No Stranger
Sony and Legacy Recordings are releasing a two disc 30th anniversary edition of Billy Joel's The Stranger tomorrow, which I think is excellent. While my own personal taste pretty much gave up on Joel during the 80s, there is no denying the greatness of this late 70s output. The tracklisting for The Stranger reads like a greatest hits record - honestly when I heard about this remastered reissue, I thought it was something like that because I didn't remember all those songs being on the same album. "Movin' Out", "Just The Way You Are", "Only The Good Die Young", and "She's Always A Woman" were all on the same album? No wonder Joel was a superstar by the early 80s.
I would go so far as to say it is probably the single best record of his career. With this 30th anniversary edition, besides the remastered original album, the second disc features a live show from Carnagie Hall in 1977, recorded the month before the album was put down to tape, so it really captures the vibe of the era.
Anyway, you will be able to buy the double-CD starting tomorrow, from Amazon
OR, you've got a chance to win one of two copies from us here at MFR. So if you want in on it, email me blair [at] music.for-robots.com with "The Stranger" in the subject line. No tricks or anything, I'll just pick a pair of winners from the entries at random. You've got until, say, the end of the week. Get on it! Contest is closed!