Search - Billy Joel :: The Stranger: 30th Anniversary [Legacy Edition] - 2 CD Set

Could have had a little more included on the CDS

J. A. Crabb | Nashville, TN USA | 08/04/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well ten years later, we are treated to yet another remastering of "The Stranger," this time in celebration of the 30th (actually 31st) anniversary of the album. While for most fans who owned the original CD master, then graduated to the 1998 remaster, I'm sure folks would agree there should have been more added to the first CD. There are alternate takes out there, some which made their way onto the "My Lives" boxset. Would have been nice to pad out the full length of the cd with some bonus studio tracks.



The live CD is the gem of this re-release. Why has Sony sat on this recording all these years? A remarkable performance, in a location which is notorious for making decent quality recordings (e.g. Chicago IV.) This is almost as good as "Songs in The Attic," as you get many of those songs, only slightly rearranged for this earlier performance. I am hoping that with the success of this release Legacy will do for Billy what was done for Neil Diamond with his Stages cd set...a box set of live shows (more of the earlier ones that are still unreleased on cd). So far we've got concert releases from 1980, 1987, 1999, and 2005, it would be nice to have a 70s, early 80s which are complete concerts, with minimal exemptions. Why? Because Billy is one of the best performers I have ever seen... He shows his roots well in this show because at certain points in the show the Carnegie Hall technicians bring the house lights up because people are smoking, and each time that happens, Billy says "I'll play with these lights on if you don't mind!""

Billy Joel's breakthrough gets a big 30th birthday celebrati

Terrence J. Reardon | Lake Worth (a west Palm Beach suburb), FL | 08/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"New York native Billy Joel released his fifth album The Stranger in November of 1977.

Prior to The Stranger, Billy was almost seen as a pop one-hit wonder thanks to the title track from his 1973 album Piano Man (despite the fact FM rock stations played "Captain Jack" and "New York State of Mind"). However, pop radio ignored him. It was in the summer of 1977 that Billy and producer Phil Ramone (famed for work with The Carpenters and Paul Simon) went into A&R Recording Studios in New York to record Billy's fourth album for Columbia, which (had it not sold) might have been his last time at bat. Is the album the classic it is or some artifact from a bygone time, read on and find out.

We start the album with a great rocker out of "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" which is driven by piano and guitar. Next is The Stranger's title cut which its intro and outro (also repeated at album's end) sounds like it could have been recorded for a Bogart film before giving way into another great rocker. Next we slow things down with the album's famous ballad "Just The Way You Are" (which won the 1978 Record of the Year Grammy) and was Billy's biggest hit up until that point. He almost left it off the album had it not been for female singers Phoebe Snow (who appears on the album's last track) and Linda Ronstadt persuaded Billy to release it and the rest is history. The first half ends with the epic centerpiece of the album is "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" which is almost like listening to one of the medleys on The Beatles' Abbey Road as it's three songs stitched into one and one of the sections told the tale of the rise and fall of Brenda & Eddie.

"Vienna" starts the second half of the album off and was one of the lesser known songs on the album but a great number. Next is the acoustic guitar and piano driven rocker "Only the Good Die Young" which is still a great number though some religious groups cried foul and some stations banned the record. Next is another classic ballad out of "She's Always A Woman" which is a nice ballad. We then have another rocker out of "Get it Right the First Time" which is a great piece. We end with the gospel sounding ballad "Everybody Has a Dream" which is a nice track and the album ends with the reprise of The Stranger's title cut's intro and outro this time with an orchestra.

The Stranger paid off as it hit #2 on the Billboard album chart upon release and became Billy's first Platinum selling album and righfully sold to date 10 million copies in the US alone.

In 1998, The Stranger was re-released in a remastered version which soundeed better than the 1980s sterile CBS release and includes all original LP art.

Now in 2008, The Stranger was given a 30th Anniversary fit for a king in two incarnations. First is a 2-CD reissue which has The Stranger remastered by Phil Ramone. Second is a unreleased concert from the famed Carnegie Hall in New York recorded one month before The Stranger's release. Billy always delivered on stage and the versions of overlooked tracks like "Say Goodbye to Hollywood", "New York State of Mind", "Captain Jack" and "Angry Young Man" are all performed better than the studio versions. Also, you had preview versions of "Just the Way You Are" and "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" all recorded a month before The Stranger was recorded. The other re-issue is a 3-disc package which will be reviewed next.

Recommended!"