Billy Joel's "52nd Street" 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Coming in Oct. '18

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Coming October 17, 2018....

40th anniversary edition of "52nd Street" from Billy Joel features SACD Hybrid format with 5.1ch surround on SACD layer. 2ch voice track features 2011 digital remastering by Ted Jensen. Packed in a 7-inch cardboard sleeve packaging. Comes with a pamphlet replicating the one made for 1979 Japan tour, five bonus cover artworks replicating ones made for singles, and a memorabilia.

Pre-order at cdjapan.co.jp

52nd Street [Cardboard Sleeve] 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition [Limited Release] Billy Joel SACD
 
This is good news I think...the old Sony SACD was really good and hard to come by. I paid like $50 for my sealed copy maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

More importantly, this could be the beginning of Sony Japan mining BJ's catalog similar to how they did Jeff Beck's. They started off with Blow By Blow, which had been reissued numerous times, and ended up giving us real treasure with the quad mixes of Wired and Rough & Ready.

I'm praying something like that happens again here. We might see The Stranger and Streetlife Serenade again as well (they weren't afraid to reissue The Jeff Beck Group not long after AF did it, and I might consider double-dipping on Streetlife if they issue it in the 7" style with the Columbia SQ LP graphics), but they could seriously reward us with the quad mixes of Piano Man and Turnstiles, which would be INCREDIBLE.

...or, it could just be a one-off like Carole King's Tapestry, with nothing else in the pipeline. Who knows?
 
More importantly, this could be the beginning of Sony Japan mining BJ's catalog similar to how they did Jeff Beck's. They started off with Blow By Blow, which had been reissued numerous times, and ended up giving us real treasure with the quad mixes of Wired and Rough & Ready.

I'm praying something like that happens again here. We might see The Stranger and Streetlife Serenade again as well (they weren't afraid to reissue The Jeff Beck Group not long after AF did it, and I might consider double-dipping on Streetlife if they issue it in the 7" style with the Columbia SQ LP graphics), but they could seriously reward us with the quad mixes of Piano Man and Turnstiles, which would be INCREDIBLE.

...or, it could just be a one-off like Carole King's Tapestry, with nothing else in the pipeline. Who knows?

I hope so too. The only thing that worries me is that I don't believe that the quads of Piano Man or Turnstiles were ever issued by Sony Japan back in the day. So would they even have the tapes? I'm sure they could reach out to Sony USA, but would it occur to them to do that? I hope so. :unsure:
 
C'mon Sony Japan! We want the quads of Piano Man & Turnstiles!

As I said above, I really really really hope they get these out not only because they're both excellent albums, but also because there's really no good way to hear them. You can at least hear the discrete mix of Piano Man via Q8, even though it's really lousy sonically. For Turnstiles a Q8 never even came out, so our only option for that one for the last 40+ years has been SQ LP, which even with the best decode is not indicative of what the real mix sounds like.

Both mixes were done by Don Young (of recent Poco fame)- I generally like them, but they do have some oddities. Like Streetlife Serenade, Piano Man is a REALLY discrete mix- instruments are panned hard into all four corners. All the string parts are fully isolated in the rear channels. On "You're My Home" it sounds like something went wrong- the vocal is nearly inaudible. Perhaps they can fix this on a potential transfer to SACD? Turnstiles has a bunch of outtake/missing parts- the sax solo (isolated in the left rear channel) in "New York State Of Mind" is yet another version. I think one of the piano tracks in "Angry Young Man" is missing (someone correct me on this maybe?). "All You Want To Is Dance" is a pretty crazy mix even in SQ with all the percussion bits spread around the room.

In case you can't tell, no one wants these out more than me LOL. :)
 
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Since my older SONY Mch SACD of 42nd Street has served me well [does sound fantastic] I'll probably pick up a copy of their newly remastered version from ImportCD when it becomes available only because SONY Japan has been utilizing DSD 264 [QUAD DSD] to remaster all their new hybrid SACDs. I did notice an uptick in quality [however slight] when they remastered Carole King's Tapestry in the 7" packaging over the original SONY 5.1 single layered SACD.

As others opined .... would love Piano Man and Turnstiles in QUAD SACD!
 
Yes, Santana’s Lotus SACD was mastered from a DSD256 source. Of course, all SACDs are DSD64.

I have the complete Billy Joel catalog in 24/192, purchased from Acoustic Sounds, and it sounds fantastic. I would be curious to hear if the Sony Japan remaster betters it in regards to the 52nd Street portion.
 
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