Billy Joel - The Stranger. Piano Man Billy Joel. View All. Such a moving no pun intended song. Its got a lot of variety and nice tone if you follow the guitar chords for the left hand. This version of the song provides a wide range of options for musicians that like to improvise with chords. Go Billy Joel! Did you find this review helpful? LOG IN to comment on this review. Musicnotes Pro Send a Gift Card.
Click to view our Accessibility Statement or contact us with accessibility-related questions. Toggle navigation. Save on Every Order! Musicnotes Pro Premium. Add to Cart. Transpose 0. No transpositions available. Music Search. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in , Joel has become a multi-million-selling recording artist.
He is one of the very few rock or even pop artists to have Top 10 hits in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he has sold in excess of million records worldwide and is the sixth best selling artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.
He has continued to tour occasionally sometimes with Elton John in addition to writing and recording classical music. Often he himself, along with many in the media, have confused this with him living in neighboring Levittown, NY formed In truth, Joel lived on Meeting Lane in Hicksville, a town that has existed since , near the Levittown border, in a section of town where Post-WW2, there were houses developed by Abe Levitt, known as Levitt Houses, thus forming nearby Levittown.
His father, Howard Joel, was a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Germany, whose father Karl Amson Joel owned the fourth largest mail order company in Germany before being dispossessed by the Nazis. His mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in England, to an agnostic Jewish family. His parents later divorced, and his father moved back to Eastern Europe.
His half-brother Alexander Joel is an acclaimed classical pianist and conductor in Europe, now living in New York. From an early age Joel had an intense interest in music; especially classical music. He began piano lessons at an early age, and his interest in music instead of sports was the source for much teasing and bullying in his early years. As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so that he would be able to defend himself.
He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, but abandoned the sport shortly after having his nose broken in a boxing match.
Joel attended Hicksville High School, and was to have graduated in However, he was one English credit short of the graduation requirement; he overslept on the day of an important exam due to his late-night musician's lifestyle.
He left high school without a diploma to begin a career in music. In , the English credit requirement was waived by the Hicksville School Board and he received his diploma at Hicksville High's graduation ceremony 25 years after he left the school.
Attila released their eponymous debut album in July and disbanded the following October. Upon losing his record contract with Attila, Joel suffered severe depression, and was admitted into Meadowbrook Hospital after ingesting furniture polish in a half-hearted suicide attempt. The note he left eventually became the lyrics to his song "Tomorrow Is Today.
Cold Spring Harbor a reference to the Long Island town of the same name , was released in However, the album was mastered at the wrong speed, and the album was initially released with this error, resulting in Joel sounding a half step too high Joel later commented that he sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks.
The onerous terms of the Family Productions contract also guaranteed him very little money from the sales of his albums. For six months of the following year, he played in the Executive Lounge piano bar under the name Bill Martin. This experience is what gave him the material for "Piano Man. An Executive from Columbia Records named Herb Gordon, heard his music and made his record label aware of Joel's talent. From there he signed with Columbia Records. Hits such as "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now" were originally released on this album, though they did not gain much attention until released as live performances in on Songs in the Attic.
Since then they have become regular concert numbers. Cold Spring Harbor got a second chance on the charts in , when Columbia reissued the album after slowing it down to the correct speed. The album reached in the US and 95 in the UK nearly a year later. Also in the contract was the agreement that Family Productions would receive a 25 cent royalty for every album Joel sold, which would come back to haunt him when he hit it big. His brief tenure in Los Angeles also inspired his signature song "Piano Man.
To this day it has sold over four million copies. Although this album is best known for its title track, several other future gems include "Captain Jack," "The Ballad of Billy the Kid," and "You're My Home" the b-side of the "Piano Man" single, which would later be covered by Helen Reddy , all of which would become staples of Joel's live shows.
References to both suburbia and the inner city pepper the album. Monday 13 September Tuesday 14 September Wednesday 15 September Thursday 16 September Friday 17 September Saturday 18 September Sunday 19 September Monday 20 September Tuesday 21 September Wednesday 22 September Thursday 23 September Friday 24 September Saturday 25 September Sunday 26 September Monday 27 September Tuesday 28 September Wednesday 29 September Thursday 30 September Friday 1 October Saturday 2 October Sunday 3 October Monday 4 October Tuesday 5 October Wednesday 6 October Thursday 7 October Friday 8 October Saturday 9 October Sunday 10 October Monday 11 October Tuesday 12 October Wednesday 13 October Thursday 14 October Friday 15 October Saturday 16 October Sunday 17 October Monday 18 October Tuesday 19 October Wednesday 20 October Thursday 21 October Friday 22 October Saturday 23 October Sunday 24 October Monday 25 October Tuesday 26 October Wednesday 27 October Thursday 28 October Friday 29 October Saturday 30 October Sunday 31 October Monday 1 November Tuesday 2 November Wednesday 3 November Thursday 4 November Friday 5 November Saturday 6 November In the fall of , Joel released Songs in the Attic, a live album that concentrated on material written and recorded before he became a star in Songs in the Attic bought Joel some time as he was completing an album he had designed as his bid to be taken seriously as a composer.
Before the album was finished, he suffered a serious motorcycle accident in the spring of He broke his wrist in the accident -- it would take major surgery to repair the wound. In July of , Joel divorced his wife, Elizabeth. His new album, The Nylon Curtain, was finally released in the fall. A concept album about baby boomers and their experiences, the album was a commercial disappointment, only selling a million copies, but it did earn him some of his better reviews, as well as spawning the Top 20 hits "Pressure" and "Allentown.
An Innocent Man restored Joel to his multi-platinum status, eventually selling over five million copies and spawning the hit singles "Uptown Girl" number three , "Tell Her About It" number one , "An Innocent Man" number ten , and "Keeping the Faith" number Several of the songs on the album were about model Christie Brinkley, who was engaged to Joel by the time the album was released.
During and , Joel became one of the first '70s stars to embrace MTV and music videos, shooting a number of clips for the album which were aired frequently on the network. The videos usually starred Brinkley, as well as Joel. Brinkley and Joel were married in the spring of Joel released a double-album compilation, Greatest Hits, Vols. In the spring of , Joel embarked on a major tour of the U.
His Leningrad concert was recorded and released in the fall of as the live double album Kohuept, which means concert in Russian. Joel was quiet for much of , only appearing as the voice of Dodger in the Walt Disney animated feature Oliver and Company. Joel fired his longtime manager and former brother-in-law Frank Weber in August of , after an audit revealed that there were major discrepancies in Weber's accounting.
Following Weber's dismissal, Joel sued Weber for 90 million dollars, claiming fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Immediately after filing suit, Joel was hospitalized with kidney stones.
All of this turmoil didn't prevent the release of his 12th studio album, Storm Front, in the fall of It was preceded by the single "We Didn't Start the Fire," whose lyrics were just a string of historical facts.
The single became a huge hit, reaching number one and inspiring history students across America.
0コメント