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31 Best Fantastic Billy Joel Facts

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1- Billy Joel  Born on May 9, 1949, in New York

2- His in full name is  William Martin Joel

3- Joel reluctantly began piano lessons at an early age, at his mother’s insistence

4- Joel’s father was a pianist and met his mother when she was singing at the City College of New York in a Gilbert and Sullivan company.

5- He played piano on The Shangri-Las’ hit single, “Leader of the Pack” (1965). He was 16 years old at the time.

6- Billy Joel was honored by Steinway & Sons with a painted portrait that hangs in Steinway Hall in Manhattan.

7- In 1992, Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1999

8- Billy Attempted to commit suicide in 1970 by drinking furniture polish

9- In 2001, he sold his house in The Hamptons to Jerry Seinfeld for $32 million. 

10- He did play a benefit with Bruce Springsteen to raise money for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008

11- December 2013, Madison Square Garden announced Billy Joel as the first-ever music franchise of “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”

12- As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so he could defend himself.

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13- Billy Joel received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame

14- In 2013, Joel received the Kennedy Center Honors, the nation’s highest honor for influencing American culture through the arts

15- Billy Joel is a huge Beatles fan

16- During a Town Hall interview with Howard Stern, Billy told a story in which he believed he saw the spirit of a 19th-century woman sitting and brushing her hair in his East Hampton home.

17- In 1990, he was presented with a Grammy Legend Award.

18- He appeared in the music video and sang in the choir on the song “We Are the World”.

19- Before turning into one of the preeminent rock singer-songwriters of his generation, Joel was in a heavy metal band called Atilla

20- In 2004, Billy Joel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles

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21- He Wrote the children’s book Goodnight, My Angel: A Lullabye in 2004.

22- He is a supporter of the Democratic Party.

23- In 1978, Joel’s album 52nd Street was his first album to peak at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

24- His song “Just the Way You Are” (1977) is one of the most covered and radio-played songs of all-time

25- He left Hicksville High without having completed his work, but in 1992 he turned in some missing essays and got his diploma.

26- Joel Once Played a Duet with His Father in Germany

27- Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992)

28- Across the 20 years of his solo career, Joel produced 33 Top 40 hits in the US, all of which he wrote himself

29- Billy Joel has had 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations since signing his first solo recording contract in 1972.

30- Billy Joel  Released a collection of classical piano compositions, Fantasies & Delusions, in 2001.

31- Joel spent a day and a half at the 1969 music festival in upstate New York because he wanted to see Jimi Hendrix, but the bathrooms were so disgusting that he left.


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