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billy joel

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Billy Joel – The Stranger (1977)

The album, constructed with the help of legendary producer Phil Ramone, remains one of his best sellers. And he was kind of big for listless suburban teens, like myself, who drunkenly sang along to his tunes at parties with friends. He wasn’t shredding any guitars or thundering any drum-kits or speaking in-code about drugs, but it fit right in with whatever else we were grooving to at the time…

Dire Straits – Communiqué (1979) • Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (1984) • Amy Winehouse – Back To Black (2006)

Though long considered by critics one of the daggiest groups of all time, Dire Straits produced a kind of post-Dylan soft-cock-rock that is still uniquely their own. (I suspect the tennis sweatbands had as much to do with that cynical designation, than just Mark Knopfler’s proclivity for solos). Despite the success of their first single, “Sultans of Swing”, I always felt they were more a mood band than a chart-storming hit machine…