doing my lil bit to keep it on the air...
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Well now, I get low and I get high,
and if I can't get either, I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes.
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.
You know it's all right. It's OK.
I'll live to see another day.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah. Stayin' alive.
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm,
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me, yeah.
I'm stayin' alive.
Albert Finney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Albert Finney
Born May 9, 1936 (1936-05-09) (age 71)
Salford, Lancashire, England, UK
Spouse(s) Jane Wenham (1957-1961)
Anouk Aimée (1970-1978)
Notable roles Tom Jones in Tom Jones
Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express
Ed Masry in Erin Brockovich
Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Actor
1963 Tom Jones
1974 Murder on the Orient Express
1983 The Dresser
1984 Under the Volcano
Nominated: Best Supporting Actor
2000 Erin Brockovich
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries/Movie
2002 The Gathering Storm
Golden Globe Awards
Most Promising Newcomer - Male
1964 Tom Jones
Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy
1971 Scrooge
Best Actor - Miniseries
2003 The Gathering Storm
BAFTA Awards
Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
1960 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Best TV Actor
2002 The Gathering Storm
Albert Finney (born May 9, 1936 in Salford, Lancashire, England) is a five-time Academy Award-nominated English actor of Irish descent.
Hailed as a "second Olivier" as a young stage actor in the late 1950's, Finney rose to movie star fame in the early 1960's. Although his early fame was later tempered by long absences from major motion pictures, he continues to earn awards and acclaim in a varied 50-year career on stage, films, and television.
Career highlights
Finney's first film was The Entertainer (1960), but his breakthrough came with his portrayal of a hedonistic, disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. This led to a series of "angry young man" roles in kitchen sink dramas, before he starred in the Academy Award winning 1963 film Tom Jones, for which he turned down the role of T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia.
After he starred in and directed Charlie Bubbles in 1968, his film appearances became less frequent. One of his more high profile later roles was as Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the 1974 film Murder On The Orient Express. Finney was so effective in the role that he complained that it typecast him for a number of years. "People really do think I am 300 pounds with a French accent" he said.
Finney made several television productions for the BBC in the 1990s, including The Green Man (1990), based on a story by Kingsley Amis, the acclaimed drama A Rather English Marriage (1998) (with Tom Courtenay), and the lead role in Dennis Potter's final two plays Karaoke and Cold Lazarus in 1996 and 1997. In the latter he played a frozen, disembodied head. Finney also made an appearance at Roger Waters' The Wall Concert in Berlin, where he played "The Judge" during the performance of "The Trial (song)." In 2002, he played Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm, for which he won BAFTA and Emmy awards as Best Actor. Finney also had a voice-over role as Finnis Everglot in Tim Burton's 2005 film Corpse Bride.
He also played the leading role in the television series My Uncle Silas, about a Cornish country gentleman looking after his great-nephew. The series ran from 2000 until 2002, then again for a mini-series in 2003.
Awards and nominations
Albert Finney turned down the offer of a CBE in 1980 and a knighthood in 2000.[1]
Academy Awards (Oscars)
He has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984). He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Erin Brockovich (2000).
British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTA)
Finney received a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles in 1961 for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). He was also nominated for Best British Actor for the same film. Despite being nominated 15 more times, he finally won for The Gathering Storm.
Emmy Awards
He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the HBO telefilm The Image (1990), and won an Emmy, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie, for his performance as Winston Churchill in HBO's The Gathering Storm in 2002.
Golden Globe Awards
He's received Golden Globe nominations for his performances in
Big Fish,
Erin Brockovich,
Under the Volcano,
The Dresser,
Shoot the Moon, and
Tom Jones (he received two nominations, winning one below).
Additionally, he has won Golden Globes for The Gathering Storm, Scrooge, and for Tom Jones.
For The Gathering Storm, he won "Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television" for 2003
For his role in Scrooge, his portrayal of the both the old miser and the young Ebenezer Scrooge earned him "The Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical/Comedy" for 1971.
For Tom Jones, he shared a win as "Most Promising Newcomer - Male" for 1964.
Laurel Awards
In 1971 he was nominated for a Golden Laurel for his work on Scrooge. For his work on Tom Jones, he was the 3rd Place Winner for the "Top Male Comedy Performance" for 1964.
Los Angeles Film Critics' Association
He was honoured by the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association as Best Actor for Under the Volcano (which he tied with F. Murray Abraham for Amadeus), the National Board of Review for Best Actor in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and the New York Film Critics' Circle for Best Actor in Tom Jones.
Screen Actors' Guild
He has also received three nominations from the Screen Actors' Guild Awards, being nominated for his performance in The Gathering Storm, winning for his performances in Erin Brockovich, and as a member of the acting ensemble in the movie Traffic.
Candice Bergen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Candice Patricia Bergen
Born May 9, 1946 (1946-05-09) (age 61)
Beverly Hills, California, USA
Other name(s) Candy
Spouse(s) Marshall Rose
Notable roles Shirley Eckert in The Sand Pebbles
Eden Perdicaris in The Wind and the Lion
Jessica Potter in Starting Over
Murphy Brown in Murphy Brown
Shirley Schmidt in Boston Legal
Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning American actress and former fashion model, currently best known for her starring role on the television situation comedy Murphy Brown, and as William Shatner's legal partner, Shirley Schmidt, on the ABC hit dramedy, Boston Legal.
Early life
She was born in Beverly Hills, California, the daughter of Frances Westerman (1922 - October 2, 2006) ?- who was known professionally as Frances Westcott when she was a Powers model ?- and radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. Her paternal grandparents, Johan Henriksson Berggren and Nilla Svensdotter Osberg, were Swedish-born immigrants who Anglicized their surname. As a child Candice was often referred to as Charlie McCarthy's little sister, which irritated her (Charlie McCarthy being her father's star dummy).
Career
Candice first appeared at age 11½ with her father on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life in 1958 as Candy Bergen. She said that when she grew up she wanted to design clothes.
Bergen has written articles, a play, and a memoir. She has also studied photography and worked as a photojournalist. Considered one of Hollywood's most beautiful women[citation needed], Bergen worked as a fashion model but soon began acting. Despite initial rocky reviews, she appeared in such films as Carnal Knowledge and Starting Over, for which she received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress.
Bergen was the first female guest host on Saturday Night Live. She went on to host on the show 5 times, including twice in the show's inaugural 1975 season.
On Murphy Brown, Bergen played a tough television reporter. Although the show was a successful comedy, it tackled important issues: Murphy Brown, a recovering alcoholic, became a single mother and later battled breast cancer. In 1992, then Vice President Dan Quayle criticized prime-time TV for showing the Murphy Brown character "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice."[1] While his remarks became comedic fodder, they paved the way for a subsequent episode to explore the subject of family values within a diverse set of families. Remaining true to the show's humor, Murphy arranges for a truckload of potatoes to be dumped in front of Quayle's residence (a reference to an infamous incident in which Quayle spelled the word "potato" with an e, as "potatoe," an archaic spelling). In real life, however, Bergen agreed with at least some of Quayle's observations, saying Quayle's speech was "a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did," according to the Associated Press.[2] Bergen's run on Murphy Brown was extremely successful; between 1989 and 1995 she was nominated for an Emmy Award seven times and won five. After her fifth win, she declined future nominations for her role as Murphy Brown.
After playing the role of the successful journalist, Bergen was offered the chance to work as a real-life journalist. After the run of Murphy Brown ended in 1998, CBS gave her the opportunity to cover some stories for 60 Minutes, an offer she declined. She expressed that acting was her profession, journalism was meant for her television character, and should not cross over into her own professional life.
After Murphy Brown, Bergen hosted Exhale with Candice Bergen on the Oxygen network. She also appeared in character roles in films, most notably Miss Congeniality as the sweet-yet-demented pageant host Kathy Morningside; she also portrayed the mayor of New York in Sweet Home Alabama. In 2003, she appeared in the movie View from the Top. In January 2005, Bergen joined the cast of Boston Legal as Shirley Schmidt, a founding partner in the law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Bergen received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in Boston Legal in 2006.
She has also done guest appearances on many TV shows, including Seinfeld, Law & Order, Family Guy, Will & Grace (playing herself), and Sex and the City, where she played Enid Frick, Carrie Bradshaw's editor at Vogue. She is also well-known for starring in a long-running "Dime Lady" ad campaign for the Sprint phone company.
Personal life
Candice attended the University of Pennsylvania, but acknowledges that her failure to take her education seriously resulted in her being asked to leave. Bergen and then boyfriend Terry Melcher lived at 10050 Cielo Drive, which was later occupied by Sharon Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski. Tate and four others were later murdered in the home. A political activist, Bergen accepted a date with Henry Kissinger but was unable to influence his views. In 1981, she married French film director Louis Malle. They had a daughter, Chloe Malle, in 1985, and were married until his death by cancer in 1995. Their daughter currently attends Brown University.
Bergen has traveled extensively, and speaks French fluently. She is a vegetarian and is now married to New York real estate magnate and philanthropist Marshall Rose.
Bergen is a sister of Kappa Kappa Gamma.[citation needed]
Billy Joel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name William Martin Joel
Born May 9, 1949 (1949-05-09) (age 58)
Origin Levittown, New York, United States
Genre(s) Rock
Piano rock
Pop
Classical
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, Pianist
Instrument(s) Vocals
Piano
Organ
Guitar
Harmonica
Accordion
Years active 1964 - Present
Label(s) Columbia
Associated
acts The Shangri-Las, Elton John
Website BillyJoel.com
William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949, in Bronx, New York, USA) an American singer, pianist, and songwriter . He released his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973. According to the RIAA, he is the sixth best selling artist in the United States.
Joel had Top 10 hits in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, is a six-time Grammy Award winner and has sold in excess of 110 million records worldwide.[1] He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (Class of 1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Class of 1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (Class of 2006). Joel retired from recording pop music in 1993 but continued to tour (sometimes with Elton John). In 2001 he subsequently released Fantasies & Delusions, a CD of classical compositions for piano. In 2007 he returned to recording with a single entitled "All My Life".
Early years
Born in the Bronx, New York, Joel was raised in Hicksville, New York. Often he himself, along with many in the media, have confused this with him living in neighboring Levittown, New York; in truth, Joel lived on Meeting Lane in Hicksville, near the Levittown border, in a section of town developed by Abe Levitt after World War II. [2][3]. His father, Howard (né: Helmut) Joel, was with the US Army unit that liberated Dachau concentration camp in April 1945. Howard was originally from Germany where his father Karl Amson Joel owned the fourth largest mail order company in Germany before being dispossessed by the Nazis. His mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in England, to an agnostic Jewish family. His parents later divorced, and his father moved back to Vienna (Austria). His half-brother Alexander Joel is an acclaimed classical pianist and conductor in Europe, now living in New York. [4]
From an early age, Joel had an intense interest in music; especially European classical music. He reluctantly began piano lessons at an early age at his mother's insistence. His interest in music instead of sports was the source of teasing and bullying in his early years. (He has said in interviews that his piano instructor also taught ballet. This led neighborhood bullies to mistakenly think he was learning to dance.) As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so that he would be able to defend himself. He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time (winning over twenty bouts), but abandoned the sport shortly after having his nose broken in a boxing match.
Joel attended Hicksville High School, and was to have graduated in 1967. However, he was one English credit short of the graduation requirement; he overslept on the day of an important exam due to his late-night musician's lifestyle.[citation needed] Faced with a summer in school to complete this requirement, he decided not to continue. He left high school without a diploma to begin a career in music. In 1992, the English credit requirement was waived by the Hicksville School Board and he received his diploma at Hicksville High's graduation ceremony 25 years after he left the school.
Musical career
At the age of 14, Billy joined his first band, The Echoes (which later became The Lost Souls). According to producer Shadow Morton, Joel was also the pianist on the Shangri-Las hit "Remember (Walking In The Sand)" [5]. In 1966, he joined The Hassles, a Long Island band that had some local success ("Every Step I Take," "You Got Me Hummin'"). The Hassles released two albums (The Hassles in 1967 and Hour of the Wolf, 1968) on the United Artists record label. Following The Hassles' demise in 1969, he formed the keyboard-and-drums based heavy metal duo Attila with Hassles drummer Jon Small. Attila released their eponymous debut album in July 1970 and disbanded the following October.
Upon losing his record contract with Attila, Joel suffered severe depression, and was admitted into Meadowbrook Hospital after ingesting furniture polish in a half-hearted suicide attempt. [6] The note he left eventually became the lyrics to his song "Tomorrow Is Today." Upon release from Meadowbrook Hospital in early 1971, he began to re-explore his place in the music business, including the participation in a television commercial with Chubby Checker and the contribution of rock criticism to a music magazine called Changes.
Early albums 1970-1976
Cold Spring Harbor (1971)
Joel signed his first solo record contract with Artie Ripp of Family Productions, and subsequently recorded his first solo album. Cold Spring Harbor (a reference to the Long Island town of the same name), was released in 1971. However, the album was mastered at the wrong speed, and the album was initially released with this error, resulting in Joel sounding a semitone too high (Joel later commented that he sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks). The onerous terms of the Family Productions contract also guaranteed him very little money from the sales of his albums.
In order to get out of the deal with Family Productions, Joel moved to Los Angeles, California with Elizabeth Weber, and they married in Los Angeles in May, 1971. For six months the following year, he played in the Executive Lounge piano bar under the name Bill Martin. This experience is what gave him the material for "Piano Man."
In addition, a Philadelphia radio station, WMMR-FM, started playing a tape of a new song, "Captain Jack," which was taken from a live concert broadcast which became an underground hit on the East Coast. An executive from Columbia Records named Herb Gordon heard his music and made his record label aware of Joel's talent. From there he signed with Columbia Records. Hits such as "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now" were originally released on this album, though they did not gain much attention until released as live performances in 1981 on Songs in the Attic. Since then they have become regular concert numbers. Cold Spring Harbor got a second chance on the charts in 1983, when Columbia reissued the album after slowing it down to the correct speed. The album reached # 158 in the US and # 95 in the UK nearly a year later.
Piano Man (1973)
His experiences in Los Angeles connected him with record company executives, who bought out his contract with Ripp with the condition that the "Family Productions" logo be displayed alongside the Columbia logo for the next five albums. Also in the contract was the agreement that Family Productions would receive a 25 cent royalty for every album Joel sold, which would come back to haunt him when he hit it big. His brief tenure in Los Angeles also inspired his signature song "Piano Man." The album Piano Man was released in late 1973 and was certified Gold. To this day it has sold over four million copies. However, due to the large sums of money involved in the legal tangles of the contract buyout, Joel netted less than $7,000 in profit from his certified Gold record. Although this album is best known for its title track, several other future gems include "Captain Jack," "The Ballad of Billy the Kid," and "You're My Home" (the b-side of the "Piano Man" single, which would later be covered by Helen Reddy, who would release it as the flipside of her single Keep On Singing), all of which would become staples of Joel's live shows.
As of January 2007, the song Piano Man is still in the top 100 rock songs on iTunes.
Streetlife Serenade (1974)
Joel remained in Los Angeles to write Streetlife Serenade, his second album under the Columbia label. References to both suburbia and the inner city pepper the album. The standout track on the album is "The Entertainer," which picks up thematically where "Piano Man" left off. Joel was upset that "Piano Man" had been significantly edited down in order to make it more radio-friendly, and in "The Entertainer," he refers to the edit with sarcastic lines such as, "If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05." This refers to the album version of this song which is 5:37, and the edited single which is 3:05. Although Streetlife Serenade is often considered one of Joel's weaker albums (Joel has confirmed his distaste for the album), it nonetheless contains some notable tracks including the title track, with its Debussy-like intro, "Los Angelenos," and the instrumental "The Mexican Connection." It also marked the beginning of a more confident vocal style on Joel's part.
Turnstiles (1976)
Disenchanted with the L.A. music scene, Joel returned to New York in 1975. There he recorded what many fans and critics consider one of his best albums, Turnstiles. On Turnstiles, Joel used his own hand-picked musicians in the studio for the first time, and took a more hands-on role. Songs were initially recorded and produced by famed Chicago producer James William Guercio, who subsequently was fired. The songs were re-recorded and Joel took over, producing the album himself. The minor hit "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" echoed the Phil Spector sound, and was even covered by Ronnie Spector. The album also featured the New York anthem, "New York State of Mind," a bluesy, jazzy epic that has become one of Joel's signature songs and was later covered by fellow Columbia labelmate Barbra Streisand on her Streisand Superman album. Other top songs on the album include "Summer, Highland Falls," and "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)." Songs such as "Prelude/Angry Young Man" would become a mainstay of his concerts for years.
Becoming a superstar 1977-81
The Stranger (1977)
For his album The Stranger, Columbia Records united Joel with producer Phil Ramone. The album yielded four Top 40 hits on the Billboard Charts in the US, "Just the Way You Are" (# 3), "Movin' Out(Anthony's Song)" (# 17), "Only the Good Die Young" (# 2), and "She's Always a Woman" (# 17). Album sales exceeded Columbia's previous top album, Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, and was certified multi-platinum. It was Joel's first Top Ten album, as it rose to # 2 on the charts. Phil Ramone eventually produced every Billy Joel studio release until 1989's Storm Front.
The Stranger netted Joel Grammy nominations, for Album of the Year and Song of the Year, for "Just the Way You Are", which was written as a gift to his wife Elizabeth.
52nd Street (1978)
Joel faced high expectations on his next album. 52nd Street was conceived as a day in Manhattan, and was named after the famous street of same name which hosted many of the world's premier jazz venues and performers throughout the 1930s, 40's, and 50's. Fans purchased over seven million copies on the strength of the hits "My Life" (# 3), "Big Shot" (# 14), and "Honesty" (# 24). This helped 52nd Street become Joel's first # 1 album. "My Life" eventually became the theme song for a new US television sitcom, Bosom Buddies, which featured actor Tom Hanks in one of his earliest roles. 52nd Street was the first album to be released on Compact Disc in Japan (1982). The album won Grammys for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male & Album of the Year. Despite all the cover art for the album showing Joel holding a trumpet, he does not play the instrument on the album, though two tracks on the album do feature trumpets. Freddie Hubbard plays two solos in "Zanzibar" and joins Jon Faddis in the horn section for "Half A Mile Away".
Glass Houses (1980)
The success of his piano-driven ballads like "Just the Way You Are" and "Honesty" never sat well with him. With Glass Houses, Joel attacked the new wave popularity with aplomb. The album spent 6 weeks at # 1 on the Billboard chart and yielded such classics as "You May Be Right" (# 7, May 1980), "Close To The Borderline"(flipside of the "You May Be Right" single), "Don't Ask Me Why" (# 19, September 1980), "Sometimes A Fantasy" (# 36, November 1980) and "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me," which became Joel's first Billboard # 1 song in July, 1980. Glass Houses won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male. It would also win the American Music Award for Favorite Album, Pop/Rock category.
Songs in the Attic (1981)
His next release, Songs in the Attic, was composed of live performances of less well-known songs from the beginning of his career. Songs in the Attic was recorded during arena and club shows in June and July of 1980. This release introduced many fans, who just discovered Joel when The Stranger became a smash in 1977, to many of his earlier compositions. The album reached # 8 on the Billboard chart and produced two hit singles: "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" (# 17), and "She's Got a Way" (# 23). It sold in excess of 3 million copies. Though not as successful as some of his previous albums, the album was still considered a hit by Joel[citation needed].
Building on success 1982-86
The Nylon Curtain (1982)
The next wave of Joel's career commenced with the recording of The Nylon Curtain. Considered his most audacious and ambitious album, Joel took more than a page or two from the Lennon-McCartney songwriting style on this heavily Beatles-influenced album.
Work began on The Nylon Curtain in the spring of 1982. However, Joel was sidelined when he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. At about 5:40 P.M. on April 15, 1982, Cornelia Bynum made a right turn at the intersection of New York Avenue and West 9th Street in Huntington. She then ran a red light and collided with Joel, who was going straight through a green light, on his 1978 Root Beer Brown Harley Davidson Electra Glide 1340cc. After the crash, he flew right over her car and landed on his back. Both his left wrist and hand were broken and badly damaged. Joel, lucky to be alive, managed to get up and take inventory of his helmet, leather, and boots, until a police officer arrived, Cornelia sued Joel.
Joel was medevaced by helicopter to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. Due to the ensuing surgery, which included the temporary insertion of five pins into his wrist, hand, and a month in the hospital, production of the album was shut down temporarily while Joel recovered.
Once The Nylon Curtain was finished, Joel embarked on a brief tour in support of the album, during which his first video special, Live from Long Island, was recorded at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, on December 30, 1982.
The Nylon Curtain went to #7 on the charts, supported by the popular singles "Allentown", "Goodnight Saigon", and "Pressure." "Allentown" rose to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it one of the most-played radio songs of 1982 and the most successful song from The Nylon Curtain album, surpassing "Pressure", which peaked at #19.
Joel's marriage began to suffer as his success rose, and on July 20, 1983 he and wife Elizabeth divorced (this is when it became official, although the couple had separated in 1982). In accordance with the divorce agreement, Elizabeth took half of the singer's assets.
Following The Nylon Curtain tour, Joel retreated to the island of St. Bart's in February of 1983 for some rest and relaxation. At the bar of the hotel he was staying in, Joel met supermodel Christie Brinkley, who had been divorced from her husband Jean-François Allaux. They eventually became a couple, and married on March 23, 1985.
An Innocent Man (1983)
The song "Uptown Girl" was one of the first songs written when Joel returned from vacation. Uptown Girl is widely considered to be about Christie Brinkley who he started dating during the song's creation (The Music Video also included Christie Brinkley in it). It became a worldwide hit upon its release, and Joel's sole # 1 in the United Kingdom. The resulting album, An Innocent Man, was compiled as a tribute to the rock and roll music of the 1950s and 1960's, and also resulted in Joel's second Billboard # 1 hit, "Tell Her About It", which was the first single off the album in the Summer of 1983. The album itself reached # 4 on the charts and #2 in UK. It also boasted 6 top-30 singles, the most of any album in Joel's catalog. At the time the album came out that Summer, WCBS-FM began playing "The Longest Time" both in regular rotation and on the "Doo Wop Shop". Many fans wanted this to be the next single released in the fall, but that October, "Uptown Girl" would be released, peaking at # 3. "Uptown Girl" sounded as though Frankie Valli was singing on it, but this has not been proven. In December the title song, "An Innocent Man", would be released as a single and would peak at #10 and #8 in uk, early in 1984. That March "The Longest Time", a Doo Wop song would finally be released as a single and peak at # 14 on the Hot 100 and be a number one Adult Contemporary hit. That summer, "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" would be released and hit # 27 while "Keeping the Faith" would peak # 18 in January of 1985. An Innocent Man was also nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy, but lost to the inevitable winner that year Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2 (1985)
Following the success of An Innocent Man, Joel had been approached to release an album of his most successful singles. This was not the first time this topic had come up, but Joel had initially considered "Greatest Hits" albums as marking the end of one's career. This time, he agreed, and Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2 was released as a 4-sided album and 2-CD set, with the songs in sequence of when they were released. The new songs "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" and "The Night Is Still Young" were recorded and released as singles to support the album.
Greatest Hits was highly successful, selling over 20 million copies worldwide and becoming the top-selling double album of all time by a solo artist (and second overall after The Wall by Pink Floyd). It has since been certified diamond by the RIAA for over 20 million albums sold. To date it is the 6th best selling album in American music history according to the RIAA.
Coinciding with the Greatest Hits album release, Joel released a 2-volume Video Album that was a compilation of the promotional videos he had recorded from 1977 to the present time. Along with videos for the new singles off the Greatest Hits album, Joel also recorded a video for his first hit, "Piano Man," for this project.
Two versions of Greatest Hits were released on CD: the initial release on double CD in 1985, and a re-released Enhanced CD version in 1998. While both are the same basic album in general, there are a number of subtle differences between the two:
While all the longer hits ("Piano Man," "Captain Jack," "Goodnight Saigon") are fully intact, many other shorter songs ("Pressure," "Just the Way You Are," "My Life") were shortened significantly in the 1985 release. Oddly enough, the included booklet lists all of the lyrics, even the parts cut for time. These songs are fully restored in the re-release.
The 1985 release features the live version of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" from Songs in the Attic. The version from Turnstiles was used for the 1998 re-release.
The 1998 re-release features enhanced content due to advancements in CD technology over the previous 13 years.
The Bridge (1986)
Joel had already scored a Top 10 hit with "Modern Woman" from the 1985 movie, "Ruthless People," (starring Bette Midler, Danny DeVito, Helen Slater and Judge Reinhold), when he began work on the album that would become The Bridge in early 1986. Ray Charles duetted with Joel on the ballad "Baby Grand" (which Joel wrote by himself), and Steve Winwood played Hammond organ on the song "Getting Closer." The final song recorded for the album was "Code Of Silence." Cyndi Lauper contributing backing vocals on "Code of Silence" and garnered the only co-writing credit of Joel's entire career for helping him with the lyrics to the song.
Though it broke into the Top Ten, The Bridge was not a success in relation to some of Joel's other albums, but it yielded the hit "A Matter Of Trust" (#10). In a departure from his "piano man" persona, Joel is shown in its video as playing a Les Paul-autographed Gibson guitar. The ballad "This Is The Time" also charted, peaking at #18, and has been a favorite on the prom circuit ever since. "Modern Woman" was also released as a single and was quite successful, but Joel has since said in interviews he doesn't care for the song, and subsequently it has been left off most of his compilation sets (the exception appears to be My Lives).
It was also the last Billy Joel album to carry the "Family Productions" logo.
At around this time, Billy completed voice work on Disney's Oliver & Company, released in 1988. A loose adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, Billy brought both his acting and musical talents to the film as Dodger. For the film, Billy recorded a song titled "Why Should I Worry?" Critics were generally positive towards the film, and pointed to Billy's acting contribution as one of its highlights, despite it being his first acting job. In interviews, Billy explained that he took the job due to his love of Disney cartoons as a child.
The USSR period 1987-89
Throughout his tour supporting The Bridge, Joel and his handlers started planning a trip to the Soviet Union. He would be one of the first American rock acts to play there since the Berlin Wall went up, a fact not lost on history buff Joel. There would be six live performances, three each at indoor arenas in Moscow and Leningrad. Joel and his family (including young daughter Alexa) and his full touring band made the trip in June 1987. The entourage was filmed for television and video to eventually offset the cost of the trip, and the concerts were simulcast on radio around the world.
The audience in at least the first Moscow shows was filled with members of the Communist Party, who received tickets from the government as a perk. Most of that audience took a long while to warm up to Joel's energetic show, something that never had happened in other countries he had performed in. As a result of that a minor international incident occurred when he famously flipped over an electric keyboard during the second Moscow show as a show of frustration that his lighting engineers would not turn down the house lights to calm the audience despite several requests. The lighting engineers were more concerned with the amount of light being adequate for filming. [7]
КОНЦЕРТ (1987)
The album КОНЦЕРТ, Russian for "Concert," was released in the fall of 1987. Singer Peter Hewlitt was brought in to hit the high notes on his most vocally challenging songs, like "An Innocent Man."
It has been estimated that Joel lost over US $1 million of his own money on the trip and concerts, but he has said the goodwill he was shown there was well worth it.
Later albums 1989-94
Storm Front (1989)
The song "We Didn't Start the Fire," the first single from the album Storm Front, was released in September 1989. The song became Joel's third US Number 1 hit.
Storm Front was released in October, and it eventually became Joel's first Number 1 album since Glass Houses, 9 years earlier. Storm Front was Joel's first album since Turnstiles to be recorded without Phil Ramone as producer. For this album, he wanted a new sound, and worked with Mick Jones of Foreigner fame. Joel also revamped his backing band, firing everyone save drummer Liberty DeVitto and saxophone player Mark Rivera and bringing in new faces, including talented multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero, who would go on to become Joel's musical director and architect of his live sound. After "We Didn't Start the Fire," Storm Front also produced the top ten hit "I Go To Extremes" (# 6). The album was also notable for its song "Leningrad," written after Joel met a clown in the Soviet city during his tour in 1987, and "The Downeaster Alexa," written to underscore the plight of fishermen on Long Island who are barely able to make ends meet. Another well-known single from the album was the ballad "And So It Goes."
In 1992, Joel sued former manager and ex-brother-in-law Frank Weber (ex-wife Elizabeth's brother) for $95 million after accounting irregularities were discovered. The case later settled out of court.[citation needed]
River of Dreams (1993)
Joel started work on River of Dreams in early 1993. Its cover art was a colorful painting by Christie Brinkley that was a series of scenes from each of the songs on the album. The eponymous first single was the last top 10 hit Joel has penned to date, and #1 for a staggering twelve weeks on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. The album includes hits such as "The River of Dreams," "All About Soul," and "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)," written for his daughter, Alexa. A radio remix version of "All About Soul" can be found on "The Essential Billy Joel" (2001), and a demo version appears on "My Lives" (2005). The song "The Great Wall of China" was written about his ex-manager Frank Weber and was a regular in the setlist for Joel's 2006 tour. "2000 Years" was prominent in the millennium concert at Madison Square Garden, December 31, 1999, and "Famous Last Words" closed the book on Joel's pop songwriting(for now).
1994-present
In August 1995, Billy Joel's long-time bassist Doug Stegmeyer committed suicide in his Long Island home. Stegmeyer had played on every one of Joel's albums from Turnstiles through The Bridge.
In 1999 Joel performed at New York's Madison Square Garden on the eve of the new millennium, which at the time was considered to be Joel's last solo concert. The concert (dubbed The Night Of The 2000 Years) ran on close to 4 hours and was later released as 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert.
In 2001 Joel released Fantasies & Delusions, a collection of classical piano pieces. All were written by Billy Joel and performed by Richard Joo. Joel often uses bits of these songs as interludes in live performances, and some of them are part of the score for the hit show "Movin' Out." The album topped the classical charts at # 1. Joel performed "New York State of Mind" live on September 21, 2001, as part of the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert, and on October 20, 2001, along with "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway), at the concert for New York City in Madison Square Garden. That night, he also performed "Your Song" with Elton John.
Joel has toured extensively with Elton John on a series of "Face to Face" tours. During these shows, the two have played each other's songs and performed duets. They grossed over $46,000,000 in just 24 dates.
In 2005, Columbia released a box set, My Lives, which is largely a compilation of demos, b-sides, live/alternate versions and even a few Top 40 hits. The compilation also includes the Umixit software, in which people can remix "Zanzibar," "Only the Good Die Young," "Keepin' The Faith," and live versions of "I Go To Extremes" and "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" with their PC. Also, a DVD of a show from the River of Dreams tour is included.
On January 7, 2006, Joel began a tour across the United States. Having not written, or at least released, any new songs in 13 years, he featured a sampling of songs from throughout his career, including major hits as well as obscure tunes like "Zanzibar" and "All For Leyna." His tour included an unprecedented 12 sold-out concerts over several months at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
On June 13, 2006, Columbia released "12 Gardens: Live", a double album containing 32 live recordings from a collection of the 12 different shows at Madison Square Garden during Joel's '06 tour.
The singer's stint of 12 shows at Madison Square Garden broke a previous record set by New Jersey native, Bruce Springsteen when he played 10 sold-out shows at the same arena. The record earned Joel the only retired number (12) in the arena owned by a non-athlete. This honor has also been given to Joel at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia where a banner in the colors of the Philadelphia Flyers is hung honoring Joel's 46 Philadelphia sold-out shows.
2006 also saw Billy Joel visit the United Kingdom and Ireland (as part of the European leg of his 2006 tour) for the first time in many years, playing to capacity crowds in Birmingham, Sheffield, Southampton, Manchester, Glasgow, London and Dublin.
On July 31, 2006, Joel performed a free concert in Rome, Italy with the Colosseum as the backdrop, and performed classic hits for hundreds of thousands of fans. Joel performed favorites such as "New York State of Mind," "Honesty," and "Just the Way You Are." While introducing one song, the 57-year-old singer joked in shaky Italian, "This song is as old as the Colosseum." Organizers estimated 500,000 people turned out for the show. The concert was opened by Canadian pop-rocker and songwriter Bryan Adams.
Billy Joel toured South Africa, Australia, Japan, and Hawaii in late 2006 and will tour the Southeastern United States in February and March 2007, before hitting the Midwest in the spring of '07.
On January 3, 2007 news was leaked to the New York Post that Billy had recorded a new song with lyrics -- this being the first new song with lyrics he'd written in almost 14 years.[2] The song, entitled "All My Life," was Joel's newest single and was released on February 20, 2007.[3]
On February 4, 2007, Joel sang the national anthem for Super Bowl XLI, and was the first to sing the national anthem twice at a Super Bowl.
On February 27, 2007, Joel's new single "All My Life" (with second track "You're My Home" Live from Madison Square Garden 2006 tour) was released into stores.
Songwriting and Musical Styling
Joel's lyrics have made many references to locations in the New York City metropolitan area, particularly Long Island. For example, the "Miracle Mile" line in 1980s "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me" refers to the affluent shopping district located on Northern Boulevard in the community of Manhasset and 1980s "You May Be Right" references walking through the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn alone as proof of craziness. In his 1973 song "The Ballad of Billy the Kid," he describes a certain "Billy" as being from the town of Oyster Bay, the municipality in which the hamlet of Hicksville is located. He has since stated, in the liner notes from his album Songs in the Attic, that this "Billy" is not himself, but rather an Oyster Bay bartender. Additionally, the song "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" mentions several Long Island/New England locations and ports, such as Montauk and Gardiner's Bay.
Several of Joel's songs have grown out of specific personal experiences, including "Piano Man," which he wrote describing his regular job playing at a Los Angeles piano bar in the early 1970s, and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," purportedly written about either the Syosset mainstay Christiano's or a similar eatery in New York City's Little Italy. His song "Vienna" was supposedly written about a visit to his father in Europe, while "Big Shot" was based on a bad date with Mick Jagger's ex-wife Bianca.
In a Playboy interview, Joel indicated that "Rosalinda's Eyes" was penned for his mother, Rosalind, as the song his father should have written for her.
"Only the Good Die Young" created a bit of a stir within the religious community when it was first released in 1977. Some radio stations even refused to give the song any airtime. It is said that while Joel was doing a show in St. Louis, he had been specifically asked not to perform the song during the show and even received death threats; in response, Joel played it twice. Joel has said about the song that "the point of the song wasn't so much anti-Catholic as pro-lust."
Influences
His music reflects influences from many different genres including European classical composers, Aaron Copland, 1950s doo wop, Broadway/Tin Pan Alley, jazz, blues, ska, gospel, pop, and even Russian folk songs, to straight-up rock & roll. This has, in part, led to his broad success over a long period of time, but made him difficult to categorize in popular music today.
Streaming audio segments of Billy Joel discussing the influence of The Beatles on his becoming a musician Classic Rock Central
Band
In the mid 1970s, the touring and studio lineup of Joel's band stabilized. The main lineup consisted of:
Billy Joel - lead vocals, piano, synthesizer, organ, harmonica
Liberty DeVitto ?- drums, percussion
Doug Stegmeyer ?- bass guitar, backing vocals
Russell Javors ?- rhythm guitars, backing vocals
David Brown ?- lead guitars
Richie Cannata ?- saxophones, flute, clarinet, organ, percussion, backing vocals
This was also the lineup for Joel's first live album, Songs in the Attic.
The 1980s and 1990s saw significant changes to Joel's band. By the River of Dreams tour the only remaining long standing member of the band was DeVitto on drums. Multi-instrumentalists Crystal Taliefero and Mark Rivera joined and remain in his band to this day. Rivera had taken over the prominent saxophone solo in the song "New York State of Mind" that had previously been performed by Cannata (and was re-recorded by Phil Woods for the Greatest Hits version of the song). The 1993 River of Dreams tour saw the addition of Dave Rosenthal on keyboards who also remains with the band. Tommy Byrnes has become a frequent band member on guitar and was both a musical consultant and band member in the Movin' Out musical. For the 2006 tour, Joel did not invite DeVitto back as drummer. Chuck Burgi (from the Broadway production of Joel's musical 'Movin' Out') replaced DeVitto. Richie Cannata returns on saxophones, along with Mark Rivera and Crystal Taliefero, with Cannata again performing the "New York State of Mind" solo. Carl Fischer(2006-) plays trumpet and trombone when needed also, most notably in the classic "Zanzibar".
Awards and Achievements
Despite having never graduated from high school due to a missed exam,[4] Joel has been presented with multiple honorary doctorates:
Billy Joel receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Syracuse University, May 14, 2006
Doctor of Humane Letters from Fairfield University (1991)
Doctor from Berklee College of Music (1993)
Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University (1997)
Doctor of Music from Southampton College (2000)
Doctor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University (2006)[8]
High School Diploma awarded 25 years after he left by the School Board.
Disney Channel Awards Kca Awards Joel was also named MusiCares Person of the Year for 2002 [9], an award given each year at the same time as the Grammy Awards. At the dinner honoring Joel, various artists performed versions of his songs including Nelly Furtado, Stevie Wonder, Jon Bon Jovi, Diana Krall, Rob Thomas, and Natalie Cole. He was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on Oct 15, 2006. In 2005, Billy Joel was put in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Joel was also the singer of the National Anthem at Super Bowl XXIII and Super Bowl XLI, both of which were played in Miami. He is the first singer ever to sing the National Anthem in two Super Bowls.
Personal life
Marriages
Joel married his business manager Elizabeth Weber on May 20, 1971. The marriage ended in divorce on July 20, 1983.
Joel went on to marry supermodel Christie Brinkley on March 23, 1985. Their marriage produced one child, daughter Alexa Ray Joel, born January 1, 1986. Alexa was given the middle name of Ray after Ray Charles, one of Joel's musical idols. Joel and Brinkley's marriage ended in divorce on August 25, 1994, although the couple remains quite friendly.
In 2004, Joel married 23 year-old culinary artist Katie Lee. At the time of the wedding, Joel was 54. Joel's daughter, Alexa Ray, then 18, served as maid of honor. Joel's second wife, Christie Brinkley, attended the union and gave the couple her blessing. Lee works as a restaurant correspondent for the PBS show, George Hirsch: Living it Up!. In 2006, Katie Lee hosted Bravo's Top Chef.
Alcohol abuse
In 2002 he entered Silver Hill Hospital, a substance abuse and psychiatric center in New Canaan, Connecticut. In March 2005 Joel checked into the Betty Ford Center[10], where he spent 30 days.[11]
Trivia
He is name checked in the song Ullo John, Gotta New Motor by Alexi Sayle.
Once performed on the Canadian children's show You Can't Do That On Television.
He has a banner in the rafters of the Times Union Center, Nassau Coliseum, Madison Square Garden, Wachovia Center, and Hartford Civic Center in Hartford.
Billy Joel's height is 1.65 meters (about 5'5").
Was one of the singers of the song We Are the World in 1985, although he has admitted that he personally dislikes the song.
Was the first to perform a concert at Yankee Stadium in New York City
Provided both the voice and singing voice for the character Dodger in the Disney full-length animated feature Oliver & Company alongside Cheech Marin, Richard Mulligan, Dom DeLuise, Robert Loggia, Bette Midler and Joey Lawrence, among others.
During the 1994 Grammy Award Show, the director cut short Frank Sinatra's acceptance speech for receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. During Billy's performance of 'River of Dreams', at the interim pause in the song, Billy extended it, looked at the celebrity audience with a grin while pretending to check his watch and said, "valuable advertising time going by...dollars...dollars...dollars." which was met with laughter from the audience.
Go Bob!
