William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist.

Commonly
nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his signature 1973 song of the same name,[4][5] Joel has had
a successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s. From 1971 to 1993, he released 12 studio
albums spanning the genres of pop and rock, and in 2001 released a one-off studio album of
classical compositions. Joel is one of the world's best-selling music artists[6] and the
fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States,[7] with over 160 million records sold
worldwide. His 1985 compilation album, Greatest Hits – Volume I & Volume II, is one of the
best-selling albums in the United States.[8]

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 (1971). In 1972, 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 (1973).
After Streetlife Serenade (1974) and Turnstiles (1976), Joel achieved his critical and commercial
breakthrough with The Stranger (1977). It became Columbia's best-selling release, selling over
10 million copies and spawning the hit singles "Just the Way You Are", "Movin' Out (Anthony's
Song)", "Only the Good Die Young", and "She's Always a Woman", as well as the concert
staples "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and "Vienna".

52nd Street (1978) was Joel's first album to peak at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Glass Houses
(1980) was an attempt to further establish himself as a rock artist; it featured "It's Still Rock and
Roll to Me" (Joel's first single to top the Billboard Hot 100), "You May Be Right", "Don't Ask Me
Why", and "Sometimes a Fantasy". The Nylon Curtain (1982) stemmed from a desire to create
more lyrically and melodically ambitious music. An Innocent Man (1983) served as an homage
to genres of music that Joel had grown up with in the 1950s, 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. After River of Dreams (1993), he largely retired from producing studio
material, although he went on to release Fantasies & Delusions (2001), featuring classical
compositions composed by him and performed by British-Korean pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo.
Joel provided voiceover work in 1988 for the Disney animated film Oliver & Company,
performing the song "Why Should I Worry?", and contributed to the soundtracks to several films,
including Easy Money (1983), Ruthless People (1986), and Honeymoon in Vegas (1992). Joel
returned to composing new music with the 2024 single “Turn the Lights Back On”.

Joel has had a successful touring career, holding live performances across the globe. In 1987,
he became one of the first artists to hold a rock tour in the Soviet Union following the country's
alleviation of its ban on rock music. Joel has produced 33 self-written Top 40 hits in the U.S.,[9]
three of which ("It's Still Rock and Roll to Me", "Tell Her About It", and "We Didn't Start the Fire")
topped the Billboard Hot 100. Joel has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards, winning 6,
including Album of the Year for 52nd Street. Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of
Fame in 1992, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999[10] and the Long Island Music Hall of
Fame in 2006. He received the 2001 Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of
Fame[11] and was recognized at the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors.[12]

Early life, family and education

Billy Joel was born on May 9, 1949, in The Bronx. When he was a year old, his family moved to
Hicksville, New York in the town of Oyster Bay on Long Island. He and his cousin Judy, whom
his parents adopted,[13] were raised in a section of Levitt homes.[14]

His mother, Rosalind (1922–2014),[15] was born in Brooklyn to Jewish parents, Philip and
Rebecca Nyman, who emigrated from England.[16] Billy's father, Howard (born Helmut) Joel
(1923–2011), a classical pianist[17][14] and businessman, was born in Nuremberg,
Germany[14] to a Jewish family, the son of merchant and manufacturer Karl Amson Joel, and
educated in Switzerland. Billy's father had created a highly successful mail-order textile
business, Joel Macht Fabrik. Escaping the Nazi regime, Howard and his family emigrated to
Switzerland. Billy's father sold 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.[14] In the United States, Howard became an engineer
but always loved music.

Billy Joel's parents met in the late 1930s at City College of New York at a Gilbert and Sullivan
performance.[17] He has said that neither of his parents talked much about World War II, which
were such dark years; it was not until later that Joel learned more about his father's family. After
Rosalind and Howard Joel divorced in 1957, Howard returned to Europe, as he had never liked
the US; he considered the people uneducated and materialistic.[14] He settled in Vienna,
Austria, and later remarried. Joel has a half-brother, Alexander Joel, born to his father in
Europe, who became a classical conductor there and was the chief musical director of the
Staatstheater Braunschweig from 2001 to 2014.[18][19]

Joel reluctantly began taking piano lessons at age four at his mother's insistence.[17] His
teachers included the noted American pianist Morton Estrin[20] and musician Timothy Ford. Joel
says that he is a better organist than a pianist.[21] As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so he
could defend himself.[22] He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a
short time, winning 22 bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after his nose was broken in his
24th match.[23]

Although Joel's parents were Jewish, he did not grow up in the religion. "I was not brought up
Jewish in any religious way. My circumcision was as Jewish as they got."[24] He attended a
Roman Catholic church with friends. At age 11, he was baptized in a Church of Christ in
Hicksville. He now identifies as an atheist Jew.[25][26][27][28][29]

Joel attended Hicksville High School in Hicksville until 1967 but did not graduate with his
class.[17] He was playing at a piano bar to help support himself, his mother and sister, and
missed a crucial English exam after playing a late-night gig the evening before.[17] Although
Joel was a comparatively strong student, at the end of his senior year, he did not have enough
credits to graduate. Rather than attend summer school to earn his diploma, Joel decided to
begin a music career: "I told them, 'To hell with it. If I'm not going to Columbia University, I'm
going to Columbia Records, and you don't need a high school diploma over there'."[30] In 1992,
he submitted essays to the school board in lieu of the missed exam. They were accepted, and
he was awarded his diploma at Hicksville High's annual graduation ceremony 25 years after
leaving.[31]