Billy Joel — 52nd Street

Sixth studio record by the artist. Trying to deliver a fresh sound, Joel hired a number of jazz musicians for accompaniment. The title of the album refers to a street in Manhattan popular with jazz musicians, it so happens the offices of Joel’s label, & the recording studio for the album are also on that street. The cover picture shows the studio’s freight elevator. The album was Joel’s first to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart, which it held for two straight months. It received two Grammys, for Best Pop Vocal Performance & Album of the Year. It also reached number one in Australia & Canada. The album also holds the distinction of being part of the first release ever of Compact Discs in Japan, in October of 1982. It bore the first catalog number in the sequence, 35DP-1, and so is considered the first release of the group of 50 that came out that day. Consequently, when after almost 30 years Sony began to produce vinyl albums again in 2018, it was once again among the first. Certified 7x platinum in the US, & 5x platinum in Canada.