The Stranger is the fifth studio album by musician Billy Joel, released in 1977 (see 1977 in music). While his four previous albums had been moderate chart successes, this was his breakthrough album, spending 6 weeks at #2 in the U.S. album charts. It remains Joel's best-selling non-compilation album to date.
The Stranger contained nine songs, many of which are now considered "classic Joel." "Movin' Out," "She's Always a Woman," "Just The Way You...
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The Stranger is the fifth studio album by musician Billy Joel, released in 1977 (see 1977 in music). While his four previous albums had been moderate chart successes, this was his breakthrough album, spending 6 weeks at #2 in the U.S. album charts. It remains Joel's best-selling non-compilation album to date.
The Stranger contained nine songs, many of which are now considered "classic Joel." "Movin' Out," "She's Always a Woman," "Just The Way You Are," "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," "Everybody Has A Dream," and "Only The Good Die Young" were all written prior to recording, while "Vienna," "The Stranger," and "Get It Right The First Time" all came from short tunes or fragments of songs that Joel finished in the studio. Each song had stories attached to it. The seven-and-a-half-minute epic "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" began as the shorter "Ballad of Brenda and Eddie," a section that now forms the third part of the song. "The Stranger" was inspired by Joel's step-son's...
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