Best Known As: Pianist and singer of the tune Piano Man
Name at birth: William Martin Joel
Billy Joel's first major album, Piano Man, was released in 1974. It showcased his gift for writing ambitious pop tunes that were both catchy and sentimental. Expansive singles like New York State of Mind (1976) and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant (1977) cemented Joel's position as a blue-collar New York troubadour and helped make him one of the decade's most popular touring acts. His 1977 album The Stranger was packed with hit singles, including Movin' Out, Just the Way You Are and Only the Good Die Young, and was perhaps the height of his fame. He continued to produce hit singles like Uptown Girl throughout the 1980s, though critics carped that he had replaced his early passion with nostalgic ditties and highfalutin message songs. Still, by the turn of the century he had sold over 100 million records and was one of the most successful recording artists in history. Joel's albums include Turnstiles (1976), 52nd Street (1978), Glass Houses (1980), An Innocent Man (1983), River of Dreams (1993) and My Lives (2005). Movin' Out, a dance musical based on his songs and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, played on Broadway from 2002-2005. Joel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
Joel was married to supermodel Christie Brinkley from 1985 to 1994; their daughter, Alexa Ray, was born in 1985... He married the former Katie Lee in 2004; she's a TV food critic and reporter who was born in 1981... Joel was previously married to the former Elizabeth Small from 1973-82... Joel was born in the Bronx but grew up in Levittown, the planned community on Long Island.
Instruments: Vocals, Keyboards, Piano, Harmonica, Synthesizer, Organ
Biography
Although Billy Joel never was a critic's favorite, the pianist emerged as one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the latter half of the '70s. Joel's music consistently demonstrates an affection for Beatlesque hooks and a flair for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway melodies. His fusion of two distinct eras made him a superstar in the late '70s and '80s, as he racked an impressive string of multi-platinum albums and hit singles.
Born in the Bronx, Joel was raised in the Long Island suburb of Hicksville, where he learned to play piano as a child. As he approached his adolescence, Joel started to rebel, joining teenage street gangs and boxing as welterweight. He fought a total of 22 fights as a teenager, and during one of the fights, he broke his nose. For the early years of his adolescence, he divided his time between studying piano and fighting. Upon seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical career and set about finding a local Long Island band to join. Eventually, he found the Echoes, a group that specialized in British Invasion covers. The Echoes became a popular New York attraction, convincing him to quit high school to become a professional musician.
While still a member of the Echoes, Joel began playing recording sessions in 1965, when he was just 16 years old. Joel played piano on several recordings George "Shadow" Morton produced -- including the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" -- as well as several records released through Kama Sutra Productions. During this time, the Echoes started to play numerous late-night shows.
Later in 1965, the Echoes changed their name twice -- once to the Emeralds and finally to the Lost Souls. For two years, he played sessions and performed with the Lost Souls. In 1967, he left the band to join the Hassles, a local Long Island rock & roll band that had signed a contract with United Artists Records. Over the next year and a half, the Hassles released two albums and four singles, all of which failed commercially. In 1969, the Hassles broke up. Joel and the band's drummer, Jon Small, formed an organ and drums duo called Attila. In Attila, Joel played his organ through a variety of effects pedals, creating a heavy psychedelic hard rock album completely without guitars. On the cover of the band's eponymous album, both Joel and Small were dressed as barbarians; in an interview on the back of the album, Joel claimed to forget the name of his previous band and stated that he only "sweated" two things -- perfecting his sound and the war in Southeast Asia. Epic released Attila early in 1970 and it was an immediate bomb and the duo broke up. While the group was still together, Joel began a romance with Small's wife, Elizabeth; she would eventually leave the drummer to marry the pianist.
After Attila's embarrassing failure, Joel wrote rock criticism for a magazine called Changes and played on commercial jingles, including a Chubby Checker spot for Bachman Pretzels. However, Joel entered a severe bout of depression, culminating with him drinking a bottle of furniture polish in an attempt to end his life. Following his failed suicide attempt, Joel checked himself into Meadowbrook Hospital, where he received psychiatric treatment for depression.
Joel returned to playing music in 1971, signing a deal with Family Productions. Under the terms of the contract, Joel signed to the label, for life; the pianist was unaware of the clause at the time, but it would come back to haunt him -- Family Productions received royalties from every album Joel sold until the late '80s. Joel refashioned himself as a sensitive singer/songwriter for his debut album, Cold Spring Harbor, which was released in November of 1971. Due to an error in the mastering of the album, Cold Spring Harbor was released a couple of tape speeds too fast; the album remained in that bastardized form until 1984. Following the release of the album, Joel went on a small live tour, during which he would frequently delve into standup comedy. The tour received good reviews but Joel remained unhappy with the quality of his performance and, especially, the quality of the album. Furthermore, he lost a manager during this time and Family Productions were experiencing legal and financial difficulties, which prevented him from recording an immediate follow-up.
Early in 1972, he moved out to Los Angeles with his girlfriend Elizabeth. Joel adopted the name Bill Martin and spent half a year playing lounge piano at the Executive Room. Toward the end of the year, he began touring, playing various nightclubs across the country. At the beginning of 1973, Joel married Elizabeth Weber and she enrolled at UCLA's Graduate School of Management. Around the same time, a radio station began playing a live version of "Captain Jack" that was recorded at a Philadelphia radio broadcast. Soon, record companies were eagerly seeking to sign the pianist, and he eventually signed with Columbia Records. In order for Joel to sign with Columbia, the major label had to agree to pay Family Productions 25 cents for each album sold, plus display the Family and Remus logos on each record Joel released.
By the end of 1973, Billy Joel's first album for Columbia Records, Piano Man, had been released. The record slowly worked its way up the charts, peaking at number 27 in the spring of 1974. The title track -- culled from experiences he had while singing at the Executive Room -- became a Top 40 hit single. At the end of the summer, Joel assembled a touring band and undertook a national tour, opening for acts like the J. Geils Band and the Doobie Brothers. By the end of 1974, he had released his second album, Streetlife Serenade, which reached number 35 early in 1975. After its success, Joel signed a contract with James William Guercio and Larry Fitzgerald's management company, Caribou, and moved from California to New York. Through songs like "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" and "New York State of Mind," Joel celebrated the move his 1976 album Turnstiles. The sessions for Turnstiles were long and filled with tension, culminating with Joel firing the album's original producer, Guercio, and producing the album himself. Once he fired Guercio, Joel also left Caribou, and hired his wife as his new manager.
Turnstiles stalled on the charts, only reaching number 122. Joel's next album would prove to be the make-or-break point for his career, and the resulting album, The Stranger, catapulted him into superstardom. The Stranger was released in the fall of 1977. By the end of the year, it peaked at number two and had gone platinum, and within the course of a year, it would spawn the Top 40 singles "Just the Way You Are" -- which would win the 1978 Grammy for Record of the Year and Song of the Year -- "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "She's Always a Woman," and "Only the Good Die Young." Over the next two decades, the album would sell over seven million copies. Joel followed The Stranger with 52nd Street, which was released in the fall of 1978. 52nd Street spent eight weeks at number one in the U.S., selling over two millions copies within the first month of its release. The album spawned the hit singles "My Life," "Big Shot," and "Honesty," and won the 1979 Grammy award for Album of the Year. Although he had become a genuine star, critics had not looked kindly to Joel's music, and the pianist became a vocal opponent of rock criticism in the late '70s. In one incident he denounced Los Angeles Herald Examiner critic Ken Tucker on-stage and then, as a form of protest, tore up the critic's reviews.
In the spring of 1980, Joel released Glass Houses, theoretically a harder-edged album that was a response to the punk and new wave movement. Glass Houses reached number one in America, where it stayed for six weeks; the album spawned the Top 40 singles "You May Be Right" (number seven), "It's Still Rock'n'Roll to Me" (number one), "Don't Ask Me Why" (number 19), and "Sometimes a Fantasy" (number 36) and won the 1980 Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male. In the fall of 1981, Joel released Songs in the Attic, a live album that concentrated on material written and recorded before he became a star in 1977. The album's "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" and "She's Got a Way" became Top 40 hits.
Songs in the Attic bought Joel some time as he was completing an album he had designed as his bid to be taken seriously as a composer. Before the album was finished, he suffered a serious motorcycle accident in the spring of 1982. He broke his wrist in the accident -- it would take major surgery to repair the wound. In July of 1982, Joel divorced his wife, Elizabeth. His new album, The Nylon Curtain, was finally released in the fall. A concept album about baby boomers and their experiences, the album was a commercial disappointment, only selling a million copies, but it did earn him some of his better reviews, as well as spawning the Top 20 hits "Pressure" and "Allentown." Joel quickly followed the album in 1983 with the oldies pastiche An Innocent Man.
An Innocent Man restored Joel to his multi-platinum status, eventually selling over seven million copies and spawning the hit singles "Uptown Girl" (number three), "Tell Her About It" (number one), "An Innocent Man" (number ten), and "Keeping the Faith" (number 18). Several of the songs on the album were about model Christie Brinkley, who was engaged to Joel by the time the album was released. During 1983 and 1984, Joel became one of the first '70s stars to embrace MTV and music videos, shooting a number of clips for the album that were aired frequently on the network. Brinkley and Joel were married in the spring of 1985.
Joel released a double-album compilation, Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2 in the summer of 1985. Two new songs -- the Top Ten "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and the Top 40 "The Night Is Still Young" -- were added to the hits collection; the album itself peaked at number six and would eventually sell over ten million copies. In the summer of 1986, Joel returned with the Top Ten single "Modern Woman," which was taken from the soundtrack of Ruthless People. "Modern Woman" was also a teaser from his new album, The Bridge, which was released in August. The Bridge was another success for Joel, peaking at number seven, selling over two million copies, and spawning the Top 40 hits "A Matter of Trust" (number ten) and "This Is the Time" (number 18), as well as "Big Man on Mulberry Street," which was used as the basis for an episode of the popular Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd television series Moonlighting.
In the spring of 1987, Joel embarked on a major tour of the U.S.S.R., during which he had an on-stage temper tantrum and shoved a piano off the stage. His Leningrad concert was recorded and released in the fall of 1987 as the live double album Kohuept, which means concert in Russian. Joel was quiet for much of 1988, only appearing as the voice of Dodger in the Walt Disney animated feature Oliver and Company.
Joel fired his longtime manager and former brother-in-law Frank Weber in August of 1989, after an audit revealed that there were major discrepancies in Weber's accounting. Following Weber's dismissal, Joel sued Weber for 90 million dollars, claiming fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Immediately after filing suit, Joel was hospitalized with kidney stones. All of this turmoil didn't prevent the release of his 12th studio album, Storm Front, in the fall of 1989. It was preceded by the single "We Didn't Start the Fire," whose lyrics were just a string of historical facts. The single became a huge hit, reaching number one and inspiring history students across America. Storm Front marked a significant change for Joel -- he fired his band, keeping only Liberty DeVito, and ceased his relationship with producer Phil Ramone, hiring Mick Jones of Foreigner to produce the album. Storm Front was another hit for Joel, reaching number one in the U.S. and selling over three million albums.
During 1990, Joel undertook a major U.S. tour, which ran well into 1991. In January, the court awarded Joel two million dollars in a partial judgment against Frank Weber, and in April, the court dismissed a 30 million dollar countersuit. At the end of the year, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honored Joel with a Grammy Living Legend award; that same year, Quincy Jones, Johnny Cash, and Aretha Franklin were also given the honor.
Following the Storm Front world tour, Joel spent the next few years quietly. In 1991, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Fairfield University in Connecticut. In the summer of 1992, Joel filed a 90 million dollar lawsuit charging his former lawyer Allen Grubman of fraud, breach of contract, and malpractice; in October of 1993, the two parties settled their differences out of court. Joel returned in the summer of 1993 with River of Dreams, which entered the charts at number one and spawned the Top Ten title track. Following the River of Dreams tour, Joel divorced Christie Brinkley. In 1996, he gave a series of lectures at a variety of American colleges. He performed at the 1999 New Year's Eve Party in Times Square, and 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert, a live album of this concert, was released early the following year.
His next studio record, Fantasies & Delusions, arrived in 2001 and was his first album of his own classical compositions. A year later, Twyla Tharp choreographed and directed Movin' Out, a Broadway musical based on Joel's music. A new venture as a children's author began in 2004 with the release of his first book, Goodnight, My Angel: A Lullaby. The 54-year-old Joel married the 23-year-old Katie Lee that same year and was making tabloid headlines again in March of 2005 when he checked into the Betty Ford Clinic for treatment of alcohol abuse. He checked out in April, and in November his four-CD/one-DVD career retrospective My Lives was released. Live in Madison Square Garden NYC and the accompanying 12 Gardens Live arrived in 2006. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Born: May 09, 1949 in Bronx, New York City, New York
Occupation: Actor
Active: '80s-2000s
Major Genres: Music, Comedy
Career Highlights: Star 80, Easy Money, Billy Joel: The Video Album, Vol. 2
First Major Screen Credit: Saturday Night Live: Chevy Chase (1978)
Biography
Superstar pop singer/songwriter Billy Joel has thus far never acted in a feature film. He has, however, been the subject of a few concert films and documentaries. Joel also occasionally provides music and lyrics for film soundtracks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
"The good days weren't really so good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."
"A typical day in the life of a heavy metal musician consists of a round of golf and an AA meeting."
"I have a theory that the only original things we ever do are mistakes."
"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."
"I've come to realize that life is not a musical comedy, it's a Greek tragedy."
"Like a boxer in a title fight, you have to walk in that ring alone."
Joel had Top 10 hits in the '70s, '80s, and '90s; is a six-time Grammy Award winner; and
has sold in excess of 150 million albums worldwide.[2] He
was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (Class of 1992), the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Class of 1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (Class of 2006). Joel retired from recording pop music in
1993 but continued to tour (sometimes with Elton John). In 2001 he subsequently released
Fantasies & Delusions, a CD of classical compositions for piano. In
2007 he returned to recording with a single entitled "All My Life", followed by an extensive "World Tour" from 2005-2007,
covering many of the major world cities.
Early years
Born in the Bronx, New York, Joel was raised in Hicksville, New York. His father Howard was originally from Germany where his father (Billy Joel's
grandfather) Karl Amson Joel had owned the fourth-largest mail order company in Germany
before being dispossessed by the Nazis. His father had survived Dachau concentration camp. His
mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in England, to an agnostic
Jewish family. His parents later divorced, and his father moved back to Vienna, Austria. His
sister Judith Joel, and half-brother Alexander Joel is an acclaimed classical pianist and conductor in Europe, now living in New
York. [3]
From an early age,t, Joel had an intense interest in music, especially European classical music. He reluctantly began piano
lessons at an early age at his mother's insistence, including with the noted American pianist Morton Estrin[4] and
musician/songwriter, Timothy Ford. His interest in music instead of sports was the source of teasing and bullying in his early
years. (He has said in interviews that his piano instructor also taught ballet. This led neighborhood bullies to mistakenly think
he was learning to dance.) As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so that he would be able to defend
himself. He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time
(winning twenty-two bouts), but abandoned the sport shortly after having his nose broken in his twenty-fourth boxing match.
Joel attended Hicksville High School, and he was supposed to graduate in 1967. However, he was one English credit short of the
graduation requirement; he overslept on the day of an important exam due to his late-night musician's lifestyle.[5] Faced with a summer in school to complete this requirement, he
decided not to continue. He left high school without a diploma to begin a career in music. Despite the Vietnam War and the draft,
Joel performed no military service - because he was the sole provider for his mother and sister the selective service gave him an
exemption. In 1992, the English credit requirement was waived by the Hicksville School Board and he received his diploma at
Hicksville High's graduation ceremony 25 years after he left the school.[6]
Musical career
Upon seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan
Show in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical career and set about finding a local Long Island band to join.
Eventually, he found the Echoes, a group that specialized in British Invasion covers. The Echoes became a popular New York attraction, convincing him to quit high school to become a professional musician.
While still a member of the Echoes, Joel began playing recording sessions in 1965, when he was just 16 years old. Joel played
piano on several recordings George "Shadow" Morton produced -- including the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" -- as well as several
records released through Kama Sutra Productions. During this time, the Echoes started to play
numerous late-night shows.
Later in 1965, the Echoes changed their name twice -- once to the Emeralds and finally to
the Lost Souls. For two years, he played sessions and performed with the Lost Souls. In 1967, he
left the band to join the Hassles, a local Long Island rock & roll band that had signed a
contract with United Artists Records. Over the next year and a half, the Hassles
released two albums and four singles, all of which failed commercially. The Hassles released two albums (The Hassles in
1967 and Hour of the Wolf, 1968) on the United Artists record label. Following The
Hassles' demise in 1969, he formed the keyboard-and-drums based heavy metal duo Attila
with Hassles drummer Jon Small. Attila released their eponymous debut album in July 1970 and disbanded the following October.
Joel signed his first solo record contract with Artie Ripp of Family Productions, and subsequently recorded his first solo
album. Cold Spring Harbor (a reference to the Long Island town of the same name), was released in 1971. However, the album was mastered
at the wrong speed, and the album was initially released with this error, resulting in Joel sounding a semitone too high. The
onerous terms of the Family Productions contract also guaranteed him very little money from the sales of his albums.
In order to get out of the deal with Family Productions, Joel moved to Los Angeles,
California with Elizabeth Weber, and they married in Los Angeles on September 5, 1971. For six months the following year, he played in the
Executive Lounge piano bar under the name Bill Martin. This experience is what gave him the material for "Piano Man."
In addition, a Philadelphia radio station, WMMR-FM, started playing a tape of a new song, "Captain Jack," which was taken from a live concert broadcast which became an underground hit on the East Coast. An executive from Columbia Records named Herb Gordon heard his music and
made his record label aware of Joel's talent. From there he signed with Columbia Records. Hits such as "She's Got a Way" and
"Everybody Loves You Now" were originally released on this album, though they did not gain much attention until released as live
performances in 1981 on Songs in the Attic. Since then they have become big
concert numbers. Cold Spring Harbor got a second chance on the charts in 1983, when Columbia reissued the album after
slowing it down to the correct speed. The album reached # 158 in the US and # 95 in the UK nearly a year later. Cold Spring
Harbor caught the attention of Merrilee Rush ("Angel of the Morning") and she recorded a
femme version of She’s Got A Way (He’s Got A Way) for Scepter Records in 1971.
His experiences in Los Angeles connected him with record company executives, who bought out his contract with Ripp with the
condition that the "Family Productions" logo be displayed alongside the Columbia logo for the next five albums. Also in the
contract was the agreement that Family Productions would receive a 25 cent royalty for every album Joel sold, which would come
back to haunt him when he hit it big. His brief tenure in Los Angeles also inspired his signature song "Piano Man." The album Piano Man was released in late
1973 and was certified Gold. To this day it has sold over four
million copies. However, due to the large sums of money involved in the legal tangles of the contract buyout, Joel netted less
than $7,000 in profit from his certified Gold record. Although this album is best known for its title track, several other future
gems include "Captain Jack," "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" and "You're My
Home" (the b-side of the "Piano Man" single, which would later be covered by
Helen Reddy, who would release it as the flipside of her single "Keep On Singing"), all of
which would become staples of Joel's live shows.
As of January 2007, the song "Piano Man" is still in the top 100 rock songs on iTunes.
Joel remained in Los Angeles to write Streetlife Serenade, his second
album under the Columbia label. References to both suburbia and the inner city pepper the album. The standout track on the album is "The Entertainer," which picks up
thematically where "Piano Man" left off. Joel was upset that "Piano Man" had been
significantly edited down in order to make it more radio-friendly, and in "The Entertainer," he refers to the edit with sarcastic
lines such as, "If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05." This refers to the album version
of this song which is 5:37, and the edited single which is 3:05. Although Streetlife Serenade is often considered one of
Joel's weaker albums (Joel has confirmed his distaste for the album), it nonetheless contains some notable tracks including the
title track, with "Los Angelenos" and the instrumental "The Mexican Connection." It also
marked the beginning of a more confident vocal style on Joel's part.
Disenchanted with the L.A. musical scene, Joel returned to New York in 1975. There he recorded Turnstiles, on which Joel used his own hand-picked musicians in the studio for the first time, and took a
more hands-on role. Songs were initially recorded and produced by famed Chicago producer James William Guercio, who
subsequently was fired. The songs were re-recorded and Joel took over, producing the album himself. The minor hit "Say Goodbye to
Hollywood" echoed the Phil Spector sound, and was even covered by Ronnie Spector. The album also featured the New York anthem, "New York State of Mind," a bluesy, jazzy
epic that has become one of Joel's signature songs and was later covered by fellow Columbia labelmates Barbra Streisand on her 1977 Streisand Superman
album and as a duet with Tony Bennett on his 2001 "Playing with my friends: Bennett Sings The Blues" album. Other top
songs on the album include "Summer, Highland Falls," and "Miami 2017 (I've Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)." Songs such as
"Prelude/Angry Young Man" would become a mainstay of his concerts for years.
For his album The Stranger, Columbia Records united Joel with producer
Phil Ramone. The album yielded four Top 40 hits on the Billboard Charts in the US, "Just the Way You Are" (# 3), "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" (# 17), "Only
the Good Die Young" (# 24), and "She's Always a Woman" (# 17). Album sales exceeded Columbia's previous top album,
Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over
Troubled Water, and was certified multi-platinum. It was Joel's first Top Ten album, as it rose to # 2 on the charts.
Phil Ramone eventually produced every Billy Joel studio release until 1989's Storm
Front.
Joel faced high expectations on his next album. 52nd Street was conceived
as a day in Manhattan, and was named after the famous street of same name which hosted many of the world's premier jazz venues and performers
throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Fans purchased over seven million copies on the strength of the hits "My Life" (# 3), "Big
Shot" (# 14), and "Honesty" (# 24). This helped 52nd Street become Joel's first # 1 album. "My Life" eventually became the
theme song for a new US television sitcom, Bosom
Buddies, which featured actor Tom Hanks in one of his earliest roles. 52nd
Street was the first album to be released on Compact Disc in Japan (1982). The album won Grammys for Best
Pop Vocal Performance, Male & Album of the Year. Despite all the cover art for the album showing Joel holding a
trumpet, he does not play the instrument on the album, though two tracks on the album do feature trumpets. Freddie Hubbard plays two solos in "Zanzibar" and joins Jon Faddis
in the horn section for "Half A Mile Away."
The success of his piano-driven ballads like "Just the Way You Are" and "Honesty" never sat
well with him. With Glass Houses, Joel attacked the new wave popularity with aplomb.
The front cover consisted of Joel's real-life modern glass house. The album spent 6 weeks at # 1 on the Billboard chart and
yielded such classics as "You May Be Right" (# 7, May 1980), "Close To The Borderline" (B side of the "You May Be Right" single),
"Don't Ask Me Why" (# 19, September 1980), "Sometimes A Fantasy" (# 36, November 1980) and "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me,"
which became Joel's first Billboard # 1 song in July, 1980. Glass Houses won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance,
Male. It would also win the American Music Award for Favorite Album, Pop/Rock category.
His next release, Songs in the Attic, was composed of live performances of
less well-known songs from the beginning of his career. Songs in the Attic was recorded during arena and club shows in
June and July of 1980. This release introduced many fans, who just discovered Joel when The Stranger became a smash in
1977, to many of his earlier compositions. The album reached # 8 on the Billboard chart and produced two hit singles: "Say
Goodbye to Hollywood" (# 17), and "She's Got a Way" (# 23). It sold in excess of 3 million copies. Though not as successful as
some of his previous albums, the album was still considered a success by Joel[citation needed].The track "Los Angelenos" was recorded live at Toads Place in New Haven, CT
in July of 1980.
The next wave of Joel's career commenced with the recording of The Nylon
Curtain. Considered his most audacious and ambitious album, Joel took more than a page or two from the
Lennon-McCartney songwriting style on this heavily
Beatles-influenced album.
Work began on The Nylon Curtain in the spring of 1982. However, Joel was sidelined when he was involved in a serious
motorcycle accident. At about 5:40 P.M. on April 15, 1982,
Cornelia Bynum made a right turn at the intersection of New York Avenue and West 9th Street in Huntington. She then ran a red light and collided with Joel, who was going straight through a green
light, on his 1977 XLCR Sportster. After the crash, he flew right over her car and
landed on his back. Both his left wrist and hand were broken and badly damaged. Joel, lucky to be alive, managed to get up and
take inventory of his helmet, leather, and boots, until a police officer arrived.
Joel was airlifted by helicopter to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. Because of
the ensuing surgery, which included the temporary insertion of five pins into his wrist, hand, and a month in the hospital,
production of the album was shut down temporarily while Joel recovered.
Once The Nylon Curtain was finished, Joel embarked on a brief tour in support of the album, during which his first
video special, Live from Long Island, was recorded at the Nassau
Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, on December
30, 1982.
The Nylon Curtain went to #7 on the charts, supported by the popular singles "Allentown," "Goodnight Saigon," and "Pressure." "Allentown" rose to #17 on the Billboard
Hot 100, making it one of the most-played radio songs of 1982 and the most successful song from The Nylon
Curtain album, besting "Pressure," which peaked at #20 and "Goodnight Saigon" which reached #56.
Joel's marriage began to suffer as his success rose, and on July 20, 1983 he and wife Elizabeth officially divorced, having separated in July 1982. In accordance with the divorce
agreement, Elizabeth took half of the singer's assets.
Following The Nylon Curtain tour, Joel retreated to the island of St. Bart's in
February of 1983 for some rest and relaxation. At the bar of the hotel in which he was staying, Joel met supermodelChristie Brinkley, who had recently divorced her
husband Jean-François Allaux. They eventually became a couple, and married on March 23,
1985. As the story goes, when they met they didn't recognize one another despite both being among
the most famous faces in the world at the time. This is supposedly what prompted the line "He was always Joe to me" in the song
Christie Lee which appeared on the album "An Innocent Man" which is purportedly about their first meeting.
The song "Uptown Girl" was one of the first songs written when Joel returned from
vacation. "Uptown Girl" is widely considered to be about Christie Brinkley, whom he started dating during the song's creation
(the music video also included Christie Brinkley in it). It became a worldwide hit upon its release, and Joel's sole # 1 in the
United Kingdom. The resulting album, An Innocent Man, was compiled as a tribute
to the rock and roll music of the 1950s and 1960s, and also resulted in Joel's second
Billboard # 1 hit, "Tell Her About It," which was the first single off the
album in the Summer of 1983. The album itself reached # 4 on the charts and #2 in UK. It also boasted 6 top-30 singles, the most
of any album in Joel's catalog. At the time the album came out that summer, WCBS-FM began
playing "The Longest Time" both in regular rotation and on the "Doo Wop Shop." Many fans wanted this to be the next single
released in the fall, but that October, "Uptown Girl" would be released, peaking at # 3. In
December the title song, "An Innocent Man," would b
