Billy Joel

Perhaps Joel's best album, this 1978 release includes the hits "Big Shot" and "My Life" (AKA the Bosom Buddies TV theme). Named after the New York jazz center and produced by the sleek crossover cat Phil Ramone, 52nd Street features a number of fine musicians, including jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.

On 52nd Street and The Stranger, Billy Joel is the quintessential postrock entertainer:a
vaudevillian piano man and mimic who, having come of age in the late Sixties, has the grasp
of rock and the technical know-how to be able to caricature both Bob Dylan and the
Beatles as well as "do" an updated Anthony Newley, all in the same Las Vegas format. Joel
seems to have been born knowing what many Seventies pop stars have had to fi... More >

Despite the Chapinesque turns his voice takes when he tries to get raucous, he makes a better Elton John than Leo Sayer--he's got that same omniverous hummability. But when he is (was) good, Elton balances(d) off the smarm with camp, while Billy makes as if he really wants people to believe the words. Yuck. (Grade - B-)