One of the best-selling music artists of all time, Billy Joel is an influencer on Rock music. With many hits like ‘The Stranger’, ’52nd Street’ and ‘Glass Houses’, he was a worldwide superstar by the 70s after all those albums dropped. With over 5 albums in a decade, Billy made a name for himself and was perfectly under the shadow of The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
He released more than ten studio albums by 1993. Billy also recorded classical compositions in 2001. Having removed the song ‘Piano Man’ in 73, his success also gave the musician nickname ‘Piano Man.’
He was an icon by the late 70s. His fifth studio album, ‘The Stranger’, spent six weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart at number two. And the songs like ‘She’s Always a Woman’ became hits on the US Chart. The success continued and he went on to sell more than ten million copies of his album worldwide.
Talking about his inspirations, it was The Beatles. Like everyone else who grew up in that era, it was no new news. But it was revealed very recently. He said that The Beatles were the ones who influenced the culture of music. They had artistic influence as songwriters and innovators. They were on and off with Rock, Pop Folk, and Electric outfit. This way the Beatles evolved and became who they are. Billy also revealed that they were different from the usual Hollywood artists. He said,
“Yes. They were my idols, and they did it. They wrote their music and their arrangements, and they played their music; they sang their music. It wasn’t synthetic; it wasn’t put together for Hollywood. It was their work that did it.”
Billy believed that The Beatles was more of a general people. While other artists were more into lavish lifestyles, the Beatles were more like working-class people. He even compared and reflected that they differed from musicians such as Elvis Presley. He stated the difference in the following way.
“They were my idols. The Beatles didn’t look like Hollywood stars. The Beatles looked like working-class guys. They had an attitude; I guess being from Liverpool, that’s a working-class town. We saw these guys on TV and said, ‘Wait a minute. They don’t look like Fabian; they don’t look like Frankie Avalon; they don’t look like Elvis.‘ They looked like regular guys like people would have hung out with, except their hair was longer. I picked up on that right away and said, ‘That’s possible. I could do that.'”
