William Martin Joel born May 9, is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed the " Piano Man " after his signature song of the same name , [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Joel has had a successful career as a solo artist since the s.
From to , he released 12 studio albums spanning the genres of pop and rock , and in released a one-off studio album of classical compositions. With over million records sold worldwide, Joel is one of the world's best-selling music artists [ 6 ] and is the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States. Joel was born in the Bronx in New York City and grew up on Long Island , where he began taking piano lessons at his mother's insistence. After dropping out of high school to pursue a music career, Joel took part in two short-lived bands, the Hassles and Attila , before signing a record deal with Family Productions and embarking on a solo career with his debut album, Cold Spring Harbor In , Joel caught the attention of Columbia Records after a live radio performance of " Captain Jack " became popular in Philadelphia , prompting him to sign a new record deal with the company, through which he released his second album, Piano Man After Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles , Joel achieved his critical and commercial breakthrough with The Stranger The Nylon Curtain stemmed from a desire to create more lyrically and melodically ambitious music.
An Innocent Man served as an homage to genres of music that Joel had grown up with in the s, such as rhythm and blues and doo-wop ; it featured " Tell Her About It ", " Uptown Girl ", and " The Longest Time ", three of his best-known songs.
Joel has had a successful touring career, holding live performances across the globe. In , he became one of the first artists to hold a rock tour in the Soviet Union. Joel has had 33 Top 40 hits in the U. Billy Joel was born on May 9, , in The Bronx. He and his cousin Judy, whom his parents adopted, [ 13 ] were raised in a section of Levitt homes. Escaping the Nazi regime , Karl, his wife and young son emigrated to Switzerland. Billy's grandfather was forced to sell his business at a fraction of its value in order to emigrate.
The family reached the United States via Cuba , because immigration quotas for German Jews prevented direct immigration at the time. After Rosalind and Howard Joel divorced in , Howard returned to Europe, as he had never liked the US: he considered the people uneducated and materialistic.
