Billy Joel -- The Stranger (album) Side A

Yup, I've already got three of The Piano Man's songs up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" as part of the Reminiscings of Youth series, and I will continue to do so as long as I can still put up articles for the blog (knock on wood). Today is a little different, though, since this time, it's not going to be one song but at least half of Billy Joel's breakthrough album "The Stranger" released in September 1977.

from Discogs

Indeed a lot of goodness came out of "The Stranger" and even before I was aware that this album even existed, I'd already heard most of the tracks through radio and television.

The very first time that I heard the Grammy winner "Just The Way You Are" was neither through radio nor record but on television. Specifically, it was when Joel appeared on an episode of "Saturday Night Live" to perform this romantic ballad that has been described over the decades since its release as a single alternately as wonderful or as sappy as a maple tree in spring. I'm more than happy to choose the former description, though. 

Not that it ever helped me in my ersatz love life, but I've always enjoyed "Just The Way You Are" as this soothing AOR love song, especially with that Phil Woods sax solo. It did hit No. 2 on Canada's RPM chart as well as No. 3 on America's Billboard. I'm not sure whether it was actually released as a single in Japan, but "The Stranger" was a winning album over there and "Just The Way You Are" even got its own Japanese title under "Sugao no Mama de"（素顔のままで）.

The title track was perhaps the second song from the album to come to my ears following "Just The Way You Are". Beginning with Joel whistling as if the setting was meant to be some dark downtown street from a 40s film noir flick, the melody then erupts into a 70s cool rock-funk melody delivered in that same way by the singer as he sings about the notorious stranger who may be a real person or an emotional concept. 

"The Stranger" was actually released in Japan as a single and it did extremely well there by hitting No. 2 on Oricon. Maybe the reason it did so was because of that honne and tatemae thing that I learned in university when I was majoring in Japanese Studies. I also recall that the song was used in a commercial while I was living there.

The first track "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" was a Joel tune that I first heard on a radio retrospective regarding his past hits. It really has this inner city vibe which therefore reminded me of Toronto's Kensington Market right by Chinatown although I know that The Piano Man had meant it to be his diatribe against lower-class New Yorkers working their tails off to become the rich snobs that he hates. I could only imagine how he felt when that whole Yuppie thing happened in the 1980s. I didn't take too much notice of the lyrics at the time since I was enjoying the melody and that funny "ack, ack, ack" effect.

My final track here is the epic "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" which is maybe one of the first times that I got to hear a song that was beyond the usual three to four minutes. Melodically, it starts and ends with a wistful ballad while in between we get Dixieland jazz and rock n' roll. Thematically, I'd always thought that the rock n' roll segment of Brenda and Eddie was just the beginning of their relationship which expanded throughout the entire song. And it looks like from that masterfully produced music video above, it was indeed an older Brenda and Eddie getting together in that beloved Italian restaurant, long divorced but still good friends talking about their lives apart through the balladry and jazz, getting a look at their torrid romance but doomed marriage, before returning to the happier and more mature platonic relationship at the restaurant.

Yup, I know...there is still the B-side but I think that I'll save that for a later ROY. "The Stranger" won Record of the Year in 1978 at the Grammys, and when it was released in Japan, it would also hit No. 3 on Oricon as it stayed on the chart there for about 75 weeks selling more than 370,000 records. In the USA, "The Stranger" managed to sell more than 10 million records.

So, what was being released in August or September 1977, according to J-Wiki and Showa Pops?

Mieko Nishijima -- Gin Lime （ジンライム）

Haruo Chikada -- Roxy no Yoru（ロキシーの夜）

Shigeru Matsuzaki -- Ai no Memory （愛のメモリー）