Billy Joel: Songwriter, Singer
Billy Joel is one of the greatest musicians of all time. He has many of the greatest songs and very interesting history. Billy Joel has played music since he was 4 years old. He has more than 3 1# hits in career of singing. Billy started his career local in new york then he went big. He is still performing today and nothing has changed since. Billy Joel was inducted to the rock hall of fame 19 years ago in 1999.
Billy was on May 9, 1949. He was born in the bronx and moved to Levittown off of Long island. His parents were Howard and Rosalind Joel. He had an older brother to named Alexander he was also in the music. He was pushed to study piano only at 4 years old. His father himself was an accomplished classical pianist. By the near time he was 16 he was better than other musicians. From then on his parents knew he was going to be an amazing musician.
Billy joel was 15 and he was just a freshman at Hicksville High School. He was in the band and chorus. When he was 16 he was already in 3 bands. His friends in each bad would have to pick him up and give him a ride each time they played. In the year 1967 he dropped out of high school not graduating at all. That made his parents very upset but they soon got over it. Billy joel never attended college. He pursued in singing music.
He tried making songs and he did. His first album was horrible. It was called Cold Spring Harbor. After that disappointing first album he flew to LA to stay under the radar and not get noticed. Then in 1972 he got a big gig working as a lounge pianist. Playing at The Executive Room is where his song “Piano Man,” was published. By late 1972, recording of Joel’s “Captain Jack” had been released on the East coast grabbing positive attention. In 1972 Billy joel Married Elizabeth Weber. Executives from Columbia Records gave Joel a second chance to become a rock star. With the momentum of a Top 20 single “Piano Man” to his name, Billy Joel began recording new songs and albums.
As the years passed, Joel’s style began to evolve showing his range from pop to the bluesy jazz stylings. In the 20 years of singing he he had 33 song in top 40. In 1982 Billy and Elizabeth had problems and got divorced.He then made the song Allentown. After that song came, Tell her about it and many more songs were released in the 80’s. In 1985 he was then married to model Christie Brinkley. In 1989, with big hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”Joel was presented with the Grammy Legend Award. Billy joel had received the kennedy honors award too.
Billy Joel had some of the greatest hits. He had more than 3 number 1 albums. Those songs were It’s still rock and roll to me, We didn’t start the fire, and Tell her about it. He had so many other songs like You may be right or you’re only human. People loved theses song and so do I. Some tickets to these songs cost more than 150$ I know and can tell how famous Billy Joel was. People then loved him to and that’s what made so famous. With the top hits hitting the charts that’s when the money came into the game. These were some of billy Joel’s Greatest hits.
Billy Joel won many awards throughout his career. Some awards were for songs and other Awards War for kind things he did. Some awards Billy Joel has received are Billy Joel was presented with a Grammy Legend award and Kennedy Honors Awards. He had so many other Awards that can’t be counted.every award Billy Joel was given Hebrew more and more famous. These were the Awards he received.
Billy Joel is one of the greatest musicians throughout time. He had so much history behind them that was interesting and people like that. Billy Joel is still performing today like in the Madison Square Garden or the Prudential Center. People still go to concerts and enjoy it. One thing I learned from learning about Billy Joel is starting young and practicing can bring you along way. These are the reasons why I chose Billy Joel.
