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William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949 in
The Bronx, New York), better known as Billy Joel, is a pianist, singer
and songwriter. He recorded a large number of pop music hits from 1973
(beginning with the single "Piano Man") to his retirement from the genre
in 1993. Joel could be considered, with Elton John, as being 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.
****
Career
Early
Years
From an early age, Joel had an intense interest in
music, especially classical music.
His
influences included:
Ray Charles
Dave Brubeck
Sam Cooke
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
Otis Redding
Ludwig van Beethoven
Joel denies any influence of Elton John on his
music, but there is still a similarity between his early music and John's. He
joined his first band, The Echoes, at age fourteen. In the late 1960s, he formed
the prog-rock band Attila with drummer Jon Small and then The Hassles. He later
started an affair with Small's wife Elizabeth and married her in 1971.
Early
albums 1970–1976
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 masters to the album were recorded at the wrong
speed, and the album was initially released with this error. Combined with the
onerous terms of the contract that guaranteed him very little money from the
sales of his albums, Joel fled to Los Angeles, California with Elizabeth and
played in the "Executive Lounge" under the name Bill Martin. Cold Spring Harbor
was remastered and rereleased after The Stranger met with significant success.
His experiences in Los Angeles connected him with
executives from Columbia Records, who bought out his poor contract with Ripp,
with the condition that the "Family Productions" logo be displayed alongside the
Columbia logo for the next five albums. The experience also yielded his
signature song "Piano Man." The album Piano Man was released in 1974 and sold
roughly four million copies. However, due to the large sums of money attributed
to the legal tangles related to the contract buyout, Joel netted less than
$7,000 in profit from his Gold Certified record.
Becoming a superstar 1977–1981
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. 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.
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" and "Big Shot." "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.
After 52nd Street Joel took a break from recording,
but released the album Songs In The Attic. The new album was made up of cuts
from live performances over previous tours, including songs from Cold Spring
Harbor that had not gotten much notice previously.
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." However, its first single, "It's Still
Rock And Roll To Me", was more of a toe-tapper. It eventually became Joel's
first Billboard Number 1 song. His second single, "Don't Ask Me Why",
incorporated a Latin beat and was clearly not hard-rock. Although it became a
ubiquitous AM radio staple in 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.
Building on success 1982–1986
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
motorcycle accident; a woman in a car ran a red light and hit Billy on his
Harley-Davidson motorcycle. His left wrist was broken and his hand badly
damaged. When Joel tells the story he says that 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. He offered to use his bleeding wrists to write her an
autograph. 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.
By the end of 1982 the couple divorced. When she
left, Joel's ex-wife took half of the singer's assets. Even with such personal
tragedies, creating the music for the album proved to be difficult. "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."
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 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 couple 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.
The album КОНЦЕРТ, 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
September 1989 brought the release of "We Didn't
Start The Fire," the first single from the album Storm Front. 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
were also made up of names and phrases relating to newsmaking events of the 40
year span of Billy Joel's life to date. 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
(including Wikipedia's entry). 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.
In the 1990s, Joel sued former manager and
ex-brother-in-law Frank Weber (Elizabeth's brother) for $95 million after
accounting irregularities were discovered.
Joel has toured with Elton John; during the tours
the two have played each other's songs and performed duets.
Songwriting
Joel's songwriting cannot be separated from the
life that inspired so much of his work. Joel "was born in '49, 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.
Joel was not raised very religiously, and in fact
attended Roman Catholic mass with his Catholic friends, inspiring some of his
religion-themed lyrics. He has made many references in his lyrics to locations
in the New York City metropolitan area, particularly the 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.
Joel has always relied heavily on his own
experiences in writing his songs; perhaps the best examples are "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 "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.
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. His song "Vienna" was supposedly written
based on a visit to his father in Europe. And his song "Big Shot" is based on a
bad date with Mick Jagger's ex-wife Bianca.
Joel's daughter Alexa has also been a motivation
for lyrical content; he penned "Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)" for her 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 always wanted to become 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.
Marriages
Joel married his business manager, Elizabeth Weber,
in May of 1971. The marriage ended in divorce in July of 1982.
Joel went on to marry supermodel Christie Brinkley
in March of 1985. Their marriage produced one child, daughter Alexa Ray Joel,
born December 30, 1985. This marriage ended with divorce in August of 1994.
In 2004, Joel married 23 year-old Katie Lee. Lee is
a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. At the time of the wedding, Joel
was 54. Joel's daughter, Alexa Ray, 18, served as maid of honor. Joel's ex-wife,
Christie Brinkley, attended the union and gave the couple her blessing. Lee
works as a restaurant correspondent for the PBS show, George Hirsch: Living it
Up!.
Alcohol
problems
Joel entered the Betty Ford Center in March of 2005
for treatment of alcohol abuse after what his publicist called "a recent bout of
severe gastrointestinal distress". He checked out of the center in April of
2005. A friend who saw him after he checked out said that Joel has completely
sworn off all alcohol. Joel was treated previously for alcohol abuse in 2002
when he spent two weeks at Silver Hill Hospital in Connecticut.
Joel has a history of car accidents, including
several that occurred while he allegedly was under the influence of alcohol.
Master
Classes
As a result of his love of teaching and music, Joel
has been passing on his hard-learned experience with the music industry and as
an artist to a new generation. Some of these have been recorded and are
available, such as the fourth CD in his Greatest Hits Box Set. The classes are
structured as a question-and-answer session with the audience in a small
amphitheatre or collegiate lecture hall. Joel appears alone with a piano and
without the benefit of his full band for the roughly two-hour program. He speaks
candidly about his life and his music, with interspersed musical requests from
the audience. Some of the most entertaining segments of his program are when he
explains the inception and development of his songs from the genesis of the
initial idea. Joel brought some of this material to James Lipton's "Inside the
Actors' Studio" for a two-hour episode in 1999.
Discography
Albums
Cold Spring Harbor (1971) #158 US
Piano Man (1973) #27 US, US sales: 4,000,000
Streetlife Serenade (1974) #35 US, US sales:
1,000,000
Turnstiles (1976) #122 US, US sales: 1,000,000
The Stranger (1977) #2 US, #25 UK, US sales:
10,000,000
52nd Street (1978) #1 US, #10 UK, US sales:
7,000,000
Glass Houses (1980) #1 US, #9 UK, US sales:
7,000,000
Songs in the Attic (Live) (1981) #8 US, US sales:
3,000,000
The Nylon Curtain (1982) #7 US, #27 UK, US sales:
2,000,000
An Innocent Man (1983) #4 US, #2 UK, US sales:
7,000,000
Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2 (1973-1985) (1985)
(compilation) #6 US, #7 UK, US sales: 21,000,000 (5th best selling album of all
time)
The Bridge (1986) #7 US, #38 UK, US sales:
1,000,000
КОНЦЕРТ (Live) (1987) #38 US, US sales: 1,000,000
Storm Front (1989) #1 US, #5 UK, US sales:
4,000,000
River of Dreams (1993) #1 US, #3 UK, US sales:
5,000,000
Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 (1997) (compilation) #9 US,
#23 UK, US sales: 1,000,000
The Complete Hits Collection: 1973-1997 (1997)
(compilation) US sales: 1,000,000
2000 Years: The Millennium Concert (Live) (2000)
#40 US, US sales: 500,000
Fantasies & Delusions (2001) (performed by Richard
Joo) #83 US
Ultimate Collection (2001) (compilation) #4 UK
Essential Billy Joel (2001) (compilation) #29 US
Movin' Out Original Broadway Cast Recording (2002)
(performed by the cast of Movin' Out)
Piano Man: The Very Best Of (2004) (compilation)
My Lives (2005) (compilation)
Hit
singles
from Piano Man
1974 "Piano Man" #25 US
from Streetlife Serenade
1975 "The Entertainer" #34 US
from The Stranger
1978 "Just the Way You Are" #3 US, #19 UK
1978 "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" #17 US, #35 UK
1978 "Only the Good Die Young" #24 US
1978 "She's Always a Woman" #17 US
from 52nd Street
1978 "My Life" #3 US (1979 release), #12 UK
1979 "Big Shot" #19 US
1979 "Honesty" #24 US
from Glass Houses
1980 "All for Leyna" #40 UK
1980 "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" #1 US, #14 UK
1980 "Don't Ask Me Why" #19 US
1980 "Sometimes a Fantasy" #36 US
1980 "You May Be Right" #7 US
from Songs in the Attic (LIVE)
1981 "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" #17 US (originally
released on Turnstiles May 1976)
1982 "She's Got a Way" #23 US (originally released
on Cold Spring Harbor 1971, re-released on Columbia 1983)
from The Nylon Curtain
1982 "Pressure" #20 US
1983 "Allentown" #17 US
from An Innocent Man
1983 "Uptown Girl" #3 US, #1 UK
1983 "Tell Her About It" #1 US, #4 UK
1983 "An Innocent Man" #10 US, #8 UK (1984 release)
1984 "The Longest Time" #14 US, #25 UK
1984 "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" #27 US, #29 UK
(double A-side with Goodnight Saigon in the UK)
1985 "Keeping the Faith" #18 US
from Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2 (1973-1985)
1985 "The Night Is Still Young" #34 US
1985 "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" #9 US
from The Bridge
1986 "Modern Woman" #10 US
1986 "A Matter Of Trust" #10 US
1987 "Baby Grand" #75 US
1987 "This Is The Time" #18 US
from Storm Front
1989 "We Didn't Start the Fire" #1 US, #7 UK
1990 "I Go to Extremes" #6 US
1990 "And So It Goes" #37 US
1990 "That's Not Her Style" #77 US
1990 "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" #57 US
from Honeymoon in Vegas soundtrack
1992 "All Shook Up" #27 UK
from River of Dreams
1993 "The River of Dreams" #3 US, #3 UK
1993 "All About Soul" #29 US, #32 UK
1994 "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" #77 US
from Greatest Hits Vol. 3
1997 "To Make You Feel My Love" #50 US
[edit]
Credits on Broadway
Movin' Out (2002) — musical — composer, lyricist,
and orchestrator — Tony Award for Best Orchestrations
* * * *
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