Billy Joel
BORN: May 9, 1949, Hicksville, Long Island, NY
Although Billy Joel never was a critic's favorite, the pianist emerged as
one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the latter half of the '70s.
Joel's music consistently demonstrates an affection for Beatlesque hooks
and a flair for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway melodies. His fusion of two distinct
eras made him a superstar in the late '70s and '80s, as he racked an impressive
string of multi-platinum albums and hit singles.
Billy Joel was raised in the Long Island suburb of Hicksville, where he learned
to play piano as a child. As he approached his adolescence, Joel started
to rebel, joining teenage street gangs and boxing as welterweight. He fought
a total of 22 fights as a teenager and during one of the fights, he broke
his nose. For the early years of his adolescence, he divided his time between
studying piano and fighting. Upon seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical career and set about
finding a local Long Island band to join. Eventually, he found the Echoes,
a group that specialized in British Invasion covers. The Echoes became a
popular New York attraction, convincing him to quit high school to become
a professional musician.
While still a member of the Echoes, Joel began playing recording sessions
in 1965, when he was just 16 years old. Joel played piano on several recordings
George "Shadow" Morton produced -- including the Shangri-La's' "Leader of
the Pack" -- as well as several records released through Kama Sutra Productions.
During this time, the Echoes started to play numerous late night shows. Soon,
his musical commitments occupied all of his time and Joel dropped out of
high school, just a few months shy of his graduation.
Later in 1965, the Echoes changed their name twice -- once to the Emeralds
and finally to the Lost Souls. For two years, he played sessions and performed
with the Lost Souls. In 1967, he left the band to join the Hassles, a local
Long Island rock & roll band that had signed a contract with United Artists
Records. Over the next year and a half, the Hassles released two albums and
four singles, all of which failed commercially. In 1969, the Hassles broke
up. Joel and the band's drummer, Jon Small, formed an organ and drums duo
called Attila. In Attila, Joel played his organ through a variety of effects
pedals, creating a heavy psychedelic hard-rock album completely without guitars.
On the cover of the band's eponymous album, both Joel and Small were dressed
as barbarians; in an interview on the back of the album, Joel claimed to
forget the name of his previous band and stated that he only "sweated" two
things -- perfecting his sound and the war in Southeast Asia. Epic released
Attila early in 1970 and it was an immediate bomb and the duo broke up. While
the group was still together, Joel began a romance with Small's wife, Elizabeth;
she would eventually leave the drummer to marry the pianist.
After Attila's embarrassing failure, Joel wrote rock criticism for a magazine
called Changes and played on commercial jingles, including a Chubby Checker
spot for Bachman Pretzels. However, Joel entered a severe bout of depression,
culminating with him drinking a bottle of furniture polish in an attempt
to end his life. Following his failed suicide attempt, Joel checked himself
into Meadowbrook Hospital, where he received psychiatric treatment for depression.
Billy Joel returned to playing music in 1971, signing a deal with Family
Productions. Under the terms of the contract, Joel signed to the label's
parent company, Ripp, for life; the pianist was unaware of the clause at
the time, but it would come back to haunt him -- Ripp received royalties
from every album Joel sold until the late '80s. Joel refashioned himself
as a sensitive singer/songwriter for his debut album, Cold Spring Harbor,
which was released in November of 1971. Due to an error in the mastering
of the album, Cold Spring Harbor was released a couple of tape speeds too
fast; the album remained in that bastardized form until 1984. Following the
release of the album, Joel went on a small live tour, during which he would
frequently delve into standup comedy. The tour received good reviews but
Joel remained unhappy with the quality of his performance and, especially,
the quality of the album. Furthermore, he lost a manager during this time
and Family Productions were experiencing legal and financial difficulties,
which prevented him from recording an immediate follow-up.
Early in 1972, he moved out to Los Angeles with his girlfriend Elizabeth.
Joel adopted the name Bill Martin and spent half a year played lounge piano
at the Executive Room. Toward the end of the year, he began touring, playing
various nightclubs across the country. At the beginning of 1973, Joel married
Elizabeth Weber and she enrolled at UCLA's Graduate School of Management.
Around the same time, a radio station began playing a live version of "Captain
Jack" that was recorded at a Philadelphia radio broadcast. Soon, record companies
were eagerly seeking to sign the pianist, and he eventually signed with Columbia
Records. In order for Joel to sign with Columbia, the major label had to
agree to pay Ripp Productions 25 cents for each album sold, plus display
the Family and Remus logos on each record Joel released.
By the end of 1973, Billy Joel's first album for Columbia Records, Piano
Man, had been released. The record slowly worked its way up the charts, peaking
at number 27 in the spring of 1974. The title track -- culled from experiences
he had while singing at the Executive Room -- became a Top 40 hit single.
At the end of the summer, Joel assembled a touring band and undertook a national
tour, opening for acts like the J. Geils Band and the Doobie Brothers. By
the end of 1974, he had released his second album, Streetlife Serenade, which
reached number 35 early in 1975. After its success, Joel signed a contract
with James William Guercio and Larry Fitzgerald's management company, Caribou,
and moved from California to their hometown of New York. Through songs like
"Say Goodbye to Hollywood" and "New York State of Mind," Joel celebrated
the move his 1976 album Turnstiles. The sessions for Turnstiles were long
and filled with tension, culminating with Joel firing the album's original
producer, Guercio, and producing the album himself. Once he fired Guercio,
Joel also left Caribou, and hired his wife as his new manager.
Turnstiles stalled on the charts, only reaching number 122. Billy Joel's
next album would prove to be the make-or-break point for his career and the
resulting album, The Stranger, catapulted him into super-stardom. The Stranger
was released in the fall of 1977 -- by the end of the year, it peaked at
number two and had gone platinum and, within the course of a year, it would
spawn the Top 40 singles "Just the Way You Are" -- which would win Record
of the Year and Song of the Year at the 1979 Grammys -- "Movin' Out (Anthony's
Song)," "She's Always a Woman," and "Only the Good Die Young." Over the next
two decades, the album would sell over seven million copies. Joel followed
The Stranger with 52nd Street, which was released in the fall of 1978. 52nd
Street spent eight weeks at number one in the U.S., selling over two millions
copies within the first month of its release. The album spawned the hit singles
"My Life," "Big Shot," and "Honesty," and won the Grammy award for Album
of the Year in 1980. Although he had become a genuine star, critics had not
looked kindly to Billy Joel's music and the pianist became a vocal opponent
of rock criticism in the late '70s; he was known to have denounced Village
Voice pundit Robert Christgau on stage and then, as a form of protest, had
torn up Christgau's reviews.
In the spring of 1980, Joel released Glass Houses, theoretically a harder-edged
album that was a response to the punk and new wave movement. By the summer
of 1980, Glass Houses had reached number one in America, where it stayed
for six weeks; the album spawned the Top 40 singles "You May Be Right" (number
seven) "It's Still Rock'N'Roll to Me" (number one), "Don't Ask Me Why" (number
19), and "Sometimes a Fantasy" (number 36) and won the Grammy for Best Rock
Vocal Performance, Male in 1981. In the fall of 1981, Joel released Songs
in the Attic, a live album that concentrated on material written and recorded
before he became a star in 1977. The album's "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" and
"She's Got a Way" became Top 40 hits.
Songs in the Attic bought Joel some time as he was completing an album he
had designed as his bid to be taken seriously as a composer. Before the album
was finished, he suffered a serious motorcycle accident in the spring of
1982. He broke his wrist in the accident -- it would take major surgery to
repair the wound. In July of 1982, Joel divorced his wife Elizabeth. His
new album, The Nylon Curtain, was finally released in the fall. A concept
album about baby boomers and their experiences, the album was a commercial
disappointment, only selling a million copies, but it did earn him some of
his better reviews, as well as spawning the Top 20 hits "Pressure" and "Allentown."
Joel quickly followed the album in 1983 with the oldies pastiche An Innocent
Man.
An Innocent Man restored Joel to his multi-platinum status, eventually selling
over five million copies and spawning the hit singles "Uptown Girl" (number
three)," "Tell Her About It" (number one), "An Innocent Man" (number 10),
and "Keeping the Faith" (number eighteen). Several of the songs on the album
were about model Christie Brinkley, who was engaged to Joel by the time the
album was released. During 1983 and 1984, Joel became one of the first '70s
stars to embrace MTV and music videos, shooting a number of clips for the
album which were aired frequently on the network. The videos usually starred
Brinkley, as well as Joel. Brinkley and Joel were married in the spring of
1985.
Billy Joel released a double album compilation, Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 &
2 in the summer of 1985. Two new songs -- the Top Ten "You're Only Human
(Second Wind)" and the Top 40 "The Night Is Still Young" -- were added to
the hits collection; the album itself peaked at number six and would eventually
sell over four million copies. In the summer of 1986, Joel returned with
the Top Ten single "Modern Woman," which was taken from the soundtrack of
Ruthless People. "Modern Woman" was also a teaser from his new album, The
Bridge, which was released in August. The Bridge was another success for
Joel, peaking at number seven, selling over two million copies, and spawning
the Top 40 hits "A Matter of Trust" (number 10) and "This Is the Time" (number
18), as well as "Big Man on Mulberry Street," which was used as the basis
for an episode of the popular Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd television series
Moonlighting.
In the spring of 1987, Billy Joel embarked on a major tour of the USSR, during
which he had an onstage temper-tantrum and shoved a piano off the stage.
His Leningrad concert was recorded and released in the fall of 1987 as the
double-live album Kohuept, which means concert in Russian. Joel was quiet
for much of 1988, only appearing as the voice of Dodger in the Walt Disney
animated feature Oliver and Company.
Billy Joel fired his long-time manager and former brother-in-law Frank Weber
in August of 1989, after an audit revealed that there were major discrepancies
in Weber's accounting. Following Weber's dismissal, Joel sued Weber for 90
million dollars, claiming fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Immediately
after filing suit, Joel was hospitalized with kidney stones. All of this
turmoil didn't prevent the release of his twelfth studio album, Storm Front,
in the fall of 1989. It was preceded by the single "We Didn't Start the Fire,"
whose lyrics were just a string of historical facts. The single became a
huge hit, reaching number one and inspiring history students across America.
Storm Front marked a significant change for Billy Joel -- he fired his band,
keeping only Liberty DeVito, and ceased his relationship with producer Phil
Ramone, hiring Mick Jones of Foreigner to produce the album. Storm Front
was another hit for Joel, reaching number one in the U.S. and selling over
three million albums.
During 1990, Joel undertook a major U.S. tour, that ran well into 1991. In
January, the court awarded Joel two million dollars in a partial judgement
against Frank Weber, and in April, the court dismissed a 30 million dollar
countersuit. At the end of the year, the National Academy of Recording Arts
and Sciences honored Billy Joel with a Grammy Living Legend award; that same
year, Quincy Jones, Johnny Cash, and Aretha Franklin were also given the
honor.
Following the Storm Front world tour, Billy Joel spent the next few years
quietly. In 1991, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Fairfield University
in Connecticut; a few years In the summer of 1992, Joel filed 90 million
dollar lawsuit, charging his former lawyer Allen Grubman of fraud, breach
of contract, and malpractice; in October of 1993, the two parties settled
their differences out of court. Joel returned in the summer of 1993 with
River of Dreams, which entered the charts at number one and spawned the Top
Ten title track. Following the River of Dreams tour, Joel divorced Christie
Brinkley. In 1996, he gave a series of lectures at a variety of American
colleges. He performed at the 1999 New Year's Eve Party in Times Square,
and 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert, a live album of this concert, was
released early the following year. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide