The Stranger

The Stranger is Joel's fifth studio album and the first of seven he made with Phil Ramone. It was recorded over three weeks in July and August 1977. His previous record, Turnstiles, had peaked at number 122, and Columbia was weighing whether to keep him, so Joel insisted on his own band rather than session players. No single guitarist plays throughout, because Joel said the right one was hard to find. Steve Khan, Hiram Bullock, Hugh McCracken and Steve Burgh each play on different songs.

The title track opens with a whistled theme. Joel whistled it for Ramone while saying he needed to find an instrument to play it, and Ramone told him it was perfect, so it stayed. The album ends with a reprise of the theme. Its percussive rhythm came from an Ace Tone Rhythm Ace drum machine. "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" stitches three shorter songs together, with Ramone helping to join them through orchestral backing. "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" began as lyrics Joel wrote to the tune of Neil Sedaka's "Laughter in the Rain", until DeVitto pointed out the likeness and Joel wrote a new melody.

Release and reception

Four singles were released in the United States and all reached the Top 40: "Just the Way You Are" (number 3), "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" and "She's Always a Woman" (both number 17) and "Only the Good Die Young" (number 24). The album entered the top 10 on 21 January 1978 and reached number 2 on 18 February, where it spent six weeks. It won two Grammys at the 1979 ceremony, Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. It was later certified Diamond by the RIAA for sales of ten million units.

Ira Mayer of Rolling Stone judged it an improvement on Joel's earlier albums and praised Ramone's production. Robert Christgau gave it a B-minus in the Village Voice. Looking back, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Joel rarely wrote a better set of songs. Rolling Stone placed it at number 169 on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums. George Martin is reported to have written Joel afterward to say he had been wrong about the band.