This is the first Billy Joel album in some time that has significantly expanded his repertoire. While Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles had occasional moments, the bulk of Joel's most memorable material was on Cold Spring Harbor -- despite its severe technical flaws -- and Piano Man, which gave him his only major success. This time, while such songs as "Movin' Out" and "Just the Way You Are" are forced and overly simplistic, the imagery and melodies of The Stranger more often than not work.

Together with producer Phil Ramone, Joel has achieved a fluid sound occasionally sparked by a light soul touch. It is a markedly different effect than his pound-it-out-to-the-back-rows concert flash, although the title song, "Only The Good Die Young" and "Get It Right the First Time" will adapt to that approach as readily as, say, such a Joel signature piece as "Captain Jack."

Further reading on Super Seventies RockSite!: Album Review: Piano Man Album Review: Streetlife Serenade Album Review: 52nd Street Billy Joel: In His Own Words Billy Joel FAQ

"She's Always A Woman," which sounds misleadingly tender, is the key to the difference between The Stranger and Joel's other LPs. We don't expect subtlety or understatement from him and, indeed, his lyrics can be as smartassed as ever. But Ramone's emphasis on sound definitely lessens the impact of the sarcasm, which in the long run may help boost Joel's career immeasurably. In the meantime, old fans will have to listen more carefully than usual.

- Ira Mayer, Rolling Stone, 12-29-77.

Bonus Reviews!

Nine new tunes from the piano-playing, singing songwriter whose detailed descriptions of life, love and suburbia have won him a loyal following. Producer Phil Ramone hasn't taken him too far away from the basic Billy Joel style, which tends toward sameness. The compelling story lines carry the album, however, and his fans won't be disappointed, nor will curious newcomers. Backing Joel's piano is a rhythmic support unit. Best cuts: "Only The Good Die Young," "Vienna," "The Stranger," "Movin' Out," "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant."

- Billboard, 1977.

Having concealed his egotism in metaphor as a young songpoet, Joel achieved success when he uncloseted the spoiled brat behind those bulging eyes. But here the brat appears only once, in the nominally metaphorical guise of "the stranger." The rest of Billy has more or less grown up. He's now as likeable as your once-rebellious and still-tolerant uncle who has the quirk of believing that OPEC was designed to ruin his air-conditioning business. B-

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

The Stranger was Billy Joel's first chart album in Britain and his first Top 10 hit in America. In the States The Stranger went platinum and yielded four Top 30 singles.

The major hit, "Just the Way You Are," has become a standard. Joel once told The Other Side of the Tracks that he wrote the song for his then-wife Elizabeth's birthday. "I had the idea a couple of months before but I forgot about it because I don't write music down," he recalled. "When I get an idea I'll sing it into a tape recorder. I didn't have a tape recorder at the time I thought of it. [Weeks later] I was in the middle of some meeting discussing bookings or something. I said 'I have to leave right now because the melody just came back in my head.' ...I went home and wrote the song and said, here, happy birthday."

Billy modestly credited the success of the song to several factors, not just its own merits. "We were doing a major tour where we were headlining big places... Phil [Ramone] had produced a really good album... everything was just clicking." Since the love song was Joel's first UK success it was not too surprising that Barry White, who had a dozen hits under his belt, achieved a higher chart placing in Britain with his version. Though amused by that fact, the composer was more tickled by Isaac Hayes' cover.

"Only the Good Die Young," another US hit from the package, was a controversial cut. Joel attributed its success to the publicity it received from being banned on what could be called Catholic stations, such as the radio at Seton Hall University. "The point of the song wasn't so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust," the artist explained. "Jewish guilt is in the guts. Catholic guilt is all Gothic, and a lot of people obviously were interested in hearing about this." In St. Louis, where Joel received a threat of assassination if he performed the song, he played it twice.

One track that received considerable airplay despite all odds was the lengthy "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." This was an amalgam of three different songs Joel had worked on, one of which had actually been called "A Scene from an Italian Restaurant." Another was "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie" and the third had no title.

Though obviously not of Italian ancestry himself, the writer felt an affinity for the culture. "If you're from New York you're Italian and Jewish by assimilation," he said. "You are just from the atmosphere, the food and the people you meet. 'Scenes from an Italian Restaurant' wasn't so much about an Italian restaurant as the Italian-American way of life. It's typically New York." So typically, as Billy pointed out, that when he names Brenda in the song he pronounces the name "Brender."

In 1987, The Stranger was chosen by a panel of rock critics and music broadcasters as the #55 rock album of all time.

- Paul Gambaccini, The Top 100 Rock 'n' Roll Albums of All Time, Harmony Books, 1987.

Billy Joel's big breakthrough came with The Stranger, a finely crafted album which finally ousted Bridge Over Troubled Water as the biggest selling album in America. The appeal lies in the fluidity and interchangeability of style and Joel's impeccable keyboard craft across this wide range of styles from boogie and rock to ballad. Some of Joel's finest hits are contained on this album including the subsequently heavily covered love song "Just the Way You Are" and the touching slow-moving ballad "She's Always a Woman."

The Stranger was one of the first Compact Discs available in 1983. The sound from those discs was not altogether ingratiating with a lisping treble character and a lack of real detail and dynamics. The end-result was a "twisted" sounding, hissy CD. Current pressings are much finer with a tighter sound and a slight pitch difference! The sound now is confidently relaxed with a neat bass and a new-found purity in plectrum-strummed acoustic guitar. The carefully polished production now gleams.

Early pressings show a 42.38s track timing as opposed to 42.49s. Sadly, discoveries like this serve to underline the impossibility of double guessing Compact Disc releases and the problems of parallel supply.

Recommended as Joel's lasting best.

- David Prakel, Rock 'n' Roll on Compact Disc, 1987.

The breakthrough to superstardom, containing the hits "Just the Way You Are," "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Only the Good Die Young," and "She's Always a Woman." All those are on Greatest Hits -- Vols. 1 & II, but "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," one of Joel's most compelling story-songs, is not. * * * *

- William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

There's more to the 1977 pop-rock masterpiece The Stranger than its four hit singles (the suite "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," for one), making it a Billy Joel classic. * * * * *

- David Yonke, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996.

"I love it just the way it is" fawn fans of this brilliantly produced guilty pleasure of smart, effective pop songs that tell stories of everyday life, love and Catholic girls with unabashed romanticism countered by New Yawk charm. The Long Island suburban poet created so many vivid, reliable characters on this sentimental favorite that there are no throwaway cuts -- but perhaps what's stranger is he never had an album this good again. * * * * *

- Zagat Survey Music Guide - 1,000 Top Albums of All Time, 2003.

Before The Stranger, Billy Joel's albums had always sounded a bit thin sonically -- which was part of the reason he had trouble establishing a reputation as a rocker. But this record marked the beginning of a fruitful decade-long collaboration with producer Phil Ramone, who put some much-needed muscle behind Joel's carefully crafted songs. "Just the Way You Are" became the wedding-band standard, but the real pleasure here is the specificity of the lyrics in the rock songs located in New York, such as "Mister Cacciatore's down on Sullivan Street," in "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," or the saga of Brenda and Eddie in "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant."

The Stranger was chosen as the 67th greatest album of all time by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine in Dec. 2003.

- Rolling Stone, 12/11/03.

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