BILLY JOEL-Bio, Family, Education, Songs, Net worth

BILLY JOEL BIOGRAPHY

Billy Joel is a well-known American pianist, singer, songwriter, and composer. He started out in music with a band called “The Echoes,” which later changed their name to “Lost Souls.” He is regarded as one of the world’s most well-known recording artists and greatest performers. For his album “Glass Houses,” he won numerous “Grammy Awards,” and in 1990, he also received the prestigious “Grammy Legend Award.” In recognition of his album “Greatest Hits Volume I and Volume II,” which has so far sold more than 11.5 million copies, he was given the “Recording Industry Association of America Diamond Award.”

Joel has experimented with a variety of musical styles, mixing and fusing numerous elements, such as hard rock, jazz blended with pop and soul, and love ballads. Millions of his admirers have loved his songs over the course of his career. Joel reached the pinnacle of his fame thanks to the radio hit “Piano Man,” one of his hallmark songs. It’s still a hit today and is considered one of his best songs ever.

BILLY JOEL AGE

Billy  Joel, the son of Howard, a German-Jewish Holocaust survivor and famous pianist,  was born on May 9, 1949, in The Bronx, New York, USA. His family relocated to the Levitt homes neighborhood of Hicksville, Long Island, not long after his birth, where he lived his formative years.

BILLY JOEL HEIGHT

Height: 155 cm (167 cm) Size: 66 kg (144 pounds) Color of hair: bald eye shade

BILLY JOEL RELIGION

Joel was not raised a Jew despite the fact that his parents were. With companions, he went to a Roman Catholic church. He was baptized at the age of 11 in a Church of Christ in Hicksville. He now declares himself an atheist.

BILLY JOEL EDUCATION

He started taking piano lessons in 1953 and quickly showed that he was talented. Morton Estrin, a renowned American pianist, and Timothy Ford, a musician, and songwriter, were his teachers.
Even though Joel attended Hicksville High School until 1967, his class did not graduate together. He was working late nights at a piano bar to support himself, his mother, and his sister, and he missed an important English exam because of it. Despite being a rather good student, Joel did not have enough credits to graduate at the conclusion of his senior year. Instead of going to summer school to get his diploma, Joel made the decision to start a career in music: “To hell with it, I told them. You don’t need high school graduation there, so if I don’t go to Columbia University, I’m going to Columbia Records.” In place of the missed exam in 1992, he turned in essays to the school board. After leaving Hicksville High 25 years prior, his applications were approved, and he was given his diploma during the yearly graduation ceremony.

BILLY JOEL FAMILY

Howard, Joel’s father (born Helmut) Joel, a classical pianist and businessman, was born to a Jewish family in Nuremberg, Germany. He is the son of maker and retailer Karl Amson Joel Swiss education was received by Howard. Joel Macht Fabrik, a highly successful mail-order textile company, was founded by his father. Howard’s family immigrated to Switzerland in order to flee the Nazi government. In order to immigrate, his father sold his company for a little portion of its worth. Due to German Jews’ restricted access to direct immigration at the time, the family arrived in the United States via Cuba. Although Howard always enjoyed music, he trained as an engineer in the United States. Rosalind, Joel’s mother, was born to Jewish immigrants from England named Philip and Rebecca Nyman in Brooklyn, New York City.

Howard Joel left for Europe after Rosalind and Howard Joel’s divorce in 1957 because he had never loved America and thought its citizens were uneducated and materialistic. He made his home in Vienna, Austria, and eventually remarried. Alexander Joel, Joel’s half-brother, was born to his father in Europe and trained as a conductor of classical music there. From 2001 through 2014, Alexander Joel served as the Staatstheater Braunschweig’s principal musical director.

BILLY JOEL MARRIAGE

He wed Jon Small’s ex-wife Elizabeth Weber Small, with whom he had established the musical duo “Attila,” on September 5, 1973. Billy and Elizabeth got a divorce on July 20, 1982.
He wed American model Christie Brinkley on March 23, 1985; they have a daughter together named Alexa Ray Joel. His idol, Ray Charles, is the source of her middle name, Ray. On August 26, 1994, the couple announced their divorce, however, they remained amicable.

He married American cookbook author Katie Lee, who is 32 years his junior, on October 2, 2004. On June 17, 2009, the pair announced their separation after five years of marriage.

BILLY JOEL CAREER

He joined his first band, “The Echoes,” in 1963; they eventually changed their name to “The Lost Souls.” With the ensemble, he recorded some of his instrumental compositions. He dropped out of high school at this time to focus on his musical career.

He quit “The Lost Souls” in 1967 to join a new group called “The Hassles.” A Long Island-based band has earned a record deal with “United Artists Record.” The band published their debut album, “The Hassles,” and the following year, their follow-up, “Hour of the Wolf.” Both albums weren’t successful in the marketplace.
He and the group’s drummer Joe Small parted ways with the group in 1969, and he and Small went on to form the heavy metal duo known as “Attila.” They worked with Epic Records to record an album, which they released in July 1970. Due to disagreements over personal matters, the pair soon split up.

BILLY JOEL CAREER- Family Productions

He got a solo recording deal with “Family Productions” in 1971, and his debut solo album, “Cold Spring Harbor,” was then made available. The album, however, was a technical letdown because it was mastered too quickly. A few years later, “Columbia Records” published an album that had been restored and had some tracks that had been reduced or re-orchestrated.
Soon after, he relocated from the West Coast to Los Angeles because of a business disagreement, where he performed piano under the name “Bill Martin” at “The Executive Room” piano bar on Wilshire Boulevard. During this time, he wrote his iconic hit song, “Piano Man.”

His live performance recording “Captain Jack,” which was first played on Philadelphia’s “WMMR-FM” radio station in 1972, quickly shot to the top of the East Coast charts. Columbia Records’ executives made him an offer for a recording contract after hearing the song. Before moving back to New York, he spent three years recording with “Columbia Records.”

He worked with Columbia Records to record the album “Piano Man” in Los Angeles in 1973. Later, it was both his first gold album and top 20 single.
He returned to New York in 1976 and put together a new band with musicians of his choosing. He started his first concert tour that same year.

His second album, “52nd Street,” which was described as jazzier and more sophisticated, was released in 1978. The leading albums of all time, according to many.
He went to Cuba in 1979 to take part in the three-day “Havana Jam Festival” at the “Karl Marx Theatre.”
He published “Glass Houses” in 1980, which debuted at the top of the Billboard Album Chart and held that spot for six weeks.

BILLY JOEL CAREER- Songs in the Attic

He released an album in 1981 called “Songs in the Attic.” The album had live renditions of some of his early-career tracks that weren’t very well-liked. His fans first heard several of his earlier works on the CD.
He composed an album namely “The Innocent Man” in 1983. The record served as an homage to the popular American music of his adolescent years and brought him his second Billboard hit. Columbia Records republished his first album, “Cold Spring Harbor,” the same year.

In 1986 he published His tenth studio album, “The Bridge,”. Billy, Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper, and Steve Winwood all contributed to the record. It produced hit tunes like “Matter of Trust” and “A Modern Woman,” among others.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1987, he was the first American rock star to perform in the Soviet Union. He also gave performances in Tbilisi, Leningrad, and Moscow. In October of the same year, his live CD, titled “KOHUEPT” (Russian meaning concert), was published.

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In 1989, he and producer Mick Jones put out the album “Storm Front.” Billy Joel’s eleventh studio album, “Storm Front,” featured the well-known track “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
His last pop album, “River of Dreams,” was in public in 1993. He appeared with a star-studded cast at the same year’s Los Angeles AIDS project performance.

He issued “Greatest Hits Volume III” in 1997. His two well-known tracks, “To Make You Feel My Love” and “Hey Girl,” were included.

BILLY JOEL CAREER- Tour

He embarked on a musical tour of the country beginning on January 7, 2006, and played twelve sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The same year, “Columbia Records” released “12 Gardens Live,” a collection of his songs from the show at Madison Square Garden. He gave a free concert in Rome in July as a part of his European tour.

He lend the national anthem at “Super Bowl XLI” on February 4, 2007. The same year, “All My Life,” his first new pop single since 1993, was released by “Columbia Records.”
Billy’s albums “Cold Spring Harbor” and “Piano Man” was issued by California Records in for the second time in 2011. The albums featured a lot of studio material and live performances that were previously unavailable. In April 2017, Joel performed the inaugural performance at the recently restored “Nassau Coliseum.” He revealed that Camden Yards will host the first-ever concert at a baseball stadium in 2019.

BILLY JOEL AWARDS

In 1978, his song “Just the way You Are” won 2 “Grammy Awards” within the Record of the Year and Song of the Year classes.
However, in 1984, he received the “ACE Award” (Award for Cable Excellence) for his CD “Live from long island.”
He received the distinguished “Grammy Legend Award,” a special distinction accorded to recording artists in 1991.
In 1997, he was given the ASCAP commencement award for lifetime achievement.
Due to sales of over 11.5 million copies, his album “Greatest Hits Volume I & II” earned him the “RIAA Diamond Award” in 1999.
He acquired “The James Smithson Bicentennial Medal” from the “Smithsonian Institution” in 2000. Billy graduated with an honorary doctorate in music from Southampton college, also referred to as “Long Island University,” within the same year.
Joel won the “Johnny Mercer Award” at the “Songwriter’s Hall of Fame” luncheon in new york town on June 14, 2001.

BILLY JOEL NET WORTH

Billy Joel has a wealth of $225 million. He has oversubscribed quite 150 million records worldwide, creating him one of the foremost made musicians of all time.