Billy Joel Hits 75
Celebrating the life and career of a working class pop hero
There has long been a tendency among the old-guard rock critics to favor rock made by rebellious men who’ve had to battle early adversity and pay their dues.
This practice led to critical disapproval of, for instance, progressive rock and its art-school practitioners.
So how is it, then, that a great musician who ticks all three of those boxes is somehow anathema to critics? I speak, obviously, of Billy Joel, who turns 75 on May 9th.
William Martin Joel was born in the Bronx in 1949 to Howard (born Helmut) Joel, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis, and Rosalind Nyman, from Brooklyn. A year later, they moved into a Levitt house in Hicksville on Long Island. At age four, Billy’s mother insisted that he start taking piano lessons. In 1957, Howard—who disliked America—divorced Rosalind and moved back to Germany. Billy at some point had taken up boxing long enough to win 22 amateur bouts, quitting only after his nose was broken. Born of Jewish parents, Billy attended a Catholic church instead, because that’s where his friends went. In his teens, he was already helping support his family by playing at piano bars, which interfered with school; he dropped out. Is that enough rebellion, dues-paying, and working-class for the critics?
More dues-paying: At 16, Billy joined a bar band named The Echoes. Soon he began doing studio jobs for, among others, Shadow Morton, playing piano on Shangri-Las demos in 1964. He switched bands; The Hassles released two albums through United Artists and had a minor bit of chart action with a soul cover. When that group broke up, he formed the unusual duo Attila with Hassles drummer Jon Small, but a hybrid of proto-metal and jazz was not going to get far, though they did release an album on Epic in 1970. It has been called “the worst album released in the history of rock & roll—hell, the history of recorded music itself.” (Stephen Thomas Earlwine, AllMusic) You can hear a track from it on the Joel box set My Lives (included in the Spotify playlist below) and judge for yourself. I like it. The Echoes and The Hassles are also sampled on that set. (Attila broke up when Joel eloped with Small’s wife; Small and Joel stayed friends anyway, and Elizabeth Small married Billy and eventually her brother Frank Weber, as Billy’s manager, embezzled from Joel for years.)
More adversity: Joel was signed to a bad contract by manager Artie Ripp, who produced Joel’s first solo album, which was mastered at the wrong speed, ensuring its failure despite such fine songs as “She’s Got a Way.” This led to Joel moving to Los Angeles and going underground under the alias Bill Martin, supporting himself by playing at piano bars. Eventually he escaped Ripp’s grasp, though Ripp collected royalties from Joel’s first ten albums on Columbia as part of the settlement.
Now we come to the point at which some things start going right for Joel. His new manager got Clive Davis at Columbia to sign him. Piano Man (which I wrote about here: Ain’t No Crime: Billy Joel’s Piano Man at 50 – Rock and Roll Globe), his first album in that deal, makes him a cult favorite in New York and Pennsylvania, with the title track (inspired by his time in L.A. piano bars, natch) hitting #25 on the singles chart and a concert recording of the dark “Captain Jack” inspiring devotion in fans. In critics, not so much. Robert Christgau gave the album a C and wrote, “Here he poses as the Irving Berlin of narcissistic alienation, puffing up and condescending to the fantasies of fans who spend their lives by the stereo feeling sensitive.” Because how dare Joel aim at the exact same market as every pop-rock musician in the history of the genre…?
Then came the gradual but triumphant rise to fame, and the songs we all know even if some of you wish you didn’t. Okay, the follow-up, Streetlife Serenade, is a tad uneven, with some obvious filler, but that filler is charming, damn it—and the sardonic “The Entertainer” hit #34. Turnstiles is a freakin’ masterpiece even though it didn’t yield any pop hits at the time; “New York State of Mind” is now iconic, with “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” a close second. Then in 1977 came The Stranger, “Just the Way You Are” (#3 single), and undeniable success. Even some non-singles (notably “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”) were what used to be called “turntable hits” back when FM radio deejays could go beyond playlists.
Many artists have a breakthrough album and can’t follow it up. Joel, however, seemed to have tapped into a songwriting bonanza. Three singles from 1979’s 52nd Street made the Top 40; 1980’s Glass Houses yielded four Top 40 hits, including Joel’s first #1, “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” which some insisted on perversely reading as an attack on punk rather than a statement of inclusion. A stopgap compilation in 1981 looked back at his pre-Stranger tracks and, in a live version, finally made “She’s Got a Way” a hit (#23). The Nylon Curtain (1982) was more ambitious, with the working-class anthem “Allentown” (#17) and the veteran-sympathetic “Goodnight Saigon” (#57) charting along with “Pressure” (#20).
VIDEO: Billy Joel “Pressure”
After all that seriousness, Joel relaxed with the oldies-inspired An Innocent Man, notching six Top 30 hits and becoming an actual celebrity thanks to his marriage to supermodel Christie Brinkley. By 1985 even Christgau had come around, sort of: “I give up—it would be as perverse to resist his razzle-dazzle as to pretend Led Zep doesn’t knock your socks off. Songpoetry, rock and roll, the showtunes to come—such categories just get in his way.” Greatest Hits–Volume I & Volume II, the 1985 double-album compilation that inspired that last Christgau quote, has been certified 23X platinum in sales; only five albums in history have a higher platinum ranking.
The hits kept coming with 1986’s The Bridge and 1989’s Storm Front (including another #1, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”). Adversity also continued to come his way—relationship problems, alcoholism, motorcycle accidents, more manager problems—and he continually came out on top by plugging away at what he did best: making music lots of people like, and touring.
VIDEO: Billy Joel “Zanzibar”
But in a way, his greatest achievement is self-restraint. He stopped making new studio albums in 1993 with River of Dreams (title track #3), before their quality declined. Once, being interviewed with Elton John, with whom he’s done joint tours, Elton said, “I wish you made more albums.” Joel retorted, “I wish you made less.” He ain’t wrong. That being said, Billy is charmingly self-deprecating, as in his famous interaction with Elton and Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.
The tide, finally, may be turning, in terms of respect. Check out this great essay/memoir by Michael Gonzales. And Billy’s been discovered by a new generation.
Nobody else has played Madison Square Garden (almost always selling out the venue) anywhere near over 100 times Joel has. A routine set to a section of “Zanzibar” became a TikTok sensation; Olivia Rodrigo referenced him in her song “Déjà vu.” And don’t forget “Turn the Lights Back On.” Hopefully more new music is imminent.
Happy birthday, Billy.
His day job since 2013 has been running ESP-Disk, first under founder Bernard Stollman and, since Mr. Stollman's passing, doing his best to perpetuate and publicize the indiest indie label's unique legacy. He has produced albums by Matthew Shipp, Amina Baraka & The Red Microphone, Fay Victor, etc. Previously he worked at Black Saint Records, where he was present at the last studio session of Sun Ra. Other jobs have included editorial positions at Creem, The Big Takeover, and The New York Review of Records; inevitably, he also worked at a record store in Williamsburg (Sound Fix), where one night after closing, while drinking across the street at Mugs Ale House, he preached to some tourists about the greatness of jazz bagpiper Rufus Harley, which led to him reopening the store and selling them a copy of Harley's Re-Creation of the Gods. This is widely considered the most Holtje-esque occurrence ever.
(Photo by Dale Mincey)
- Billy Joel Hits 75 - May 9, 2024
- Raised on Robbery: Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark at 50 - January 18, 2024
- No Ordinary Love: Sade Adu at 65 - January 16, 2024
You May Also Like
-
May 9, 2019 -
January 22, 2024 -
August 8, 2023
