Product Description

This is where Joel reaches back to his roots, a process essential to a maturing artist who realises he has to look at where he's from before he can move further ahead. Things get off to a jumping start with the organ-driven R&B of "Easy Money", somewhat reminiscent of "Gimme Some Lovin'". Joel touches on the styles of the '50s and early '60s on the street-corner doowop of "The Longest Time" and the Four Seasons homage "Uptown Girl" (written for his then-wife, fashion model Christie Brinkley).
Things get introspective on the moving, self-analytical title tune and the endearing pop ballad "Leave A Tender Moment Alone", which is graced by the harmonica of Toots Thielemans. While Joel was busy exploring the music of his boyhood on AN INNOCENT MAN, every tune still bearshis distinctive stamp, and the album is one of his strongest.

Track Listing

1. Easy Money
2. Innocent Man
3. Longest Time
4. This Night
5. Tell Her About It
6. Uptown Girl
7. Careless Talk
8. Christie Lee
9. Leave A Tender Moment Alone
10. Keeping The Faith

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4824 in Music
• Released on: 1998-06-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Amazon.co.uk Review
He may have made his name as one of those strangely genre-resistant singer-songwriters of the 70s, but Billy Joel's pedigree in pop dates back at least a decade prior to 1973's breakthrough Piano Man album. In 1964, Joel's prowess on Hammond organ even saw him playing on The Shangri-Las' "Leader Of The Pack". It was to these fledgling years in pop that Joel looked for inspiration when recording the most successful album of his career. To spend an afternoon in the company of An Innocent Man is to transport yourself to a New York diner in the early 60s, not a care in the world beyond waiting for your date to turn up. And when it works, it's positively life-affirming. "Uptown Girl" is surely the finest song The Four Seasons never recorded, while "The Longest Time" and "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" offer a humane return to the thrill of young love. Less successful are a couple of forays in more R&B influenced material (Joel doesn't quite have the voice for it) but never again did he quite sound like he was having this much fun. --Peter Paphides

Customer Reviews

Fifties rock n roll with an eighties feel
This was Billy Joel's big commercial hit album of the eighties - his "Thriller", "Brothers In Arms" or "Born In The USA". You know, the one the people bought who owned no other albums of his and wouldn't consider buying "Glass Houses" or "52nd Street" for one minute. That said (and for that reason it has never been one of my own personal favourites) it is certainly an upbeat, immaculately-produced album that takes an interesting nineteen-eighties look at the doo-wop style of nineteen-fifties East Coast USA - guys huddling by braziers in the snowy evening singing in harmony and such romantic notions. Highlights in this regard are "Easy Money", the hit single "Tell Her About It", the Four Seasons' pastiche "Uptown Girl" and Joel's own nostalgic look back at those classic years growing up in "Keeping The Faith". There is also the classically-inspired (Beethoven I believe) of "This Night", the sax-laden rock n roll of "Christie Lee" and the almost accepella harmony of "The Longest Time". The title track brings things up to date with a bass-driven eighties-style ballad, in which Joel's voice has never sounded so intuitively seductive. "Leave A Tender Moment Alone " features some top notch harmonica from the late Toots Thielemans and "Careless Talk" is pleasant enough.

This album drifts through the air like a spring breeze and is most enjoyable, although it is nowhere near Billy Joel's finest work, by any means.

Numero Uno
I am a massive Billy Joel fan and started out listening to my parents Bily Joel The Stranger album. I naturally progressed onto his next most successful album An Innocent Man. At first I was dissappointed.....how ignorent of me! I left this album for months until I had nothing to do and then I gave it another try!! As a 17 year old boy I found tracks that realted to where I was, where I had been and where I wantd to go!!
Its an album that you just relate to. Every feeling that you've ever had, but couldn't describe, is in this album! The girls you wanted to kiss,the girls you shouldn't have kissed and the girls you wish you could kiss again-its all in this album!!
Its growing up put into music!!!
Its also amazing music no matter what!!
A must have

The classic album from 1983
Billy is a classically trained pianist but he opted for a career in pop and rock music. He has proved to be a remarkably successful singer-songwriter. It is said that he has sold more albums within the USA than any other solo performer except Garth Brooks and Elton John. Neither Billy nor Garth ever achieved anything close to that level of success in Britain, but Billy has fared better than Garth (whose UK recognition level is quite modest) particularly due to this album, which yielded five UK hits including a number one (Uptown girl), a top five hit (Tell her about it) and a top ten hit (An innocent man). Given his American popularity, I'm sure he did even better in his homeland but I haven't checked. The success of this album means that many tracks from it are available on his hits compilations but the other songs here are well worth a listen.

Billy deserved all the success he had with this album as the songs are great - all of them, not just the hits - and the musicianship and production are also superb. The album opens with Easy money (a song about an optimistic gambler). Next comes the title track, which is not about a prisoner wrongly convicted - it is actually about a man protesting to his woman that he is innocent of the deeds she accuses him of, but she won't listen to him any more. Great stuff. In contrast, Billy sings about different aspects of new love in The longest time and This night.

Billy gives a great piece of advice in Tell her about it - if you love somebody, make sure they know how much you appreciate them. Billy wrote Uptown girl as a tribute to his wife, but something went amiss in the years that followed because she is no longer his wife. Careless talk is a cautionary tale about gossip. Another cautionary tale follows in Christie Lee, about a woman who wants a man's possessions but doesn't want the man.

Billy offers more advice in Leave a tender moment alone - however, it is clear that he has difficulty following his own advice. Billy closes the album with a song about his past, Keeping the faith.

So this is an album that can appeal on many different levels - the brilliant, rhythmic music makes this great to play as background music but the lyrics are very thoughtful and will offer much pleasure to those wanting to give this album undivided attention.