William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949, Bronx, New York) a 6-time Grammy award winner, better known as Billy Joel, is a pianist, singer and songwriter. He recorded a staggering number of pop music hits from 1973 (beginning with the single " Piano Man") to his retirement from recording pop music in 1993. He has sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and is the sixth best selling artist in the United States according to the RIAA. Joel's induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (Class of 1992), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Class of 1999) has further solidified his status as one of America's leading music icons. He has continued to tour occasionally (usually with Elton John) in addition to writing and recording classical music.
Joel "was born in 1949, a Cold War kid in McCarthy time," as he wrote in his song "Leningrad." Joel first lived in the modern-day South Bronx, an ethnically white neighborhood at the time. His family then moved to Long Island, to Levittown and then to Hicksville, both working class towns in Nassau County . His father, Howard Joel, was a Jewish refugee from Germany and his mother, Rosalind Hyman, was born in England, to an agnostic Jewish family. His parents later divorced, and his father moved back to Eastern Europe. His half-brother Alexander Joel is a musician.
From an early age, Joel had an intense interest in music, especially classical music. He began piano lessons at an early age, and his interest in music instead of sports was the source for much teasing and bullying in his early years. 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, but abandoned the sport when he became more involved in music as a career.