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This, pop superstar Joel's breakout LP, came years after he first hit the charts with the novelty-ish "Piano Man." In the meantime, the New York-based songwriter released two lackluster and stylistically confused platters that blunted interesting songs with a sound that was neither ElI
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Amazon.com essential recording
This, pop superstar Joel's breakout LP, came years after he first hit the charts with the novelty-ish "Piano Man." In the meantime, the New York-based songwriter released two lackluster and stylistically confused platters that blunted interesting songs with a sound that was neither Elton mellow nor Elton attitude. Produced by Phil Ramone, The Stranger took those who had written Joel off as a one-hit wonder by surprise ("Just the Way You Are" was among the biggest hits of 1977) and it remains a solid introduction to Joel's restless muse at a crucial point in his career. It invited a few comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, with its prominent sax breaks, hard-edged rebel-rockers ("Only the Good Die Young"), and slice-of-life dramatics ("Scenes From an Italian Restaurant"), recounting life in a lower middle-class (Eastern Urban) setting; but Joel's chameleonic, formalist approach to pop wasn't to be so easily pigeonholed (Glass Houses, The Nylon Curtain, An Innocent Man...). --Don Harrison
"Stand Out Tracks:
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
The Stranger
Just The Way You Are
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Only The Good Die Young
She's Always A Woman
Get It Right The First Time"
Koji Ishimura added this to a list 10 months, 3 weeks ago
""Before The Stranger, 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 a"
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