The Stranger - Billy Joel

As you may have seen from the other tow reviewers, this is a spectacular album, with Joel showing some of the best of his abilities. This is often seen as the piano man's classic album and I may be entitled to agree with them, although I would say that anyone who likes this should try some of his other work for a wider view of his work and some of his other classic albums. 1. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) - This is a song that anyone with an ounce of youth or some feeling of unfullfilment will agree with to some degree and describes Joel's dissatisfaction with some of his childhood and life there. Although this does seem to be against some of what was said in ...  Read the complete review

Now this is a classic album. The first reviewer gives a wonderful description of the album, so I'll just say what I can. If you want to give one defining album that describes Billy Joel's talents totally, then this album is it. From Just The Way You Are - a great love song with very clever lyrics and such a simple tune, to Scenes From An Italian Restaurant - an epic tale of friends and days gone by, and then to Only The Good Die Young, rather a good dig at the Catholic faith. This album has it all, and then some. The music is great, he finally had the band he wanted all together on an album, with the right producer - Phil Ramone - and they ...  Read the complete review

Every so often an album comes along that will make you say "ahhhhh, perfect". Looking back over all of the music I've listened to over the years, without a doubt, one of those albums is Billy Joel's "The Stranger". And to think, this artist almost faded into oblivion after four albums that didn't do too terribly well, with the exception of the title track from his second album "Piano Man". The phrase "one hit wonder" was almost tagged onto Joel, but when "The Stranger" came out - starting with a bang with the hit song "Just the way you are" (which was only the first hit from this album) - it was obvious that ...  Read the complete review