Category: SACD

Title: Billy Joel – The Stranger (1977) [MFSL 2012]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Billy Joel teamed with Phil Ramone, a famed engineer who had just scored his first producing hits with Art Garfunkel’s Breakaway and Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years for The Stranger, his follow-up to Turnstiles. Joel still favored big, sweeping melodies, but Ramone convinced him to streamline his arrangements and clean up the production. The results aren’t necessarily revelatory, since he covered so much ground on Turnstiles, but the commercialism of The Stranger is a bit of a surprise. None of his ballads have been as sweet or slick as “Just the Way You Are”; he never had created a rocker as bouncy or infectious as “Only the Good Die Young”; and the glossy production of “She’s Always a Woman” disguises its latent misogynist streak. Joel balanced such radio-ready material with a series of New York vignettes, seemingly inspired by Springsteen’s working-class fables and clearly intended to be the artistic centerpieces of the album. They do provide The Stranger with the feel of a concept album, yet there is no true thematic connection between the pieces, and his lyrics are often vague or mean-spirited. His lyrical shortcomings are overshadowed by his musical strengths. Even if his melodies sound more Broadway than Beatles — the epic suite “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” feels like a show-stopping closer — there’s no denying that the melodies of each song on The Stranger are memorable, so much so that they strengthen the weaker portions of the album. Joel rarely wrote a set of songs better than those on The Stranger, nor did he often deliver an album as consistently listenable.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

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Title: Billy Joel – Streetlife Serenade (1974) [Audio Fidelity 2015] 
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Billy Joel hit a bit of a slump with Streetlife Serenade, his third album. Stylistically, it was a reiteration of its predecessor’s Tumbleweed Connection obsessions, spiked with, of all things, Rockford Files synthesizers and ragtimes pulled from The Sting. That isn’t a facetious reference, either – it’s no coincidence that the record’s single and best song, “The Entertainer,” shares a title with the Scott Joplin rag that provided The Sting with a main theme. Joel is attempting a grand Americana lyrical vision, stretching from the Wild West through the Depression to “Los Angelenos” and “The Great Suburban Showdown.” It doesn’t work, not only because of his shortcomings as a writer, but because he didn’t have the time to pull it all together. There are no less than two instrumentals, and even if “Root Beer Rag” (yet another sign of The Sting’s influence) is admittedly enjoyable, they’re undeniably fillers, as is much of the second side. Since he has skills, he’s able to turn out a few winners – “Roberta,” a love song in the vein of Cold Spring Harbor, the mournful “Streetlife Serenader,” and the stomping “Los Angelenos” – but it was the astonishingly bitter “The Entertainer,” where he not only disparages his own role but is filled with venom over “Piano Man” being released in a single edit, that made the subtext clear: he had enough with California, enough with the music industry, enough with being a sensitive singer-songwriter. It was time for Billy to say goodbye to Hollywood and head back home to New York.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

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Title: Billy Joel – Songs In The Attic (1981) [MFSL 2013] [SACD / ]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Songs in the Atticb is Billy Joel’s first live album, and was recorded during his Glass Houses Tour in June-July 1980. It introduced Billy Joel’s early work to fans who had come to know his work after The Stranger, and also showcased his touring band, with whom he had been playing for some time. Two singles from the album (“Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and “She’s Got a Way”) were released and made it into the top 25 on the charts.
Having scored three multi-platinum hits in a row, Billy Joel took a breather, releasing his first live album, Songs in the Attic, as he worked on his ambitious follow-up to Glass Houses. Joel wisely decided to use the live album as an opportunity to draw attention to songs from his first four albums. Apart from “Piano Man,” none of those songs had been heard by the large audience he had won with The Stranger. Furthermore, he now had a seasoned backing band that helped give his music a specific identity – in short, it was an opportunity to reclaim these songs, now that he had a signature sound. And Joel didn’t botch the opportunity – Songs in the Attic is an excellent album, ranking among his very best work. With the possible exception of the Turnstiles material, every song is given a fuller, better arrangement that makes it all spring to life. “Los Angelenos” and “Everybody Loves You Now” hit harder in the live setting, while ballads like “She’s Got a Way,” “Summer, Highland Falls,” and “I’ve Loved These Days” are richer and warmer in these versions. A few personal favorites from these albums may be missing, but what is here is impeccable, proving that even if Joel wasn’t a celebrity in the early ’70s, his best songs of the era rivaled his biggest hits.

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Title: Billy Joel – Piano Man (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, Reissue, Remastered) (1973/2024) [SACD / ]
Genre: Folk Rock, Post Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO

To commemorate the 50th anniversary, Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” becomes available as SA-CD Multi Hybrid edition for the first time in the world. The 4-channel SACD layer is a high-quality surround mix of the quadraphonic LP analog 4-channel mix master source, mastered in DSD for the first time at Sony Music Studio in Japan. The 2-channel SACD layer is a high-quality stereo mix newly DSD-mastered from the analog 2-channel mix master source, and the CD layer is a newly mastered source converted from the SACD DSD master to PCM. In addition, DISC2 (high quality Blu-spec CD2) contains many unreleased demos and rare live recordings from the “Piano Man” period, including 7 songs that have never been released on CD before. DISC3 (DVD) contains rare live/music video footage, including eight songs that have never been released on DVD before. Plus, this set comes with a US press kit from 1973, a “Piano Man” Japanese 7inch single jacket, 4 types of reissued replicas of Japanese LP obis, and other rare memorabilia. 7inch cardboard sleeve packaging with lyrics and a description.

 allmusic | discogs

Tracklist:

SACD-1 – Travelin’ Prayer 4:17
SACD-2 – Piano Man 5:39
SACD-3 – Ain’t No Crime 3:19
SACD-4 – You’re My Home 3:14
SACD-5 – The Ballad Of Billy The Kid 5:44
SACD-6 – Worse Comes To Worst 3:16
SACD-7 – Stop In Nevada 3:56
SACD-8 – If I Only Had The Words (To Tell You) 3:35
SACD-9 – Somewhere Along The Line 3:20
SACD-10 – Captain Jack 7:18

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Title: Billy Joel – Greatest Hits: Volume I & Volume II (1985) [MFSL 2017] [SACD / ]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Although it’s missing a few important (not to mention big) hits, Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2 is an excellent retrospective of the first half of Billy Joel’s career. Beginning with “Piano Man,” the first disc runs through a number of early songs before arriving at the hit-making days of the late ’70s; some of these songs, including “Captain Jack” and “New York State of Mind,” weren’t strictly hits, but were popular numbers within his stage show and became radio hits. Once the songs from The Stranger arrive halfway through the first disc, there’s no stopping the hits (although “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant,” an album track from The Stranger, manages its way onto the collection). In fact, over the next disc and a half, there’s so many hits, it’s inevitable that some are left off – to be specific, “Honesty,” “Sometimes a Fantasy,” “An Innocent Man,” “Leave a Tender Moment,” and “Keeping the Faith” aren’t included. But all the other hits – including “Just the Way You Are,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “My Life,” “You May Be Right,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “Don’t Ask Me Why,” “Allentown,” “Tell Her About It” and “Uptown Girl,” among many others – are present and accounted for, as are two new songs (“You’re Only Human (Second Wind),” “The Night Is Still Young”) that became hits as well. In short, Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2 does its job perfectly, encapsulating exactly why Billy Joel was one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the late ’70s and early ’80s.

hraudio | discogs

Tracklist:

Disc 1 – Volume I: 1973-1977
01. Piano Man
02. Captain Jack
03. The Entertainer
04. Say Goodbye To Hollywood
05. New York State Of Mind
06. The Stranger
07. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
08. Just The Way You Are
09. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
10. Only The Good Die Young
11. She’s Always A Woman
Disc 2 – Volume II: 1978-1985
01. My Life
02. Big Shot
03. Honesty
04. You May Be Right
05. It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me
06. Don’t Ask Me Why
07. She’s Got A Way
08. Pressure
09. Allentown
10. Goodnight Saigon
11. Tell Her About It
12. Uptown Girl
13. The Longest Time
14. You’re Only Human (Second Wind)
15. The Night Is Still Young

Note:

Mastered by Shawn R. Britton, Assisted by Rob LoVerde at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.

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Title: Billy Joel – An Innocent Man (1983) [MFSL 2013] [SACD / ]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Recording The Nylon Curtain exhausted Billy Joel, and even though it had a pair of major hits, it didn’t rival its predecessors in terms of sales. Since he labored so hard at the record, he decided it was time for a break — it was time to record an album just for fun. And that’s how his homage to pre-Beatles pop, An Innocent Man, was conceived: it was designed as a breezy romp through the music of his childhood. Joel’s grasp on history isn’t remarkably astute — the opener “Easy Money” is a slice of Stax/Volt pop-soul, via the Blues Brothers (quite possibly the inspiration for the album), and the label didn’t break the pop charts until well after the British Invasion — but he’s in top form as a craftsman throughout the record. Only once does he stumble on his own ambition (“This Night,” which appropriates its chorus from Beethoven). For the rest of the record, he’s effortlessly spinning out infectious, memorable melodies in a variety of styles, from the Four Seasons send-up “Uptown Girl” and the soulful “Tell Her About It” to a pair of doo wop tributes, “The Longest Time” and “Careless Talk.” Joel has rarely sounded so carefree either in performance or writing, possibly due to “Christie Lee” Brinkley, a supermodel who became his new love prior to An Innocent Man. He can’t stop writing about her throughout the album — only three songs, including the haunted title track, aren’t about her in some form or fashion. That giddiness is infectious, helping make An Innocent Man an innocent delight that unwittingly closes Joel’s classic period.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

Tracklist:

01. Easy Money
02. An Innocent Man
03. The Longest Time
04. This Night
05. Tell Her About It
06. Uptown Girl
07. Careless Talk
08. Christie Lee
09. Leave A Tender Moment Alone
10. Keeping The Faith

Note:

Mastered by Rob LoVerde at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.

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Title: Billy Joel – An Innocent Man (1983) [Remastered Reissue 1998 (2001)] [SACD / ]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Recording The Nylon Curtain exhausted Billy Joel, and even though it had a pair of major hits, it didn’t rival its predecessors in terms of sales. Since he labored so hard at the record, he decided it was time for a break — it was time to record an album just for fun. And that’s how his homage to pre-Beatles pop, An Innocent Man, was conceived: it was designed as a breezy romp through the music of his childhood. Joel’s grasp on history isn’t remarkably astute — the opener “Easy Money” is a slice of Stax/Volt pop-soul, via the Blues Brothers (quite possibly the inspiration for the album), and the label didn’t break the pop charts until well after the British Invasion — but he’s in top form as a craftsman throughout the record. Only once does he stumble on his own ambition (“This Night,” which appropriates its chorus from Beethoven). For the rest of the record, he’s effortlessly spinning out infectious, memorable melodies in a variety of styles, from the Four Seasons send-up “Uptown Girl” and the soulful “Tell Her About It” to a pair of doo wop tributes, “The Longest Time” and “Careless Talk.” Joel has rarely sounded so carefree either in performance or writing, possibly due to “Christie Lee” Brinkley, a supermodel who became his new love prior to An Innocent Man. He can’t stop writing about her throughout the album — only three songs, including the haunted title track, aren’t about her in some form or fashion. That giddiness is infectious, helping make An Innocent Man an innocent delight that unwittingly closes Joel’s classic period.

 allmusic | discogs

Tracklist:

01. Easy Money
02. An Innocent Man
03. The Longest Time
04. This Night
05. Tell Her About It
06. Uptown Girl
07. Careless Talk
08. Christie Lee
09. Leave A Tender Moment Alone
10. Keeping The Faith

Note:

Digitally remastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, NYC.

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Title: Billy Joel – 52nd Street (1978) [Remastered Reissue 1998 (2001)] [SACD / ]
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Following up his 1977 breakthrough smash The Stranger was no easy task for Billy Joel; 52nd Street shows he wasn’t quite up to the challenge, though it sold similarly well and kept the momentum for his fast- track career until the more impressive Glass Houses appeared in 1980.
52nd Street isn’t without its moments: “My Life” remains one of Joel’s most memorable hit singles, “Half a Mile Away” is a wonderful slice of infectiously upbeat pop, and “Rosalinda’s Eyes” sways to an alluringly airy Latin feel. But macho poseur numbers such as “Big Shot” and “Stiletto” are embarrassingly overwrought, while the arty “Zanzibar” ultimately comes across more as pretentious than adventurous. The closing title track fails to convince anyone Joel is a cool blues hound. Once The Stranger became a hit, Billy Joel quickly re-entered the studio with producer Phil Ramone to record the follow-up, 52nd Street. Instead of breaking from the sound of The Stranger, Joel chose to expand it, making it more sophisticated and somewhat jazzy. Often, his moves sounded as if they were responses to Steely Dan — indeed, his phrasing and melody for “Zanzibar” is a direct homage to Donald Fagen circa The Royal Scam, and it also boasts a solo from jazz great Freddie Hubbard à la Steely Dan — but since Joel is a working-class populist, not an elitist college boy, he never shies away from big gestures and melodies. Consequently, 52nd Street unintentionally embellishes the Broadway overtones of its predecessor, not only on a centerpiece like “Stiletto,” but when he’s rocking out on “Big Shot.” That isn’t necessarily bad, since Joel’s strong suit turns out to be showmanship — he dazzles with his melodic skills and his enthusiastic performances. He also knows how to make a record. Song for song, 52nd Street might not be as strong as The Stranger, but there are no weak songs — indeed, “Honesty,” “My Life,” “Until the Night,” and the three mentioned above are among his best — and they all flow together smoothly, thanks to Ramone’s seamless production and Joel’s melodic craftsmanship. It’s remarkable to think that in a matter of three records, Joel had hit upon a workable, marketable formula — one that not only made him one of the biggest-selling artists of his era, but one of the most enjoyable mainstream hitmakers. 52nd Street is a testament to that achievement.

 allmusic | discogs

Tracklist:

01. Big Shot
02. Honesty
03. My Life
04. Zanzibar
05. Stiletto
06. Rosalinda’s Eyes
07. Half A Mile Away
08. Until The Night
09. 52nd Street

Note:

Digitally remastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, NYC.

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Title: Billy Joel – Stranger (1977) [Remastered Reissue 1998 (2001)] [SACD / ]
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

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…). Billy Joel teamed with Phil Ramone, a famed engineer who had just scored his first producing hits with Art Garfunkel’s Breakaway and Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years for The Stranger, his follow-up to Turnstiles. Joel still favored big, sweeping melodies, but Ramone convinced him to streamline his arrangements and clean up the production. The results aren’t necessarily revelatory, since he covered so much ground on Turnstiles, but the commercialism of The Stranger is a bit of a surprise. None of his ballads have been as sweet or slick as “Just the Way You Are”; he never had created a rocker as bouncy or infectious as “Only the Good Die Young”; and the glossy production of “She’s Always a Woman” disguises its latent misogynist streak. Joel balanced such radio-ready material with a series of New York vignettes, seemingly inspired by Springsteen’s working-class fables and clearly intended to be the artistic centerpieces of the album. They do provide The Stranger with the feel of a concept album, yet there is no true thematic connection between the pieces, and his lyrics are often vague or mean-spirited. His lyrical shortcomings are overshadowed by his musical strengths. Even if his melodies sound more Broadway than Beatles — the epic suite “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” feels like a show-stopping closer — there’s no denying that the melodies of each song on The Stranger are memorable, so much so that they strengthen the weaker portions of the album. Joel rarely wrote a set of songs better than those on The Stranger, nor did he often deliver an album as consistently listenable.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

Tracklist:

01. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
02. The Stranger
03. Just The Way You Are
04. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
05. Vienna
06. Only The Good Die Young
07. She’s Always A Woman
08. Get It Right The First Time
09. Everybody Has A Dream

Note:

Digitally remastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, NYC.

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Title: Billy Joel – Piano Man (1973) [MFSL 2010] [SACD / ]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO

Embittered by legal disputes with his label and an endless tour to support a debut that was dead in the water, Billy Joel hunkered down in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, spending six months as a lounge singer at a club. He didn’t abandon his dreams — he continued to write songs, including “Piano Man,” a fictionalized account of his weeks as a lounge singer. Through a combination of touring and constant hustling, he landed a contract with Columbia and recorded his second album in 1973. Clearly inspired by Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection, not only musically but lyrically, as well as James Taylor, Joel expands the vision and sound of Cold Spring Harbor, abandoning introspective numbers (apart from “You’re My Home,” a love letter to his wife) for character sketches and epics. Even the title track, a breakthrough hit based on his weeks as a saloon singer, focuses on the colorful patrons, not the singer. If his narratives are occasionally awkward or incomplete, he compensates with music that gives the songs a sweeping sense of purpose — they feel complete, thanks to his indelible melodies and savvy stylistic repurposing. He may have borrowed his basic blueprint from Tumbleweed Connection, particularly with its Western imagery and bluesy gospel flourishes, but he makes it his own, largely due to his melodic flair, which is in greater evidence than on Cold Spring Harbor. Piano Man is where he suggests his potential as a musical craftsman. He may have weaknesses as a lyricist — such mishaps as the “instant pleasuredome” line in “You’re My Home” illustrate that he doesn’t have an ear for words — but Piano Man makes it clear that his skills as a melodicist can dazzle.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

Tracklist:

01. Travelin’ Prayer
02. Piano Man
03. Ain’t No Crime
04. You’re My Home
05. The Ballad Of Billy The Kid
06. Worse Comes To Worst
07. Stop In Nevada
08. If I Only Had The Words (To Tell You)
09. Somewhere Along The Line
10. Captain Jack

Note:

Mastered by Rob LoVerde at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.

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