Cold Spring Harbor | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | November 1, 1971 | |||
Recorded | July 1971 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 32:54 (original) 29:53 (reissue) | |||
Label | Family Productions | |||
Producer | Artie Ripp | |||
Billy Joel chronology | ||||
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Singles from Cold Spring Harbor | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Tom Hull – on the Web | B [2] |
Cold Spring Harbor is the debut studio album by American recording artist Billy Joel, released on November 1, 1971, by Family Productions. The album sold poorly, receiving attention mainly after 1973's Piano Man and later albums became popular. Due to a mastering error, the original LP release ran at a faster speed than originally recorded. In 1983, producer Artie Ripp oversaw a remixed, edited and speed-corrected version of the album. This revised edition was issued by Columbia Records.
Cold Spring Harbor was named after the hamlet in the town of Huntington, New York, located on Long Island Sound near Joel's hometown. The front cover was photographed at Harbor Road. [3]
The song "Tomorrow Is Today" drew from his period of depression and hospitalization the year before. [4] When it was released as a single, Record World remarked that Joel had "a flair for dramatic, lush orchestral sounds." [5]
Joel later released live versions of "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now" on his 1981 live album, Songs in the Attic . "She's Got a Way" was also released as a single in early 1982, peaking at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. [6]
Through an error in the album's mastering, the songs played slightly too fast, causing Joel's voice to sound unnaturally high, which he later compared to The Bee Gees and Alvin and the Chipmunks. In 1996, Joel recalled that, upon the album's release, he'd organized a listening party with his friends and after hearing the album, "I was, like, furious. I took the thing and I threw it like a frisbee." [7]
Artie Ripp, owner of Family Productions and hence the owner of the original master tapes, was responsible for the production error, and the mistake cost him his friendship with Joel. He had originally signed the 22-year-old Joel to a ten-record contract that stripped Joel of all rights to the original tapes and to the publishing rights to all current and future songs. [4]
As part of a deal with Columbia Records to release Joel from his contract, Ripp was still able to collect royalties on sales of Joel's records long after Joel's acrimonious departure from Family Productions (up until 1986's The Bridge ). Ripp only sold the publishing rights to Joel's song catalog back to Joel reluctantly after intense pressure from CBS/Columbia Records president Walter Yetnikoff, who later stated that he had to threaten Ripp to finalize the deal. [4] [8] [9]
In July–September 1983, Ripp and Larry Elliot remixed Cold Spring Harbor at Ripp's Fidelity Studios in Studio City, California. The album's speed was adjusted to correct Joel's vocal tone, and to enhance the album's sound, Ripp brought in studio musicians Mike McGee (drums), Al Campbell (synthesizers), and L.D. Dixon (Fender Rhodes) to overdub new rhythm sections on "Everybody Loves You Now" and "Turn Around". In addition, "You Can Make Me Free" was truncated by nearly three minutes (removing most of the original tail-end, fadeout jam), and the bass, drums, and orchestration on "Tomorrow Is Today" were removed.
The remix was released through Columbia Records, without any involvement from Joel. [7] In a 2012 interview with actor Alec Baldwin, Joel stated that, despite the remix, he believes that "there's something wrong with it. It just doesn't sound right." [10] The original, uncorrected version of the album can still be heard on the music streaming service Spotify.
All songs written by Billy Joel.
No. | Title | Length (Original LP) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "She's Got a Way" | 2:47 | 2:50 |
2. | "You Can Make Me Free" | 5:49 | 2:59 |
3. | "Everybody Loves You Now" | 2:46 | 2:49 |
4. | "Why Judy Why" | 2:52 | 2:58 |
5. | "Falling of the Rain" | 2:35 | 2:38 |
No. | Title | Length (Original LP) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Turn Around" | 3:26 | 3:06 |
2. | "You Look So Good to Me" | 2:25 | 2:29 |
3. | "Tomorrow Is Today" | 4:50 | 4:40 |
4. | "Nocturne" | 2:39 | 2:46 |
5. | "Got to Begin Again" | 2:54 | 2:52 |
Credits adapted from 1971 LP liner notes, [11] except where otherwise noted.
Musicians
Technical
Chart (1984) | Peak position |
---|---|
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [13] | 44 |
UK Albums (OCC) [14] | 95 |
US Billboard 200 [15] [A] | 158 |
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William Martin Joel is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his signature 1973 song of the same name, Joel has had a successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s. From 1971 to 1993, he released 12 studio albums spanning the genres of pop and rock, and in 2001 released a one-off studio album of classical compositions. Joel is one of the world's best-selling music artists and the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States, with over 160 million records sold worldwide. His 1985 compilation album, Greatest Hits – Volume I & Volume II, is one of the best-selling albums in the United States.
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