52nd Street

The difficult thing about following a record as successful as The Stranger is deciding whether to repeat the formula or disturb it. Billy Joel chose a little of both. 52nd Street keeps the sharp, highly finished songwriting that had made its predecessor a breakthrough, but brings jazz players and jazzier colours into the room, giving familiar piano-led pop a looser, more sophisticated swing.

Joel recorded his sixth studio album at A&R Recording in New York during July and August 1978, again working with producer Phil Ramone. The title was perfectly placed: both the label’s offices and the studio were on 52nd Street, a Manhattan thoroughfare historically associated with jazz clubs. That connection was not merely decorative. Joel deliberately brought jazz musicians into the sessions in search of a fresher sound, and the resulting record can pivot from the broad pop confidence of “My Life” and the swaggering “Big Shot” to subtler harmonic and rhythmic touches without losing its directness. The commercial response was enormous. Released in October 1978, 52nd Street became Joel’s first number-one album on the Billboard 200 and spent eight non-consecutive weeks at the top. “My Life” reached number three in the United States, while “Big Shot” and “Honesty” also became substantial singles. The album then won Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. It even acquired a curious piece of technological history when it became one of the first albums commercially issued on compact disc in Japan in 1982.

All of that history can obscure how nimble the album actually sounds. Joel was operating at arena-sized scale, but 52nd Street rarely feels lumbering. Ramone’s production leaves space around the piano, rhythm section and brass, and Joel’s melodies remain sturdy enough to carry the richer arrangements. It is a record about consolidation without complacency: a hugely successful songwriter using the moment after his breakthrough to widen the vocabulary rather than simply make The Stranger again.