52nd Street by Billy Joel
52nd Street is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released on October 13, 1978. The first of four Joel albums to top the Billboard charts, it earned him two Grammys (for a total of four), and in 1982 became the first commercial album released on compact disc by Sony Music Entertainment. Three songs reached the Top 40 in the United States, contributing to the album's success: "My Life" (#3), "Big Shot" (#14), and "Honesty" (#24). It was similarly well-received by critics, earning the 1979 Grammy for Album of the Year. This Grammy was presented to its producer, Phil Ramone. Upon Ramone's death, 52nd Street's Album of the Year Grammy was passed onto Joel. Allmusic praises Joel for expanding stylistically on 1977's The Stranger, describing 52nd Street as "more sophisticated and somewhat jazzy." (Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard guests on "Zanzibar".) The title is a reference to 52nd Street, which was one of New York City's jazz centers in the middle of the century. Joel's label was headquartered on 52nd Street (in the CBS Building) at the time of the album's release. The studio in which 52nd Street was recorded was also on 52nd Street, a block away from the CBS Building. On October 1, 1982 52nd Street became the first album to be commercially released on CD when it went on sale in Japan. In 2003, the album was ranked number 352 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Billy Joel’s previous album, <i>The Stranger</i>, sold 10 million copies, won two Grammys and made him, after a decade of struggle, a household name. The successor, <i>52nd Street</i>, added another Top 5 single (the ornery “My Life”), two more Grammys and sold a still-enviable seven million copies, establishing Joel as a major star in the pop sweepstakes. It’s also his best-reviewed album (critics haven’t always loved Joel, nor has he always loved them) thanks largely to the confident way he traverses styles of music and different emotions. In “Big Shot”, one of his hardest-rocking songs, Joel mocks a trendy, affluent New Yorker who does coke in the back of his limousine; he later admitted that it was partly about the ways in which he overindulged in his new-found stardom. “Honesty”, one of his most enduring ballads, pleads for truthfulness from a lover. “Zanzibar” describes life inside a small jazz club and includes two vibrant solos from the esteemed trumpet player Freddie Hubbard; there’s an agile bounce and jazzy interlude to “Stiletto”, a bitter song about romantic masochism; and “Rosalinda’s Eyes” moves into a Latin-influenced groove and adds vibraphone, flute, marimba and session ace Hugh McCracken’s nylon-string guitar. The giddy urban tale “Half a Mile Away” is driven by a horn chart written by the accomplished pianist Dave Grusin, and “Until the Night”, a sweeping, yearning ballad, points towards <i>An Innocent Man</i>, the ’50s- and ’60s-influenced album Joel released in 1983. If you were to change the opinion of a sceptic who thinks Joel is “Just the Way You Are” and not much more, this would be the record to play—struggle, joy and the balance in between. Your attempt would most likely fail, though: No Billy Joel hater can be swayed, nor can any Billy Joel lover, and there’s very little room in the middle for opinions about his brassy, emphatic pop songs.
