Billy Joel

format_quote Don't take any sh*t from anybody!

stars  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.

stars  Family Records, the first label that Joel signed with back in the early 70's, 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 1980's, 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.

stars  His and Twyla Tharp's 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.

stars  He played piano on the 1965 Shangri-Las hit "Leader of the Pack". He was 16 years old at the time.

stars  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).