SING US A SONG [TONIGHT], YOU'RE THE PIANO MAN...

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old woman sitting next to me
Making love to her ratafia...

Today, The Grandma has gone out to enjoying the fabulous nights of the city that never sleeps. She has been drinking a little (or too much) in a beautiful club when she has been remembering her long life accompanied by a piano man, named Billy Joel.

William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and composer.

Commonly nicknamed the Piano Man after his first major hit and signature song of the same name as well as the similarly named 1973 album, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 12 studio albums from 1971 to 1993 as well as one studio album in 2001.

He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as the seventh-best-selling recording artist and the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States, with over 150 million records sold worldwide. His 1985 compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2, is one of the best-selling albums in the United States.

Joel was born in 1949 in the Bronx, New York, and grew up in Long Island, both places that influenced his music. Growing up, he took piano lessons at his mother's insistence. After dropping out of high school to pursue a musical career, Joel took part in two short-lived bands, The Hassles and Attila, before signing a record deal with Family Productions and kicking off a solo career in 1971 with his first release Cold Spring Harbor.

In 1972, Joel caught the attention of Columbia Records after a live radio performance of the song Captain Jack became popular in Philadelphia, prompting him to sign a new record deal with the company and release his second album, Piano Man, in 1973.

After releasing the albums Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles in 1974 and 1976 respectively, Joel released his critical and commercial breakthrough album, The Stranger, in 1977. This album became Columbia's best-selling release, selling over 10 million copies and spawning several hit singles, including Just the Way You Are, Movin' Out (Anthony's Song), Only the Good Die Young, and She's Always a Woman; another song on this album, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, is Joel's favourite of his own songs and has become a staple of his live shows.

More information: Billy Joel

William Martin Joel was born in the Bronx, New York City, on May 9, 1949. When he was one year old, his family moved to the Long Island suburb Hicksville, in the town of Oyster Bay, where he and his younger sister, Judy, were raised in a section of Levitt homes.

Influenced by early rock and roll and rhythm and blues artists, including groups such as The Beatles, The Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley, Joel favoured tightly structured pop melodies and down-to-earth songwriting.

Joel signed a contract with the record company Family Productions, with which he recorded his first solo album, Cold Spring Harbor, a reference to Cold Spring Harbor, a hamlet on Long Island. Ripp states that he spent US$450,000 developing Joel; nevertheless, the album was mastered at too high a speed and as a result, the album was a technical and commercial disappointment.

Joel's first album with Columbia was Piano Man, released in 1973. Despite modest sales, Piano Man's title track became his signature song, ending nearly every concert. That year Joel's touring band changed. Guitarist Al Hertzberg was replaced by Don Evans, and bassist Larry Russell by Patrick McDonald, himself replaced in late 1974 by Doug Stegmeyer, who stayed with Joel until 1989. Rhys Clark returned as drummer and Tom Whitehorse as banjoist and pedal steel player; Johnny Almond joined as saxophonist and keyboardist. The band toured the U.S. and Canada extensively, appearing on popular music shows. Joel's songwriting began attracting more attention; in 1974 Helen Reddy recorded You're My Home (Piano Man).

Columbia Records introduced Joel to Phil Ramone, who produced all of Joel's studio albums from The Stranger (1977) to The Bridge (1986).

Joel's next album, 52nd Street, was released in 1978 and became his first album to peak at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Joel released his seventh studio album, Glass Houses, in 1980 in an attempt to further establish himself as a rock artist; this release featured It's Still Rock and Roll to Me (Joel's first single to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart), You May Be Right, Don't Ask Me Why, and Sometimes a Fantasy.

More information: Twitter-Billy Joel

His next album, The Nylon Curtain, was released in 1982, and stemmed from a desire from Joel to create more lyrically and melodically ambitious music. An Innocent Man, released in 1983, served as an homage to genres of music which Joel had grown up with in the 1950s, such as rhythm and blues and doo-wop; this release featured Uptown Girl and The Longest Time, two of his best-known songs.

After releasing the albums The Bridge and Storm Front in 1986 and 1989 respectively, Joel released his twelfth studio album, River of Dreams, in 1993. He went on to release Fantasies and Delusions, a 2001 album featuring classical compositions composed by Joel and performed by British-Korean pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo.

Joel provided voice-over work in 1988 for the Disney animated film Oliver & Company, in which he played the character Dodger with his song, Why Should I Worry?, and contributed to the soundtracks to several films, including Easy Money, Ruthless People, and Honeymoon in Vegas.

Across the 20 years of his solo career, Joel produced 33 top 40 hits in the U.S., all of which he wrote himself, and three of which (It's Still Rock and Roll to Me, Tell Her About It, and We Didn't Start the Fire) peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Joel has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards, winning five of them, including Album of the Year for 52nd Street.

In 1987, he became one of the first artists to hold a rock tour in the Soviet Union following the country's alleviation of the ban on rock music. Despite largely retiring from writing and releasing pop music following the release of River of Dreams, he continues to tour; he frequently performs at Madison Square Garden.

Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006).

In 2001, Joel received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 2013, Joel received the Kennedy Center Honors for influencing American culture through the arts. Since the advent of his solo career, Joel has held a successful touring career, holding live performances across the globe in which he sings several of his written songs.

Joel has been in several relationships, including marriages to Elizabeth Weber Small, model Christie Brinkley, and chef Katie Lee; since 2015, he has been married to Alexis Roderick, his fourth spouse. He has three daughters: Alexa Ray Joel with Brinkley, and Della Rose and Remy Anne with Roderick.

Joel participated in the USA for Africa We Are the World project in 1985.

More information: Instagram-Billy Joel

  

I think music in itself is healing.
It's an explosive expression of humanity.
It's something we are all touched by.
No matter what culture we're from,
everyone loves music.

Billy Joel