Billy Joel - "An Innocent Man"

Billy Joel had been riding high as a music superstar since 1977's "The Stranger" and he had at least two hit singles every other year with a new hit album. Released just a year after the incredibly ambitious, critically praised, but low selling (by Joel standards) "The Nylon Curtain" this album "An Innocent Man" released in 1983 is one of Joel's biggest hits, second only to "The Stranger."

 

1983 was a year of mega albums, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and The Police's "Synchronicity" were just two other smash hits released that year. Billy Joel's "An Innocent Man" was no exception seven of the album's ten tracks were hit singles and this album bumped Joel into the 80s music superstar ranks along with Phil Collins and The Police.

Like his previous albums he finds his inspiration from other artists but Joel never ceases to make them his own and superproducer Phil Ramone makes sure everything is pure pop. And somehow even though everythign is decidedly retro it never ceases to have a 1980s feel and I mean that in a good way.

 

What is most interesting about this album is that it is a homage to the music of Joel's youth, focusing on styles of late 1950s and early 1960s Doo-Wop and R&B. "Easy Money" is a Wilson Pickett soul rocker, the title track is inspired by "Stand By Me," "The Longest Time" is straight 1950s acapella gold, "Tell her About it" is Motown pop, "Uptown Girl" is a Four Seasons popper and "Christie Lee" is pure Little Richard complete with Wooohooo's. "This Night" and "Leave a tender Moment Alone" are pure Joel love ballads and the album closing "Keeping the Faith" is a toe tapping gospel inspired number.

 

Aside from a great batch of songs, also helping the album sales were the retro style music videos that played on the then very popular MTV. The videos looked like mini musicals with "The Longest Time" having Joel and company dressed up like singing janitors at a high school and "Uptown Girl" featured him as a mechanic with a garage full of dancers and a supermodel as his customer. That supermodel was played by Christy Brinkley, at the time the most famous model in the world, and whom Joel was dating and would marry in 1985. Many of the songs on the album were inspired by her and proves the time honored theory (along with Eric Clapton's Layla album) that if you are a musician and you write a hit album about a woman she will fall in love with you.

 

On the down side once Joel and Brinkley divorced in 1994 he abandoned most of the songs from this album. This album also sadly marks an end to Joel's album excellence after a string of strong albums, this is his last to be fully formed. He would continue to write excellent hit songs but his albums would consist largely of filler after this. "An Innocent Man" is one of Billy Joel's finest albums and one of the pop classics from 1983, that has sadly become a little overlooked in his catalogue.