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With his first hit, "Piano Man," Billy Joel came across like fellow Long Islander Harry Chapin, an earnest storyteller whose tales were more interesting than his tunes. But subsequent albums proved that Joel was gaining sophistication and subtlety. By the time he released The Stranger, in 1977, Joel had really hit his stride: He was rocking harder, had loads of smart-ass personality, could rhyme "cadillac" with "Hackensack," and, perhaps more important, was willing to do it. Bruce Springsteen had become the Boss by then, and his Born to Run slices of street life were the standard to which everyone else's work was compared. Joel didn't sport a blue collar, but the humorously frustrated characters he created in songs like "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" and "Only the Good Die Young" were more familiar to a mass audience than Bruce's car jockeys and small-time hoods, and the public responded enthusiastically. Joel's sentimental side also struck a chord with listeners, as evidenced by the success of the ballads "Just the Way You Are" and "She's Always a Woman," which stand as two of Joel's finest.
Condition:NEW. Drilled Case. Small Drill Hole @ The Jacket.
TRACK LISTINGS
1. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
2. The Stranger
3. Just the Way You Are
4. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
5. Vienna
6. Only the Good Die Young
7. She's Always a Woman
8. Get It Right the First Time
9. Everybody Has a Dream
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