Billy joel in 250 words (ish)
Billy Joel is an American singer-songwriter and pianist from The Bronx, New York, U.S. His father was a classic pianist and began piano lessons at the age of four. Joel was inspired by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and the Everly Brothers.
Joel released 14 studio albums, 5 live albums and 61 singles. In the UK, he had 1 No.1 hit ‘Uptown Girl’ (1983) which spent 5 weeks at No.1. He had 8 albums in the top 10 including ‘Glass House’ (1980), ‘Storm Front’ (1989) and ‘River of Dreams’ (1993). Joel’s most recent single on the charts is ‘She’s Always a Woman’ which was a released as a single in 1977 but was re-entered into the charts in 2010.
‘An Innocent Man’ (1983) was Joel’s ninth studio album and features 3 of his biggest hit singles ‘Tell Her About It’, ‘Uptown Girl’ and ‘An innocent Man’. In the UK, this album reached No.2 on the UK album charts and has reached 3x Platinum (900,000 sales).
One of Joel’s best-selling hits is ‘Piano Man’ and was released in 1973, however the song did not really chart well reaching No.20 in Australia, No.25 in U.S and No.10 in Canada. The song was not in the UK charts but has reached a Platinum status after selling 600,000+ records. ‘Piano Man’ was released on the album ‘Piano Man’ in 1973.
Joel has won 5 Grammy Awards, received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, and has received 7 doctorates. He is also the first non-classical musician with a portrait in Steinway hall and in 1986 was on the site selection committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.