Background
The album was released by Family Productions, but through an error in the album's mastering, the songs were slightly too fast, up one half step, causing Joel's voice to sound unnaturally high. According to a long standing rumor, when Joel first heard the finished product, he "ripped it off the turntable, ran out of the house, and threw down the street."
Artie Ripp, owner of Family Productions and hence the owner of the original master tapes, was responsible for the production error, and the mistake cost him his relationship with Joel. Nevertheless, Ripp was legally able to re-mix and re-release an updated version of the album in 1983 through Columbia Records without any involvement from Joel.
While the 1983 version is at the correct speed, it is stripped of much of the original orchestration by Jimmie Haskell (most notably on the track "Tomorrow Is Today"). Instead, Ripp added several new drum tracks performed by Mike McGee, as well as a bit of synthesizers by Al Campbell, in an attempt to give the record a more updated feel. Furthermore the track "You Can Make Me Free" was truncated by nearly three minutes (removing most of the original tail-end, fadeout jam). The engineer for the re-recording and re-mixing sessions was so unhappy with the results that he asked that his name be stricken from the album (and Ripp subsequently was given engineering credit).
Ripp originally signed the then-unknown 22-year old Joel to a 10-record contract that stripped Joel of all rights to the original tapes and to the publishing rights to all current and future songs. As part of a deal with Columbia Records to release Joel from his record contract, Ripp was still able to collect large royalties on sales of Joel's biggest hit records long after Joel's acrimonious departure from Family Productions (up until 1986's The Bridge). Ripp only sold the publishing rights to Joel's song catalog back to Joel reluctantly after intense pressure from CBS/Columbia Records president Walter Yetnikoff who claimed he had to threaten Ripp to finalize the deal.
Cold Spring Harbor was named after a hamlet of the same name in the town of Huntington, NY, a seaside community near Joel's hometown.
The lyrics of the song "Tomorrow Is Today" were derived from a note Joel had written when he tried to commit suicide by drinking furniture polish. He was found by his drummer and taken immediately to a hospital where his stomach was pumped.
Joel would later release a live version of "She's Got a Way" on the album Songs in the Attic in 1981. Released as a single in early 1982, the song peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Read more about this topic: Cold Spring Harbor (album)
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