52nd Street (album)
52nd Street is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released on October 11, 1978, by Columbia Records.[2] Presenting itself as the follow-up to his breakthrough studio album, The Stranger, Joel tried to give the new album a fresh sound, hiring various jazz musicians to differentiate it from his previous studio albums.[3]
It was the first of four Joel albums to top the Billboard charts, and it earned him two Grammys. Three songs reached the Top 40 in the United States, contributing to the album's success: "My Life" (number 3), "Big Shot" (number 14), and "Honesty" (number 24).[4] It was similarly well received by critics, earning two Grammy awards for Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 22nd Annual Grammy Awards.[5] This Grammy was presented to its producer, Phil Ramone. Upon Ramone's death, 52nd Street's Album of the Year Grammy was passed on to Joel.
The album was among the first commercially released on the compact disc format, reaching store shelves on October 1, 1982, in Japan (it was one of 50 CDs released that day, including The Stranger, but bore the first catalogue number in the sequence, 35DP-1, and so is frequently cited as the first to be released).[6] In keeping with this history, it was also the first release when Sony returned to manufacturing vinyl records in 2018.[7]
The title is a reference to 52nd Street, a popular street location in Midtown Manhattan for jazz musicians, beginning during the Great Depression and continuing through to the 1950s. Joel's label was headquartered within the CBS Building on West 52nd Street at the time of the album's release. The studio where recording took place was also on 52nd Street, one block away from where Joel's label was headquartered.