Billy Joel started playing the piano at four years old and had an instant connection with the instrument. Although his father was a professional pianist, it was his mother that pushed him to pursue the instrument. By the age of 16, Joel was considered a pro at the instrument and had already been in three bands by this time. After seeing the iconic Beatles performance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1965, Joel dropped out of high school to pursue a music career.
Now, as high school drop out, Joel began working on his first solo album which was then released in 1971. The album did not get positive feedback and he ended up leaving New York to go to Los Angeles and lay low for a while. In 1972 he got a job as a lounge pianist which foreshadowed the story behind “Piano Man”. Later that year, a recording of Joel’s “Captain Jack” was floating around and Columbia records picked him up and decided to give him another chance at his dream of becoming a musician. This is when he released “Piano Man” which ended up being a top 20 single. After this, Joel started to switch up his style of writing from pop to more blues and jazz. With that change, he released the album “The Stranger” in 1977 which was his first major commercial breakthrough. For this Album he won Grammys for Best New Male Vocal Performance and the People’s Choice Award.
Billy Joel was now a great artist but unfortunately he became addicted to alcohol and was in and out of rehab in the early 2000s. After recovering, in 2007, he released his first song that contained completely original lyrics in 13 years. His goal in writing this music was to write songs that meant something in the time he was living and in the future. For so many years his songs have touched people’s lives and that is exactly what he wanted, to connect with his audiences.
This Billy Joel archive includes many studio and live recordings as well as magazine articles and video clips. After looking at all of the uploads to the site, I realized that there was a real lack of official uploads. Most to all of the files were user uploaded and not from any official sources such as Billy Joel himself or his record company. This led to a lack of relevant concert videos and numerous amounts of covers. I have 13 audio clips that showcase some of his popular singles and albums that were climbing the charts I was able to find the music video “Piano Man” which I thought was interesting because of all of the copyright laws. Something else that was interesting to find was a Jimmy Fallon episode featuring Billy Joel.
There are plenty of future applications for any file uploaded onto this website. There are tons of his videos online however the copyright attached to them prevents people from utilizing them to their full potential. These sources will help people be able to learn about how Billy Joel’s style changed throughout his career and through his lyrics, how frustrated he was with the music industry and Hollywood. Also we can see how his lyrics connected him to his audience and this was something that he strived for.
Preservation of art has been happening forever. To be able to have a catalog that contains past, present and future materials is a vital importance to mankind. Billy Joel has had an incredible impact on the music world. Everyone knows him now but how will his legacy live on if we don’t have the information taking us back to what was going on in his time and in his life? The more knowledge that can be preserved, the better of an understanding we will have trying to learn where he was coming from. His roots show how he got to where he is today and how he has changed music through all the years.
http://www.biography.com/people/billy-joel-9354859
Billy Joel Archive 