The Stranger

It's fashionable to rank on Billy Joel. Hell, he brought it on himself with the 2nd act of his career in the 80s. Actually, this is one of those rare times when it's legitimate to talk about an artist's personal life impacts his professional work. Billy Joel made bank in the 70s, but his accountant embezzled it all and fled with his ill gotten gains to Brazil. (Joel's wife Christie Brinkley, an astute businesswoman who happened to also be a model, was the one who figured out he was being swindled.) Just about the time that Billy Joel was set to wind down his career, he was forced to go back to work and rebuild his fortune. It showed in his subsequent work. All the accusations against Joel, that he was a hack, a journeyman without a soul, an expert at mimicking other better artists, a charlatan and a fake, were seemingly confirmed by tripe like We Didn't Start The Fire and Pressure. But it wasn't always so. Billy Joel's earnestness and tin pan alley style songcraft and slick and mannered performance style couldn't be less fashionable nowadays, but he was actually a skilled musician who had a knack for penning sharply observed working class vignettes. Nowhere was this more evident than in The Stranger, Joel's commercial peak. Aside from Just The Way You Are, which was inescapable in weddings for at least a generation, the album is stuffed with earworms and memorable tales like Moving Out, Only The Good Die Young, Get It Right The First Time, and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant. Only the closer Everybody Has A Dream, with Billy Joel channeling his inner Ray Charles, tips into unrestrained bathos. For those who despise Billy Joel, I get it, but the craft and skill here are undeniable. I myself prefer my music much less mainstream, not so slick, etc, so I'll dun this pretty much perfectly executed album a star. 4/5

Fucking great album. Tons of tracks that stand out as singles, but also work together to tell a complete and compelling story

Yikes...Billy Joel. The natural reaction to being asked to listen to Billy Joel is to recoil. This is the man that brought the world Uptown Girl, after all. The video from the Westlife cover version of that song still occasionally frequents my nightmares. Those four (or is it five?) cherubic Irish scamps, running amok in some kind of 50s cafeteria, dancing with mops and buckets in their blue rockabilly shirts. How can I forgive Billy Joel for being the nexus event that led to that?! The problem is, you can't help but enjoy The Stranger. It's the sort of album you might expect The Special Forces to pump through a tannoy into a Guantanamo cell, on repeat - along with the Barney theme tune - assuming it will grind a terrorist suspect into confession, only to find it has indoctrinated them into being Kool-Aid-drinking, American Dream-obsessing aficionados. It's just so American. But it's the America of a not-too-distant but completely bygone era. Some pre-Internet other-world where people lived like the lead characters from Friends. Close your eyes and imagine Chandler Bing listening to 'Just the Way You Are', before running out into the hustle of Fifth Avenue in his navy cashmere overcoat and chasing after the girl of his dreams, barging people out of the way so that he can catch up with her and then have a panic attack and not tell her how he feels. Like Hootie and the Blowfish's 'Cracked Rear View', Billy Joel's 'The Stanger' is music for the Chandler Bings. Either that or it's music for the Patrick Batemans. But before you've worked out which one it is, you're hooked by the fun jingle-jangle of the opening track, Movin' Out, and it doesn't really matter either way. Then the piano from the title track kicks in and you recognise it as the sample from Xzibit's amazing 'At the Speed of Life' track 'The Foundation', and before you know it you've worked your way through the entire album to 'Everybody Has a Dream' and you've walked into a New York fashion outlet and bought an expensive navy cashmere overcoat of your very own. And when you leave that shop you're gunna have no choice but listen to The Stranger on your Walkman again as you hit the high street. Some people will look at you and see a Chandler Bing. Others will look at you and see a Patrick Bateman. But by this point you don't really care. You're living in some weird alternate early 90s white collar central park office block coffee shop wall street burst fire hydrant subway train American dream. Thanks a lot Billy Joel.

Just straight beautiful, catchy, well written songs

I like where the first song goes "ACK, ACK, ACK, ACK, ACK".

Every song is a stone cold hit. Short and sweet, leaves you wanting more.

Classic. I loved it, again.

The music and instrumentation in Billy's music is always fantastic, but his lyrical work and storytelling is a huge showstopper for me. "A bottle of red, a bottle of white/It all depends upon your appetite/I'll meet you any time you want/In our Italian Restaurant"? Come on, the only thing cheesier than that would be... Velveeta fondue. Things took a turn for the unsettling when I got around to actually listening to the lyrics of "Only The Good Die Young", and I honestly gave up on the album after that. Billy Joel is the straighter, less interesting, slightly creepy Elton John, and I'd honestly be perfectly fine never hearing a song of his agian.

I almost knocked a star off because of the saxophone solo but I couldn't do it. The storytelling on display here is top-notch. Joel's performances are flawless and his songwriting is compelling. Just a really great album stacked with songs that are full of all the feels.

Is it because you'd have to turn the dial in the car just right in order to get the right channel, so you just left it on something that played static free music and so you heard a lot of Billy Joel? Or is this really an album you want to be stranded on an island with?

Banger

Really good album, so used to hi greatest hits it was great to listen to the original album and get the added song flow. Loved it.

Very fun! Many classics

I'm a big fan of Billy Joel. This was my first introduction to Billy Joel when I was a child. Still embodies New York Romanticism to me. I love the balance of this album there's so many fun songs.

YESSSS UNCLE BILLY Literal excellence Favorites: Just The Way You Are Vienna She's Always A Woman Everybody Has A Dream

Pour la petite anecdote, Billy Joel avait écrit cet album en pensant le proposer à Michael Jackson. Ce dernier refusa et c'est finalement Shrek qui eut la chance de l'interpréter.

In the pantheon of adult contemporary singer-songwriters who meandered out of the 70s, Billy Joel sits somewhere in the middle with Springsteen. A touch better than the bland whiteness of Rod Stewart, John Mellencamp, and Bryan Adams, but no where near the quality of Warren Zevon or solo Paul Simon. It's not an awful album, but it shouldn't really be on a list of essential listening. This is an album to listen to while bonding with your aunt over herbal tea and zucchini bread while she busts out old 35mm pictures of bridges she took while on a bicycle tour of the US.

Money!

This album forms almost a quarter of the tracks on his Greatest Hits collection (5 out of 21), but they're all good.

Classic Joel Scenes from an Italian good for long-form Pretty good shortforms/casuals

A couple of songs I was not familiar with, but the ones I know are some of my favourites.

moving owt lol this has all the best billy joel song imo hence this is the best billy joel album for me (so far)

A grand record! It turns out I know every song on this album from my childhood. It's an album about life, modernity, struggle, love, death, all of it. It has an everyman quality about it and the production is divine. Not one bad song on the record. I bought it just now!

Really quite good. Certified bangerlicious

Holy toledo. This is an entire career on a single album. Pretty damn impressive.

grande billy joel do uptown girl

Loved it already!

Hell of an ear for a tune but the beat leaves a lot to be desired. As for his stories, simply not engaging, which has something to do with his treacly McCartney voice, and even more to do with hollowness plain and simple. Songs about nothing more than being songs.

Perfect! It is very energizing and melodious! I like this album.

Great album.

Amazing classic album! Fav tracks include Vienna, Movin’ Out, and Only the Good Die Young! However, each track was great and very enjoyable!

too close to be impartial. If that's what it's all about... Billy, I love you just the way you are.

Bloody loved this album. What a singer and songwriter he is.

Loved it. Each song was like a story and I’ll definitely be listening multiple times.

bellisimo

This album promotes ear strengths- varied and catchy and I haven’t heard it all together before

Amazing and classic album.

top 2 by mister Joel

Joel at the height of his songwriting powers. All the songs are gems and a few are absolute belters! First class.

Great listen. Very familiar already but fun to hear all the hits.

Awesome mix of storytelling, pop piano, and Americana. I’d heard many of the songs on this album before but never listened to the entire thing in one sitting.

Great record…makes me wanna get wasted on Schlitz, hop in my sports car and crash it into my neighbors front yard in the Hamptons.

I respect Billy Joel's songwriting chops. These are incredibly successful songs and have been played on radio a bazillion times, and I know most of this album backwards just from the ubiquitous nature of the thing. But it bores me to tears. Billy Joel is not rock and roll (despite Billy's later protestations); it's much more popular song based in the Broadway tradition. And it is very successful in that mold. But I don't really need it in my life. Sorry.

Have never listened to Billy Joel intentionally, but somehow knew all of these songs. He is ubiquitous.

10/10

Billy Joel must have felt as though he had nothing left to lose. The Stranger was a kill or be killed moment in time, and it was a killer through and through. Either through familiarity or first time acquaintance, The Stranger ensures that its hooks are dug deep into the subconscious and it leaves one earworm after another for the listener. The Carnegie Hall show packed onto the second disc is a invigorating and inviting glimpse into Billy Joel as a live performer and is a worthy listen. Things can only go upward for the Piano Man from here.

This album reminds me of Danny.

I've never really been one to love Billy Joel. Apparently his career is a bit tainted by his works in the 80s, which don't feel nearly as good as this album. I think this album has changed my mind on Billy a good bit. It's great, front to back. Lyrically, musically, pacing, it's a near-masterpiece. An easy listen with a decent variety, this album really proves that Billy Joel deserves the respect and fame that he has earned.

Automatic five star album. Every single song is worth listening to here. Relatable themes of life, love, loss, and more set to amazing music. Every song works at a surface level but there is something deeper in the lyrics. I don't know how Billy did it, but I'm glad he did.

Great album, wondrous

Smooth as silk. Can listen all day. In fact, I did.

not only that it sounds absolutely amazing, this album calmed me down, made me believe in myself and put in a good mood. incredible 1000/10

Having heard Billy Joel's greatest hits thousands of times, I bought this album on cassette when Target used to sell cassettes for $3.99-$6.99. Great album and a stone cold classic. I have mixed feelings about Billy Joel due to his relentless touring schedule without daring to make any new music for the last 30 years. He's making bank, which is good, but I do think making new music is something a working musician should at least aspire to. There's not a bad song on here and it could easily play like a greatest hits album (though one with only 9 tracks). I have always found it slightly odd the album is titled "The Stranger" and the last track has a reprisal of The Stranger (song) at the very end, yet The Stranger is not the first track of the album. Most artists will bookend a theme of their album on the first and last tracks. It obviously worked here. High recommend, even if you hate Billy Joel.

I love that the best songs on this album aren’t the singles. The Stranger has made its way onto my main playlist, and then the theme coming back in the last song? A vibe. Gotta listen to more of Billy Joel.

This is the album that put Billy on the map. I know, his early stuff has its moments, but this back with his follow up "52nd Street", were seminal works of this fame and success. Good job!

Aah ich ha da album eigentlich mega gern. Leider het mer de finnerty de billy joel bitz kaputt gmacht. Trotzdem immer no sehr gern, bsunders de song vienna losi sehr viel. Git e knapps füfi wel die letschte paar songs nüm soo guet sind aber gad guet gnueg

I listened to this record for an entire summer when I was 16 working as a janitor in a grade school. Whenever I hear "heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack" I get magically transported back to the roof of Cumberland Elementary where I'm smoking a joint and blasting Billy Joel on a cheap Rayovac boom box at 9 in the morning and I gotta say it's a pretty great god damn place to be.

He puts so much pizazz and flair into his music it’s so slay

Wow! Incredibly charming and stunning arrangements!

Thought I was listening to his greatest hits album because every song is a BANGER 5 ⭐️

Billy bangers

Hit after hit!!! Incredible stuff billy

It's been a while since I've listened to this album. Billy Joel is another artist that I nearly categorically adore. I like every tune on this album, but can understand why other people don't. Still, for me, it's 5 stars!

There is a dearth of truly memorable songs in today’s pop landscape, and this is an album full of them. The Stranger is a tight, beautifully produced collection of catchy, classic songs. It’s one of the great albums of its era and delightful to listen to, always. It’s impressive to me looking now how many hits reside on this album. Some of the songs have been overplayed in the past 40 years, but they also ended up being true classics. It’s hard to hear this album and not find a song you know very well. Joel's longevity is a testament to his singular talents as a singer and songwriter, as well as the universal likeability of this music. Admit it, it's also hard to listen to this album and not find yourself in a good mood. Fave songs: The Stranger, Vienna, I'm Movin' Out, Only the Good Die Young

I was already familiar with this one so it was great to have an excuse to put it on the new system at home. Anyone who doesn’t rate this album 5 stars is crazy.

Classic. Love every song. Five out of Five Stars. Favorite songs. Scene's From an Italian Restaurant, Vienna, The Stranger, Everybody Has a Dream and all the hits (Moving Out, Just the Way you are, Only the Good Die Young, She's Always a Woman).

5/5 - Super cool. Whoever said he was in between EJ and PmC was right - very nice vibe to it

A great album start to finish! I didnt realise how many of Joel's greatest songs were on this album.

Best Songs: - Movin Out - Vienna Love the outro

Hit after hit, it's almost a cliche.

Great album

Great album front to back! Big fan

Absolute classic. Non stop hits. Love the key changes. Probably the best album in a brilliant career.

Classic

Every song is a stone cold hit. Short and sweet, leaves you wanting more.

One of best pop albums of the 70s, of all-time indeed. An inspired man at the peak of his powers.

Great album. I always enjoy this one.

This would almost have been a 5 but the back half was a little weaker imo

I'm not usually a fan of this genre of music - I call it musical soundtrack music cuz that's what it sounds like to me. But Billy Joel is so skilled that I can understand the appeal to his musical style. Very impressive album with strong tracks and deep lyricism.

I enjoyed this album as more of an introduction to Billy Joel

WHO NEEDS A HOUSE OUT IN HACKENSACK? IS THAT ALL YOU GET FOR YOUR MONEY????? What a throwback! Movin’ Out in particular immediately pulls The Stranger into the upper echelon of albums for me. I used to listen to that song when driving to my high school in Hackensack. It was my battle cry “I’m getting out of here” song. The nostalgia!! Great album, love the sax and love the piano. The Stranger, Vienna, She’s Always a Woman, Everybody Has a Dream. Classic

No. 204/1001 Movin' Out 4/5 The Stranger 4/5 Just The Way You Are 4/5 Scenes from an Italian Restaurant 4/5 Vienna 5/5 Only The Good Die Young 4/5 She's Always A Woman 5/5 Get It Right The First Time 4/5 Everybody Has a Dream 4/5 Average: 4,22 Wow! This was really a great listen from front to back.

Funny how I knew several tracks on this. It must be a testament to BJ's genius as a songwriter. He's not my normal listening material, but this is very good. No Rock songs on here and I don't care! A 4 star album.

Started quite strong and then got repetitive quickly. He has a great energy, but it is just too "pop" for me.

Entertainingly naff at points, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant and Get It Right First Time were standouts for me. I liked it more than expected, just edging into a 3

It's okay. Every time I listen to Billy Joel I'm reminded of my college music theory professor who hated his guts for some personal slight.

Despite being named after the guy, I have never willingly listened to this album before. I enjoyed it enough, Vienna is definitely an excellent song. probably a 3.5 overall but will round it to a 3 because i did leave half way through and listen to a few DIIV covers

it was fine! i am so glad lyrics are back. instruments were nice

Nothing revolutionary here and although pretty straightforward and uninspired easy listening soft rock, this collection of songs is executed quite nicely. I do prefer albums with MUCH greater creative ambition, those offering real emotional depth to challenge my listening ears with embracing something edgy and far less mainstream (the comments on this being textbook elevator music are spot on!). Having said that, I do respect the musicianship on display with this recording and Mr. Piano Man can clearly carry a note as a singer. 🎧 Classic Track- Just The Way You Are 🎧 Hidden Gem- Vienna 🎧 Guilty Pleasure- Movin’ Out (‘ack ‘ack ‘ack ‘ack ‘ack) 🚫 Skip Track- Get It Right The First Time While this genre of musack is not quite my cup of tea, there is nothing offensively bad with the record and produced some notable big hits. Cheesy sure, but it’s fine :) 🖼️ Album Artwork: ❌- not impressed Click the thumbs up icon below if you enjoyed my take on the album :)

I never really liked what I had heard of Billy Joel. The first couple tracks really pulled me in, I started thinking maybe I’d been wrong about him. Then we hit the overwrought middle part of the album and he lost me again. The album rallies a bit at the end, but ultimately there were only 2 or 3 songs I really enjoyed

Musically, the songs are accomplished enough, I'm just not really into it that much, and it seemed to drag a bit at times.

He's got such a great voice. Somewhere in between Paul McCartney and Elton John, but man some of those lyrics are so creepy. Even when he's trying to be nice comes off so condescending. I'll split the difference

This thing is random, right? Three albums so far for me, all of them from 1977. Billy Joel (always pronounced Joh-El by me, as if he's related to Superman) is one of those artists... Let's put it this way, there's a bloke I know - just turned 30, so still young as far as I am concerned - he loves Billy Joel. Loves Elton John too. And Barry Manilow. He's been to see them all live. Loves artists who put on a "show", and if they can play the old Aunt Joanna, even better. "Safe" music, I call it. That said, I've got respect for Billy Joel. He digs The Beatles, and he obviously knows his stuff - in fact, I like to watch him talk about music, his own and other people's, and he generally makes a lot of sense and seems like a good guy (well, there was that time he totally lost his shit in Moscow). A talented guy though. I own all of his studio albums (yeah, even that classical one) and have given each of them ample chance to impress me over the years. Sadly, I always find them all just a bit... meh. Fine greatest hits album, of course, but the LPs themselves are just too inconsistent and, well, bland. But I was willing to give The Stranger another try, it does, after all, contain probably my favourite Joel composition. Even the slightly tongue-in-cheek accordion solo can't detract from the brilliance of Vienna. Melodically irresistible, it weaves its way between sentimentality and uplifting optimism without ever tumbling completely over either side of the precipice. A bit of a guilty pleasure for me, laid back, but the delivery is totally suited to the lyrical themes and the melody is convincing and compelling throughout. Not quite as successful, but still something of a guilty pleasure, Just The Way You Are does eventually plunge into the depths of mushiness. Again, melodically strong with a undeniably touching sentiment, but the execution is just too sickly for these ears. Saxophones? Good god, no. Elsewhere, The Stranger never reaches the same heights, hit singles notwithstanding. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant is just a bit pretentious, isn't it? As is that bloody whistled The Stranger theme (and not too far removed from the soundtrack to that Turkish Delight advert from the 80s). The car noises on Movin' Out really confused my dog while I was listening, which provided a rare moment of genuine entertainment for me. Joel's music tentatively dips its toes in various popular genres, but never dares to get soaking wet in any of them. And therein lies the key, great singer-songwriter though he may be on paper, Billy Joel's music works best when he finds a suitable hook to hang it on. Much of The Stranger just seems lacking in style. At heart he's an old school rock 'n' roller operating at the nexus point where music fractured and split off in a thousand different directions. Vienna works so well because it wears its Kurt Weil parody on its sleeve and fully commits to the pastiche. It's no surprise Joel would come out the other side of the 1970s and enjoy his greatest success by completely embracing his roots and paying homage to his own favourite music of the past. I can't give it any more than two stars, and even then Vienna and Just The Way You Are are doing all the heavy lifting.

I really dislike this artist, always have. He’s written a few lovely songs (e.g., Just the Way You Are on this album), but he has other cringy-to-me hits like Uptown Girl, Piano Man, We Didn’t Start the Fire, and worst of all, It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me — he seems so completely non rock and roll to me. I was a tiny bit excited/curious for this since I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that I should give him a serious listening. This is due to a favorite author, Chuck Klosterman, writing copiously about BJ in one of his books, arguing he’s a great artist. Chuck also loves Radiohead, Nirvana, REM, Wilco, Weezer, and even The Cardigans. So his loving BJ stuck with me (he also loves Kiss). This would be a 1 without Just the Way You Are…

The popular songcraft here is strong but the problem is that it doesn’t serve much of a purpose. If you took Paul McCartney at his schmaltziest, added some overproduced Paul Simon with all the substance trimmed away, and finished with a dash of Elton John glitz, this is what you’d get. He absolutely nailed what he was trying to make, it seems, but it’s all so flavorless I can’t imagine why you’d want to try it. Plus the second half really reveals a core of misogyny that poisons anything decent there.

Wow, all I see are 4 and 5 star ratings for this so I'll probably take flak for this. Someone already stole my line that he's a less interesting and cheesier version of Elton John and I fully concur. There's no doubt that he has a knack for writing catchy pop songs, but the shmaltz factor here is simply too high for me. He somewhat redeems himself with the less commercial songs like the Stranger and Get it right. But he knows his audience and and I guess he hits the nail right on the head with this album that is loaded with bestsellers.

This album is basically filled with every one of his radio hits save "Piano Man". Overall, was never a Billy Joel fan, and this just reconfirms that. Somewhat of an off-brand Elton John, who I'm also not a fan of.

Schlock.

Billy Joel. The stranger in the bath, the finger in the anus. This man is so addicted to cheese that he goes to bed each night wearing pyjamas made entirely out of dairylea triangles.

Billy. Mate. What were you on when you put this absolute masterpiece together?