52nd Street

52nd Street is Joel's sixth studio album. It is named for a Midtown Manhattan street long associated with jazz musicians, where Joel's label was headquartered in the CBS Building. The studio, A&R Recording, was on the same street, and its freight elevator appears on the cover. Joel hired a number of jazz musicians to give the record a different sound from his earlier ones.

It became his first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 and held the spot for eight non-consecutive weeks. "My Life" reached number 3, "Big Shot" number 14 and "Honesty" number 24. At the 22nd Grammy Awards it won Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male and Album of the Year, the latter presented to Ramone and passed on to Joel after Ramone's death. "Rosalinda's Eyes" was inspired by his mother, and "Big Shot" by a dinner with Bianca Jagger.

Robert Christgau noted in 1979 that Joel could write catchy songs, and likened him to Elton John with more smarm. Erlewine later described the album as more sophisticated and somewhat jazzy. On 1 October 1982 CBS/Sony released a Japanese compact disc of 52nd Street with the catalogue number 35DP-1, which is why it is frequently cited as the first CD released.