Billy Joel Net Worth

Billy Joel's Quotes

• I look in the mirror and I go: you're a rock star? It's funny I don't look like a rock star, I don't walk around thinking like a rock star. I'm just this shmegdorf walking around and somebody confronts me and goes BILLY JOEL! and I'm like: Right, I'm that guy.
• I have a theory as to why I've been around so long. I don't think I'm all that good, I think I'm competent, I know how to do what I'm supposed to do. I know how to play the piano, I know how to sing in key, I know how to write music & lyrics, I know how to record and I know how to perform. I'm competent. I know how to do my job.
• I'd rather laugh with the sinners, than cry with the saints.
• There's nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex.
• I love telling stories, and I love hearing a good story being told. Songwriting is fascinating in that it incorporates two things that I love to do: create a story and write the music to it. Then I get to sing it and play the piano on top of that. My job allows me to do four things that I absolutely love. It doesn't get much better than that.

Interesting Facts about Billy Joel

1. Began in the group the Echoes (later known as the Lost Souls). Also a member of the Hassles (who performed at Westchester, New York's famous Riviera Lounge in 1967) and Attila.
2. Grammy award-winning singer.
3. Alexa Ray Joel, Billy Joel's daughter with Christie Brinkley, was named after piano legend Ray Charles.
4. He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song "We Are the World".
5. Billy went by the name Bill Martin when he played the Executive Room in Los Angeles while running from his contract after the failure of Cold Spring Harbor.
6. 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.
7. His song "Just the Way You Are" (1977) is one of the most covered and radio-played songs of all-time.
8. His album "The Stranger" (1977) was the most successful album in Columbia Records history at the time. Because of bad management, he only made $3,000 from the album.
9. Writes all of his songs single-handedly.
10. With 77.5 million units sold in the United States to date, he is the third highest selling solo artist of all time after Garth Brooks and Elvis Presley.
11. Seven consecutive albums have made the Top 40.
12. The Hassles hit #112 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1967 with "You've Got Me Hummin'" (United Art. 50215).
13. His and Twyla Tharp's hit musical "Movin' Out" received 10 Tony Award 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 Awards, one went to Tharp for Best Choreography, and the other went to Joel himself for Best Orchestrations.
14. Classically-trained pianist.
15. Inducted into the American Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999).
16. Ditched writing new pop music to compose classical music instead during the mid 1990s. Still performs pop songs at his concerts.
17. One of the very few artists to have top ten hits in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
18. First gig he received with playing his piano was when he was age 15 to play at a piano bar close to his neighborhood. He loved this so much that he quit high school at age 17 to pursue a full fledged music career. Ironically, he worked at a piano bar later in his music career, out in Los Angeles with the name Bill Martin, trying to make ends meet before he released "Piano Man".
19. Family Records, the first label that Joel signed with back in the early 1970s, had a lifetime clause in their contract with Joel. This clause came back to haunt him 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.
20. He played piano on The Shangri-Las' hit single, "Leader of the Pack" (1965). He was 16 years old at the time.