Billy Joel: Songs In The Attic [LEGACY]

Why you'll love it

This Billy Joel 50 Years edition comes in a gatefold jacket. The live "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "She's Got a Way" made No. 23, giving two early songs the hits they'd waited a decade for.

This edition

• Billy Joel 50 Years series
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

By 1980 Billy Joel was selling out arenas on the strength of The Stranger and 52nd Street, and most of his new fans had never heard the records he made before them. Those early albums had been cut with session players, so Joel did the sensible thing: he took the songs on tour with the band he actually played with, recorded them live and gave them a second life.

Phil Ramone captured the shows in the summer of 1980, everywhere from Madison Square Garden and the Spectrum in Philadelphia to small rooms like the Bijou in Washington and Toad's Place in New Haven. "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" opens with a bang, "Captain Jack" and "Streetlife Serenader" sound bigger and bolder than their studio versions, and "You're My Home" and "She's Got a Way" show off the tender side. Liberty DeVitto, Doug Stegmeyer, Richie Cannata, David Brown and Russell Javors give everything real muscle.

It was the first time much of the Cold Spring Harbor material reached a wide audience, and Joel's own liner notes introduce it to fans who found him after The Stranger. Think of it as a greatest hits album for songs that hadn't been hits yet, which is a very Billy Joel way of doing things.

Also at Kops: more Billy Joel on vinyl · browse Singer-Songwriter

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Legacy (cat# 19075939221), a reissue of the 1981 live album.