Biography
William Martin Joel - this is exactly what the full name of the singer and the composer sounds one of the best-selling musicians in the entire history of the United States. And for residents of the post-Soviet space - an artist who opened a window in Western culture.Childhood and youth
Billy Joel born on May 9, 1949 in the Jewish family. From early childhood, the future artist instilled love for music. Father is a classic pianist. In his free time, Herword Joel (so called the Father of the Musician) rested at home, playing classical music on the piano.
At a four years of age, Joel began to receive piano lessons. For such a passion of the boy teased in the courtyard, and sometimes he even returned home in bruises. The situation pushed Billy to the fact that he firmly decided to learn self-defense and become a boxer. In the rings, young Joel spent 22 fights. The boxing path ended quickly after his nose broke.
Billy visited the Hicksville School, was very bad. After the divorce of the parents, his father went to his relatives to Australia. Joel helped her mother, playing in the evenings in the bar to earn money.
At the age of 16 began to play the role of a keyboard player in the Echoes Street Group, and after a while the band became popular in New York. Since then, the future star of the scene decided that the study was not for him, and he devoted all his free time to music, throwing school. Although it is worth noting that the musician's education was still received by passing exams in 1992.
Music
After the Echoees group gained momentum and began hearing in New York contemporaries, the team participants several times changed the name. After a couple of years, Joel left Band and became a member of the new team - Hassles. The group has released 4 singles, but none turned out to be recognizable and received the recognition of the public.
After the failure of Billy, along with John Small, who was also a member of the Hassels group, created ATTILIA duet. This composition was released the same album recorded by Universal Studio. The album failed, never went on sale - the music was incomprehensible to the listeners. The group broke up, however, the reason was not only a failure of the album, but also the fact that Joel took his wife to his wife.
All failures did not affect the health of the artist, led to a protracted depression and a suicide attempt. Fortunately, the doctors managed to save him. Coming out of a psychiatric clinic, where Joel spent a week after he tried to poison himself, he decided to start the solo career. In 1971, a solo-execution contract was signed and the first album of the solo artist "Cold Spring Harbor" was released, but not reached popularity.
The first hit, which was in the twenty of the best American chart - the song "Piano Man", released in 1973. Still consider the single of an artist's business card. After him, 4 more album followed, but a breakthrough album was released in 1977 called "The Stranger". The disk achieved such success that the artist had to give 50 concerts for 3 months.
The brightest and stylish album appeared in 1983 called An Innocent Man. The songs from the album become hits in America and in the UK: Hit "Tell Her About It" leads in a weekly charter 100 of the best singles of America, and the song "Uptown Girl" won the hearts of listeners in England, becoming the first in the charts. The main secret of the dizzying success was clips, shot on the main hits of the album spinning on MTV.
In 1986, the new album "The Bridge", whose hit was the song "A Matter of Trust". It is with this album Joel falls into the Soviet Union. In 1987, he became the first musician from America, who performed for the Soviet listeners, which made a crazy Furior. Concerts were held in Leningrad and Moscow, where only party workers received tickets.
As the artist remembers, it was not possible to dig such listeners in principle. A few minutes after the start of the show, the audience began to diverge, and near the hall, where the concert was held, youth crowded. The leaving the concert simply gave tickets, and the Soviet fans were breaking there, where the rock and roll thundered. Throughout the concert, a photo was made and video filming. In 2014, the video was recorded and released on DVD.
The arrival of the American musician in the USSR became a coup in the consciousness of the Soviet viewer. Confirmation of this was the documentary film "Billy Joel. The window in Russia, "which came out on the screen of the first channel. The film tells about the impressions and memoirs of the singer, how he managed to break through in the USSR, as well as how the fingerprint show left at Soviet expanses.
The artist wanted to break the myth of American enemies, arrived accompanied by his family. But the Soviet tour led to the loss of a million dollars and the dismissal of a personal impresario of the musician.
In 1993, after the album "River of Dreams" was released, the musician stated that he wanted to work in the composition of classical music. Sometimes there are records of solo concerts, and on the night of Millennium (2000), Joel gave a three-hour solo concert Madison Square Garden, fragments from which were broadcast online on the US television.
Personal life
No lagging against saturated career growth, the biography of the personal life of the artist is also multifaceted. Billy was married 4 times, with the last wife still in marriage. The first wife Elizabeth Weber Joel led John Smallla, a partner in the ATTILIA group. The couple lived in marriage for 9 years (1973-1982).
Supermodel Christie Brinkley became the next wife of the composer, a few months after the conclusion of the Union, a daughter was born. Parents gave the girl name Alex Ray Joel. The daughter continued his father's case and became the singer. An interesting fact - the second marriage of Billy lasted 9 years - in 1994 the couple declared a divorce.
The third wife is 27-year-old Katie Lee - at the time of dating with the future spouse wrote culinary books. The Union of the 60-year-old artist and the young girl lasted 5 years, after the divorce of Katie received a 4-storey townhouse. Divorce took place in 2009.
In the same 2009, the singer became acquainted with Alexis Roderick. But the couple was married July 4, 2015, a month before the birth of her daughter.
On August 12, 2015, newlyweds became parents of Della Rose's parents. Billy Joel again became a father in the 68th age.
Billy Joel now
The last large-scale tour passed in 2006, thirteen years later, in which the artist visited Ireland and England.
Performing his promise is engaged in writing classical music, often acts as a composer. Now the artist will often meet in the concert program of the musician and idol of Elton John - the musicians are colleagues in the "workshop" and good friends.
The eldest daughter is successfully building a singer career, the youngest of 2.5 years.
The six awards "Grammy" became another achievement in the career ladder Billy Joel.
Discography
- 1971 - Cold Spring Harbor;
- 1973 - Piano Man;
- 1974 - StreetLife Serenade;
- 1976 - TurnStiles;
- 1977 - The Stranger;
- 1978 - 52nd Street;
- 1980 - Glass Houses;
- 1981 - Songs in the Attic;
- 1982 - The Nylon Curtain;
- 1983 - An Innocent Man;
- 1986 - The Bridge;
- 1989 - Storm Front;
- 1993 - River of Dreams;
- 2001 - Fantasies & Delusions.