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Although Billy Joel never
was a critic's favorite, the pianist emerged as one of the most
popular singer/songwriters of the latter half of the '70s. Joel's
music consistently demonstrates an affection for Beatlesque hooks
and a flair for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway melodies. His fusion of
two distinct eras made him a superstar in the late-'70s and '80s, as
he racked an impressive string of multi-platinum albums and hit
singles.
Billy Joel was raised in the Long Island suburb of
Hicksville, where he learned to play piano as a child. As he
approached his adolescence, Joel started to rebel, joining teenage
street gangs and boxing as welterweight. He fought a total of 22
fights as a teenager and during one of the fights, he broke his
nose. For the early years of his adolescence, he divided his time
between studying piano and fighting. Upon seeing the Beatles on the
Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical
career and set about finding a local Long Island band to join.
Eventually, he found the Echoes, a group that specialized in British
Invasion covers. the Echoes became a popular New York attraction,
convincing him to quit high school to become a professional
musician.
While still a member of the Echoes, Joel began playing
recording sessions in 1965, when he was just 16 years old. Joel
played piano on several recordings George "Shadow" Morton produced
-- including the Shangri-La's' "Leader of the Pack" -- as well as
several records released through Kama Sutra Productions. During this
time, the Echoes started to play numerous late night shows. Soon,
his musical commitments occupied all of his time and Joel dropped
out of high school, just a few months shy of his graduation.
Later in 1965, the Echoes changed their name twice -- once to
the Emeralds and finally to the Lost Souls. For two years, he played
sessions and performed with the Lost Souls. In 1967, he left the
band to join the Hassles, a local Long Island rock & roll band
that had signed a contract with United Artists Records. Over the
next year and a half, the Hassles released two albums and four
singles, all of which failed commercially. In 1969, the Hassles
broke up. Joel and the band's drummer, Jon Small, formed an organ
and drums duo called Attila. In Attila, Joel played his organ
through a variety of effects pedals, creating a heavy psychedelic
hard-rock album completely without guitars. On the cover of the
band's eponymous album, both Joel and Small were dressed as
barbarians; in an interview on the back of the album, Joel claimed
to forget the name of his previous band and stated that he only
"sweated" two things -- perfecting his sound and the war in
Southeast Asia. Epic released Attila early in 1970 and it was an
immediate bomb and the duo broke up. While the group was still
together, Joel began a romance with Small's wife, Elizabeth; she
would eventually leave the drummer to marry the pianist.
After
Attila's embarrassing failure, Joel wrote rock criticism for a
magazine called Changes and played on commercial jingles, including
a Chubby Checker spot for Bachman Pretzels. However, Joel entered a
severe bout of depression, culminating with him drinking a bottle of
furniture polish in an attempt to end his life. Following his failed
suicide attempt, Joel checked himself into Meadowbrook Hospital,
where he received psychiatric treatment for depression.
Billy
Joel returned to playing music in 1971, signing a deal with Family
Productions. Under the terms of the contract, Joel signed to the
label's parent company, Ripp, for life; the pianist was unaware of
the clause at the time, but it would come back to haunt him -- Ripp
received royalties from every album Joel sold until the late '80s.
Joel refashioned himself as a sensitive singer/songwriter for his
debut album, Cold Spring Harbor, which was released in November of
1971. Due to an error in the mastering of the album, Cold Spring
Harbor was released a couple of tape speeds too fast; the album
remained in that bastardized form until 1984. Following the release
of the album, Joel went on a small live tour, during which he would
frequently delve into standup comedy. The tour received good reviews
but Joel remained unhappy with the quality of his performance and,
especially, the quality of the album. Furthermore, he lost a manager
during this time and Family Productions were experiencing legal and
financial difficulties, which prevented him from recording an
immediate follow-up.
Early in 1972, he moved out to Los Angeles
with his girlfriend Elizabeth. Joel adopted the name Bill Martin and
spent half a year played lounge piano at the Executive Room. Toward
the end of the year, he began touring, playing various nightclubs
across the country. At the beginning of 1973, Joel married Elizabeth
Weber and she enrolled at UCLA's Graduate School of Management.
Around the same time, a radio station began playing a live version
of "Captain Jack" that was recorded at a Philadelphia radio
broadcast. Soon, record companies were eagerly seeking to sign the
pianist, and he eventually signed with Columbia Records. In order
for Joel to sign with Columbia, the major label had to agree to pay
Ripp Productions 25 cents for each album sold, plus display the
Family and Remus logos on each record Joel released.
By the end
of 1973, Billy Joel's first album for Columbia Records, Piano Man,
had been released. The record slowly worked its way up the charts,
peaking at number 27 in the spring of 1974. The title track --
culled from experiences he had while singing at the Executive Room
-- became a Top 40 hit single. At the end of the summer, Joel
assembled a touring band and undertook a national tour, opening for
acts like the J. Geils Band and the Doobie Brothers. By the end of
1974, he had released his second album, Streetlife Serenade, which
reached number 35 early in 1975. After its success, Joel signed a
contract with James William Guercio and Larry Fitzgerald's
management company, Caribou, and moved from California to their
hometown of New York. Through songs like "Say Goodbye to Hollywood"
and "New York State of Mind," Joel celebrated the move his 1976
album Turnstiles. The sessions for Turnstiles were long and filled
with tension, culminating with Joel firing the album's original
producer, Guercio, and producing the album himself. Once he fired
Guercio, Joel also left Caribou, and hired his wife as his new
manager.
Turnstiles stalled on the charts, only reaching number
122. Billy Joel's next album would prove to be the make-or-break
point for his career and the resulting album, The Stranger,
catapulted him into super-stardom. The Stranger was released in the
fall of 1977 -- by the end of the year, it peaked at number two and
had gone platinum and, within the course of a year, it would spawn
the Top 40 singles "Just the Way You Are" -- which would win Record
of the Year and Song of the Year at the 1979 Grammys -- "Movin' Out
(Anthony's Song)," "She's Always a Woman," and "Only the Good Die
Young." Over the next two decades, the album would sell over seven
million copies. Joel followed The Stranger with 52nd Street, which
was released in the fall of 1978. 52nd Street spent eight weeks at
number one in the U.S., selling over two millions copies within the
first month of its release. The album spawned the hit singles "My
Life," "Big Shot," and "Honesty," and won the Grammy award for Album
of the Year in 1980. Although he had become a genuine star, critics
had not looked kindly to Billy Joel's music and the pianist became a
vocal opponent of rock criticism in the late '70s; he was known to
have denounced Village Voice pundit Robert Christgau on stage and
then, as a form of protest, had torn up Christgau's reviews.
In
the spring of 1980, Joel released Glass Houses, theoretically a
harder-edged album that was a response to the punk and new wave
movement. By the summer of 1980, Glass Houses had reached number one
in America, where it stayed for six weeks; the album spawned the Top
40 singles "You May Be Right" (number seven) "It's Still Rock'N'Roll
to Me" (number one), "Don't Ask Me Why" (number 19), and "Sometimes
a Fantasy" (number 36) and won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal
Performance, Male in 1981. In the fall of 1981, Joel released Songs
in the Attic, a live album that concentrated on material written and
recorded before he became a star in 1977. The album's "Say Goodbye
to Hollywood" and "She's Got a Way" became Top 40 hits.
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 1982. He broke his wrist in the accident -- it would take
major surgery to repair the wound. In July of 1982, 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." Joel
quickly followed the album in 1983 with the oldies pastiche An
Innocent Man.
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 10), and
"Keeping the Faith" (number eighteen). 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 1983 and 1984, 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 1985.
Billy
Joel released a double album compilation, Greatest Hits, Vols. 1
& 2 in the summer of 1985. Two new songs -- the Top Ten "You're
Only Human (Second Wind)" and the Top 40 "The Night Is Still Young"
-- were added to the hits collection; the album itself peaked at
number six and would eventually sell over four million copies. In
the summer of 1986, Joel returned with the Top Ten single "Modern
Woman," which was taken from the soundtrack of Ruthless People.
"Modern Woman" was also a teaser from his new album, The Bridge,
which was released in August. The Bridge was another success for
Joel, peaking at number seven, selling over two million copies, and
spawning the Top 40 hits "A Matter of Trust" (number 10) and "This
Is the Time" (number 18), as well as "Big Man on Mulberry Street,"
which was used as the basis for an episode of the popular Bruce
Willis/Cybill Shepherd television series Moonlighting.
In the
spring of 1987, Billy Joel embarked on a major tour of the USSR,
during which he had an onstage temper-tantrum and shoved a piano off
the stage. His Leningrad concert was recorded and released in the
fall of 1987 as the double-live album Kohuept, which means concert
in Russian. Joel was quiet for much of 1988, only appearing as the
voice of Dodger in the Walt Disney animated feature Oliver and
Company.
Billy Joel fired his long-time manager and former
brother-in-law Frank Weber in August of 1989, 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 twelfth studio album,
Storm Front, in the fall of 1989. 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. Storm Front marked a
significant change for Billy Joel -- he fired his band, keeping only
Liberty DeVito, and ceased his relationship with producer Phil
Ramone, hiring Mick Jones of Foreigner to produce the album. Storm
Front was another hit for Joel, reaching number one in the U.S. and
selling over three million albums.
During 1990, Joel undertook a
major U.S. tour, that ran well into 1991. In January, the court
awarded Joel two million dollars in a partial judgement against
Frank Weber, and in April, the court dismissed a 30 million dollar
countersuit. At the end of the year, the National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences honored Billy Joel with a Grammy Living
Legend award; that same year, Quincy Jones, Johnny Cash, and Aretha
Franklin were also given the honor.
Following the Storm Front
world tour, Billy Joel spent the next few years quietly. In 1991, he
was awarded an honorary doctorate by Fairfield University in
Connecticut; a few years In the summer of 1992, Joel filed 90
million dollar lawsuit, charging his former lawyer Allen Grubman of
fraud, breach of contract, and malpractice; in October of 1993, the
two parties settled their differences out of court. Joel returned in
the summer of 1993 with River of Dreams, which entered the charts at
number one and spawned the Top Ten title track. Following the River
of Dreams tour, Joel divorced Christie Brinkley. In 1996, he gave a
series of lectures at a variety of American colleges. He performed
at the 1999 New Year's Eve Party in Times Square, and 2000 Years:
The Millennium Concert, a live album of this concert, was released
early the following year. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music
Guide
Stephen Thomas Erlewine |
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