York" feel to it. It starts out with some nice horn work, then has some of Billy's best piano work. There is also outstanding percussion in this song. A Stiletto is some sort of a "dagger" and this song deals with backstabbing. Terrific track.
"Rosalinda's Eyes": This song is a Latin influenced song - keeping with the "Melting Pot Theme". References to "Herald Square" keep to the "New York" feel. Ralph MacDonald who performed on "Saturday Night Fever's "Calypso Breakdown" provides percussion. Billy does a great job giving the vocals a Latin feel as well. Another great track.
"Half a Mile Away": This song has a great balance of piano and guitar as well as horns. It has some terrific background vocals. It definitely has an "New York" sound to it. Ralph MacDonald also contributes percussion
"Until the Night": This is perhaps the most underrated of all the underrated songs. It starts out with a retro sound - something Billy Joel has always been interested with. This is one of Billy's first songs with a true late 1950s sound to it. This is a sign of things to come (i.e. his 1983 "An Innocent Man" album).
"52th Street": The title along is New York sounding and the song lives up to this. This is almost the perfect New York/Street sounding jazz song - perfect way to wrap up the collection.
The liner notes include all of the lyrics as well as musician and production credits. This is truly a magnificent collection. If you like "The Stranger", this album is sure to equally satisfy - as well as provide some "forgotten" Billy Joel tunes. Highly recommended.
Description of 52nd Street
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