Limited Edition 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition - 3 Discs (2 CDs and 1 DVD) — CD of "The Stranger" remastered by the original album producer, Phil Ramone — CD of "Live At Carnegie Hall 1977"- previously unreleased - On June ... more »3, 1977, one month prior to the recording of The Stranger album, Billy and his band performed at the historical Carnegie Hall.
Bonus DVD of BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test - approx 60 minutes PLUS 2 live promotional videos
48 Page Booklet with liner notes by Rolling Stone Editor, David Fricke and un-seen photos from the original album photo shoot
The Stranger CD Tracklist:
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
The Stranger
Just The Way You Are
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Vienna
Only the Good Die Young
She's Always A Woman
Get It Right The First Time
Everybody Has Dream
"Live At Carnegie Hall 1977" CD
On June 3, 1977, one month prior to the recording of The Stranger album, Billy and his band performed at the historical Carnegie Hall in NYC. This show has been brilliantly restored to be released for the first time as part of the 30th Anniversary edtion of The Stranger
"The Old Grey Whistle Test" DVD
Billy Joel made a special appearance on BBC2 television music show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" in early 1978 during the promotion for The Stranger album. The show is approximately 60 minutes and aired only once on BBC2. The Old Grey Whistle Test was an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from September 1971 to 1987. The Old Grey Whistle Test was also the template for what later became MTV.
CD of "The Stranger" remastered by the original album producer, Phil Ramone
CD of "Live At Carnegie Hall 1977"- previously unreleased - On June 3, 1977, one month prior to the recording of The Stranger album, Billy and his band performed at the historical Carnegie Hall.
Bonus DVD of BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test - approx 60 minutes PLUS 2 live promotional videos
48 Page Booklet with liner notes by Rolling Stone Editor, David Fricke and un-seen photos from the original album photo shoot
The Stranger CD Tracklist:
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
The Stranger
Just The Way You Are
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Vienna
Only the Good Die Young
She's Always A Woman
Get It Right The First Time
Everybody Has Dream
"Live At Carnegie Hall 1977" CD
On June 3, 1977, one month prior to the recording of The Stranger album, Billy and his band performed at the historical Carnegie Hall in NYC. This show has been brilliantly restored to be released for the first time as part of the 30th Anniversary edtion of The Stranger
"The Old Grey Whistle Test" DVD
Billy Joel made a special appearance on BBC2 television music show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" in early 1978 during the promotion for The Stranger album. The show is approximately 60 minutes and aired only once on BBC2. The Old Grey Whistle Test was an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from September 1971 to 1987. The Old Grey Whistle Test was also the template for what later became MTV.
"Miami 2017"
"Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)"
"New York State Of Mind"
"The Entertainer"
"She's Always A Woman"
"Root Beer Rag"
"Just The Way You Are"
"Souvenir"
"Ain't No Crime"
"Only The Good Die Young"
PLUS Live Promotional videos:
"The Stranger"
"Just The Way You Are"
CD Reviews
This is one for the collectors!
Allen Chapman | STAFFORD SPRINGS, CT USA | 07/08/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This new boxed set is released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Billy Joel's breakthrough album "The Stranger". The album, originally released in 1977, made Billy Joel a household name. To celebrate the 30th anniversary Columbia has put together a nice set. The first disc is the original album, the second disc is a live recording from his sold out Carniege Hall shows in June of '77. Aside from the pristine sound on this disc, what's interesting is to hear him introduce two of the songs from "The Stranger" that would become classics but at the time were unknown to audiences. "Just The Way You Are", in a slightly different arrangement receives only a smattering of applause at the intro, while "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" which is a huge concert favorite today receives almost no applause at the introduction. Overall it's a really great show.
The DVD includes two live promotional videos for "The Stranger" and "Just The Way You Are", a half hour documentary about the making of the album with recent interviews from both Billy and album producer Phil Ramone. Among other things you learn that the sax solo in "Just The Way You Are" is a combination of several solos that Ramone spliced together so that it was seamless. Also on the DVD is an additional one hour concert from England.
Depending on where you pick this set up, you will also get a bonus disc. If you get it at Best Buy it has five live tracks recorded in December of 1977 at Nassau Colliseum, if you get it at Target you get a DVD with live videos from previously released collections.
Finally the set also includes a replica of the Sold Out poster for Carniege Hall, a book about the album loaded with unseen photos and memorbilia all on glossy pages. The coolest thing though is a replica of Billy's lyric notebook for "The Stranger" with his handwritten lyrics and notes about the album. You even get the grease stains on the pages!!!
A very cool set, but one for diehard collectors. For the casual fan pick up the 2 disc set that contains just the original album and live Carniege Hall disc."
The Record Industry will never get it.
Sound Chaser | NY | 07/21/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Overall I'm happy with my purchase but in the end all I got was a very expensive dvd that wasn't even remastered in Dolby Digital and a partial live show from Carnegie Hall. Lets start the review off with the remaster of the original album. It's one of the worst remasters ever and I'm very disappointed. I find myself constantly twitching in anticipation of having to continually turn the volume down because the audio hits saturation on a continual basis. It's almost as if the engineer either forgot to compress the soundwave before adding amplitude or this was someones first attempt at remastering a cd. Either way I'm very happy that I own the SACD as it is simply perfection. Next up is the Carnegie Hall concert. This show is very good especially since it has the mini orchestra which adds a uniqueness to owning it and The sound is also very good, but the downfall lies in the fact that they cut about 10 songs from the original show, probably because they didn't want to make the box set larger than it already is. Next they have the audacity to include 5 songs from the Nassau 77 show (purchased at best buy) when in fact the masters for the entire 24 song show is available and has been in circulation as a bootleg for many years. Even if you add the four tracks from Nassau that aren't on the Carnegie Hall show the concert is still not complete. Any Serious Billy Joel fan already owns a high quality bootleg of the Nassau 77 show, so only mastering 5 tracks adds insult to injury. Finally I get to the DVD. Surely they couldn't screw this up. Wrong!! No Dobly Digital??? Just Stereo??? It's still a great DVD but it would have been awesome in 5.1. Take a listen to the Springsteen '75 show that was released in 5.1 several years ago and you will know exactly what is lacking in this stereo only show. How would I done it differently if I was Columbia Records? 1. The remastered album should have been offered as a hybrid SACD or DVD audio that would play on both a conventional CD player or in 5.1 on a SACD\DVD player and packaged as a mini LP with all the original artwork. 2. The Carnegie Hall show should have been the complete show which would have been 2 discs and packaged as a mini LP. Who wants to store their discs in the plastic sleeve of the long box? 3. The DVD should have been mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1. It's 2008 for christ's sake. They should have included the 5 tracks from Nassau 1977 in all the boxes and then offered the remaining tracks from the full show as a download for an additional $8-$10. Other than the replica of Billy Joel's lyric book there was absolutely no creativity or imagination put into this box which is a real shame. Maybe the record labels should ask what the fans would like to see in an anniversary box, similar to what Ford did when they reissued the Mustang. In that case everyone was a winner. In the case of the 30th Anniversary of the Stranger most people will walk away knowing they could have had more but got less."
A fitting salute to a great album
William Merrill | San Antonio, TX United States | 07/09/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a very nice boxed set and an excellently thorough and generous treatment for a "classic" album in many senses of the term. The latest remastering of the original album may be very good. I didn't notice much difference myself. (Actually I think you have to be an audiophile to possess the trained ears to hear such things.) My focus is on all of the bounteous bonus material. The Carnegie Hall concert was a high quality recording of a spirited and superb performance by both Mr. Joel and his band. I had a nice nostalgic experience listening to that previously unreleased recording, as I saw Joel in a marvelous Pittsburgh concert about a year later. The rest of the bonus stuff has been well described by reviewer Chapman in his good review. The lyrics workbook replica is cool and fun to look through. I especially appreciated the interesting (though short) DVD featurette about the making of The Stranger. It sheds a lot of new light on the creation of the album! Overall, I'm very grateful to get my hands (and ears & eyes) on this Anniversary set!"
Goosebumps and Tears
R. Richards Jr. | Schuylkill Haven, PA United States | 07/11/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Just received the deluxe set today. I've watched parts of the DVD including the new interview. The interview is excellent, especially the comments from the legendary Phil Ramone. Watched some of the Old Grey Whistle test, and that was fine, also.
But, first off, I listened to the 2nd CD with the June 1977 Carnegie Hall concert. I must say I listened the old fashioned way, with high quality headphones, and I must say I was getting goosebumps and I also had a few tears as I flashed back in my mind to 1977 and listening the The Stranger for the first few times on my first high quality hi-fi. I had been a sort of Billy Joel fan previous to The Stranger, but The Stranger became the benchmark of all Billy Joel albums and still is.
The remastering of this over thirty year old concert is amazing. The small orchestra backing is just enough to make a difference. I also noticed the dynamics of the way bands played back then. These days it seems like it's pedal to the metal the whole song. No dynamics.
I have Songs in the Attic (excellent),the Soviet Union concert, the Millenium concert, and the recent 12 Gardens all on CD. This 1977 concert blows them all away in my humble opinion. Reminded me of the Bruce Springsteen concert on the Born to Run deluze edition from a few years ago. So much energy. I'm thinking it has something to do with still being young and hungry. I remember thinking that when I watched the old Springsteen 1975 concert.
Anyway, do yourself a favor. If you are any kind of Billy Joel fan from the old days, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this concert from 1977. And listen to it close. Not just as background music. Billy Joel was also an amazing piano player, and the band complimented him perfectly.
Hopefully, we are able to get some new Billy Joel rock & roll music yet. It's been too long between albums and I'd love to hear something new from Billy."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1![The Stranger: 30th Anniversary [Limited Edition] (Deluxe Boxed Set - 2 CDs + 1 DVD)](https://nationalbookswap.com/cd//l/31/1231/1391231.jpg)