LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MARCH 12, 2019…BILLY JOEL RELEASED AN ALBUM ON THIS DATE IN 1980 THAT RESULTED IN JOEL TOPPING THE ALBUM CHARTS FOR 6 WEEKS ! THE ALBUM WAS ‘GLASS HOUSES’ AND IT WAS THE 41ST BEST SELLING ALBUM OF THE 1980’S. THAT’S RIGHT, FOR THE DECADE ! ‘GLASS HOUSES’ HAS SOLD OVER 8 MILLION COPIES WORLD WIDE.
THE SINGLE ‘IT’S STILL ROCK AND ROLL TO ME’ WAS JOEL’S FIRST # 1 HIT RECORD. IT SOLD OVER 2 MILLION COPIES.
AROUND THE TIME OF THIS ALBUM, JOEL WAS OFTEN RAKED OVER THE COALS IN THE MUSIC PRESS AS A PROVIDER OF MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD
DRECK. MOST ARTISTS CHOSE TO IGNORE GETTING RIPPED BY THE CRITICS. BUT JOEL RESPONDED WITH THIS SONG. ACCORDING TO JOEL:
The lines, “It doesn’t matter what they say in the papers, ’cause it’s always been the same old scene” and “There’s a new band in town, but you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine,” were specifically written to attack the press that was bringing him down. While you can real all you want about a singer or band, the only way you’ll really know what they sound like is by listening.
“Sometimes the press gave me a hard time, and (I) liked giving them a hard time back,” Joel told Howard Stern in 2014. “In my neighborhood, somebody hits you, you hit them right back.”
IN 1981 JOEL WON A GRAMMY AWARD FOR ‘BEST MALE ROCK VOCAL PERFORMANCE” FOR HIS WORK ON ‘GLASS HOUSES’
IT WAS SHORTLY AFTER THIS ALBUM, JOEL STARTED BANGING CHRISTIE BRINKLEY, SO HE GETS MAD PROPS FROM ME !
HERE’S BILLY JOEL WITH THE OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR ‘IT’S STILL ROCK AND ROLL TO ME’. CHECK OUT THE HAIR !! CLASSIC
ANOTHER BIG HIT FROM THE ALBUM WAS ‘YOU MAY BE RIGHT’
