Photo: David Shankbone / CC BY 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Billy Joel earns my affection because he writes pop songs the way a novelist writes short stories; Allentown and Piano Man are full character studies compressed into four minutes. Critics were often snobbish about him, but the catalog has aged better than most of his detractors' favorites, because melodies that strong simply do not date. I love that beneath the radio polish there is a classically trained ear, audible in his chord voicings and his late-career classical album. The Gershwin Prize and Kennedy Center Honors feel right: he belongs in the lineage of great American songwriters. Decades on, his work still sounds like the city that made him.
Overview
William Martin Joel (; born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the "Piano Man", after his 1973 signature song of the same name, Joel has had a successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s. From 1971 to 1993, he released 12 entirely self-written studio albums spanning the genres of pop and rock, and in 2001 released a one-off studio album of classical compositions.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Billy Joel
- Name (Japanese)
- ビリー・ジョエル
- Reading
- びりー・じょえる
- Born
- May 9, 1949 (age 77)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Ox
- Origin
- New York City, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 2 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- singer-songwriter / pianist / composer / singer / musician
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Hicksville High School
- University
- Syracuse University
Awards & achievements
- 1991 Grammy Legend Award
- 2002 MusiCares Person of the Year
- 1980 Grammy Award for Album of the Year
- Kennedy Center Honors
- 2014 Gershwin Prize
- 2001 Johnny Mercer Award
- 1997 honorary doctor of the Hofstra University
- 2006 honorary doctor of Syracuse University
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Allentown | — | |
| Notable work | Uptown Girl | — | |
| Notable work | We Didn't Start the Fire | — | |
| Notable work | It's Still Rock and Roll to Me | — | |
| Notable work | Pressure | — | |
| Notable work | Tell Her About It | — |
6. Links
Singer-songwriter — see all → · Pianist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.