Glass Houses (album)

Glass Houses
Studio album by
Billy Joel
ReleasedMarch 12, 1980
StudioA & R, New York City
Genre
Length35:06
LabelColumbia
ProducerPhil Ramone
Billy Joel chronology
52nd Street
(1978) 		Glass Houses
(1980) 		Songs in the Attic
(1981)
Back cover (some versions)
On the LP and some CD releases, Joel is shown looking through a hole after throwing a rock in the glass house. This is also seen on the front cover of some of the single releases from this album.
Singles from Glass Houses
  1. "You May Be Right"
    Released: March 1980
  2. "All for Leyna"
    Released: March 1980 (Europe and Australia)
  3. "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"
    Released: May 1980
  4. "Don't Ask Me Why"
    Released: July 1980
  5. "Sometimes a Fantasy"
    Released: September 1980

Glass Houses is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released on March 12, 1980.[5] The record was a commercial success, topping the Billboard 200 chart for six consecutive weeks. It features Joel's first single to peak at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me". It was ranked No. 4 on Billboard's 1980 year-end chart.[6] The album is the 41st best-selling album of the 1980s, with sales of 7.1 million copies in the US alone. In 1981, Joel won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for his work on Glass Houses.[7] According to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the album featured "a harder-edged sound" compared to Joel's other work, in response to the punk and new wave movements.[8] This was also the final studio album to feature the original incarnation (Joel, Richie Cannata, Doug Stegmeyer, Russell Javors and Liberty DeVitto) of the Billy Joel Band, augmented by new lead guitarist David Brown. Multi-instrumentalist Cannata left the band just before the sessions began for Joel's next studio album, 1982's The Nylon Curtain.

  1. ^ Johnson, Brent (May 9, 2012). "Brent Johnson's Lost Songs: 'All For Leyna' by Billy Joel". The Pop Break. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  2. ^ Cateforis, Theo (2011). Are We Not New Wave?: Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s. University of Michigan Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0472034703.
  3. ^ "The Bridge by Billy Joel album review | Classic Rock Review". June 14, 2011. It was also Joel's first album during the 1980's to not be focused on a single, overriding concept. 1980's Glass Houses was punk/new wave..
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference thomas1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Billy Joel – Glass Houses | Shop the Billy Joel Official Store". billyjoel.shop.musictoday.com. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  6. ^ "Billboard.com – Year End Charts – Year-end Albums – The Billboard 200". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 20, 2006. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
  7. ^ "Past Winners Search". grammy.com. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  8. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Billy Joel". Allmusic. Retrieved November 7, 2015.