The Music of Billy Joel
Billy Joel is a famous American pianist, singer, songwriter and composer. He came into this world on May 9, 1949 as William Martin Joel in Long Island, New York. He was born to a German-Jewish holocaust survivor and accomplished pianist Howard and his wife Rosalind Nyman. Joel began studying the piano in 1953, taught by the noted American pianist Morton Estrin and musician, songwriter Timothy Ford. He began his music career with the band Echoes, later changing the name to Lost Souls. He is considered to be one of the most popular recording artists and the biggest entertainers in the world. Joel became famous with his signature song “Piano Man”.
First Musical Steps
After leaving Lost Souls in 1967 Joel joined another…show more content… This was also the time he composed his signature hit “Piano Man. In 1972 WMMR-FM a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania radio station started playing Joel’s live concert recording “Captain Jack” and it became a chartbuster on the East…show more content… His next album and one of my favorites was released in 1980, Glass Houses. It rose to the top of the Billboard Album chart and remained there for six weeks. For his work on this album Joel won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Songs on this album included “You May Be Right”, “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” and “C’etait Toi (You Were the One)”.
Joel released the live album Songs in the Attic in 1981 which included songs from his first album and introduced his new fans to his early work. The singles on this album were “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and She’s Got a Way”. He recorded The Innocent Man in 1983. This was a tribute to popular American music styles from the late 1950s and early 1960s, especially doo-wop and soul music. Three Billboard Top 10 hit singles were featured on this album – “Tell Her About It” at number one, “Uptown Girl” at number 3 and “An Innocent Man” at number 10.
In 1986 Joel released The Bridge in which he collaborated with Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper and Steve Winwood. It included such successful singles as “Matter of Trust” and “A Modern