Billy Joel – Glass Houses

Glass Houses is Billy Joel’s seventh studio album, released on March 12, 1980. Produced by Phil Ramone, the album marked Joel’s shift from polished piano-pop balladry toward a grittier rock and new wave-inspired sound—a reaction to rising punk and new wave trends. It debuted with the sound of shattering glass and featured guitar-heavy tracks like “You May Be Right” and “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me.” The album topped the Billboard 200 for six consecutive weeks and earned Joel a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

Critically, Glass Houses is considered Joel’s hardest-rocking and most daring album. AllMusic praises it as “the closest Joel ever got to a pure rock album” and a “notable catalog of contemporary pop styles” with McCartney-esque whimsy, arena rock, soft rock, and new wave pop.

Ultimate Classic Rock notes Joel’s defiant tone, saying he wanted to “throw a rock at the image people have of me as this mellow balladeer” and celebrates the broader palette of emotions in this tougher, more self-assured work.