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The Stranger is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released on September 29, 1977, by Columbia Records. While his four previous albums had been moderately successful, The Stranger became Joel's true critical and commercial breakthrough, spending six weeks at #2 on the U.S. album charts. Considered his magnum opus, it remains his best-selling non-compilation album to date, and was ranked number 70 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

By 1976, Joel had a reliable touring band consisting of Doug Stegmeyer on bass, Liberty DeVitto on drums and Richie Cannata on saxophone, flute, clarinet and organ, but never had a constant guitarist in the day because according to Joel, it was hard to find the right guitarist, hence the initial revolving door of guitarists, including Russell Javors, Howie Emerson and jazz guitarist Steve Khan. Joel had written a batch of new songs and wanted to use his touring band in the studio on future releases, just as he had done on Turnstiles. He had in fact met with George Martin, producer of The Beatles, and as a big fan of The Beatles, he wanted him to produce his new record. Martin showed interest, but didn't want to use Joel's band, and so it never came to fruition. Joel met with veteran NYC record producer Phil Ramone to produce his album and what turned him onto Ramone was the fact that he "got it" with his band, notably his love of their energy, their band and what they were doing at a concert in Carnegie Hall.

Joel describes the sessions for the album as "a blast" and as the breakthrough album with four hit singles.The Stranger contains nine songs. Songwriting on "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "She's Always a Woman," "Just the Way You Are," "Everybody Has a Dream," and "Only the Good Die Young" was completed before recording, while "Vienna," "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," "The Stranger," and "Get It Right the First Time," which originated as short tunes or musical fragments, were completed in the studio. Lyrically, the album's approach is decidedly narrative; each song tells a story. The seven-and-a-half-minute epic "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" began as a shorter song entitled "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie," which became the third section of "Italian Restaurant." While composing "The Stranger," Joel whistled the track's signature theme for producer Phil Ramone, claiming that he (Joel) needed to find an instrument to play it. Ramone replied: "No, you don't. That's 'The Stranger,' the whistling."

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