Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949 in The
Bronx, New York), better known as Billy Joel, is a
globally-recognized pianist, singer and
songwriter.  He produced pop music hits from 1973
(beginning with the single "Piano Man (song)|Piano
Man") to his retirement from the genre in 1993. 
He has continued to tour occasionally (usually
with Elton John) in addition to writing and
recording classical music.

==Career==
From an early age, Joel had an intense interest in
music, especially classical music. 

His influences include:

*Ray Charles
*Dave Brubeck
*Sam Cooke
*The Rolling Stones
*The Beatles
*Otis Redding
*Ludwig van Beethoven

Joel joined his first band at age fourteen.  In
the late 1960s, he was in the band Attila and then
The Hassles, and also played in piano bars under
the name of "Bill Martin".  His first solo album,
Cold Spring Harbor (album)|Cold Spring Harbor (a
reference to a Long Island town), was released in
1971.

Joel toured with Elton John; during the tours the
two have played each other's songs and performed
duets. Joel was inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1999.

==Songwriting==
Joel was born in the modern-day South Bronx, then
a white-ethnic neighborhood, and grew up on Long
Island, an affluent region outside of New York,
New York|New York City, in a town called
Hicksville, New York. 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 that's located on Northern
Boulevard in the community of Manhasset. Also, in
his early song Billy the Kid, he describes himself
as being from the Oyster Bay (town), New York|Town
of Oyster Bay, the municipality in which the
hamlet of Hicksville 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 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, Manhattan|Little
Italy.  His song "New York State of Mind"—a
track from 1976 in music|1976's Turnstiles album
that has since become a
pop_standards|standard—also demonstrated his
affinity for his home state. 

Joel also is known for his depiction of life in
Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, which he paid tribute
to in one of his most popular songs, "Allentown
(song)|Allentown," released in 1982.  The song
depicts living in industrial Allentown,
Pennsylvania in the early 1980s. 

Joel's daughter Alexa has also been a motivation
for lyrical content; he penned "Lullabye" for her.
 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
his 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-1980's—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.

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, in December of
1986.  This marriage also 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 Joel
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.

==Driving problems and history of accidents and
problems==
Joel has a history of car accidents, including
several that occurred while he allegedly was under
the influence of alcohol. 

In the spring of 1982 Joel had already begun
studio work on his next album, The Nylon Curtain,
when he was involved in a motorcycle accident; a
woman in a car ran a red light and hit Billy Joel
on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. His left wrist
was broken and his hand badly damaged. When Billy
Joel tells the story he says that the police
officer on the scene read his license as "William
Joel," put 2 & 2 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, to insert a
temporary pin, 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 wife took half of the singer's assets
with her. 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." 

In 2003, Joel crashed his brand new 2003 Mercedes
Benz Coupe into a tree. In 2004, he crashed his
1967 Citroen into a 90-year-old woman's house.

==Trivia==

*In a television special ca. 1997, Joel played his
dynamic song Pressure, which is written in a minor
key.  He then re-played it based on a major key
and, as he pointed out, it came out sounding like
a polka.

==Discography==

=== Albums ===
*Cold Spring Harbor (album)|Cold Spring Harbor
(1971) #158 US
*Piano Man (album)|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 (album)|The Stranger (1977) #2 US,
#25 UK, US sales: 10,000,000
*52nd Street (album)|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 (Billy Joel albums)|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 (Billy Joel album)|The Bridge (1986)
#7 US, #38 UK, US sales: 1,000,000
*KOHUEPT|КОНЦЕР
;Т (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 (Billy Joel albums)|Greatest Hits,
Vol. 3 (1997) (compilation) #9 US, #23 UK, US
sales: 1,000,000
*Greatest Hits (Billy Joel albums)|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
(musical)|Movin' Out)
*Piano Man: The Very Best Of (2004) (compilation)

=== Hit singles ===

* from Piano Man
** 1974 Piano Man (song)|"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|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
** 1981 "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" #17 US
** 1982 "She's Got a Way" #23 US
* from The Nylon Curtain
** 1982 "Pressure" #20 US
** 1983 "Allentown (song)|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 "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" #9 US
* from The Bridge
** 1986 "Modern Woman" #10 US
** 1986 "This Is the Time" #18 US
** 1986 "A Matter of Trust" #10 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
* 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

==See also==
* List of best selling music artists

==External links==
* http://www.billyjoel.com/ Official Web-Site
* http://www.JoelFan.com JoelFan.com, Billy Joel
Fan-Site with forums and downloads
* http://billyjoel.8k.com/billyjoel.htm Extensive
biography on Joel