The Stranger
Own It
- 5th studio album.
- Columbia was considering dropping Joel if this album did not do well.
- Won 2 Grammy’s - Record of the Year and Song of the Year (Just The Way You Are).
- Has consistently appeared on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
- Despite producing four hit singles on the Hot 100 chart, the album itself never reached #1 in any country. It peaked at #2 in both Canada and the US.
- Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, which is 3 shorter songs stitched together, is Joel’s favourite song that he’s written.
- Became Columbia’s best selling album release (surpassing Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water).
- Only The Good Die Young (which chronicles a young man's crush on a Catholic girl) wasn’t a hit as a single. It gained popularity after Christian groups brought attention to it in their effort to have it banned from radio stations.
- The success of 'The Stranger' transformed Joel from a one-hit wonder (Piano Man [1973]) to a hitmaker.