In 1981, Billy Joel recorded his first live album, Songs in the Attic. It was a collection of primarily unknown songs penned by the musician at the beginning of his career. This release easily earned the platinum status. During the session for the next studio album, Billy experienced a bike crash and a divorce.

Biography

One of the greatest American pianists and singers, William Martial Joel, was born in New York May 9, 1949. Aged four, he already started learning to play piano. He gave his first performance in 1965, as a member of The Echoes. In two years Billy joined another band, The Hassles. With only two albums released, this formation collapsed. The next step in Joel’s career was the creation of the Attila duet. The music they played was too complicated for the audience to accept and understand which destined their only album to be a desperate failure. Music misfortunes and troubles in personal life broke Joel’s spirit. He tried to poison himself, but survived with the help of doctors. In 1971, Billy launched his own career. The opening move was an extremely disadvantageous contract with the LA Family Productions. The first release became a real flop due to its poor recording.

The track list of Joel’s promotional tour for his debut album included the new song Captain Jack. This composition made his personality interesting to the managers of Columbia Records. It took the singer many efforts to get rid of obligations imposed by the old contract, but in the end the victory was his. The opening track from Piano Man (1973) was Billy’s first big hit to enter Top 20. The album itself was not a good seller at once. It achieved great commercial success in several years after the rise of Joel’s star and eventually sold over four million copies. The subsequent release was a flop and forced Joel to go back to New York. There, he found himself new musicians. Billy’s next album, Turnstiles did not come up to his expectation despite having some remarkable songs like New York State of Mind, or Say Goodbye To Hollywood. Joel made a breakthrough with the 1977 release of The Stranger, one of the best Columbia Records products in the entire history of the company. This album featured four tracks entering Top 40. It earned Joel his first Grammy. The two following studio works were also good sellers and musically interesting. They presented a new variety of rock-n-roll performed basically with piano and drums without guitars.

In 1981, Billy Joel recorded his first live album, Songs in the Attic. It was a collection of primarily unknown songs penned by the musician at the beginning of his career. Endnote x7 for windows. This release easily earned the platinum status. During the session for the next studio album, Billy experienced a bike crash and a divorce. Despite all the difficulties, he managed to produce a powerful release The Nylon Curtain, running seventh on Billboard. In 1985, Billy Joel delivered two volumes of his best hits. In two years, he became the first American musician to give a concert in the Soviet Union. The performance was recorded and released as the Концерт (Concert) album. The last studio effort by Joel was River of Dreams (1993), debuting first on Billboard. The singer continued his music career only as a concert performer. One of the reasons for stopping the studio activities was alcohol abuse Billy had been struggling with for years. Nevertheless, he remained The performance was recorded and released as the Концерт (Concert) album. The studio Album River of Dreams appeared in 1993, debuting first on Billboard. One of the reasons for holding up the studio activities was alcohol abuse Billy had been struggling with for years. But his record 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert was released in 2000, and in 2001 the studio album Fantasies & Delusions, including classical compositions, was issued. Record Piano Man: The Very Best Of appeared in 2004, and it included the best compositions if Billy. Compilation of songs performed during concerts at Madison Square Garden, titled 12 Gardens Live was released in 2006. Billy Joel remained a perfect stage performer touring alone and accompanied by Elton John. Billy Joel was inducted to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

Studio Albums

Compilation albums

Lives

12 Gardens Live

As I've said before, I try to be open as far as my musical tastes although it's very hard me to like rap, hard rock that doesn't have a melody and twangy country. On this blog, I'll try to be as unbiased as possible but let's face it, we all have our own favorites and opinions and a blog would be pretty bland without giving some idea of what music I like. As time goes by, you'll probably be able to pick up on songs or artists that I don't like and those that I do.I listen to 107.1 K-Hits (KTHI) in Boise. They used to play great songs from the 60's and 70's and I'm a little perturbed that they recently switched to 70's and 80's.

The two greatest decades without question are the 60's and 70's, when you go out to the 50's or up to the 80's, you lose a lot of quality. However.this morning I heard 'My Life' by Billy Joel. I had just watched the Biography feature on him last night.

I'm struck by how many times he has bounced back from adversity (you know he started out as a boxer; a pretty good one actually, going 22-4). To use the analogy, he gets knocked down and just keeps getting up again. One thing I didn't know about him-his manager, who was his ex-wife's brother, mismanaged his accounts to the point where Billy lost 90 million dollars! A staggering figure.Another observation about Joel: Most artists, even though the songs are different, they sound similiar. With Billy Joel, however, you can't corner him into a category or say that his songs sound the same because they don't. He always has a new sound or a new feel for each song that he comes out with. I worked at KFXD-AM & FM in Boise, Idaho for 10 years, serving as Research Director, Music Director and Sports Director among other things.

During this time, I researched, organized and produced several music specials including The Top 500 Songs of All-Time and The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era.I started Inside The Rock Era in 2011 to counter the sea of misinformation about rock music in general and specifically which songs, albums and artists were the most successful. Since that time, Inside The Rock Era has received over one million page views.I am the author of two books, The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era.

and The Top 100 Female Artists of the Rock Era., both available in softcover and Kindle on Amazon and on this website.