Billy Joel – 52nd Street
- AllMyVinyl #7
- Band: Billy Joel
- Album Title: 52nd Street
- Release Date: 11 Oct 1978
- Date purchased: 25 Dec 2021
- Location purchased: Christmas present (Vinyl Collection Vol 1 set)
- Color of vinyl: black
- Number of discs: 1
- Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Full album on Youtube ]
Billy Joel was one the first artists I was aware as someone other than a random song I’d hear on the radio. That he he had a catalog and a collection of albums was something that latched onto in my youth. I was 13 when this came out, so I knew it well. Of course in 1978 when I was still in school, I didn’t have much money, so I didn’t buy albums. I relied on the radio, and radio was the big way I consumed this album. However, it was also stupid popular at the time with a few big singles (My Life, Big Shot, Honesty) so I got by. I also had an English teacher in middle school who would play Billy Joel in class, so I heard this one there a lot (Hello Art Beyer).
It has a different sound than his handful of albums before this – has a jazz feel to a lot of tracks, which was a different sound for him, one I liked. I actually like quite a few non singles from this album – I think the “deep cut” (or album song) is a stronger game here. Zanzibar & Rosalinda’s Eyes are great. Stiletto is awesome – and I always wondered if that was written about a woman in his life. If you couple it with “All for Leyna” from the next album, it has a very interesting message.
Speaking of hits, the song “Honesty” was a massive hit for him, but one Christmas Eve I was listening to the radio (probably 1978), and my station must have played it once every half an hour – it was the first song I can recall crossing over into “You’re playing this too much – I don’t want to hear it anymore – arrrrrrgh!”
As I mentioned, Zanzibar is a great track – has a vibe unlike most Billy Joel songs. Jazz legend Freddie Hubbard appears on that song. There’s some cool “fun facts” for this song over on Wikipedia – go check that out. In 2022, Joel released an animated video for the song Zanzibar – it’s embedded below.
I also recall the song “My Life” was used as the title theme for the old Tom Hanks sitcom “Bosom Buddies“. That show ran for two seasons from 1980-1982 for a total of 37 episodes. Joel’s song was used in the opening titles. I’ve embedded the opening titles for that show in one of the videos below.
As I listen to this now for my vinyl play through, I’m taken by how much more of a jazz sound it has (big time in the title track). Perhaps that has something to do with the death of my father last fall who was a big jazz fan, so I’m hearing that in more places. It’s not like 52nd Street is in any way new to me – I’ve heard the albums probably over 100 times in the previous decades – I know the music well. But in 2024, it has a new feel to me I don’t recall from the past. That’s a joy to discover for sure.
This album came out four years before I started going to concerts, so I didn’t see this tour. However, I did see Joel live in 1982, 1984, 1986, and then again in 2019. In 2022, I saw “The Lords of 52nd Street” live, which is most of Joel’s band from this era minus Joel himself. I met Liberty DeVitto at that show, which was a lot of fun.
I don’t recall now in what format I bought in the past. It was PROBABLY vinyl, but I honestly can’t tell for sure. When I got back into vinyl in 2020, I didn’t have this, and the collection from the past my brother sent me didn’t have this, so it might have been a cassette, but I’m not sure. The copy I have now came from the box set “Billy Joel – The Vinyl Collection Volume 1” which had all of his albums up to this point packaged together. It was a very nice Christmas present from my family back home in 2021. :)
Overall, an album I knew well, has some very strong songs – a pleasure to listen to again today.