Billy Joel

William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the " Piano Man" after his signature 1973 song of the same name, Joel has had a successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s.

From 1971 to 1993, he released 12 studio albums spanning the genres of pop and rock, and in 2001 released a one-off studio album of classical compositions. With over 160 million records sold worldwide, Joel is one of the world's best-selling music artists and is the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States. His 1985 compilation album, '' Greatest Hits – Volume I & Volume II'', is one of the best-selling albums in the United States.

Joel was born in the Bronx in New York City and grew up in Hicksville on Long Island, where he began taking piano lessons at his mother's insistence. After dropping out of high school to pursue a music career, Joel took part in two short-lived bands, the Hassles and Attila, before signing a record deal with Family Productions and embarking on a solo career with his debut album, '' Cold Spring Harbor'' (1971). In 1972, Joel caught the attention of Columbia Records after a live radio performance of " Captain Jack" became popular in Philadelphia, prompting him to sign a new record deal with the company, through which he released his second album, '' Piano Man'' (1973). After ''Streetlife Serenade'' (1974) and '' Turnstiles'' (1976), Joel achieved his critical and commercial breakthrough with '' The Stranger'' (1977). It became Columbia's best-selling release, selling over 10 million copies and spawning the hit singles " Just the Way You Are", " Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)", " Only the Good Die Young", and " She's Always a Woman", as well as the concert staples " Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and "Vienna".

Joel's '' 52nd Street'' (1978) was his first album to reach No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' 200. '' Glass Houses'' (1980) was an attempt to further establish himself as a rock artist; it featured " It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" (Joel's first single to top the ''Billboard'' Hot 100), " You May Be Right", " Don't Ask Me Why", and " Sometimes a Fantasy". ''The Nylon Curtain'' (1982) stemmed from a desire to create more lyrically and melodically ambitious music. '' An Innocent Man'' (1983) served as an homage to genres of music that Joel had grown up with in the 1950s, such as rhythm and blues and doo-wop; it featured " Tell Her About It", " Uptown Girl", and " The Longest Time", three of his best-known songs. After '' River of Dreams'' (1993), he largely retired from producing studio material, although he went on to release '' Fantasies & Delusions'' (2001), featuring classical compositions composed by him and performed by British-Korean pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo. Joel provided voiceover work in 1988 for the Disney animated film '' Oliver & Company'', performing the song "Why Should I Worry?", and contributed to the soundtracks to several films, including '' Easy Money'' (1983), '' Ruthless People'' (1986), and ''Honeymoon in Vegas'' (1992). Joel returned to composing new music with the 2024 single “ Turn the Lights Back On”.

Joel has had a successful touring career, holding live performances across the globe. In 1987, he became one of the first artists to hold a rock tour in the Soviet Union. Joel has had 33 Top 40 hits in the U.S., three of which ("It's Still Rock and Roll to Me", "Tell Her About It", and " We Didn't Start the Fire") topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. He has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards, winning 6, including Album of the Year for ''52nd Street''. Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. He received the 2001 Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and was recognized at the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors.

Early life, family and education

Billy Joel was born on May 9, 1949, in the Bronx. When he was one year old, his family moved to Hicksville in the town of Oyster Bay on Long Island. He and his cousin Judy, whom his parents adopted, were raised in a section of Levitt homes.

His mother, Rosalind (1922–2014), was born in Brooklyn to Jewish parents, Philip and Rebecca Nyman, who emigrated from England. Billy's father, Howard (born Helmut) Joel (1923–2011), an accomplished amateur classical pianist and businessman, was born in Nuremberg, Germany to a Jewish family, the son of merchant and manufacturer Karl Amson Joel, and educated in Switzerland. Billy's grandfather, Karl Amson Joel, had created a highly successful mail-order textile business, Joel Macht Fabrik. Escaping the Nazi regime, Karl, his wife and young son emigrated to Switzerland. Billy's grandfather was forced to sell his business at a fraction of its value to emigrate. The family reached the United States via Cuba, because immigration quotas for German Jews prevented direct immigration at the time. In the United States, Howard became an engineer but always loved music.

Billy Joel's parents met in the late 1930s at City College of New York at a Gilbert and Sullivan performance. He has said that neither of his parents talked much about World War II, which were such dark years. It was not until later that Joel learned more about his father's family. After Rosalind and Howard Joel divorced in 1957, Howard returned to Europe, as he had never liked the US: he considered the people uneducated and materialistic. He settled in Vienna, Austria, and later remarried. Joel has a half-brother, Alexander Joel, born to his father in Europe, who became a classical conductor there and was the chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig from 2001 to 2014.

Joel reluctantly began taking piano lessons at age four at his mother's insistence. His teachers included the noted American pianist Morton Estrin and musician Timothy Ford. Joel says that he is a better organist than a pianist. As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so he could defend himself. He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, winning 22 bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after his nose was broken in his 24th match.

Although Joel's parents were Jewish, he did not grow up in the religion. "I was not brought up Jewish in any religious way. My circumcision was as Jewish as they got." He attended a Roman Catholic church with friends. At 11, he was baptized in a Church of Christ in Hicksville. He now identifies as an atheist Jew.

Joel attended Hicksville High School in Hicksville until 1967 but did not graduate with his class. He was playing at a piano bar to help support himself, his mother and sister, and missed a crucial English exam after playing a late-night gig the evening before. Although Joel was a comparatively strong student, at the end of his senior year, he did not have enough credits to graduate. Rather than attend summer school to earn his diploma, Joel decided to begin a music career: "I told them, 'To hell with it. If I'm not going to Columbia University, I'm going to Columbia Records, and you don't need a high school diploma over there'." In 1992, he submitted essays to the school board in lieu of the missed exam. They were accepted, and he was awarded his diploma at Hicksville High's annual graduation ceremony 25 years after leaving.

Music career

1964–1970: Early career

Influenced by early rock & roll and rhythm & blues artists, including Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers, Joel favored tightly structured pop melodies and down-to-earth songwriting. After seeing the Beatles on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', Joel decided to pursue a career in music. He recalled:

At age 16, Joel joined the Echoes, a group which specialized in British Invasion covers. The Echoes began recording in 1965. Joel played piano on several records released through Kama Sutra Productions and on recordings produced by Shadow Morton. Joel played on a demo version of " Leader of the Pack", which became a major hit for the Shangri-Las. Joel states that in 1964 he played on a recording of the Shangri-Las' " Remember (Walking in the Sand)" but he is unaware of whether he played on the demo or master version. The released single included a co-producer credit for Artie Ripp, who later was the first to sign and produce Joel as a solo artist after Michael Lang, who had given Joel a monetary advance, passed Joel along to Ripp to focus his attentions elsewhere.

In late 1965, the Echoes changed their name to the Emeralds, and then to the Lost Souls. Joel left the band in 1967 to join the Hassles, a Long Island group that had signed with United Artists Records. Over the next year and a half, they released four singles and two albums (''The Hassles'' and ''Hour of the Wolf''). All were commercial failures. Joel and drummer Jon Small left the Hassles in 1969 to form the duo Attila, releasing an eponymous debut album in July 1970. The duo disbanded the following October when Joel began an affair with Small's wife, Elizabeth. The pair later married.

1970–1974: ''Cold Spring Harbor'' and ''Piano Man''

Joel signed a contract with the record company Family Productions, with which he recorded his first solo album, '' Cold Spring Harbor'', named for Cold Spring Harbor, a hamlet on his native Long Island. Artie Ripp, owner of Family Productions, states that he spent US$450,000 developing Joel; nevertheless, the album was mastered at too high a speed and was a technical and commercial disappointment.

The popular songs "She's Got a Way" and " Everybody Loves You Now" were originally released on this album, but went largely unnoticed until being released as live performances on '' Songs in the Attic ''(1981). Columbia released a remastered version of ''Cold Spring Harbor'' in 1983, with certain songs shortened or re-orchestrated.

Joel began his ''Cold Spring Harbor'' tour in the fall of 1971, touring with his band, consisting of Rhys Clark on drums, Al Hertzberg on guitar, and Larry Russell on bass guitar, throughout the mainland United States and Puerto Rico, opening for such artists as the J. Geils Band, the Beach Boys, Badfinger and Taj Mahal. Joel's performance at the Puerto Rican Mar y Sol Pop Festival was especially well-received; and although recorded, Joel refused to have it published on the Mar Y Sol compilation album '' Mar Y Sol: The First International Puerto Rico Pop Festival''. Nevertheless, interest in his music grew.

During the spring of 1972, the Philadelphia radio station WMMR-FM began playing a concert recording of " Captain Jack", which became an underground hit on the East Coast. Herb Gordon, a Columbia Records executive, heard Joel's music and introduced him to the company. Joel signed a recording contract with Columbia in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles; he lived there for the next three years. For six months he worked at The Executive Room piano bar on Wilshire Boulevard as "Bill Martin". During that time, he composed his signature song " Piano Man" about the bar's patrons.

Despite Joel's new contract, he was legally bound to Family Productions. Artie Ripp sold Joel's first contract to Columbia. Walter Yetnikoff, the president of CBS/Columbia Records at the time, bought back the rights to Joel's songs in the late 1970s, giving the rights to Joel as a birthday gift. Yetnikoff notes in the documentary ''The Last Play at Shea'' that he had to threaten Ripp to close the deal.

Joel's first album with Columbia was '' Piano Man'' (1973). Despite modest sales, the album's title track became his signature song, ending nearly every concert. That year Joel's touring band changed. Guitarist Al Hertzberg was replaced by Don Evans, and bassist Larry Russell by Patrick McDonald, himself replaced in late 1974 by Doug Stegmeyer, who stayed with Joel until 1989. Rhys Clark returned as drummer and Tom Whitehorse as banjoist and pedal steel player; Johnny Almond joined as saxophonist and keyboardist. The band toured the U.S. and Canada extensively, appearing on popular music shows. Joel's songwriting began attracting more attention; in 1974 Helen Reddy recorded the ''Piano Man'' track " You're My Home".

1974–1977: ''Streetlife Serenade'' and ''Turnstiles''

In 1974, Joel recorded his second Columbia album in Los Angeles, ''Streetlife Serenade''. His manager at the time was Jon Troy, an old friend from New York's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood; Troy was soon replaced by Joel's wife Elizabeth. ''Streetlife Serenade'' contains references to suburbia and the inner city. It is perhaps best known for " The Entertainer", a No. 34 hit in the U.S. Upset that "Piano Man" had been significantly cut for radio play, Joel wrote "The Entertainer" as a sarcastic response: "If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05." Although ''Streetlife Serenade'' was viewed unfavorably by critics, it contains the notable songs "Los Angelenos" and " Root Beer Rag", an instrumental that was a staple of his live set in the 1970s.

In late 1975, Joel played piano and organ on several tracks on Bo Diddley's ''The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll'' all-star album.

Disenchanted with Los Angeles, Joel returned to New York City in 1975 and recorded '' Turnstiles'' (1976), the first album he recorded with the musicians with whom he toured. Produced by James William Guercio (then Chicago's producer), ''Turnstiles'' was first recorded at Caribou Ranch with members of Elton John's band. Dissatisfied with the result, Joel re-recorded the songs and produced the album himself.

" Say Goodbye to Hollywood" was a minor hit, covered by Ronnie Spector and Nigel Olsson. In a 2008 radio interview, Joel said that he no longer performs the song because singing it in its high original key "shreds" his vocal cords; however, he did finally play it live for the first time since 1982 when he sang it at the Hollywood Bowl in May 2014. Although never released as a single, " New York State of Mind" became one of Joel's best-known songs; Barbra Streisand recorded a cover and Tony Bennett performed it as a duet with Joel on '' Playing with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues''. Other notable songs from the album include " Summer, Highland Falls"; " Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" and " Prelude/Angry Young Man", a concert mainstay.

1977–1979: ''The Stranger'' and ''52nd Street''

Columbia Records introduced Joel to Phil Ramone, who produced all of Joel's studio albums from 1977 to 1986. ''The Stranger'' (1977) was an enormous commercial success, yielding four Top-25 hits on the ''Billboard'' charts: " Just the Way You Are" (No. 3), " Movin' Out" (No. 17), " Only the Good Die Young" (No. 24) and " She's Always a Woman" (No. 17). Joel's first Top Ten album, ''The Stranger ''reached number two on the charts and was certified multi-platinum, besting Simon & Garfunkel's '' Bridge over Troubled Water'' as Columbia's previous bestselling album. "Just the Way You Are"—written for Joel's first wife, Elizabeth Weber—was inspired by a dream and won Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.Billy Joel Grammy Awards
at The Recording Academy On tour in Paris, Joel learned the news late one night in a hotel room. It also featured " Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", an album-oriented rock classic, which has become one of his best-known songs. It is one of Joel's favorite of his own songs, which has become a firm staple of his live shows, and "Vienna", also one of Joel's personal favorites and as of 2022 one of his most streamed songs on the internet. ''Rolling Stone'' later ranked ''The Stranger'' the 70th greatest album of all time.

Joel released ''52nd Street'' in 1978, naming it after Manhattan's 52nd Street, which, at the time of its release, served as the world headquarters of CBS/ Columbia. The album sold over seven million copies, propelled to number one on the charts by the hits " My Life" (No. 3), " Big Shot" (No. 14) and "Honesty" (No. 24). A cover of "My Life" by Gary Bennett became the theme for the television sitcom '' Bosom Buddies''. ''52nd Street'' also won Grammy awards for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male and Album of the Year.

In 1979, Joel traveled to Havana, Cuba

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