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| occupation = | years_active = 1965–present | label = | associated_acts = | website = | notable_instruments = }} William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States.〔(Top Selling Artists ). RIAA. Retrieved on June 8, 2012.〕 His compilation album ''Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2'' is one of the best-selling albums in the US. Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the US, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner who has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards throughout his career. He has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006). In 2001, Joel received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2013, Joel received the Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest honor for influencing American culture through the arts. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah", Joel stopped writing and releasing pop/rock material after 1993's ''River of Dreams''. However, he continues to tour, and he plays songs from all eras of his solo career in his concerts. == Early life == William Martin Joel was born in the Bronx on May 9, 1949, and was raised in a Levitt house in a section of Levittown, New York that was located in the town of Oyster Bay. In 1963, when ZIP codes were assigned, the section of Levittown in Oyster Bay was given a Hicksville, New York ZIP code and has since been part of Hicksville. Joel's father, Howard (born Helmuth) Joel, a classical pianist, was born in Germany, the son of a Jewish merchant and manufacturer, Karl Amson Joel. Howard emigrated to Switzerland and later to the U.S. (via Cuba, as immigration quotas for German Jews prevented direct immigration at the time) to escape the Nazi regime.〔 Joel's mother, Rosalind, was born in England to Jewish parents, Philip and Rebecca Nyman. Rosalind and Howard Joel divorced in 1957. Howard Joel moved to Vienna, Austria. Billy Joel has a sister, Judith, and a half-brother, Alexander Joel, a classical conductor in Europe, who was the chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig from 2001 to 2014.〔Tallmer, Jerry (July 16–22, 2003). ("Billy Joel grapples with the past" ), ''The Villager'', ''73'' (11); retrieved December 7, 2008. 〕〔(Biography ) on Alexander Joel's homepage〕 He reluctantly began piano lessons at an early age, at his mother's insistence, his teachers including the noted American pianist Morton Estrin〔("Past students of Morton Estrin" ). mortonestrin.com; retrieved December 7, 2008.〕 and musician Timothy Ford. As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so he could defend himself.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Billy Joel: The Piano Man In A New York State Of Mind )〕 He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, winning twenty-two bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after his nose was broken in his twenty-fourth boxing match. Joel attended Hicksville High School until 1967, but he did not graduate with his class. He had been playing at a piano bar to help his mother make ends meet, which interfered with his attendance; specifically, he missed a crucial English exam, as he had been playing a late-night gig at a piano bar the evening before.〔"Billy Joel Interview." ''The Charlie Rose Show''. PBS, 1993.〕 Though Joel was a comparatively strong student, at the end of his senior year, he did not have enough credits to graduate. Rather than attend summer school to earn his diploma, Joel decided to begin a career in music: "I told them, 'To hell with it. If I'm not going to Columbia University, I'm going to Columbia Records, and you don't need a high school diploma over there'."〔Bordowitz, Hank. ''Billy Joel: The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man''. 2006: 22〕 Joel eventually signed with Columbia. In 1992, he submitted essays to the school board and was awarded his diploma at Hicksville High's annual graduation ceremony, 25 years after leaving. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Billy Joel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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