Billy Joel Trivia

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Billy Joel

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Trivia

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DOB
9 May 1949, Bronx, New York, USA

Height
5' 5 1/2"

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Billy Joel on MyHollywood.com

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Billy Joel

Trivia

Began in group "Echoes" (later known as the "Lost Souls"). Also a member of the Hassles and Attila. Inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame 1992. Seven consecutive albums made the Top 40
Grammy award winning singer.
Daughter, with Christie Brinkley, Alexa Ray Joel, was named after piano legend Ray Charles.
He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song "We Are The World."
Billy went by the name Bill Martin when he played the Executive Room in LA while running from his contract after the failure of Cold Spring Harbor.
Joel was once a successful Long Island boxer, winning 22 out of 24 fights. He had taken boxing lessons because he was frequently beaten up by neighborhood bullies. He left his boxing career and went into music when his nose was broken in his 24th fight.
His song "Just the Way You Are" released in 1977 is one of the most covered and radio played songs of all-time.
His Stranger album released in 1977 was the most successful album in Columbia Records history at the time. In spite of that because of bad management, he only made $3,000 from it.
Writes all of his songs single-handedly.
With 77.5 million units sold in the U.S. to date, he is the 3rd highest selling solo artist of all time after Garth Brooks and Elvis Presley.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
The Hassles hit #112 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1967 with "You've Got Me Hummin" (United Art. 50215)
His and Twyla Tharps hit musical "Movin Out" received 10 Tony nominations for the 2003 Tony Awards including: Best New Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestrations. Out of the 10 nominations "Movin Out" received two Tony's, one went to Tharp for Best Choreography, and the other went to Joel himself for Best Orchestrations.
He is a classically trained pianist.
He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2004. It is placed outside Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.
Ditched writing new pop music to compose classical music instead during the mid 90s. Still performs pop songs at his concerts.
One of the very few artists to have top ten hits in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
First gig he got with playing his piano was when he was 15 to play at a piano bar close to his neighborhood. He loved it so much that he quit high school at 17 to pursue a full fledged music career. Ironically, he worked at a piano bar later in his music career, out in L.A. with the name Bill Martin, trying to make ends meet before he released "Piano Man."
Family Records, the first label that Joel signed with back in the early 70s, had a lifetime clause in their contract with Joel. This clause came back to haunt Joel when he signed with major label Columbia Records a few years later. Up until the end of the 1980s, every Joel album sold by Columbia, 25 cents would be paid to Family as a royalty for each album sold. Also, Columbia had to put the Family name, logo, and copyright on every Joel album they produced.
He played piano on the 1965 Shangri-Las hit "Leader of the Pack". He was 16 years old at the time.
Son of Rosalynd Nyman, born in England to an agnostic Jewish family, and Howard Joel, a Jewish Hollocaust survivor from Germany, whose family owned the fourth largest mail order company in Germany before dispossessed by the Nazis. After his divorce, Howard returned to Europe and married again. Billy's half-brother is the famous concert pianist Alexander Joel.
Some of his countless hits are "Piano Man" (1973), "She's Always a Woman" (1978), "My Life" (1979), "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" (1980, first US #1) "Allentown" (1982), "Uptown Girl" (1983, first UK #1), "Tell Her About It" (1983, US #1), "The Longest Time" (1983), "We Didn't Start The Fire" (1989), "Leningrad" (1989), "The Rivers of Dreams" (1993) and "All About Soul" (1993).
Called "Joe" by Christie Brinkley because when she first met him, she wasn't sure whether Billy Joel was just his first name and she decided that he looked like he could be a Joe.