''The Bridge'' is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man (song), Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo ...

, released on July 9, 1986. It was Joel's last studio album produced by

Phil Ramone Philip Ramone (né Rabinowitz, January 5, 1934March 30, 2013) was a South African-born American recording engineer, record producer, violinist and composer, who in 1958 co-founded A & R Recording, Inc., a recording studio with business par ...

as well as the last to feature Joel's long-time bassist

Doug Stegmeyer Douglas Alan Stegmeyer (December 23, 1951 – August 25, 1995) was an American musician who was best known as the bassist and back-up vocalist for Billy Joel. Stegmeyer also performed as bassist for Debbie Gibson and Hall & Oates. Biography ...

and rhythm guitarist Russell Javors. The album yielded several successful singles, including "

A Matter of Trust "A Matter of Trust" is a song by Billy Joel, released in 1986 as the second single from his album '' The Bridge''. The song was the second top 10 single from the album, after "Modern Woman". The song gained major traction in the Soviet Union ...

" (peaking at No. 10), "

Modern Woman "Modern Woman" is a song performed by Billy Joel from his album '' The Bridge''. It was the album's lead-off single and was featured on the soundtrack to the film ''Ruthless People''. In the film the song removes an instrumental break present in ...

" (which also appeared on the ''

Ruthless People ''Ruthless People'' is a 1986 American black comedy film directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and written by Dale Launer. It stars Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, Anita Morris, and Helen Slater, with Bill Pullman ...

'' soundtrack, peaking at No. 10), and " This Is the Time" (peaking at No. 18).

Background

Joel began work on the album—on which two of his major influences (

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

and

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a keyboard player and vocalist prominent for his disti ...

) made guest appearances—in 1985. Charles sang a duet with Joel on the song " Baby Grand", and Winwood played

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

on the song "Getting Closer"; Charles and Winwood later covered "Baby Grand" and "Getting Closer" respectively in concert. Other notable musicians who made guest appearances on the album include jazz musicians

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...

and

Michael Brecker Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of M ...

, who both played on the jazzy track " Big Man on Mulberry Street". The album also had some New wave influences. For instance, the first song, "Running on Ice", is heavily influenced by the music of

the Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...

, and "Modern Woman" borrows heavily from the styles of

Huey Lewis and the News Huey Lewis and the News are an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually achieving 19 top ten singles across the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, Adult Contempora ...

. The final song recorded for the album, "Code of Silence", featured

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

who contributed backing vocals and received co-writing credit for the lyrics; she later covered that song herself in concert. Joel would return the favor by contributing backing vocals on Lauper's song " Maybe He'll Know" for her 1986 album '' True Colors''. ''The Bridge'' was Joel's last album to carry the "Family Productions" logo which had appeared on all of Joel's albums up to that time as part of a deal that Columbia Records made to get Joel out of his first recording contract with

Artie Ripp Arthur Marcus "Artie" Ripp (born 1940) is an American music industry executive and record producer. Career Early career Ripp began his career as a singer, initially informally harmonizing rock and roll songs with friends from high school. In ...

's Family Productions. In the closing song of the album—"Getting Closer"—Joel makes several of what are clearly attacks and observations on the iron-clad contract with Ripp, with references to "my stolen youth", "all the conmen and their acrobats who stomped me in the ground", and "I must live up to contracts".

Critical reception

Reviewing in '' Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s'' (1990),

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

said: "Maybe oel'syouthful lyricism, meaning his knack for the tearjerker, is abandoning him. … Here he's best when he's brassy and literal: failed wise guy in 'Big Man on Mulberry Street,'

's coequal on 'Baby Grand.' And even at his most rockin' he's seventy-five years retro whether he likes it or not—whenever he doesn't hit it just right you want to quarantine him for life in

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

." In a retrospective interview, Joel said: "Not a happy album. I wasn’t simpatico with the musicians, some of whom I’d been working with a long time. I don’t think the material was good; I was pressured by management to put it out too fast. By the end, I sort of gave up caring, which for me was unusual. I remember reading bad reviews and agreeing with them." Billy later admitted to ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' that at the time of the album's writing and recording, he was in no mood to be in the studio, saying " Christie and I had just had

Alexa Alexa may refer to: Technology *Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon * Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service * Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera People *Alexa (name), a given name and ...

, and I'd have much rather have been home with the baby..." This angst over leaving his wife and daughter at home was poured into the album track "Temptation".

Track listing

All songs composed by

, except "Code of Silence" written by Joel and

. Side one #"Running on Ice" – 3:15 #" This Is the Time" – 4:59 #"

" – 4:09 #"

" – 3:48 #" Baby Grand" (duet with

) – 4:02 Side two #" Big Man on Mulberry Street" – 5:26 #"Temptation" – 4:12 #"Code of Silence" (backing vocals by

) – 5:15 #"Getting Closer" – 5:00

Personnel

– lead and backing vocals, acoustic piano (1-3, 5–9), synthesizers (1–4, 6–8), electric guitar (3),

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

(9) * David Brown – guitar (1–4, 6, 8, 9), 12-string acoustic guitar (8) * Russell Javors – guitar (1–4, 6, 8, 9) *

Liberty DeVitto Liberatori "Liberty" DeVitto (born August 8, 1950) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his work as a drummer for New York singer-songwriter Billy Joel's recording and touring band. He has also been a session drummer on recordings of ...

– drums (1–4, 6–9), percussion (9) *

– bass guitar (1–4, 6, 7, 8) *

Mark Rivera Mark Rivera (born May 24, 1953) is an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, musical director and corporate entertainment provider who is mostly known for his work with Billy Joel. In addition to playing soprano, alto, tenor and b ...

– tenor saxophone (4), alto saxophone (7) Additional personnel *

Rob Mounsey Rob Mounsey (born December 2, 1952) is an American musician, composer, and arranger. Music career Mounsey was born in Berea, Ohio, and grew up in Seattle, Washington, spending a few years each in Findlay and Granville, Ohio. At the age of 17 ...

– synthesizer (1), orchestration (2, 4, 6) *

Jeff Bova Jeff Bova (born Jeffrey Bova in 1953) is an American musician. He has been active in the music industry since the mid-1970s, contributing to recordings by significant mainstream artists like Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Eric Clapton, ...

– synthesizer (3, 8), orchestration (7) *

– acoustic piano (5), lead vocals (5) *

–

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

(9) *

Dean Parks Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Albums Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher ...

– guitar (5) *

John McCurry John McCurry (born June 24, 1957) is an American musician and composer, a guitarist, songwriter and singer based in New York City. He has worked with many well-known musical artists, including Chicago, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, David Bowie, Al ...

– guitar (9) *

Neil Stubenhaus Neil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist. Career He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. He studied at the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in 1975. After graduation, he was rec ...

– bass guitar (5) *

– acoustic bass (6) *

Neil Jason Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. ...

– bass guitar (9) *

Vinnie Colaiuta Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2014. Colai ...

– drums (5) * Jimmy Bralower – percussion (4) *

Eddie Daniels Eddie Daniels (born October 19, 1941) is an American musician and composer. Although he is best known as a jazz clarinetist, he has also played saxophone and flute as well as classical music on clarinet. Early life, family and education Daniel ...

– alto saxophone (6) *

– tenor saxophone (6) *

Ronnie Cuber Ronald Edward Cuber (December 25, 1941 – October 7, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. He also played in Latin, pop, rock, and blues sessions. In addition to his primary instrument, baritone sax, he played tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet ...

– baritone saxophone (6) * Dave Bargeron – trombone (6) *

Marvin Stamm Marvin Louis Stamm (born May 23, 1939) is an American jazz trumpeter. Career Stamm was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Stamm began on trumpet at age twelve. He attended North Texas State University, where he was a member of the One O ...

– trumpet (6) *

Alan Rubin Alan Rubin (February 11, 1943 – June 8, 2011), also known as Mr. Fabulous, was an American musician. He played trumpet, flugelhorn, and piccolo trumpet. Early life and education Rubin was born in Brooklyn. He began attending Juilliard S ...

– trumpet (6) *

Don Brooks Don Frank Brooks (8 March 1947, in Dallas, Texas – 25 October 2000, in Manhattan, New York) was an American blues harmonica performing artist. Career Brooks was a full-time harmonica player with Waylon Jennings and was a prolific session musici ...

– harmonica (8) * Patrick Williams – arrangements (5) *

Philippe Saisse Philippe Saisse is a French jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and arranger. Career He was born in Marseille and raised in Paris. After studying at the Conservatoire de Paris he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Mus ...

– orchestration (7) * Peter Hewlett – backing vocals (1) *

– harmony vocals (8) Production * Producer – Phil Ramone * Production coordinator – Joseph D'Ambrosio * Engineer – Jim Boyer * Associate engineers – Steve Boyer, David Dickson,

Bradshaw Leigh Brad Leigh is an American Audio Engineer, known for having recorded and mixed many recordings including Billy Joel's ''River of Dreams'', Tracy Chapman's '' Matters of the Heart'' as well as Julian Lennon's ''Valotte'' and '' Secret Value of Da ...

and Fred Tenny. * Technical support – Ricki Begin, Peter Bergren, Mark Betts, Steve Buller, Cary Butler, Gary Ciuzio, Ed Evans, Bruce Howell, Joe Lopes, Frank Rodriguez, Billy Rothschild, Joe Salvatto, Audrey Tanaka and Phil Vachon. * Support system – Barry Bongiovi, Jim Flynn and The Power Station staff. * Digitally recorded at The Power Station, Chelsea Sound and RCA Recording Studios (New York, NY); Evergreen Studios (Burbank, CA). * Mixed at The Power Station (New York, NY). * Mastering by

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography Ted ...

at Sterling Sound (New York, NY). * Acoustic piano supplied by Yamaha. * Design – Mark Larson * Cover painting –

Brad Holland John Bradley Holland (born December 6, 1956) is a retired American professional basketball player. He played for four years at UCLA (from 1975 to 1979). He was a member of the 1980 Los Angeles Lakers championship team. He was the University of ...

* Photography –

Patrick Demarchelier Patrick Demarchelier (; 21 August 1943 – 31 March 2022) was a French fashion photographer. Early life and education Born near Paris in 1943 to a modest family, Demarchelier spent his childhood in Le Havre, Normandy, with his mother and four ...

* Sleeve photos – Larry Busacca, Phil Ramone and Charles Reilly.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridge, The Billy Joel albums 1986 albums Albums produced by Phil Ramone Columbia Records albums Albums arranged by Patrick Williams (composer)