They say it takes a lot to keep a love alive

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts.

18/03/79 : 52nd Street - Billy Joel

Only our second visit with Billy, but I think I like his general sound from this era, so I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah - this is pretty decent. I recognised "Big Shot" and "My Life" from his Greatest Hits Vol I (which is cracking) but the rest of it works very nicely alongside those tracks. The general sound isn't a million miles away from The Stranger, but it's a bit jazzier - and considerably jazzier in places, with some very decent horn playing in there. But obviously it's still mostly piano-based with a definite US Elton John feeling to it - I liked this.

We're at #18 in the charts this week on his eighteenth week of a decent 41 week run, with #10 being as high as it got in the previous week - it also popped back for two more weeks in '84 for no obvious reason. The top five this week were Bee Gees, Blondie, Barry Manilow, Chic and Elvis Costello and the highest new entry was Roxy Music (#9).

Wikipedia tells us it's his sixth album and the title is a (thinly veiled) reference to 52nd Street(!) which is also where the album was recorded. Interestingly it was one of the first albums made available on CD - fifty albums were all released on the same day (October 1, '82) but this had the catalogue number 35DP-1, so claims have been made that this was the first. Critically, it was well received and won two Grammy awards, including the prestigious Album Of The Year. Commercially it did very well in English speaking countries, getting to #1 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US (staying there for eight weeks) selling over eight million copies globally - it feels weird that it did comparatively poorly here. It also sold very well in Japan - which is something we've rarely seen this year.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent copy for a couple of quid (I guess there are a lot of them out there) but if you want the Japanese gold face version (whatever that is) it's going to set you back £325. I'm a bit surprised I wasn't previously aware this album even existed, but it was very enjoyable and would certainly reward further listens. I also have to send him best wishes after his recent diagnosis of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, which has caused him to cancel all his upcoming shows. 

11/03/79 - Surprisingly tolerable
25/03/79 - Well done, but not for me

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