![]() Through the 1980s, Joel would be crowned a hit-maker with smashes such as "Tell Her About It," "Uptown Girl," "Innocent Man" and "The Longest Time." He would release two volumes of Greatest Hits and become the first American performer to unleash a full-scale rock production in the Soviet Union. By 1981, Joel had collected a slew of awards, including a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance and a People's Choice Award. The Stranger (1977) was Joel's first major commercial breakthrough, landing him four songs in the Top 25 of the U.S. As the years passed, Joel's style began to evolve, showing his range from pop to the bluesy-jazz stylings that are now closely associated with his name. Many of his songs related to a growing frustration with the music industry and Hollywood, foreshadowing his exit from Los Angeles in 1976. With the momentum of a Top 20 single ("Piano Man") to his name, Joel began recording new songs and albums, coming out with Streetlife Serenade in 1974. Executives from Columbia Records sought out the lounge player and gave Joel a second chance to become a rock star. His time playing at The Executive Room on Wilshire Boulevard would later be immortalized in his song "Piano Man," which describes a no-name lounge's down-and-out patrons.īy late 1972, an underground recording of Joel's "Captain Jack" had been released on the East Coast and was garnering positive attention. In early 1972, he got a gig working as a lounge pianist under the pseudonym Bill Martin. It wasn't a commercial success.ĭisillusioned with trying to make it as a rock star, Joel moved to Los Angeles to fly under the radar for a while. The terms of Joel's contract with Family Productions turned out to be onerous and the artist was unhappy with the quality of the album they released. He dropped out of high school to pursue a performing career, devoting himself to creating his first solo album Cold Spring Harbor, which was released in 1971. It wasn't long before the artist, inspired by the Beatles' iconic Ed Sullivan Show performance, committed heart and soul to a life in music. By the time he was 16, Billy Joel was already a pro, having joined his third band before he could drive. He began playing at the age of four and showed an immediate aptitude for the instrument. Although his father was an accomplished classical pianist, it was Joel's mother who pushed the young boy to study piano. Shortly after he was born, the family moved to a section of America's famous "first suburb," Levittown on Long Island. * Weber caused phony financial statements to be issued to Joel, which painted an unrealistic picture of Joel’s finances and the value of his investments and failed to reflect liabilities, guarantees, loans and mortgages.Singer-songwriter William Martin "Billy" Joel was born in the Bronx, New York, on May 9, 1949, to Howard and Rosalind Joel. * Weber double-billed Joel for his music videos, cheated him on expenses including travel and accounting fees and mortgaged Joel’s copyrights for $15 million without disclosing it on Joel’s financial statements. * Weber lost more than $10 million of Joel’s money in investments of a highly speculative nature, many of which involved Weber’s own companies. * $2.5 million in loans were given without Joel’s knowledge or authorization to various horse-breeding and real-estate partnerships and other businesses controlled by Frank. He retained attorney John Eastman to review his financial statements and in July, hired an independent accounting firm to do an investigative audit of Weber’s company, Frank Management.Īmong the allegations in the 83-page filing: Marks of Gold, Farrell & Marks in New York, said that Joel began a private investigation of Weber this summer.
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