52nd Street (studio album) by Billy Joel
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Billy Joel bestography
52nd Street is ranked 3rd best out of 25 albums by Billy Joel on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Billy Joel is The Stranger which is ranked number 233 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 7,150.
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52nd Street track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
0
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
52nd Street rankings
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52nd Street collection
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52nd Street ratings
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 318 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
5/100  | 03/05/2025 13:18 |  Squonk007 | | 23/100 |
65/100 | 02/21/2025 16:37 | sunnydhamm | | 58/100 |
75/100 | 02/20/2025 13:25 | SomethingSpecial | | 82/100 |
80/100 | 02/10/2025 02:59 | AbsurdCheesecake | | 88/100 |
75/100 | 11/27/2024 04:53 |  slatsheit | | 82/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.6/100, a mean average of 77.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.9.
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52nd Street comments
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Winner of the 1980 Grammy for album of the year
A step down from The Stranger, but still a solid effort. Not as melodically memorable as The Stranger, and the lyrics aren't as good either. A more jazzy foray than his previous album. It's frontloaded and Side 2 slips in quality but besides the weakest track "Rosalinda's Eyes" - which is still a decent song - everything else is quality. "Big Shot" and "'My Life" are the two best tracks on the album.
This album definitely peaks on side 1 and then slowly declines as you get towards the closing of the album. It opens in explosive style with Big Shot which literally bursts onto the scene and gives you a fantastic melodic start to the record. You then get 3 of the best songs on the record all in a row in the form of Honesty, My Life and Zanzibar. All of them are so well written and are so catchy that you can't help but love them. All the songs on here in fact are well written and I do think Billy Joel is an under rated song writer and deserves more credit for his abilities. After that we move onto Stiletto which does drop in quality but still is quite a good song and is easy to enjoy. It is all filler in my opinion after that song and those 4 last tracks do feel unnecessary for me. This is the big issue for the record for me and is what holds it back from his better releases. Overall, there is a lot of great singles on here but the album falls flat at the middle point.
Like so many Billy Joel albums, it is front loaded.
Didn't realize how much I liked Billy Joel until I re-listened them for my ranking, this album doesn't stand up to the major albums of the decade, but is a very fun album to listened to.
llibnanoon 07/23/2020 20:26
Two of his best tracks are on this album, Honesty and My Life! Rating (82.22)
In between his two great periods. Good, but not great.
jbfarmer 06/10/2019 18:00
Billy Joel followed up his hit The Stranger with his best work, 52 Street. The songwriting is all-around better, with more meaningful lyrics, more complex harmonies, and a cohesive album concept. Bill Joel really outdid himself on this one.
The first three songs were justifiable hit singles. However, the album is so much more than them. I recommend giving the whole thing a go.
Maybe not as good as The Stranger, but it's definitely a classic and deserves some more love. Like The Stranger, every song deserves a listen.
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