Billy Joel - Biography

Last Editor: carlos_j				Billy Joel Biography -   Name : Billy Joel Profession : Singer/ Lyricist Birth Details : born May 9, 1949, Bronx, New York Birth Name : William Martin Joel Occupation(s) : Singer-songwriter, musician Genre(s) : Pop, pop rock, rock Origin : Bronx, New York, U.S. Instrument(s) : Vocals Piano Keyboards Guitar Harmonica Accordion Associated acts : Echoes, The Hassles, Attila, Elton John

Billy Joel Trivia -

He began in group "Echoes" (later known as the "Lost Souls"). Also a member of the Hassles (who performed at Westchester N.Y.'s famous Riviera Lounge in 1967) and Attila. Inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame 1992. Seven consecutive albums made the Top 40. Grammy award winning singer. Daughter, with Christie Brinkley, Alexa Ray Joel, was named after piano legend Ray Charles. He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song "We Are The World." Billy went by the name Bill Martin when he played the Executive Room in LA while running from his contract after the failure of Cold Spring Harbor. Joel was once a successful Long Island boxer, winning 22 out of 24 fights. He had taken boxing lessons because he was frequently beaten up by neighborhood bullies. He left his boxing career and went into music when his nose was broken in his 24th fight. His song "Just the Way You Are" released in 1977 is one of the most covered and radio played songs of all-time. His Stranger album released in 1977 was the most successful album in Columbia Records history at the time. In spite of that because of bad management, he only made $3,000 from it. Writes all of his songs single-handedly. With 77.5 million units sold in the U.S. to date, he is the 3rd highest selling solo artist of all time after Garth Brooks and Elvis Presley. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. The Hassles hit #112 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1967 with "You've Got Me Hummin'" (United Art. 50215) His and Twyla Tharp's hit musical "Movin' Out" received 10 Tony nominations for the 2003 Tony Awards including: Best New Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestrations. Out of the 10 nominations "Movin' Out" received two Tony's, one went to Tharp for Best Choreography, and the other went to Joel himself for Best Orchestrations. He is a classically trained pianist. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2004. It is placed outside Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Ditched writing new pop music to compose classical music instead during the mid 90s. Still performs pop songs at his concerts. One of the very few artists to have top ten hits in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. First gig he got with playing his piano was when he was 15 to play at a piano bar close to his neighborhood. He loved it so much that he quit high school at 17 to pursue a full fledged music career. Ironically, he worked at a piano bar later in his music career, out in L.A. with the name Bill Martin, trying to make ends meet before he released "Piano Man." Family Records, the first label that Joel signed with back in the early 70's, had a lifetime clause in their contract with Joel. This clause came back to haunt Joel when he signed with major label Columbia Records a few years later. Up until the end of the 1980's, every Joel album sold by Columbia, 25 cents would be paid to Family as a royalty for each album sold. Also, Columbia had to put the Family name, logo, and copyright on every Joel album they produced. He played piano on the 1965 Shangri-Las hit "Leader of the Pack". He was 16 years old at the time. Son of Rosalynd Nyman, born in England to an agnostic Jewish family, and Howard Joel, a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Germany, whose family owned the fourth largest mail order company in Germany before dispossessed by the Nazis. After his divorce, Howard returned to Europe and married again. Billy's half-brother is the famous concert pianist Alexander Joel. Some of his countless hits are "Piano Man" (1973), "She's Always a Woman" (1978), "My Life" (1979), "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" (1980, first US #1) "Allentown" (1982), "Uptown Girl" (1983, first UK #1), "Tell Her About It" (1983, US #1), "The Longest Time" (1983), "We Didn't Start The Fire" (1989), "Leningrad" (1989), "The Rivers of Dreams" (1993) and "All About Soul" (1993). He was called "Joe" by Christie Brinkley because when she first met him, she wasn't sure whether Billy Joel was just his first name and she decided that he looked like he could be a Joe. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6233 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Billy Joel Detailed Biography -

William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949, Bronx, New York) a 6-time Grammy award winner, better known as Billy Joel, is a pianist, singer and songwriter. He recorded a staggering number of pop music hits from 1973 (beginning with the single "Piano Man") to his retirement from recording pop music in 1993. Joel could be considered, with Elton John, the father of piano rock. He has sold well over 100 million albums worldwide and is the sixth best selling artist in the United States. Joel's induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (Class of 1992), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Class of 1999) has further solidified his status as one of America's leading music icons. He has continued to tour occasionally (usually with Elton John) in addition to writing and recording classical music. Early Years Joel "was born in 1949, a Cold War kid in McCarthy time," as he wrote in his song "Leningrad." Joel first lived in the modern-day South Bronx, an ethnically white neighborhood at the time. His family then moved to Long Island, to Levittown and then to Hicksville, both working class towns in Nassau County . His father, Howard Joel, was a Jewish refugee from Germany and his mother, Rosalind Hyman, was born in England, to an agnostic Jewish family. His parents later divorced, and his father moved back to Eastern Europe. His half-brother Alexander Joel is a musician. From an early age, Joel had an intense interest in music, especially classical music. He began piano lessons at an early age, and his interest in music instead of sports was the source for much teasing and bullying in his early years. As a teenager Joel took up boxing so that he would be able to defend himself. He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, but abandoned the sport when he became more involved in music as a career. Joel attended Hicksville High School, and was to have graduated in 1967. However, he was found to have had one gym class left to meet the graduation requirement due to excessive absences from the class, due to oversleeping from already being a professional musician with nighttime concerts. Faced with a summer in school to complete this requirement, he decided not to continue, telling an interviewer years later that he told school officials, "I'm not going to Columbia University, I'm going to Columbia Records!" He left high school without a degree to begin a career in music. In 1992, his requirement was waived, and he received his diploma at Hicksville High's graduation ceremony 25 years after he left the school. Joel joined his first band, The Echoes, at age fourteen. In the later 1960s, he performed with The Hassles, a Long Island band that had some local success ("Every Step I Take," "You Got Me Hummin'") and then formed the prog-rock band Attila with Hassles drummer Jon Small. Attila released a single album which bombed, and the duo disbanded. Small and his wife broke up as well, as Joel had started an affair with her at about this time. Upon losing his record contract with Attila, Joel suffered severe depression, and he was admitted into Meadowbrook Hospital after ingesting furniture polish in a half-hearted suicide attempt. The note he left eventually became the lyrics to his song "Tomorrow Is Today." Early albums 1970–1976 Cold Spring Harbor (1971) Joel signed his first solo record contract with Artie Ripp of Family Productions and subsequently recorded his first solo album. Cold Spring Harbor (a reference to the Long Island town of the same name), was released in 1971. However, the album was mastered at the wrong speed, and the album was initially released with this error. Combined with the onerous terms of the Family Productions contract that guaranteed him very little money from the sales of his albums, Joel fled to Los Angeles, California with Elizabeth Weber and played in the "Executive Lounge" under the name Bill Martin. Joel married Elizabeth in Los Angeles in May, 1971. Hits such as "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now" were originally released on this album, though they did not gain much attention until being released as live performances in 1981 on Songs in the Attic. Since then they have become regular concert hits. Cold Spring Harbor was remastered and rereleased after The Stranger met with significant success. Piano Man (1973) His experiences in Los Angeles connected him with executives from Columbia Records, who bought out his contract with Ripp, with the condition that the "Family Productions" logo be displayed alongside the Columbia logo for the next five albums. His brief tenure in Los Angeles also inspired his signature song "Piano Man." The album Piano Man was released in late 1973 and was certified Gold. To this day it has sold over four million copies. However, due to the large sums of money involved in the legal tangles of the contract buyout, Joel netted less than $7,000 in profit from his Gold Certified record. Streetlife Serenade (1974) Joel remained in Los Angeles to write Streetlife Serenade, his second album under the Columbia label. References to both suburbia and the inner city pepper the album. The standout track on the album is "The Entertainer," which picks up thematically where "Piano Man" left off. Joel was upset that "Piano Man" had been significantly edited down in order to make it more radio-friendly, and in "The Entertainer," he bites the hands that feed him with sarcastic lines such as, "If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05." The instrumental "Root Beer Rag" is a rollicking trip reminiscent of Scott Joplin. Turnstiles (1976) In 1976, Joel released Turnstiles, an appropriately titled album about transitions, both geographical and professional. Written to mark Joel's move back to the East Coast after spending three years in California, the opening track, "Say Goodbye To Hollywood," serves notice that Joel is cutting ties and making a fresh start. While "I've Loved These Days" looks back with a mixture of longing and regret upon an early-70s L.A. characterized by excess, Turnstiles ultimately makes it clear that Joel is ready to go home again. Indeed, "New York State of Mind," a love song to Joel's native state, has become a classic, and one of the de facto official songs of the state of New York. On Turnstiles, Joel used his own hand-picked musicians in the studio for the first time, and he took a more hands-on role, producing the album himself. These risks all paid off, and the album boasted a considerably more "live" feeling than prior efforts. Nevertheless, Joel's signature blend of cynicism and self-consciousness continued to find expression in songs such as "Angry Young Man," a song that (thanks in part to its blistering piano "Prelude" that introduces it) would become a mainstay of his concerts for years. Becoming a superstar 1977–1981 The Stranger (1977) For his album The Stranger, Columbia Records united Joel with producer Phil Ramone. The album cranked out four Top-40 hits on the Billboard Charts in the US, and was a worldwide smash. Album sales exceeded Columbia's previous top album, Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water and was certified multi-platinum. It was Joel's first Top-10 album as it rose to # 2 on the charts. Phil Ramone eventually produced every Billy Joel studio release until 1989's Storm Front. The Stranger netted Joel Grammy nominations for Album of the Year and Song of the Year, for "Just the Way You Are," which was written as a gift to his wife Elizabeth and became his highest charting song to date in the United States. 52nd Street (1978) With his star power soaring, Joel was faced with meeting high expectations on his next album. 52nd Street was conceived as a day in Manhattan, and was named after the block where Columbia Records' office was located. The album did not disappoint, as fans purchased over seven million copies on the strength of songs "My Life", "Big Shot" and "Honesty." This helped 52nd Street become Joel's first # 1 album. "My Life" eventually became the theme song for a new US television sitcom, "Bosom Buddies," which featured actor Tom Hanks in one of his earliest roles. 52nd Street was the first album to be released on Compact Disc in Japan (1982). Glass Houses (1980) Joel stated that his next album would be more of a hard-rock record, as he was trying to prove that he would not turn into a crooner. Glass Houses was released in 1980, and the first thing heard after taking the album out of its sleeve was the sound of breaking glass introducing the guitar-driven "You May Be Right," also the album's first single (#7, May 1980). However, its followup, "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me", was more of a toe-tapper. It eventually became Joel's first Billboard Number 1 song in July 1980. His third single, "Don't Ask Me Why" (#19, September 1980), incorporated a Latin rather than rock beat. Although it became a ubiquitous AM radio staple during the summer of 1980, his critics were disappointed at his choice of singles. Glass Houses was Joel's biggest hit since The Stranger in terms of the number of records sold, as it soared to the top of the charts becoming his second consecutive # 1 album. Songs In The Attic (1981) His next release, Songs In The Attic, was comprised of live performances of less well-known songs from the beginning of his career. Songs In The Attic was recorded during arena and club shows in June and July of 1980. Building on success 1982–1986 The Nylon Curtain (1982) The Nylon Curtain was considered by many Joel's most ambitious album, but it came with a high physical and emotional price tag. He had begun work on it in the spring of 1982 when he was involved in a car accident. The driver ran a red light and collided with Billy, who was on his motorcycle; a Root-Beer colored Harley-Davidson Electra Glide. His left wrist was broken and his hand badly damaged. As Joel himself tells it, the police officer on the scene read his license as "William Joel," put two and two together, and said, "Hey lady, you just ran over Billy Joel!" After the woman learned who she hit, she asked for his autograph, at which he offered to use his bleeding wrists instead of a pen. Due to surgery (which included the temporary insertion of five pins into his wrist) and a month in the hospital, production of the album was temporarily shut down while Joel recovered. An additional obstacle for the singer was the breakdown of his marriage to Weber, an event partially blamed on the stress created by Weber's management of her husband's career. In the fall of 1982, Joel and his wife separated. In an interview, he said that the recording of The Nylon Curtain was his way of dealing with his separation from Weber. In the meantime, Joel's first video special, Live on Long Island, was recorded at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on December 9, 1982. On July 20, 1983 the couple's divorce was finalized. In accordance with the divorce agreement, Joel's ex-wife took half of the singer's assets. "You're always in the desert looking for the oasis and all that's out there with you is the piano — this big black beast with 88 teeth ... 50,000 packs of cigarettes later, you start getting it." All of his sacrifices paid off, however, as The Nylon Curtain peaked at #7 on the charts behind the popular singles "Allentown", "Goodnight Saigon", and "Pressure". Following his tour supporting Nylon Curtain, Joel retreated to the island of St. Bart's for rest and relaxation. At the hotel's bar, he met supermodel Christie Brinkley, who had been divorced from her husband Jean-François Allaux. They eventually became a couple, and married on March 23, 1985. An Innocent Man (1983) The song "Uptown Girl" was one of the first songs written when Joel returned from vacation. "Uptown Girl" was conceived as Joel wondered aloud how the gorgeous Christie Brinkley could wind up with such a guy like himself. It became a worldwide hit upon its release. The resulting album, An Innocent Man was compiled as a tribute to the Doo-Wop music of the 1960s, and also resulted in Joel's second Billboard #1 hit, "Tell Her About It." The album, which reached # 4 on the charts, boasted six top-30 singles, the most of any album in Joel's catalog. Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2 (1985) Following the success of An Innocent Man, Joel had been approached to release an album of his most successful singles. This was not the first time this topic had come up, but Joel had initially considered "Greatest Hits" albums as marking the end of one's career. This time, he agreed, and "Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2" was released as a four-sided album and 2-CD set, with the songs in sequence of when they were released. The new songs "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "The Night Is Still Young" were recorded and released as singles to support the album. "Greatest Hits" was a monster success, selling over twenty million copies worldwide and becoming the top selling double album of all time. It has since been certified Diamond by the RIAA, and is the 5th best selling album in American music history. Coinciding with the "Greatest Hits" album release, Joel released a two-volume "Video Album" that was a compilation of the promotional videos he had recorded from 1977 to the present time. Along with videos for the new singles off the "Greatest Hits" album, Joel also recorded a video for his first hit, "Piano Man" for this project. The Bridge (1986) Joel had already scored a hit with "Modern Woman" from the 1985 movie, "Ruthless People," (starring Bette Midler, Danny DeVito and Judge Reinhold) when he began work on the album that would become The Bridge in early 1986. As a father for the first time, Joel's perspective had changed dramatically and he had found the process of songwriting to be difficult. The song "Temptation" brought out many of the feelings he had about relating to his new daughter. Joel wound up having to start recording before he completed all of the writing he wanted to do, and the process proved to be difficult. Fortunately, he had scheduled time with some friends in the studio. Ray Charles contributed vocals and music to the song "Baby Grand" with Joel, and Steve Winwood played Hammond Organ on the song "Getting Closer." The final song recorded for the album was "Code Of Silence." Cyndi Lauper, who was recording her album True Colors in an adjacent studio had heard that Joel was having problems finishing his album, so she helped him complete this song and contributed backing vocals. To return the favor, Joel backed Lauper up on the song "Maybe He'll Know" off of her album. The Bridge was not a success in relation to some of Joel's other albums, but it yielded the hit "A Matter Of Trust." In a departure from his "piano man" persona, Joel is shown in its video as playing a Les Paul-autographed Fender guitar. The ballad "This Is The Time" also charted, and has been a favorite on the prom circuit ever since. At around this time, Billy completed voice work on Oliver & Company, released in 1988. A loose adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, Billy brought both his acting and musical talents to the film as Dodger. For the film, Billy recorded a memorable number titled "Why Should I Worry?" Critics were generally positive towards the film, and pointed to Billy's acting contribution as one of its highlights, despite it being his first acting job. In interviews, Billy explained that he took the job due to his love of Disney cartoons as a child. The Russia period 1987–1989 Throughout his tour supporting The Bridge, Joel and his handlers started planning a trip to the Soviet Union over the summer of 1987. He would be the first American rock act to play there since the Berlin Wall went up, a fact not lost on history buff Joel. There would be six live performances, three each at indoor arenas in Moscow and Leningrad. Joel and his family (including young daughter Alexa) and his full touring band made the trip in June, 1987. The entourage was filmed for television and video to eventually offset the cost of the trip, and the concerts were simulcast on radio around the world. The audience in at least the first Moscow shows was filled with members of the Communist Party, who received tickets from the government as a perk. Most of that audience took a long while to warm up to Joel's energetic show, something that never had happened in other countries he had performed in. As a result of that a minor international incident occurred when he famously flipped over an electric keyboard during the second Moscow show as a show of frustration. КОÐ?ЦЕРТ (1987) The album КОÐ?ЦЕРТ, Russian for "In Concert," was released in the fall of 1987. As a live album, it captures the energy of a Billy Joel show during this period, however it became painfully obvious that his voice had lost some of its youthful timbre. In one particularly difficult section during an energetic "Uptown Girl" he has trouble catching his breath and the vocals of backup singer George Simms, specifically brought to hit the high notes in his vocally challenging songs, become more prominent. It has been estimated that Joel lost over US$1 million of his own money on the trip and concerts, but he has said the goodwill he was shown there was well worth it. Later albums 1989–1994 Storm Front (1989) The song "We Didn't Start the Fire," the first single from the album Storm Front, was released in September, 1989. The song was meant to convey the fact that the world has never been stable, and nostalgia for "good old days" glossed over difficult times as well. Conceived as a rap or a more rhythmic song than anything in Joel's career previously, the lyrics of the song consisted of names and phrases relating to newsmaking events of the 40 year span of Billy Joel's life to date. Unlike his other songs, the lyrics were written before the music, resulting in a loss of the melodic emphasis characteristic of his work. Critics assailed Joel for this approach, but the song generated significant buzz and quickly became Joel's third US Number 1 hit after its release. The song has spawned a number of web sites that hyperlink the words of the song to historical news articles on the internet. Joel has stated on numerous occasions that the song stands on its own, and he does not feel the need to update or rewrite the song to take news since 1989 into account. Storm Front was released in October, and it eventually became Joel's first Number 1 album since Glass Houses, nine years previously. Storm Front was Joel's first album since Turnstiles to have been recorded without Phil Ramone as producer. For this album, he wanted a new sound, and worked with Mick Jones of Foreigner fame. Joel also brought in some fresh faces to join the band, including talented multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero, who would go on to become Joel's musical director and architect of his live sound. After "We Didn't Start The Fire," Storm Front also produced the hit "I Go To Extremes." The album was also notable for its song "Leningrad," written after Joel met a clown in the Russian city during his tour in 1987, and "The Downeaster Alexa," written to underscore the plight of fishermen on Long Island who are barely able to make ends meet. In 1992, Joel sued former manager and ex-brother-in-law Frank Weber (ex-wife Elizabeth's brother) for $95 million after accounting irregularities were discovered. The case was later settled out of court. River Of Dreams (1993) Joel started work on River Of Dreams in early 1993. Released under fanfare that August, the album art was a colorful painting by Christie Brinkley that was a series of scenes from each of the songs on the album. The lead single quickly moved up the charts, and the album sold very well. A worldwide tour followed, and Joel devised his schedule such that he wouldn't spend more than a few weeks at a time away from his family during his tour. However, Joel and Brinkley separated and divorced on August 25, 1994. Brinkley's separation from Joel and subsequent marriage to developer Richard Taubman took place after surviving a helicopter crash with Taubman. Semi-retirement 1994–present In August of 1995, Billy Joel's long-time bassist Doug Stegmeyer committed suicide in his Long Island home. Stegmeyer had played on every one of Joel's albums from Turnstiles through The Bridge. In 2001, Joel released Fantasies and Delusions, a collection of classical piano pieces. All were written by Billy Joel and performed by Richard Joo. Joel often uses bits of these songs as interludes in live performances. Joel has toured extensively with Elton John on a series of "Face to Face" tours. During these shows, the two have played each other's songs and performed duets. In 2005, Joel released a compilation, "My Lives," which is largely a compilation of demos, B-tracks, and live/alternate versions to hit songs. The compilation also includes the Umixit software, in which people can remix "Zanzibar" and a live version of "I Go To Extremes" with their PC. Also, a DVD of a show from the River of Dreams tour is included. On January 7, 2006, Joel began a tour across the United States. Having not written any new songs, he featured a sampling of all his songs in his career, including his major hits. His tour includes an unprecedented twelve sold-out concerts over several months at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Joel's songwriting cannot be separated from the life that inspired so much of his work. He has made many references in his lyrics to locations in the New York City metropolitan area, particularly Long Island, in his songs. For example, the Miracle Mile line in "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me" refers to the affluent shopping district located on Northern Boulevard in the community of Manhasset. Also, in his early song Billy the Kid, he describes a certain "Billy" as being from the Town of Oyster Bay, the municipality in which the hamlet of Levittown is located. He has since stated, in the liner notes from his album "Songs in the Attic," that this "Billy" is not himself, but rather an Oyster Bay bartender. His song New York State of Mind — a track from 1976's Turnstiles album that has since become a standard — also demonstrated his affinity for his home state. Several of Joel's songs have grown out of specific personal experiences, including "Piano Man", which he wrote out of his experience of regularly playing at a Los Angeles piano bar in the early 1970s, and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," purportedly written about either the Syosset mainstay Christiano's or a similar eatery in New York City's Little Italy. His song "Vienna" was supposedly written based on a visit to his father in Europe. And "Big Shot" is based on a bad date with Mick Jagger's ex-wife Bianca. Joel was not raised very religiously, and in fact attended Roman Catholic mass with his Catholic friends, inspiring some of his religion-themed lyrics. "Only The Good Die Young" is supposedly about a high-school crush with a very religious girl. Joel paid tribute to life in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania in one of his most popular songs, "Allentown," released in 1982. The song depicts living in industrial Allentown, Pennsylvania during the economic recession in the early 1980s. Joel's family has also been a motivation for lyrical content; he penned "Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)" for his daughter, after she asked what happens when people die. Similarly, his song "The Downeaster Alexa" combined his love for his daughter with a depiction of the plight of boat captains in the offshore fishing industry. "Uptown Girl" was a love song about the seemingly mismatched romance between himself and Christie Brinkley, Alexa's mother and his second wife. Joel has always had a trusting, open attitude in both his business and personal relationships. This attitude was manifested as advice in the song "Tell Her About It", as well as in an expression of his own needs in "Honesty" and "And So It Goes." It can also be found in his description of the elements needed to make a relationship work in "A Matter of Trust." The song "We Didn't Start the Fire" lists historical events from his birth in 1949 through the mid-1980s — the first thirty-five years of Joel's life, reflecting his fascination with culture and history. The song "Leningrad" shows Joel's appreciation for the history of the Soviet Union and his feelings about the Cold War in which he was raised. Before Joel went into the music business, he had considered becoming a history teacher; later in his career, he earned a New York state teaching license. In addition, having attempted suicide earlier in his life, Joel composed a song on request called "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" specifically to strengthen those contemplating suicide to choose life instead. Joel has recently been returning to his fascination with classical music and has been experimenting in that area. Fantasies and Delusions, his first album of classical pieces, got a tepid response from critics but went to #1 on the classical charts.