An Innocent Man

An Innocent Man
Studio album by Billy Joel
Released	August 8, 1983 (1983-08-08)
Recorded	Chelsea Sound and A&R Recording, Inc., New York, NY Spring, 1983
Genre	Rock, pop
Length	40:25
Label	Family Productions/Columbia
Producer	Phil Ramone
Billy Joel chronology
The Nylon Curtain (1982) An Innocent Man (1983) Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2 (1973-1985) (1985)
Singles from An Innocent Man
"Tell Her About It" Released: July 1983 "Uptown Girl" Released: September 1983 "An Innocent Man" Released: December 1983 "The Longest Time" Released: March 1984 "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" Released: July 1984 "Keeping the Faith" Released: September 1984 "This Night" Released: November 1984

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	[2]

An Innocent Man is the ninth album by American singer/songwriter Billy Joel, released in 1983 (see 1983 in music).

This album is Joel's tribute to the popular music from his teenage years.^[3] Throughout the album, he pays homage to a number of different popular American musical styles from the late 1950s and early 1960s, most notably doo-wop and soul music (see each track for specific homage).

Chart Success

The album featured three Billboard Top 10 hit singles: "Tell Her About It", which reached #1, "Uptown Girl", which peaked at #3 and "An Innocent Man", which peaked at #10. Four other singles were released from the album: "The Longest Time" (number 14), "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" (number 27), "Keeping the Faith" (number 18) and "This Night" (US B-Side of "Leave a Tender Moment Alone"). "Tell Her About It" and "Uptown Girl" garnered international success — "Uptown Girl" reached #1 in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. An Innocent Man entered the U.S. Pop chart for 111 weeks, becoming Joel's longest charting studio album behind The Stranger. For over a year, the album remained on the charts in the UK, Japan, and Australia.

Awards

Like his three previous efforts, Joel's An Innocent Man received a nomination for the 26th Grammy Award for Album of the Year — although Joel lost the award to Michael Jackson's Thriller. Joel was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Uptown Girl" but Jackson won in that category as well.

Background

In an interview about the making of the album, Joel talks about the fact that at the time that he was recording An Innocent Man, he was newly divorced from his first wife, Elizabeth Weber, and was single for the first time since achieving rock star status. So he had the opportunity to date supermodels like Elle MacPherson and Christie Brinkley, and because of these experiences, he said, "I kind of felt like a teenager all over again." ^[3] And so he started writing songs that he remembered from his teenage year, citing popular music from the late 1950 and early 1960s, including "early R&B songs and The Four Seasons, and the Motown music, soul music."

Joel explained, "When you're gonna write [songs for a new album], you write what you're feeling. And I didn't fight it. The material was coming so easily and so quickly, and I was having so much fun doing it. I was kind of reliving my youth. . .I think within 6 weeks I had written most of the material on the album." Joel also said that he was pleasantly surprised to have hit records in the 1980s with retro songs like the a cappella number "The Longest Time."^[3]

Track listing

All songs by Billy Joel, except for the chorus for "This Night," which is credited on the sleeve to L. V. Beethoven.

The track listing on the LP is slightly different from that on the cassette and original CD pressings, with the latter swapping "The Longest Time" and "Uptown Girl"'s places respectively. However, on the actual cassette shell and disc label, the songs are listed (and play) in the correct order as printed on the LP.

LP Track Listing

Personnel

• Billy Joel - Baldwin acoustic piano (SF-10), Fender Rhodes, Hammond B-3, vocals, background vocals
• Liberty DeVitto - drums
• Doug Stegmeyer - bass
• David Brown - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, lead guitar
• Russell Javors - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar
• Mark Rivera - alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, percussion
• Ralph MacDonald - percussion on "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" and "Careless Talk"
• Leon Pendarvis - Hammond B-3 on "Easy Money"
• Richard Tee - acoustic piano on "Tell Her About It"
• Eric Gale - electric guitar on "Easy Money"
• "String Fever" - strings
• Ronnie Cuber - baritone saxophone on "Easy Money", "Careless Talk", "Tell Her About It" and "Keeping the Faith"
• Jon Faddis - trumpet on "Easy Money"
• David Sanborn - alto saxophone on "Easy Money"
• Joe Shepley - trumpet on "Easy Money", "Careless Talk", "Tell Her About It" and "Keeping the Faith"
• Michael Brecker - tenor saxophone on "Careless Talk", "Tell Her About It" and "Keeping the Faith"
• John Gatchell - trumpet on "Careless Talk", "Tell Her About It" and "Keeping the Faith"
• Tom Bahler - background vocals
• Rory Dodd - background vocals
• Frank Floyd - background vocals
• Lani Groves - background vocals
• Ullanda McCullough - background vocals
• Ron Taylor - background vocals
• Terry Textor - background vocals
• Eric Troyer - background vocals
• Mike Alexander - background vocals

Solos

• "Toots" Thielemans - harmonica on "Leave a Tender Moment Alone"
• Mark Rivera - alto saxophone on "Keeping the Faith", "This Night" and "Christie Lee"

Production

• Producer: Phil Ramone
• Engineers: Jim Boyer, Bradshaw Leigh
• Assistant engineers: Mike Allaire, Scott James
• Production coordinator: Laura Loncteaux
• Mastering: Ted Jensen
• Horn and string arrangements: David Matthews
• Background vocal arrangements: Tom Bahler
• Musical advisor: Billy Zampino
• Photography: Gilles Larrain
• Cover design: Christopher Austopchuk, Mark Larson

• Recorded at Chelsea Sound and A & R Recording, Inc., New York, NY
• Mixed at A & R Recording, Inc., New York, NY
• Mastered at Sterling Sound, New York, NY

Accolades

Grammy Awards

American Music Awards

Charts

References