Take вЂњJames,вЂќ from Turnstiles, inspired by JoelвЂ™s high school friend and bandmate Jim Bosse. The secrets to The StrangerвЂ™s success, however, are scattered across JoelвЂ™s first four albums, unfortunately buttressed by a lot of unremarkable songs that lack their own punch. Stephen Holden, who eventually wrote glowingly about Joel for The New York Times, opened his Rolling Stone review, вЂњBilly JoelвЂ™s pop schmaltz occupies a stylistic no manвЂ™s land where musical and lyric truisms borrowed from disparate sources are forced together.вЂќ Joel returned to New York in 1975 and made Turnstiles, which Village Voice critic Robert Christgau called вЂњmore obnoxious.вЂќ While the former had its champions, not many people liked Streetlife Serenade. Weber later married and managed Joel.) In Los Angeles, Joel struck a deal with Columbia and made two albums, Piano Man and Streetlife Serenade. (The hiccup was that Weber was married to Jon Small, who figured his wife and son were kidnapped and went West to locate them and bring them back to Long Island. For some reason, Artie Ripp, who produced the album and signed Joel despite his commercial track record, simply didnвЂ™t notice or care that the mixing machine was set incorrectly, leaving JoelвЂ™s vocals on Cold Spring Harbor pitched up вЂњlike Alvin and the Chipmunks.вЂќ Joel smashed his test pressing, and still claims to hate the album.ДЄfter Cold Spring Harbor, Joel drove across the country to Los Angeles with his girlfriend Elizabeth Weber and her 5-year-old son Sean. His debut, however, was a failure and objectively fucked up. The albums werenвЂ™t notable enough even to call them failures. He cut his teeth as a young musician, playing on three albums before his 1971 solo debut: The Hassles and Hour of the Wolf, with his bar band the Hassles, and the proto-metal Attila, with his buddy and fellow former Hassle Jon Small. The success of The Stranger did a lot to erase, or at least ameliorate, Billy JoelвЂ™s reputation as an aggrieved musician who made a point of despising the dog and pony show of music promotion. A lot of people have since agreed with her, including those at the Recording Academy, which gave Joel the Grammys for Record and Song of the Year. вЂњThatвЂ™s one of the greatest songs IвЂ™ve ever heard,вЂќ Linda Ronstadt apparently told Joel after hearing вЂњJust the Way You AreвЂќ in the studio. Famously, Joel likes to say that he didnвЂ™t want to put the biggest song on the album. Joel says he didnвЂ™t make The Stranger like it was his last shot at success, but itвЂ™s hard to see it any other way. He wasnвЂ™t his labelвЂ™s priority and he wasnвЂ™t much of a name, but then he went ahead and made an album filled with classics. He was something of an anomaly on the label of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, not an impassioned poet, prophet, or star, just a guy with a choir boyвЂ™s tenor who loved melody and technique and when songs sounded good. Joel was raised in Hicksville, Long Island, classically trained on the piano, and giddily admired the real rockвЂ™nвЂ™roll of the 1950s. Before the album, his fourth for Columbia and fifth as a solo artist, Joel had two Top 40 songs: вЂњPiano Man,вЂќ about a guy (Joel) who got stuck playing bar tunes to a bunch of drunks, and вЂњThe Entertainer,вЂќ about a guy (Joel) who got stuck playing music for a fickle audience and whose label cut that other song in half just to fit on the radio. The Stranger is the reason we know who Billy Joel is.

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