Joel, Billy

Billy Joel

Singer, songwriter, pianist

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

Billy Joel has had a huge impact on the popular music genre during the 1970s and 1980s. Beginning with his 1973 hit “Piano Man,” and continuing through smash successes like 1977’s “Just the Way You Are,” 1978’s “Big Shot,” 1980’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” and 1986’s “This Is the Time,” the singer-songwriter has consistently met the changing demands of the pop audience. Joel seems equally comfortable with ballads or hard-driving rockers, broadening his appeal still further. Over his prolific career, his talents in composition, singing, and playing the piano have garnered him several platinum albums and other honors, including two Grammy awards in 1978.

Joel, born William Martin Joel in the Bronx, New York, on May 9, 1949, began to display his musical talents early, banging on the family piano at the age of two. By the time he was four his mother noticed that he enjoyed listening to Mozart, and decided to get him piano lessons. Though Joel’s lessons lasted twelve years, he found time as a teenager for other pursuits—he was a member of a street gang and participated in bantamweight boxing. He told Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone that he attributes the attraction of these rougher activities to his father’s leaving the family when he was seven: “I missed having a father very much. I went out and did crazy things to discover what my masculinity was…. Stupid stuff.”

Though Joel’s early musical training was classical, as a teenager his taste changed under the influence of rock. He liked the Motown sound, and accorded psychedelic rocker Jimi Hendrix genius status, but he was particularly entranced by the Beatles. Though DeCurtis noted similarities in style between Joel’s Nylon Curtain album and the materials of ex-Beatle John Lennon, Joel claims that he modeled himself most as a singer-songwriter after ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. In 1968 Joel began playing with a local Long Island band called the Hassles; they played in bars and clubs, their performances primarily composed of renditions of Beatles and Rolling Stones hits. The Hassles did, however, record two albums, but their success was too moderate to prevent Joel from supplementing his income by harvesting oysters, painting houses, and writing occasional rock criticism for Changes magazine. Around 1970 the Hassles broke up, and Joel founded a duo called Attila with the group’s drummer, Jon Small. Attila made an album, too, but fame remained elusive.

Finally, in 1972 Joel released his first solo album, Cold Spring Harbor. He was under contract with Family Productions, and apparently the recording was shoddi-ly handled. Due to a mix-up in Cold Spring’s mastering stage, the speed was accidentally bumped from 331/3 rpm to 33 2/3, making Joel’s singing voice come out too

For the Record…

Full name, William Martin Joel; born May 9, 1949, in the Bronx, New York; son of Howard (an engineer) and Rosalind (a secretary; maiden name, Nyman) Joel; married Elizabeth (divorced c. 1983); married Christie Brinkley (a model); children: (second marriage) Alexa Ray.

Singer, songwriter; performed with the Hassles, 1968-79; performed with and founded group Attila, 1970; played piano in lounges in Los Angeles, Calif., under pseudonym Bill Martin; solo concert performer and recording artist, 1972—. Wrote rock criticism for Changes, painted houses, and harvested oysters, late 1960s-early 1970s.

Awards: Winner of several platinum albums; two Grammy Awards for “Just the Way You Are,” (one for best record; the other for best song), both 1978; named Best New Male Vocalist by Cashbox magazine, 1974.

Addresses: Home— 375 N. Broadway, Jericho, N.Y. 11753. Office— Columbia Records, 51 W. 52nd St., New York, N.Y. 10019.

high. While trying to extricate himself from his agreement with Family, Joel left for the West Coast to spend time in Los Angeles, playing piano in a cocktail lounge under the alias Bill Martin. Meanwhile, a song from one of Joel’s live performances to promote Cold Spring had been recorded and was being played on FM radio stations. Clive Davis of Columbia Records saw potential in the song, “Captain Jack,” about a heroin addict in the suburbs, managed to find Joel, helped him out of his ties to Family, and signed him to a recording contract.

Thus the way was paved for the release of Joel’s first successful album, 1973’s Piano Man. The popular title track was a somewhat autobiographical rendition of his experiences as a lounge player; the disc also included “Captain Jack” and other narrative songs like “The Ballad of Billy the Kid.” Because of the strong story content of Piano Man, Joel was perceived by many as an artist in the tradition of narrative singer-songwriter Harry Chapin. This perception was reinforced by Joel’s next album, Streetlife Serenade. Some critics liked Streetlife, such as Steven Gaynes in the New York Sunday News, who affirmed that it “actually meets the standards set by its predecessor,” being “heavily stocked with those stinging lyrics Joel is so brilliant at.” But the album was not as well-liked as Piano Man with the record-buying public. Neither was Joel’s next album, Turnstiles, though it included a song likely to become a Manhattan standard, “New York State of Mind.”

Apparently, hiring Phil Ramone as his producer provided the magic to revitalize Joel’s career. The first of Joel’s albums that Ramone worked on was The Stranger, which spawned four hit singles: “Just the Way You Are” and “She’s Always a Woman,” romantic love ballads, the energetic “Movin’ Out,” and the controversial “Only the Good Die Young.” The latter drew flak from Roman Catholics because it portrayed a teenage boy criticizing his Catholic girlfriend’s religion in order to persuade her to have sex with him. Joel claims that he did not intend to be anti-Catholic; he told Eve Zibart in the Washington Post: “The point is lust. When you’re young and sexually crazed, you’ll tell anybody anything…. Don’t listen to your parents, don’t listen to your religious upbringing. . .”

Most of Joel’s albums after The Stranger produced hits as well. Notable among them are the new-wave influenced “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” from Glass Houses; “Allentown,” a song about the difficulties of the working-class unemployed from The Nylon Curtain that brought him Allentown, Pennsylvania’s key to the city; and “Uptown Girl,” concerning a love relationship that crosses class boundaries, from An Innocent Man —an album which, according to DeCurtis, “seems like a valentine” to model Christie Brinkley, the woman Joel married after he divorced his first wife, Elizabeth. Joel explained to DeCurtis that his first marriage was troubled by the fact that Elizabeth served as his manager: “She was more focused on my career than I was…. It was fruitful and successful in terms of what the music business is supposed to be, but it was ultimately damaging in terms of a relationship.”

Since his remarriage to Brinkley, and the birth of their daughter, Alexa Ray, Joel has slowed his career pace somewhat. He plans to cut down on his concert tours, and eventually to retire from the performance aspects of music in favor of more songwriting and production. As he told DeCurtis, “it’s sort of like being an athlete. Eventually, you have to become a coach. It’s just a natural extension.”

Selected discography

(With the Hassles) The Hassles, United Artists, 1968.

(With the Hassles) Hour of the Wolf, United Artists, 1969.

(With Attila) Attila, Epic, 1970.

Cold Spring Harbor, Family Productions, 1972.

Piano Man (includes “Piano Man,” “Captain Jack,” “The Ballad of Billy the Kid,” and “Travelin’ Prayer”), Columbia, 1973.

Streetlife Serenade (includes “The Entertainer”), Columbia, 1974.

Turnstiles (includes “Summer, Highland Falls,” “Say Goodbye to San Francisco,” and “New York State of Mind”), Columbia, 1976.

The Stranger (includes “Just the Way You Are,” “Movin’ Out,” “She’s Always a Woman to Me,” and “Only the Good Die Young”), Columbia, 1977.

52nd Street (includes “Big Shot,” “Half a Mile Away,” “My Life,” “Honesty,” “Until the Night,” “Stiletto,” “Zanzibar,” and “Rosalinda’s Eyes”), Columbia, 1978.

Glass Houses (includes “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “You May Be Right,” and “Don’t Ask Me Why”), Columbia, 1980.

Songs in the Attic, Columbia, 1981.

Nylon Curtain (includes “Allentown,” “Pressure,” and “Goodnight, Saigon”), Columbia, 1982.

An Innocent Man (includes “An Innocent Man,” “Uptown Girl,” and “Keepin’ the Faith”), Columbia, 1983.

The Bridge (includes “This Is the Time” and “You’re Only Human”), Columbia, c. 1986.

Sources

Books

McKenzie, Michael, Billy Joel, Ballantine, 1985.

Periodicals

New York Sunday News, September 29, 1974.

People, January 10, 1983.

Rolling Stone, November 6, 1986.

Washington Post, October 8, 1978.

—Elizabeth Thomas