Billy Joel

• 1. Introduction

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  William Martin Joel, better known as Billy Joel, left Hicksville High School in 1967 without a diploma. He had missed a crucial English exam after playing a late-night gig at a piano bar, where he earned money to help support his mother and sister. Rather than attend summer school, he made a different bet. In his words: "I told them, 'To hell with it. If I'm not going to Columbia University, I'm going to Columbia Records, and you don't need a high school diploma over there'." The school waited 25 years for the last word. In 1992 he submitted essays in place of the missed exam, and he was finally handed his diploma.

  The bet paid off on a scale few musicians ever see. Nicknamed the Piano Man, Joel has sold more than 160 million records worldwide and ranks as the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States. He wrote every song on the 12 studio albums he released between 1971 and 1993.

  But the numbers hide the stranger parts of the story. How did the grandson of a refugee from Nazi Germany become a Long Island rock star? Why did he largely stop making studio albums while his songs kept finding audiences? And what did the success cost him in friendships, money and health?

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• 2. Roots on Long Island

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  In 1928, a businessman named Karl Amson Joel set up a mail-order textile company in Germany called Joel Macht Fabrik. Within ten years it was the second largest of its type in the country. Karl was Billy Joel's grandfather, and the business did not survive the Nazi regime. Karl, his wife and their young son emigrated to Switzerland. In 1938, after new laws barred Jews from owning property and businesses, he was forced to sell the company to Josef Neckermann for a fraction of its true value.

  The Immigration Act of 1924 had imposed strict quotas, which made direct entry to the United States difficult for German Jews. So the family traveled by way of Cuba, arriving in early 1939 and staying nearly two years. Karl's only child, Howard, was born Helmut in Nuremberg and educated in Switzerland. In America he became an engineer. He was also an accomplished amateur classical pianist who always loved music.

  In 1942, Howard met a young woman named Rosalind while both took part in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance at the City College of New York. Rosalind had been born in Brooklyn to English parents, Philip and Rebecca, who were Jewish. Their son William was born on the 9th of May 1949 in the Bronx. At age one he moved with his family to Hicksville, on Long Island. His cousin Judy, whom his parents adopted, also lived in the house.

  Joel has said that neither parent talked much about World War II, and he learned more about his father's family only later. The marriage ended in 1957. Howard returned to Europe, having never liked the United States, where he found people uneducated and materialistic. He settled in Vienna, Austria, and remarried. His son Alexander, Joel's half-brother, was born in England and became a classical conductor. Alexander served as chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig from 2001 to 2014.

  At age four, Joel started banging on the piano in the family home, and his mother insisted on lessons. He took them reluctantly. Formal tuition continued until about age 16, with teachers that included the noted American pianist Morton Estrin and the musician Timothy Ford. When learning a new piece, he would sometimes improvise in the style of its composer to avoid reading the music. Joel has even said he is a better organist than a pianist.

  Both of Joel's parents were Jewish, but he did not grow up religious. "I was not brought up Jewish in any religious way. My circumcision was as Jewish as they got," he has said. He attended a Roman Catholic church with friends, and at age 11 he was baptized in a Church of Christ in Hicksville. Today he identifies as a Jewish atheist.

  As a teenager Joel took up boxing and fought as a welterweight on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit. He quit after his nose was broken, with 22 wins in 26 fights.

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• 3. Long Road to Columbia

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  Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers helped shape the tight melodies and plain-spoken songwriting of Billy Joel. Yet it was the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show that made him decide on a music career. He later said, "That one performance changed my life." What struck him was four men who played their own songs and instruments and did not look like they came from the Hollywood star mill. In his words: "I know these guys, I can relate to these guys, I am these guys."

  At age 16, Joel joined the Echoes, a group that specialized in British Invasion covers. The Echoes began recording in 1965. Joel played piano on several records released through Kama Sutra Productions, including recordings produced by Shadow Morton. He played on a demo of "Leader of the Pack", which in 1964 became a major hit for the Shangri-Las. He has also said he was on the demo or master of their song "Remember (Walking in the Sand)". The released single carried a co-producer credit for Artie Ripp.

  Ripp would matter again. Michael Lang, who had given Joel a monetary advance, passed him along to Ripp so that Lang could focus elsewhere. Ripp then became the first to sign and produce Joel as a solo artist.

  In late 1965 the Echoes briefly renamed themselves the Emeralds, and then the Lost Souls. Joel left in 1967 to join the Hassles, a Long Island group signed to United Artists Records. Over about a year and a half they released four singles and two albums, The Hassles and Hour of the Wolf. All of them were commercial failures.

  In 1969, Joel and the Hassles drummer Jon Small left to form the duo Attila. Their eponymous debut album came out in July 1970. The duo disbanded that October, when Joel began an affair with Small's wife, Elizabeth. The pair later married. Small, the friend he lost, would eventually direct Joel's music videos, starting in the late 1970s.

  Next came a deal with Family Productions, whose owner was Artie Ripp. Joel recorded his first solo album, Cold Spring Harbor, named for a hamlet on his native Long Island. Ripp states that he spent US$450,000 developing Joel. Even so, the album was mastered at too high a speed, and it was a technical and commercial disappointment. A tour began in the fall of 1971 across the mainland United States and Puerto Rico, opening for acts such as the J. Geils Band, the Beach Boys, Badfinger and Taj Mahal. His set at the Mar y Sol Pop Festival in Puerto Rico was especially well received.

  On the 15th of April 1972, the Philadelphia station WMMR-FM broadcast a live set of 12 songs by Joel. DJ Jonathan Takiff played a recording of it several times on his late-night weekend show. "Captain Jack" became the most requested track in the station's history and was soon an underground hit on the East Coast. Columbia Records executive Herb Gordon heard the music and brought Joel to the attention of company president Clive Davis. Joel signed with Columbia in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for three years.

  For six months in Los Angeles, Joel worked at a piano bar called The Executive Room on Wilshire Boulevard under the name "Bill Martin". Playing mostly other people's songs, he wrote his signature song, "Piano Man", about the bar's patrons. The album Piano Man followed in 1973. Sales were modest, but the title track ended nearly every concert he gave afterward.

  Columbia did not yet own his future. Joel still owed Artie Ripp and Michael Lang a share of his album royalties. In 1981, when his contract was renegotiated, the company agreed to cover those payments itself. Walter Yetnikoff, president of CBS/Columbia Records, also bought the publishing rights to Joel's songs from Ripp and gave them to the artist as a birthday gift.

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• 4. Finding New York

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  The radio edit of "Piano Man" had been significantly cut, and Joel was upset. For his 1974 album Streetlife Serenade, he wrote "The Entertainer" as a sarcastic reply. One line runs, "If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05." The song reached No. 34 in the United States. Critics viewed the album unfavorably, though it holds "Root Beer Rag", an instrumental that stayed in his live set through the 1970s.

  The next album, Turnstiles, began at the Caribou Ranch studio in Colorado. The producer was Michael Stewart, then James William Guercio took over, and then Stewart was brought in again. Joel used Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson from Elton John's band, along with session musicians. Half the songs were recorded when he decided the results were less than satisfactory. He was also disenchanted with Los Angeles, where he met anti-New York sentiment. In 1975 he returned to New York, seeking inspiration in the city's troubles, and finished the album himself as producer.

  Turnstiles came out in 1976 and was the first album to feature his regular touring band. "New York State of Mind" was never released as a single, yet it became one of his best-known songs. Barbra Streisand recorded a cover, and Tony Bennett performed it as a duet with Joel.

  During the Turnstiles tour, Elizabeth Joel phoned George Martin to recruit him as the next producer. Martin had seen Joel play at Glassboro State College in New Jersey, and he declined. She then contacted Phil Ramone. Ramone attended Joel's concert at Carnegie Hall on the 2nd of June 1977, as did Don DeVito of Columbia Records, who brought a recording truck to tape the show. Impressed, Ramone went on to produce all seven studio albums Joel recorded from 1977 to 1986.

  Their first collaboration, The Stranger, reached number two and was certified multi-platinum. It beat Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water as Columbia's best-selling release. Four singles reached the Top 25: "Just the Way You Are" at No. 3, "Movin' Out" at No. 17, "Only the Good Die Young" at No. 24 and "She's Always a Woman" at No. 17. "Just the Way You Are" was written for Elizabeth and inspired by a dream. It won Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and Joel got the news late one night in a Paris hotel room while on tour. The album also holds "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and "Vienna", both personal favorites. Rolling Stone later ranked The Stranger the 70th greatest album of all time.

  In 1978, 52nd Street took its name from the Manhattan street that then housed the world headquarters of CBS/Columbia. It sold over seven million copies and went to number one on the strength of "My Life" at No. 3, "Big Shot" at No. 14 and "Honesty" at No. 24. Gary Bennett's cover of "My Life" became the theme for the sitcom Bosom Buddies. The album won Grammys for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male and for Album of the Year.

  In March 1979, Joel traveled to Havana, Cuba, for the Havana Jam festival, which ran from the 2nd to the 4th of March. Many considered his set the weekend's highlight. CBS could not record or film it as planned, because his wife objected that no specific deal had been agreed in advance. Three years later, in 1982, 52nd Street became the first album commercially released on the new compact disc format.

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• 5. Proving the Critics Wrong

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  "Balladeer" and "soft rocker" were the labels critics stuck on Joel after "Just the Way You Are", "She's Always a Woman" and "Honesty". He found them unfair and insulting. Glass Houses in 1980 was his answer, an album meant to show he could rock harder, sometimes echoing the new wave sound then rising. The cover shows him in a leather jacket, about to throw a rock at a window of his Long Island home. He called it a riposte to his image as a mellow balladeer.

  Glass Houses spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard album chart. "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" became his first number one on the Billboard Hot 100, spending 11 weeks in the top 10. Other hits were "You May Be Right" at No. 7, "Don't Ask Me Why" at No. 19 and "Sometimes a Fantasy" at No. 36. That last title also named a 15-minute promotional film, his first venture of that kind, which he wrote and directed himself. Five sold-out Madison Square Garden shows in 1980 earned him the venue's Gold Ticket Award for selling more than 100,000 tickets. The album won the 1981 Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male.

  Its closing song, "Through the Long Night", was a lullaby on which he harmonized with himself, inspired by the Beatles' "Yes It Is". At a recorded master class at the University of Pennsylvania, he recalled writing to the Beatles to ask how to get started in the music business. The reply was a pamphlet about Beatles merchandise. That experience later inspired his Q&A sessions around the world, answering questions about the industry.

  Songs in the Attic, recorded in June and July 1980, collected live versions of lesser-known songs from his early years. It introduced newer fans to his earlier compositions, including "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now", which had gone largely unnoticed on Cold Spring Harbor. The album reached No. 8 and sold over three million copies.

  The Nylon Curtain, released in 1982, aimed for more ambitious songwriting and studio work. Joel wanted to "create a sonic masterpiece" and spent more time in the studio than on any earlier album. Topical songs such as "Allentown" and "Goodnight Saigon" carried his feelings about the American Dream. Under the Reagan administration, he said, "all of a sudden you weren't going to be able to inherit the kind of life your old man had."

  On the 15th of April 1982, a serious motorcycle accident delayed the project by several months. A car ran a red light on Long Island, and Joel hit it and was flipped over it. The bone in his left thumb was crushed and his other wrist was dislocated. The album reached No. 7, helped by heavy MTV airplay for the videos to "Allentown" and "Pressure", both directed by Russell Mulcahy.

  An Innocent Man in 1983 was a tribute to the rhythm and blues and doo-wop of the 1950s and 1960s. It reached No. 4 in the United States and No. 2 in the UK, and it holds six top-30 singles, the most of any album in his catalog. "Tell Her About It" gave him his second Billboard number one. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised him as "in top form as a craftsman throughout the record." It was nominated for Album of the Year but lost to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

  "Uptown Girl" began with a chance encounter at a Caribbean hotel bar, where Joel was playing the piano as a holiday guest. Christie Brinkley, Whitney Houston and Elle Macpherson, there on a modeling assignment, approached him. The song was originally titled "Uptown Girls". In the video, Brinkley plays a high-society woman who pulls her Rolls-Royce into the gas station where Joel's character works. When she arrived to discuss the shoot, Joel's first words at his door were, "I don't dance." She had to walk him through the steps. The shoot sparked a relationship that led to their marriage in 1985.

  The next year brought a milestone he had once resisted. Joel had considered greatest hits albums a sign of the end of a career, but he agreed this time. Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2 was released as a four-sided album and a two-CD set, with songs in release order. The RIAA has certified it double diamond, for over 11.5 million copies, or 23 million units sold.

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• 6. Moscow and Courtrooms

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  The Bridge, released in 1986, did not match the success of his earlier studio albums. It still produced "A Matter of Trust" and "Modern Woman", both No. 10 hits from the dark comedy Ruthless People. Joel was unsatisfied with most of the songs, and his record company denied a request for more time to produce better material. It was the last album to carry the Family Productions logo, after which he severed ties with Artie Ripp.

  In October 1986, Joel and his team started planning a trip to the Soviet Union. In July 1987 he arrived with his wife, his daughter Alexa and his full touring band. After an improvised performance in Tbilisi, he gave six concerts at indoor arenas in Moscow and Leningrad, to a combined audience possibly above 100,000. The entourage was filmed for television and video to offset costs, and the shows were simulcast on radio around the world. It was the first live rock radio broadcast in Soviet history.

  The tour was often cited as one of the first fully staged pop rock shows in the country, but Elton John, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt had toured there before. Most of the audience took a long while to warm up. Joel said that when bright lights hit the fans, anyone who seemed to be enjoying themselves froze, and people who were "overreacting" were removed by security. At one concert, enraged by the lights, he flipped his electric piano and snapped a microphone stand while still singing. He later apologized. A live double album, Концерт, came out in October 1987 against his wishes. It was his first album since Cold Spring Harbor not to reach gold status. Joel is estimated to have lost more than US$1 million of his own money on the trip, but he has said the goodwill he was shown was well worth it.

  In 1988, Joel took a rare voice acting role in the animated film Oliver & Company, as Dodger, a sarcastic Jack Russell based on Dickens's Artful Dodger. The character's design drew on Joel's image at the time, including his trademark Wayfarer sunglasses. He also sang Dodger's song, "Why Should I Worry?".

  In August 1989, just before Storm Front was released, Joel dismissed his manager and former brother-in-law, Frank Weber. An audit had revealed major discrepancies in Weber's accounting. Joel sued for US$90 million, claiming fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. In January 1990 he won a US$2 million partial judgment, and in April the court dismissed a US$30 million countersuit from Weber.

  The lead single from Storm Front, "We Didn't Start the Fire", arrived in September 1989. It spent two weeks at number one and remains his third and most recent American number-one hit. The album was his first number-one record since Glass Houses, nine years earlier. For a new sound he worked with Mick Jones of Foreigner instead of Phil Ramone, and he dismissed most of his band. He kept drummer Liberty DeVitto, guitarist David Brown and saxophonist Mark Rivera, and added new players such as multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero. "Leningrad" came from his meeting with a clown in that Soviet city. "And So It Goes", written in 1983, closed the album, and he described it as the calm after a violent thunderstorm.

  In September 1992, Joel filed a US$90 million lawsuit against his former lawyer Allen Grubman, alleging fraud, breach of fiduciary responsibility, malpractice and breach of contract. The case settled out of court in the fall of 1993 for US$3 million. The money came from Sony America, which wanted to protect its subsidiary Sony Music's interests, since several other artists used Grubman's firm.

  River of Dreams was finished in early 1993, with a cover painted by Christie Brinkley showing scenes from each song. Its title track reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the last top 10 hit Joel has written. "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" was written for his daughter Alexa. "The Great Wall of China" was about Frank Weber.

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• 7. Garden Nights and Beyond

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  Beginning in 1994, Joel toured with Elton John on a series of "Face to Face" tours, billed as the longest running and most successful concert tandem in pop music history. They played their own songs, sang each other's songs and performed duets. Their sold-out 2003 tour grossed over US$46 million in just 24 dates. The pair resumed in March 2009 and finished in March 2010 in Albany, New York.

  In 1997, during a Central Park concert, Joel performed with Garth Brooks, who had topped the country charts in 1991 with "Shameless", a song from Joel's 1989 album. On the 15th of March 1999, Ray Charles inducted Joel into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Charles mentioned "Baby Grand", the duet Joel had written for them on The Bridge. Joel was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

  The 31st of December 1999 brought a four-hour concert at Madison Square Garden, later released as 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert. Joel said then that it might be his last tour and possibly his last concert. In 2001 he released Fantasies & Delusions, classical piano pieces composed by Joel and performed by Hyung-ki Joo. The album topped the classical charts at No. 1.

  On the 7th of January 2006, Joel began a US tour after 13 years without new songs. His 12 performances at Madison Square Garden, between the 23rd of January and the 24th of April, set a record for most consecutive sold-out concerts by an artist on a single tour. The previous best, 10 shows, belonged to Bruce Springsteen in 2000. The arena honored Joel with its first retired number, 12, ever given to a non-athlete. A banner in Philadelphia honors his 48 sold-out shows there. On the 31st of July 2006 he played a free concert in Rome with the Colosseum as backdrop.

  On the 1st of December 2007, Joel premiered "Christmas in Fallujah", written after he read numerous letters from American soldiers in Iraq. He felt the song should be sung by someone of a soldier's age, so Cass Dillon sang it. Proceeds benefited the Homes For Our Troops foundation. In July 2008 he played the final concerts at Shea Stadium before its demolition, with guests including Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney and Steven Tyler. The shows were featured in the 2010 documentary Last Play at Shea.

  On the 19th of May 2009, his former drummer Liberty DeVitto filed a lawsuit claiming he was owed over 10 years of royalty payments. DeVitto had never received songwriting or arranging credit, but claimed he helped arrange songs including "Only the Good Die Young". The two amicably resolved it in April 2010.

  In December 2013, Madison Square Garden named Joel its first ever music franchise, alongside the Knicks, the Rangers and the Liberty. On the 27th of January 2014 he began a residency of one concert a month, with no end date. His first concert at the arena had come in 1978, and he has played there at least 150 times. In 2023, he announced the residency would end in July 2024 with its 104th performance, which would be his 150th lifetime show at the venue.

  The 22nd of January 2024 brought news of "Turn the Lights Back On", his first new pop single in years, released on the 1st of February. On the 4th of June 2025, the first part of an HBO documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. It aired on HBO and HBO Max on the 18th of July, and a 155-track playlist of previously unreleased live and demo recordings followed.

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• 8. Life Off Stage

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  Elizabeth Weber Small was married to Jon Small when her relationship with Joel began. When the affair was revealed, she severed her relationships with both men. She and Joel later reconciled and married in 1973, and she became his manager. They divorced on the 20th of July 1982.

  Joel's marriage to Christie Brinkley produced a daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, born on the 29th of December 1985. She was given the middle name Ray after Ray Charles, one of Joel's idols. The couple divorced on the 26th of August 1994 but remain friends, and Joel is godfather to Brinkley's two youngest children, Jack and Sailor Brinkley Cook.

  On the 2nd of October 2004, Joel married the chef Katie Lee, then 23 to his 55. Alexa Ray, 18, was maid of honor, and Brinkley attended and gave the couple her blessing. They announced their separation on the 17th of June 2009. On the 4th of July 2015, he married Alexis Roderick, an equestrian and former Morgan Stanley executive, at his Oyster Bay estate. Governor Andrew Cuomo conducted the ceremony. They had a daughter in August 2015 and another in October 2017.

  In 1970, a career decline and personal tragedies pushed Joel into a deep depression, and he attempted suicide twice. He was evicted from Jon Small's house, and he said, "I was sleeping in laundromats and I was depressed, I think to the point of almost being psychotic." He checked into Meadowbrook Hospital, where he was put on suicide watch and treated for depression. He later wrote "Tomorrow Is Today", which he describes as a suicide note. In 1985 he recorded "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" as a message to help prevent teen suicide.

  In 2002, Joel entered Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, for 10 days of treatment. In March 2005 he checked into the Betty Ford Center for 30 days for treatment of alcohol abuse. He has admitted a history of alcoholism and has since become sober, though he says details such as DUI arrests were exaggerated.

  On the 23rd of May 2025, Joel canceled every concert on his itinerary after a diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus. The condition caused problems with his hearing, vision and balance. By July 2025 he told People and Bill Maher that he felt better and that the condition was treatable.

  Having worked on an oyster dredger as a teenager, Joel has a longstanding interest in boats. In 1996 he and Peter Needham formed the Long Island Boat Company. Several of his boats were built on rough designs by Joel, including a 57-foot craft with a top speed of 50 mph, built to commute from Oyster Bay to Manhattan. In November 2010 he opened 20th Century Cycles, a vintage motorcycle customization business and museum in Oyster Bay.

  In January 1992, Joel announced he would donate some of the proceeds from "The Downeaster Alexa" to defend 11 East Hampton fishermen accused of selling striped bass illegally. He rarely endorses candidates. In 2008 he played a benefit with Bruce Springsteen for Barack Obama's campaign. He has said of celebrity endorsements, "People who pay for your tickets, I don't think they want to hear who you're going to vote for and how you think they should vote."

  In 2008, HarperCollins acquired a memoir project from Joel for US$3 million. In March 2011 he canceled it. "It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I'm not all that interested in talking about the past," he explained, "and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music."

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