Maps of Music

52nd Street (1978)

Where the lyrics of 52nd Street take you, and where it was really made.

The album's title is the name of a Manhattan street, and the studio where it was recorded was on that same street. The studio's freight elevator appears on the cover.

Key places

Recorded at A&R on 52nd Street (1978)

Recording site A&R Recording — The studio where recording took place, A&R Recording, was on 52nd Street, the same street the album's title refers to. Its freight elevator appears on the album cover. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• 52nd Street: sixth studio album by Billy Joel
• Released October 11, 1978 by Columbia Records
• Follow-up to the breakthrough album The Stranger
• Joel hired various jazz musicians to give the record a fresh sound

Background

• The title refers to 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, a popular jazz location from the Great Depression through the 1950s
• Joel's label was headquartered within the CBS Building on West 52nd Street at the time of release
• The recording studio, A&R Recording, was also on 52nd Street

Recording

• Produced by Phil Ramone, engineered by Jim Boyer, with David Martone as assistant engineer
• Mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in New York City
• Credited band The Lords of 52nd Street: Billy Joel on vocals, piano and synthesizers, Doug Stegmeyer on bass, Liberty DeVitto on drums, Richie Cannata on saxophones and clarinet

Cover

• The studio's freight elevator appears on the album cover

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born May 9, 1949 in the Bronx, New York City; raised in Hicksville on Long Island.
• Began piano lessons at age four at his mother's insistence.
• Saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and decided to pursue a music career.
• Played in the Echoes, the Hassles, and Attila before going solo.

Career

• Debut solo album Cold Spring Harbor (1971); signed with Columbia Records in 1972 after a Philadelphia radio broadcast of "Captain Jack".
• Breakthrough with The Stranger (1977), Columbia's best-selling release at that time.
• 52nd Street (1978) won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
• Released 12 self-written studio albums from 1971 to 1993; over 160 million records sold worldwide.
• Performed a long Madison Square Garden residency from 2014 to 2024.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• The Village Voice: Robert Christgau, reviewing in 1979, noted Joel's talent for writing catchy songs and likened him to Elton John, though with more smarm
• The Globe and Mail: found the music starting to sound repetitive and formulaic, as if the songwriter's musical vocabulary was too limited for the city's varied dramas

Reappraisal

• AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised Joel for expanding stylistically on The Stranger, calling 52nd Street more sophisticated and somewhat jazzy
• Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000): ranked number 621
• Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003): ranked number 352, and number 354 on a 2012 revised list

Records

• First Billy Joel album to reach number one on the Billboard 200, holding the spot for eight non-consecutive weeks
• Three US Top 40 singles: My Life (number 3), Big Shot (number 14), Honesty (number 24)
• Two Grammy awards at the 22nd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Album of the Year
• The Album of the Year Grammy went to producer Phil Ramone; after his death it was passed on to Joel
• Among the first commercially released CDs, reaching Japanese shelves on October 1, 1982, with catalogue number 35DP-1
• First release when Sony returned to manufacturing vinyl records in 2018

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The song Big Shot was inspired by a dinner with Bianca Jagger
• The song Rosalinda's Eyes was inspired by Joel's mother, Rosalind Nyman Joel
• The album bore the first catalogue number in the CBS/Sony CD sequence, 35DP-1, so it is often cited as the first CD release
• It was one of 50 CDs released by the CBS/Sony label on the same day, including The Stranger

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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