Billy Joel
William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his signature 1973 song of the same name,[4][5] Joel has had a successful music career as a solo artist since the 1970s.
Billy Joel
The Piano Man
- Singer
- songwriter
- pianist
1964–present
-
Elizabeth Weber Small(m. 1973; div. 1982)
-
Alexis Roderick(m. 2015)
3, including Alexa Ray
- Alexander Joel (half-brother)
- Karl Amson Joel (grandfather)
Hicksville, New York, U.S.
- Vocals
- piano
From 1971 to 1993, he released twelve studio albums that spanned the genres of pop and rock music, and in 2001 released a one-off studio album of classical music compositions. Joel is one of the world's best-selling music artists[6] and the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States,[7] with over 160 million records sold worldwide. His 1985 compilation album, Greatest Hits – Volume I & Volume II, is one of the best-selling albums in the United States.[8]
Joel was born in the Bronx in New York City and grew up 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 starting off a solo career in 1971 with his first release Cold Spring Harbor.
In 1972, Joel caught the attention of Columbia Records after a live radio performance of the song "Captain Jack" became popular in Philadelphia, prompting him to sign a new record deal with the company and release his second album, Piano Man, in 1973. After Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles in 1974 and 1976, respectively, Joel released his critical and commercial breakthrough album, The Stranger, in 1977, which 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"; the album also includes the popular album track "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", Joel's favorite of his own songs, which has become a firm staple of his live shows,[9] and "Vienna", also one of Joel's personal favorites[10][11] and as of 2022 one of his most streamed songs on the internet.[12]
Joel's next album, 52nd Street, was released in 1978 and it soon became his first album to peak at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Joel released his seventh studio album, Glass Houses, in 1980 in an attempt to further establish himself as a rock artist; this release featured "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" (Joel's first single to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart), "You May Be Right", "Don't Ask Me Why", and "Sometimes a Fantasy". His next album, The Nylon Curtain, was released in 1982, and stemmed from a desire to create more lyrically and melodically ambitious music. An Innocent Man, released in 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; this release featured "Tell Her About It", "Uptown Girl" and "The Longest Time", three of his best-known songs. After The Bridge and Storm Front in 1986 and 1989 respectively, Joel released his twelfth studio album, River of Dreams, in 1993. He went on to release Fantasies and Delusions, a 2001 album featuring classical compositions composed by Joel and performed by British-Korean pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo. Joel provided voiceover work in 1988 for the Disney animated film Oliver & Company, in which he played the character Dodger with his song, "Why Should I Worry?", and contributed to the soundtracks to several different films, including Easy Money, Ruthless People, and Honeymoon in Vegas. Joel returned to composing new music with the 2024 single “Turn the Lights Back On”.
Across the years of his solo career, Joel produced 33 self-penned Top 40 hits in the U.S.,[13] 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. Joel has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards, winning 6 of them, including Album of the Year for 52nd Street. Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999),[14] and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006). In 2001, Joel received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[15] In 2013, Joel received the Kennedy Center Honors for influencing American culture through the arts. Since the advent of his solo career, 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 following the country's alleviation of the ban on rock music.
Early life, family and education[edit]
Joel was born on May 9, 1949, in the Bronx, New York City. When he was one year old, his family moved to the Long Island suburb of Hicksville, in the town of Oyster Bay, where he and his cousin Judy, whom his parents adopted,[16] were raised in a section of Levitt homes.[17]
Joel's father, Howard (born Helmut) Joel (1923–2011), a classical pianist[18][17] and businessman, was born in Nuremberg, Germany, to a Jewish family, the son of merchant and manufacturer Karl Amson Joel, and educated in Switzerland. His father had created a highly successful mail-order textile business, Joel Macht Fabrik. To escape the Nazi regime, Howard's family immigrated to Switzerland. His father sold 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.[17] In the United States, Howard became an engineer but always loved music. Joel's mother, Rosalind (1922–2014),[19] was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents, Philip and Rebecca Nyman, who emigrated from England.[20]
Joel's parents met in the late 1930s at City College of New York at a Gilbert and Sullivan performance.[18] He has said that neither of his parents had 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 United States, considering the people uneducated and materialistic.[17] 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. Alexander Joel was the chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig from 2001 to 2014.[21][22]
Joel reluctantly began piano lessons at age four at his mother's insistence.[18] His teachers included the noted American pianist Morton Estrin[23] and musician Timothy Ford. Joel says that he is a better organist than pianist.[24] As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so he could defend himself.[25] 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 boxing match.[26]
Although Joel's parents were Jewish, he was not raised in the religion, adding “My parents were both from Jewish families. I was not brought up Jewish in any religious way. My circumcision was as Jewish as they got.”[27] He attended a Roman Catholic church with friends. At age 11, he was baptized in a Church of Christ in Hicksville. He now identifies as an atheist.[28][29][30][31][32]
Joel attended Hicksville High School until 1967, but did not graduate with his class.[18] 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 at a piano bar the evening before.[18] 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 career in music: "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'."[33] 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.[34]
Music career[edit]
1964–1970: Early career[edit]
Influenced by early rock and roll and rhythm and blues artists, including groups such as The Beatles, The Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley, Joel favored tightly structured pop melodies and down-to-earth songwriting.[35] After seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, Joel decided to pursue a career in music. In an interview he said of the group's effect on him:[36]
Other ventures[edit]
In 1996, Joel merged his long-held love of boating with his desire for a second career. With Long Island boating businessman Peter Needham, he formed the Long Island Boat Company.[104][105]
In November 2010, Joel opened a shop in Oyster Bay, Long Island, to manufacture custom-made, retro-styled motorcycles and accessories.[106]
In 2011, Joel announced that he was releasing an autobiography that he had written with Fred Schruers, titled The Book of Joel: A Memoir. The book was originally going to be released in June 2011, but, in March 2011, Joel decided against publishing the book and officially canceled his deal with HarperCollins. Rolling Stone noted, "HarperCollins acquired the book project for US$3 million in 2008. Joel is expected to return his advance on that sum to the publisher."[107] According to Billboard, "the HarperCollins book was billed as an 'emotional ride' that would detail the music legend's failed marriage to Christie Brinkley, as well as his battles with substance abuse."[108] In explaining his decision to cancel the book's release, Joel said, "It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I'm not all that interested in talking about the past, and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music."[109] In 2014, Schruers published a biography, simply titled Billy Joel, based on his extensive personal interviews with Joel.[110]
Politics[edit]
Although Joel has donated money to Democratic candidates,[133] he has never publicly affiliated himself with the Democratic Party. Although he is not known for publicly endorsing political candidates, he did play a benefit with Bruce Springsteen to raise money for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008.[134] He has performed at benefit concerts that have helped raise funds for political causes. However, about celebrities endorsing political candidates, Joel has said, "People who pay for your tickets, I don't think they want to hear who you're going to vote for and how you think they should vote."[135] Nonetheless, in 2016, after his sarcastic dedication of "The Entertainer" to then-Republican candidate Donald Trump[136] was taken as a serious endorsement, Joel told the New York Daily News in an email that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton.[137]
