Faith is trust, hope and belief in the goodness, trustworthiness or reliability of a person, concept or entity. It can also refer to beliefs that are not based on proof (e.g. faith that a child will grow up to be a good person) . Religious faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition, "things will turn out well in the end," can be enjoyed in the present and secured in the future. Religious faith appeals to transcendent reality, or that reality which is beyond the range of normal physical experience (e.g. the future). Transcendent reality, in this view, constitutes a realm which is off limits to material measurement and other rigors of scientific inquiry such as falsifiability and reproducibility. Most atheists and some agnostics criticize religious faith as superstition, categorizing it with other forms of belief that are not based on observable material things.

Informal usage of the word ''faith'' can be quite broad, and the word is often used as a mere substitute for ''trust'' or ''belief''. The English word is thought to date from 1200–50, from the Latin ''fidem'' or ''fidēs'', meaning ''trust'', derived from the verb ''fīdere'', ''to trust''.

Some critics of faith have argued that faith is opposed to reason. In contrast, advocates of faith argue that the proper domain of faith concerns questions which cannot be settled by evidence. This is exemplified by attitudes about the future, which (by definition) has not yet occurred. Logical reasoning may proceed from any set of assumptions, positive or negative. In this view, faith is simply a positive assumption.

Epistemological validity of faith

There exists a wide spectrum of opinion with respect to the epistemological validity of faith. On one extreme is logical positivism, which denies the validity of any beliefs held by faith; on the other extreme is fideism, which holds that true belief can only arise from faith, because reason and physical evidence cannot lead to truth. Some foundationalists, such as St. Augustine of Hippo and Alvin Plantinga, hold that all of our beliefs rest ultimately on beliefs accepted by faith. Others, such as C.S. Lewis, hold that faith is merely the virtue by which we hold to our reasoned ideas, despite moods to the contrary.

William James believed that the varieties of religious experiences should be sought by psychologists, because they represent the closest thing to a microscope of the mind—that is, they show us in drastically enlarged form the normal processes of things. For a useful interpretation of human reality, to share faith experience he said that we must each make certain "over-beliefs" in things which, while they cannot be proven on the basis of experience, help us to live fuller and better lives.

Fideism and Pistisism

Fideism is not a synonym for religious belief, but describes a particular philosophical proposition in regard to the relationship between faith's appropriate jurisdiction at arriving at truths, contrasted against reason. It states that faith is needed to determine some philosophical and religious truths, and it questions the ability of reason to arrive at all truth. The word and concept had its origin in the mid- to late-19th century by way of Catholic thought, in a movement called Traditionalism. The Roman Catholic Magisterium has, however, repeatedly condemned fideism.

Faith in world religions

Bahá'í Faith

In the Bahá'í Faith, faith is ultimately the acceptance of the divine authority of the Manifestations of God. In the religion's view, faith and knowledge are both required for spiritual growth. Faith involves more than outward obedience to this authority, but also must be based on a deep personal understanding of religious teachings.

By faith is meant, first, conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds.

Buddhism

Faith (Pali: ''Saddhā'', Sanskrit: ''Śraddhā'') is an important constituent element of the teachings of the Buddha—both in the Theravada tradition as in the Mahayana. Faith in Buddhism derives from the pali word ''saddhā'', which often refers to a sense of conviction. The saddhā is often described as:

a conviction that something is

a determination to accomplish one's goals

a sense of joy deriving from the other two

While faith in Buddhism does not imply "blind faith", Buddhist faith (as advocated by the Buddha in various scriptures, or ''sutras'') nevertheless requires a ''degree'' of faith and belief primarily in the spiritual attainment of the Buddha. Faith in Buddhism centers on the understanding that the Buddha is an Awakened being, on his superior role as teacher, in the truth of his Dharma (spiritual Doctrine), and in his Sangha (community of spiritually developed followers). Faith in Buddhism is better classified or defined as a Confidence in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and is intended to lead to the goal of Awakening (bodhi) and Nirvana. Volitionally, faith implies a resolute and courageous act of will. It combines the steadfast resolution that one will do a thing with the self-confidence that one can do it.

As a counter to any form of "blind faith", the Buddha taught the Kalama Sutra, exhorting his disciples to investigate any teaching and to live by what is learnt and accepted, rather than believing something outright.

Christianity

Faith in Christianity is based in and on the work and teachings of Jesus Christ. In this way Christianity declares not to be distinguished by its faith, but by the object of its faith. Faith is an act of trust or reliance. Rather than being passive, faith leads to an active life aligned with the ideals and the example of the one being trusted. It sees the mystery of God and his grace and seeks to know and become obedient to God. To a Christian; faith is not static but causes one to learn more of God and grow; it has its origin in God.

In Christianity faith causes change as it seeks a greater understanding of God. Faith is not fideism or simple obedience to a set of rules or statements. Before the Christian has faith, they must understand in whom and in what they have faith. Without understanding, there cannot be true faith and that understanding is built on the foundation of the community of believers, the scriptures and traditions and on the personal experiences of the believer. In English translations of the New Testament, the word faith generally corresponds to the Greek noun πίστις (''pistis'') or the Greek verb πιστεύω (''pisteuo''), meaning "to trust, to have confidence, faithfulness, to be reliable, to assure".

Ethical Culture

Ethical Culture is a humanist religion that centers on living an ethical life. With its emphasis on human worth and dignity, it asks that all actions elicit the best in others in order to bring out the best in the self. The faith is in the interrelatedness of all people and in an improvable future in this world.

Hinduism

''Śrāddha'' (ITRANS: shraddhA) is translated as faith in Sanskrit. All schools of Hindu philosophy posit that consciousness (''ātman'') is distinct and independent from mind and matter (''prakṛti''). Therefore, Hindu faith is based on the premise that logic and reason are not conclusive methods of epistemic knowing. Spiritual practice (''sadhana'') is performed with the faith that knowledge beyond the mind and sense perception will be revealed to the practitioner.

The schools of Hindu philosophy differ in their recommended methods to cultivate faith, including selfless action (''karma-yoga''), renunciation (''jnana-yoga'') and devotion (''bhakti-yoga'').

In chapter 17 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes how faith, influenced by the three modes (''guṇa''s) lead to different approaches in worship, diet, sacrifice, austerity and charity.

Swami Tripurari states:

Faith for good reason arises out of the mystery that underlies the very structure and nature of reality, a mystery that in its entirety will never be entirely demystified despite what those who have placed reason on their altar might like us to believe. The mystery of life that gives rise to faith as a supra-rational means of unlocking life's mystery—one that reason does not hold the key to—suggests that faith is fundamentally rational in that it is a logical response to the mysterious.

Islam

In Islam, faith (''iman'') is complete submission to the will of God, which includes belief, profession and the body's performance of deeds, consistent with the commission as vicegerent on Earth, all according to God's will.

Iman has two aspects:

Recognizing and affirming that there is one Creator of the universe and only to this Creator is worship due. According to Islamic thought, this comes naturally because faith is an instinct of the human soul. This instinct is then trained via parents or guardians into specific religious or spiritual paths. Likewise, the instinct may not be guided at all.

Willingness and commitment to submitting that God exists, and to His prescriptions for living in accordance with vicegerency. The Qur'an is the dictation of God's prescriptions through Prophet Muhammad and is believed to have updated and completed the previous revelations that God sent through earlier prophets.

In the Qur'an, God (Allah in Arabic) states (2:62): "Surely, those who believe, those who are Muslims, Jewish, the Christians, and the Sabians; anyone who (1) believes in GOD, and (2) believes in the Last Day, and (3) leads a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord. They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve."

Judaism

Faith itself is not a religious concept in Judaism. Although Judaism does recognize the positive value of ''Emunah'' (generally translated as faith, trust in God) and the negative status of the ''Apikorus'' (heretic), faith is not as stressed or as central as it is in other religions, especially as it is in the faith possessed Christendom. It could be a necessary means for being a practicing religious Jew, but the emphasis is placed on practice rather than on faith itself. Very rarely does it relate to any teaching that must be believed.

In the Jewish scriptures trust in God - Emunah - refers to how God acts toward his people and how they are to respond to him; it is rooted in the everlasting covenant established in the Torah, notably Deuteronomy 7:9 (The Torah - A Modern Comentary; Union of American Hebrew Congregations, NY 1981 by W. G. Plaut)

"Know, therefore, that only the LORD your God is God, the steadfast God who keeps His gracious covenant to the thousandth generation of those who love Him and keep His commandments"

The specific tenets that compose required belief and their application to the times have been disputed throughout Jewish history. Today many, but not all, Orthodox Jews have accepted Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of Belief. For a wide history of this dispute see: Shapira, Marc: ''The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised'' (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (Series).)

A traditional example of Emunah as seen in the Jewish annals is found in the person of Abraham. On a number of occasions, Abraham both accepts statements from God that seem impossible and offers obedient actions in response to direction from God to do things that seem implausible (see Genesis 12-15).

"The Talmud describes how a thief also believes in G‑d: On the brink of his forced entry, as he is about to risk his life—and the life of his victim—he cries out with all sincerity, 'G‑d help me!' The thief has faith that there is a G‑d who hears his cries, yet it escapes him that this G‑d may be able to provide for him without requiring that he abrogate G‑d’s will by stealing from others. For emunah to affect him in this way he needs study and contemplation."

Sikh

Sikhism, the fifth-largest organized religion in the world, was founded in 15th-century Punjab on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev and ten successive Sikh gurus, the last one being the sacred text Guru Granth Sahib. The core philosophy of the Sikh religion is described in the beginning hymn of the Guru Granth Sahib, }}

Guru Nanak, the founder of the faith, summed up the basis of Sikh lifestyle in three requirements: ''Nām Japō'' (meditate on the holy name (Waheguru), ''Kirat karō'' (work diligently and honestly) and ''Vaṇḍ chakkō'' (share one's fruits).

Faith in other spiritual traditions

Meher Baba

Meher Baba described three types of faith, emphasizing the importance of faith in a spiritual master:

"One of the most important qualifications for the aspirant is faith. There are three kinds of faith: (i) faith in oneself, (ii) faith in the Master and (iii) faith in life. Faith is so indispensable to life that unless it is present in some degree, life itself would be impossible. It is because of faith that cooperative and social life becomes possible. It is faith in each other that facilitates a free give and take of love, a free sharing of work and its results. When life is burdened with unjustified fear of one another it becomes cramped and restricted....Faith in the Master becomes all-important because it nourishes and sustains faith in oneself and faith in life in the very teeth of set-backs and failures, handicaps and difficulties, limitations and failings. Life, as man knows it in himself, or in most of his fellow-men, may be narrow, twisted and perverse, but life as he sees it in the Master is unlimited, pure and untainted. In the Master, man sees his own ideal realised; the Master is what his own deeper self would rather be. He sees in the Master the reflection of the best in himself which is yet to be, but which he will surely one day attain. Faith in the Master therefore becomes the chief motive-power for realising the divinity which is latent in man."

Support of faith

William James and others have defended faith, claiming that life is ultimately impossible without it. These philosophers held that life is full of evidence gaps that can only be negotiated with leaps of faith. James held that any belief that assists in an individual's functionality is good and should be maintained, even if it is unprovable or even nonsensical.

Criticism

Some rationalists argue that religious faith is irrational and see faith as ignorance of reality: a strong belief in something with no evidence and sometimes a strong belief in something even with evidence against it. Bertrand Russell noted, "Where there is evidence, no one speaks of 'faith'. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence." In the rationalist view, belief should be restricted to what is directly supportable by logic or scientific evidence.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins criticizes all faith by generalizing from specific faith in propositions that conflict directly with scientific evidence. He describes faith as mere belief without evidence; a process of active non-thinking. He states that it is a practice which only degrades our understanding of the natural world by allowing anyone to make a claim about nature that is based solely on their personal thoughts, and possibly distorted perceptions, that does not require testing against nature, has no ability to make reliable and consistent predictions, and is not subject to peer review.

See also

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Apostasy

Crisis of faith

Delusion

Dogma

Faith and rationality

Fowler's stages of faith development

Incorrigibility

Lectures on Faith

Life stance

Major world religions

Pascal's Wager

Religion

Religious belief

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Religious conversion

Rationalism

Spectrum of Theistic Probability

St. Faith

Saints - Faith, Hope, and Charity

Simple church

There are no atheists in foxholes

Truthiness

World view

|}

Notes

Further reading

Sam Harris, ''The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason'', W. W. Norton (2004), hardcover, 336 pages, ISBN 0-393-03515-8

Hein, David. "Faith and Doubt in Rose Macaulay's ''The Towers of Trebizond''." ''Anglican Theological Review'' Winter2006, Vol. 88 Issue 1, p47-68.

Stephen Palmquist, "Faith as Kant's Key to the Justification of Transcendental Reflection", The Heythrop Journal 25:4 (October 1984), pp. 442–455. Reprinted as Chapter V in Stephen Palmquist, Kant's System of Perspectives (Lanham: University Press of America, 1993).

D. Mark Parks, "Faith/Faithfulness" ''Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary''. Eds. Chad Brand, Charles Draper, Archie England. Nashville: Holman Publishers, 2003.

Marbaniang, Domenic, ''Explorations of Faith''. 2009.

Poetry & Spirituality

''On Faith and Reason'' by Swami Tripurari

Baba, Meher: ''Discourses'', San Francisco: Sufism Reoriented, 1967.

Classic reflections on the nature of faith

Martin Buber, ''I and Thou''

Paul Tillich, ''The Dynamics of Faith''

The Reformation view of faith

John Calvin, ''The Institutes of the Christian Religion''

R.C. Sproul, ''Faith Alone''

External links

Patheos - unaffiliated educational resource striving to be the premier online destination to engage in global dialogue about religion and spirituality

Epistemics of Divine Reality, studies in rationalism, empiricism, and fideism

Martin Luther's Definition of Faith

John Calvin on Justification by Faith from The Institutes of the Christian Religion

The Skeptic's Dictionary entry on Faith

Rational Christian Faith Versus Reason

Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Faith

Faith in Judaism chabad.org

Faith from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pew Research Center Reports on Religion

Faith News & Religion | Times Online Articles and comment about faith issues and religion from The Times

WFN | World Faith News Worldwide

Category:Belief Category:Spirituality Category:Religious belief and doctrine

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Coordinates	39°29′″N176°55′″N
name	George Michael
background	solo_singer
birth name	Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou
born	June 25, 1963East Finchley, North London, England
instrument	Vocals, multiple instruments
genre	Pop rock, New Wave,
occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
years active	1980–present
label	Columbia, Sony
associated acts	Wham!, Band Aid, Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, Mutya Buena, Whitney Houston
influences	Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin, Paul Young, The Temptations, Queen, Marvin Gaye
website
notable instruments	Piano''John Lennon'' model "Z" Steinway }}

George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (); on 25 June 1963) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley. His first solo single, "Careless Whisper", was released when he was still in the duo and sold about six million copies worldwide.

As one of the world's best-selling music artists, Michael has sold over 100 million albums worldwide as of 2010. His 1987 debut solo album, ''Faith'', has sold over 25 million copies worldwide and made several records and achievements in the United States. Michael has garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the U.S. In 2008, ''Billboard'' magazine ranked Michael the 40th most successful artist on the "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists".

Michael has won numerous music awards throughout his 30 year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.

In 2004, the Radio Academy named Michael as the most played artist on British radio between the period of 1984–2004. The documentary ''A Different Story'' was released in 2005; it covered his personal life and professional career. In 2006, George Michael announced his first tour in 15 years. The 25 Live tour was a massive, worldwide undertaking by Michael, spanning three individual tours over the course of three years (2006, 2007 and 2008).

Early life

Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley, North London. His father was Kyriacos Panayiotou, a Greek Cypriot restaurateur who moved to England in the 1950s and changed his name to Jack Michael. Michael's mother, Lesley Angold (née Harrison, 1937–1997), was an English dancer who died from cancer in Fulham. Michael spent the majority of his childhood in North London, in the home his parents bought soon after his birth. While in his early teens, the family moved to Radlett. There Michael attended the Bushey Meads School, where he met Andrew Ridgeley. The two had the same career ambition of being musicians.

His involvement in the music business began with his working as a DJ, playing at clubs and local schools around Bushey, Stanmore and Watford. This was followed by the formation of a short-lived ska band called The Executive with Ridgeley, Ridgeley's brother Paul, Andrew Leaver, and David Mortimer (aka David Austin).

Musical career

1981–1986: Wham!

Michael first found success after forming the duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in 1981. The band's first album ''Fantastic'' reached no. 1 in the UK and produced a series of top 10 singles including "Young Guns (Go For It!)", "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" and "Club Tropicana". Their second album, ''Make It Big'', was the breakthrough that made the duo international superstars, reaching No. 1 on the charts in the US. Singles from that album included "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Freedom", "Everything She Wants", and "Careless Whisper", the latter of which was Michael's first solo effort as a single.

Michael sang on the original Band Aid recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and donated the profits from "Last Christmas/Everything She Wants" to charity. In addition, he contributed background vocals to David Cassidy's 1985 hit "The Last Kiss", as well as Elton John's 1985 successes "Nikita" and "Wrap Her Up". In 1985, in an exclusive foray into popular journalism, Michael interviewed David Cassidy for David Litchfield's legendary Ritz Newspaper.

Wham!'s tour of China in April 1985, the first visit to China by a Western popular music act, generated enormous worldwide media coverage, much of it centred on Michael. The tour was documented by celebrated film director Lindsay Anderson and producer Martin Lewis in their film ''Foreign Skies: Wham! In China'' and contributed to Michael's ever-increasing fame.

With the success of Michael's solo singles, "Careless Whisper" (1984) and "A Different Corner" (1986), rumours of an impending break up of Wham! intensified. The duo officially separated during the summer of 1986, after releasing a farewell single, "The Edge of Heaven" and a singles compilation, ''The Final'', plus a sell-out concert at Wembley Stadium that included the world premiere of the China film. The Wham! partnership ended officially with the commercially successful single "The Edge of Heaven", which reached no.1 on the UK chart in June 1986.

Solo career

The beginning of his solo career, during early 1987, was a duet with soul music icon Aretha Franklin. "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" was a one-off project that helped Michael achieve an ambition by singing with one of his favourite artists, and it scored number one on both the UK Singles Chart and the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 upon its release.

For Michael, it became his third consecutive solo number one in the UK from three releases, after 1984's "Careless Whisper" (though the single was actually from the Wham! album ''Make It Big'') and 1986's "A Different Corner". The single was also the first Michael had recorded as a solo artist which he had not written himself. The co-writer, Simon Climie, was unknown at the time, although he would have success as a performer with the band Climie Fisher in 1988. Michael and Aretha Franklin won a Grammy Award in 1988 for Best R&B; Performance – Duo or Group with Vocal for the song.

1987–1989: Faith

During the autumn of 1987, Michael released his first solo album, ''Faith''. In addition to playing a large number of instruments on the album, he wrote and produced every track on the recording, except for one, which he co-wrote.

The first single released from the album was "I Want Your Sex," during the summer of 1987. The song was banned by many radio stations in the UK and U.S., due to its sexually suggestive lyrics. MTV would broadcast the video, featuring celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung in a basque and suspenders, only during the late night hours. Michael argued that the act was beautiful if the sex was monogamous. Michael even recorded a brief prologue for the video in which he said: "This song is not about casual sex." One of the racier scenes involved Michael writing the words "explore monogamy" on his partner's back in lipstick. Some radio stations played a toned-down version of the song, "I Want Your Love," which was mainly the word "love" replacing "sex." When the tune reached the US charts, ''American Top 40'' host Casey Kasem refused to say the song's title, referring to it only as "the new single by George Michael." Despite censorship and radio play problems, "I Want Your Sex" reached No.2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and at No.3 in Britain.

The second single, "Faith", was released during October 1987, just a few weeks before the album. "Faith" would become one of his most popular songs. The song hit No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and maintained that position for four consecutive weeks. It also reached no.2 in the UK singles chart. The famous video provided some definitive images of the 1980s music industry in the process—Michael in shades, leather jacket, cowboy boots, and Levi's jeans, playing a guitar near a classic-design jukebox. On 30 October, Faith was released in the UK and in several markets worldwide. In the United States, the album had 51 non-consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard 200, including 12 weeks at no.1. "Faith" had many successes, four of which ("Faith," "Father Figure", "One More Try", and "Monkey") reached no.1. Eventually, "Faith" received Diamond certification by the RIAA for sales of 10 million copies in the US. To date, global sales of ''Faith'' are more than 25 million units.

In 1988, Michael embarked on a world tour. The nightly set list included from the Wham! era "Everything She Wants" and "I'm Your Man", as well as covers of "Lady Marmalade" or "Play That Funky Music". In Los Angeles, California, Michael was joined on stage by Aretha Franklin for "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". It was the second highest grossing event of 1988, earning $17.7 million. According to Michael in his film, ''A Different Story'', success did not make him happy and he started to think there was something wrong in being an idol for millions of teenage girls. The whole ''Faith'' process (promotion, videos, tour, awards) left him exhausted, lonely and frustrated, and far from his friends and family. In 1990, he told his record company Sony that, for his second album, he did not want to do promotions like the one for Faith.

1990–1992: Listen Without Prejudice

''Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1'' was released in September 1990. For this album, Michael tried to create a new reputation as a serious-minded artist; the title is an indication of his desire to be taken more seriously as a songwriter. Michael refused to make any kind of promotion for this album, including no music videos for the singles released. The first single, "Praying for Time", was released in August 1990. It concerned social ills and injustice; the song was an instant success, reaching No. 6 in the UK and No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, despite the absence of a video. A video was released shortly thereafter, consisting of the lyrics on a dark background. Michael did not appear in this video or any subsequent videos for the album.

The second single "Waiting for That Day" was an acoustic-heavy single, released as an immediate follow-up to "Praying For Time". It reached No. 27 in the US and No. 23 in the UK in October 1990. The album was released in Europe on 3 September 1990 (and one week later in the United States). It reached No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart and peaked at No. 2 on the U.S Billboard 200. It spent a total of 88 weeks on the UK album charts and was certified 4 times Platinum by the BPI. The album produced 5 UK singles, which were released quickly, within an at eight-month period: "Praying For Time", "Waiting For That Day", "Freedom! '90", "Heal the Pain", and "Cowboys and Angels" (the latter being his only single not to chart in the UK top 40).

"Freedom '90" was the only single to be supported by a music video. The song alludes to the struggles of being a closeted gay man and acted as a catalyst for his effort to end his publishing contract with Sony Music. As if to prove the song's sentiment, Michael refused to appear in the video, directed by David Fincher, and instead recruited supermodels Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, and Cindy Crawford to lip sync. It also featured the reduction of his sex symbol status. It had contrasting fortunes on each side of the Atlantic—a No.8 success on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, but only No.28 on the UK singles chart. "Mother's Pride" gained significant radio play in the United States during the first Persian Gulf War during 1991, often with radio stations mixing in callers' tributes to soldiers with the music. It reached No.46 on Billboard Hot 100 with only airplay. In the end ''Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1'' sold around 8 million copies.

In 1991, George Michael embarked on the "Cover to Cover Tour" in Japan, England, the US, and Brazil, where he performed at the "Rock in Rio" event. In the audience in Rio, he saw and later met Anselmo Feleppa, the man who would become his partner. The tour was not a proper promotion for ''Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1''. Rather, it was more about Michael singing his favourite cover songs. Among his favourites was "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," a 1974 song by Elton John; Michael and John had performed the song together at the Live Aid concert in 1985, and again for Michael's concert at London's Wembley Arena on 25 March 1991, where the duet was recorded. The single was released at the end of 1991 and became a success on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the meantime, the expected follow-up album, ''Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2'', was scrapped due to Michael's lawsuit with Sony. Among Michael's complaints was that Sony had not completely supported the release of his second album, resulting in its poor performance in the US as compared to ''Faith''. Sony responded that Michael's refusal to appear in promotional videos had caused the bad response. Michael ended the idea for ''Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2'' and donated three songs to the charity project ''Red Hot + Dance'', for the Red Hot Organization which raised money for AIDS awareness, while a fourth track "Crazyman Dance" was the B-side of 1992's "Too Funky". Michael donated the royalties from "Too Funky" to the same cause. The song did not appear on any George Michael studio album, although later it was included on his solo collections ''Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael'' in 1998 and ''Twenty Five'' in 2006. The video featured Michael (sporadically) as a director filming supermodels Linda Evangelista, Beverly Peele, Estelle Lefébure and Nadja Auermann at a fashion show. "Too Funky" was a success, reaching number 4 in the UK singles chart and number 10 in the US Billboard Hot 100.

1993: Five Live

George Michael performed at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992 at London's Wembley Stadium. The concert was a tribute to the life of the late Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, with some proceeds going to AIDS research. Michael performed "'39" and "Somebody to Love". The performance of the latter was released on the "Five Live" EP.

''Five Live'', released in 1993 for Parlophone in the UK and Hollywood Records in the US, features five—and in some countries, six—tracks performed by George Michael, Queen, and Lisa Stansfield."Somebody to Love" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives" were recorded at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. "Killer", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", and "Calling You" were all live performances recorded during his "Cover to Cover Tour" from 1991. Michael's performances of "Somebody to Love" was hailed as "one of best performances of the tribute concert". The idea of having George Michael take over as full-time lead singer of Queen was even given serious consideration.

All proceeds from the sale of the EP benefited the Mercury Phoenix Trust. Sales of the EP were very strong through Europe, where it debuted at number 1 in the UK and several European countries. Chart success in the United States was less spectacular, where it peaked at number 40 on the Billboard 200 ("Somebody to Love" reached No.30 on the US Billboard Hot 100).

1994–1997: Older

During November 1994, after a long period of seclusion, George Michael appeared at the first MTV Europe Music Awards show, where he gave a touching performance of a brand-new song, "Jesus to a Child". The song was a melancholy tribute to his lover, Anselmo Feleppa, who had died in March of 1993.

The song was Michael's first self-penned success in his homeland in almost four years; it entered the UK singles chart at No. 1 and No. 7 on Billboard in the same month of release. It was also Michael's longest UK Top 40 single, at almost seven minutes long. The exact identity of the song's subject—and the nature of Michael's relationship with Feleppa—was shrouded in innuendo and speculation, as Michael had not confirmed he was homosexual and did not do so until 1998. The video for "Jesus to a Child" was a picture of images recalling loss, pain and suffering. Nowadays, Michael consistently dedicates the song to Feleppa before performing it live.

The second single, released in April 1996, was "Fastlove", an energetic tune about wanting gratification and fulfilment without commitment. The song was somewhat unusual for a popular song, in that it did not have a defined chorus and that the single version was nearly five minutes long. "Fastlove" was supported by a futuristic virtual reality-related video. It scored No. 1 in the UK singles chart, spending three weeks at the top spot. In the US, "Fastlove" peaked at No. 8, his most recent single to reach the top 10 on the US charts. Following "Fastlove", Michael finally released ''Older'', his first studio album in six years and only the third in his ten year solo career. The album's US and Canada release was particularly notable as it was the first album released by David Geffen's (now-defunct) DreamWorks Records. Older was particularly notable for the release of its six singles. Each of them reached the UK Top 3, a record for the most singles in the British Top 3 released from a single album. At the time of release of the album's fifth single, "Star People '97", chart specialist James Masterton noted George Michael's success on the singles charts, writing: "George Michael nonetheless makes an impressive Top 3 entry with this single. The Older album has now proved itself to be far and away his most commercially successful recording ever. Five singles now lifted and every single one has been a Top 3 hit. Compare this with the two Top 3 hits produced by ''Faith'' and ''Listen Without Prejudice's'' scant total of one Top Tenner and one single which missed the Top 40 altogether. This sustained single success has, of course, been achieved with a little help from marketing tricks such as remixes – or in this case a new recording of the album track which gives it a much-needed transformation into a deserved commercial smash."

In 1996, Michael was voted 'Best British Male', at the MTV Europe Music Awards and the Brit Awards; and at The Ivor Novello Awards, he was awarded the prestigious title of 'Songwriter of The Year' for the third time. Michael performed a concert at Three Mills Studios, London, for ''MTV Unplugged''. It was his first long performance in years, and in the audience was Michael's mother. The next year, she died of cancer.

1998: Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael

''Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael'' was Michael's first solo greatest hits collection released in 1998. The collection of 28 songs (29 songs are included on the European and Australian release) are separated into two halves, with each containing a particular theme and mood. The first CD, titled "For the Heart," predominantly contains Michael's successful ballads, while the second CD, "For the Feet", consists mainly of his popular dance tunes. It was released through Sony Music Entertainment as a condition of severing contractual ties with the label. He would later return to Sony to release his 2004 album ''Patience''.

The album is notable for containing a large number of compilation tracks and duets that had not previously appeared on his albums, including his duet with Aretha Franklin, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)"; "Desafinado", a duet in Portuguese with Brazilian legendary singer Astrud Gilberto; and the Elton John duet "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me".

''Ladies & Gentlemen'' was an instant success, peaking at number one on the UK Album Chart for 8 weeks. It has spent over 200 weeks in the UK Charts, and it is the 38 best-selling album of all time in the UK. It is certified 7 times platinum in the United Kingdom and Multi-Platinum in the United States, and it's George Michael's most commercially successful album in his homeland having sold more than 2.8 million copies. To date, the album has reached worldwide sales of approximately 15 million copies.

The first single of the album, "Outside" was a humorous song about his arrest for soliciting a policeman in a public restroom. "As", his duet with Mary J. Blige, was released as the second single in many territories around the world. Both of singles reached top 5 in the UK Singles Chart.

1999: Songs from the Last Century

''Songs from the Last Century'' is a studio album of cover tracks. It was released in 1999 and was the final George Michael album to be released through Virgin Records. To date, the album has peaked the lowest of his solo effort. The album debuted at number 157 on the American Billboard Charts, which was also the album's peak positions. It was also his lowest charting album in the UK, becoming his only solo effort not to reach number 1. It peaked at number 2 in the UK Album.Chart It consists of old standards, plus new interpretations of more recent popular songs such as "Roxanne (song)" ,"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"; and the Frank Sinatra classic "Where or When". Each of the 11 tracks was co-produced by Phil Ramone and George Michael.

2000–2005: Patience

Michael began working on what would be his fifth studio album, spending two years in the recording studio. His first single "Freeek!", taken from what would become the new album, was successful in Europe going to number one in Italy, Portugal, Spain and Denmark in 2002 and reaching the top 10 in the UK and ther top 5 in Australia. It made 22 charts around the world. However, his next single "Shoot the Dog" proved to be highly controversial when released in July 2002. It was highly critical of George W. Bush and Tony Blair in the leadup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It reached number one in Denmark and made the top 5 in most European charts. However, in Britain it peaked at only number 12 in the UK Singles Chart.

On 17 November 2003, George Michael re-signed with Sony Music after a legal battle with the company led to his contract being sold to rival record companies Virgin Records and DreamWorks Records. When Michael's fifth studio album, ''Patience'', was released in 2004, it went straight to number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, and became one of the fastest selling albums in the UK, selling over 200,000 copies in the first week alone. In Australia it reached number 2 on 22 March. It reached the Top 5 on most European charts, and peaked at number 12 in the United States, selling over 500,000 copies to earn a Gold certification from the RIAA. Critically acclaimed, it is considered the album of George Michael's comeback to the spotlight in the new millennium, selling around 7 million copies worldwide and spawning four (of six) new hit singles.

"Amazing", the first single off the album, became a number one hit in Europe. When Michael appeared on the ''Oprah Winfrey Show'' on 26 May 2004, to promote the album, he performed "Amazing", along with his classic songs "Father Figure" and "Faith". On the show Michael spoke of his arrest, revealing his homosexuality, and his resumption of public performances. He allowed Oprah's crew inside his home outside of London. The second single taken off the album was "Flawless (Go to the City)", It was a dance hit in Europe as well as North America, reaching no.1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Play and became Michael's last number one single on the United States Dance chart. In November, Sony released another single – "Round Here". It was the least successful single taken from ''Patience'' when it stalled the UK charts at no. 32. In 2005, "John and Elvis Are Dead" was released as the final single from the album; it was released as a download single and was therefore unable to chart in the United Kingdom.

George Michael announced that ''Patience'' will be the last record on sale to the public. He told BBC Radio 1 on 10 March 2004 that future music that he puts out will be available for download, with fans encouraged to make a donation to charity.

2005–2008: Twenty Five and concert tours

''Twenty Five'' was George Michael's second greatest hits album, celebrating the 25th anniversary of his music career. Released in November 2006 by Sony BMG, it debuted at no.1 in the UK.

The album contains songs chiefly from George Michael's solo career but also from his earlier days in Wham!. It comes in two formats: two CDs or a limited edition three-CD set. The 2-CD set contained 26 tracks, including four recorded with Wham! and three new songs: "An Easier Affair"; "This Is Not Real Love" (a duet with Mutya Buena, formerly of Sugababes, which peaked at No.15 in the UK Charts); and a new version of "Heal the Pain" recorded with Paul McCartney. The limited edition three-CD version contains an additional 14 lesser known tracks, including one from Wham! and another completely new song, "Understand".

''Twenty Five'' was released in North America on 1 April 2008 as a 29-song, two-CD set featuring several new songs (including duets with Paul McCartney and Mary J. Blige and a song from the short-lived TV series Eli Stone) in addition to many of Michael's successful songs from both his solo and Wham! career. To commemorate the ''Twenty Five'' album, George Michael toured North America for the first time in 17 years, playing large venues in major cities including New York, Los Angeles, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Chicago and Dallas.

The DVD version of ''Twenty Five'' contains 40 videos on two discs, including seven with Wham!.

During the 2005 Live 8 concert, Michael joined Paul McCartney on stage, harmonising on The Beatles classic "Drive My Car". Michael was one of several remixers commissioned in 1990 to work on dance mixes for Bananarama's "Tripping on Your Love". Bananarama covered "Careless Whisper" for their ''Exotica'' album in 2001, and the track was also released as a single in France.

In 2006, Michael started his first tour in 15 years, 25 Live. The tour began in Barcelona, Spain, on 23 September and finished in December at Wembley Arena in England. According to his website, the 80-show tour was seen by 1.3 million fans. On 12 May 2007 in Coimbra, Portugal, he began the European "25 Live Stadium Tour 2007", including London and Athens, and ending on 4 August 2007 in Belfast, UK. There were 29 tour dates (as of 21 April 2007) across Europe. On 9 June 2007 Michael became the first artist to perform live at the newly renovated Wembley Stadium in London, where he was later fined £130,000 for overrunning the programme for 13 minutes.

On 25 March 2008 a third part of the 25 Live Tour was announced for North America. This part included 21 dates in the United States and Canada. This was Michael's first tour of North America in 17 years. Following news of Michael's North American tour, ''Twenty Five'' was released in North America on 1 April 2008 as a 29-song, 2-CD set featuring several new songs (including duets with Paul McCartney and Mary J. Blige and a song from the short-lived TV series, ''Eli Stone'') in addition to many of Michael's successful songs from both his solo and Wham! career. In addition, a companion 2-disc DVD of 40 videos was also made available.

Michael made his American acting debut by playing a guardian angel to Jonny Lee Miller's character on Eli Stone, a TV series that was broadcast in the United States. In addition to performing on the show as himself and as "visions", each episode of the show's first season was named after a song of his. Michael appeared on the 2008 finale show of ''American Idol'' on 21 May singing "Praying for Time". When asked what he thought Simon will say of his performance, he replied "I think he'll probably tell me I shouldn't have done a George Michael song. He's told plenty of people that in the past, so I think that'd be quite funny."

On 1 December, Michael played a last concert in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, as part of the 37th National Day Celebrations.

2008–present: Latest projects

On 25 December 2008, Michael released a new track "December Song" on his website for free. It was hoped that fans who download the song would donate money to charity. Though the song is not available any more on his website, it remains available on file sharing networks and on 29 October 2009 the BBC said that George Michael was to join the race for the UK Christmas number one as a remastered version of "December Song" would go on sale on 13 December. The popularity of the single was boosted by a promotional appearance that Michael made on The X Factor UK, where he performed the song with David Austin playing piano.

At the end of 2009, Michael announced, after months of speculation, that he would be performing shows in the Australian cities of Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, his first concerts in Australia since 1988. On 20 February 2010, Michael performed his first show in Perth at the Burswood dome to an audience of 15,000.

On 5 March 2010, Michael confirmed that he would be a guest performer at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras After Party, where he performed at 1 am, followed by Kelly Rowland at 3 am.

On 2 March 2011 Michael announced the release of his cover version of New Order's 1987 hit "True Faith" in aid of the Comic Relief charity. Michael released a cover of Stevie Wonder's 1972 song, "You and I" on 15 April 2011, as an MP3 gift to Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton on the occasion of their royal wedding on 29 April 2011.

Although the MP3 was released for free download, Michael appealed that those who do download the special track that make a contribution to "The Prince William & Miss Catherine Middleton Charitable Gift Fund".

On 11 May 2011, the Symphonica Tour was announced. Currently, only European dates have been released. The first show on the tour was preformed at the Prague State Opera House on 22 August.

Personal life

Sexuality

In a 2007 interview, Michael admitted that he hid the fact he is gay because of worries over the effect it might have on his mother.

Relationships

Michael established a relationship with Anselmo Feleppa, whom he had met at the 1991 concert Rock in Rio. Feleppa died of a brain haemorrhage in 1993. Michael's single "Jesus to a Child" is a tribute to Feleppa (he consistently dedicates it to him before performing it live), as is his 1996 album ''Older''.

Since 1996, Michael has been in a long-term relationship with businessman, Kenny Goss. Goss opened the Goss Gallery in May 2005 in Dallas, which shows contemporary art and works from their private collection, which includes many artworks by YBAs such as Sarah Lucas. They have homes in London and Dallas. In late November 2005, it was reported that Michael and Goss would register their relationship as a civil partnership in the UK, but because of negative publicity and his upcoming tour, they postponed it to a later date. There are reports of their relationship secretly ending in December 2008, though this has been denied by Michael. Goss was present at Michael's British sentencing for driving under the influence of marijuana on 14 September 2010.

Los Angeles incident

Questions of Michael's sexual orientation persisted in public until 7 April 1998, when he was arrested for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet in a park in Beverly Hills, California. He was arrested by an undercover policeman named Marcelo Rodríguez, in a sting operation using so-called "pretty police."

In an MTV interview, Michael stated: "I got followed into the restroom and then this cop—I didn't know it was a cop, obviously—he started playing this game, which I think is called, 'I'll show you mine, you show me yours, and then when you show me yours, I'm going to nick you!"

After pleading "no contest" to the charge, Michael was fined US$810 and sentenced to 80 hours of community service. Soon afterwards, Michael made a video for his single "Outside" which was obviously based on the public toilet incident and which featured men dressed as policemen kissing. Rodríguez claimed that this video "mocked" him, and that Michael had slandered him in interviews. In 1999, he brought a US$10 million court case in California against the singer. The court dismissed the case, but an Appellate court reinstated the case on 3 December 2002. The court then ruled Rodríguez, as a public official, could not legally recover damages for emotional distress.

After the incident, Michael became explicit about his sexuality and his relationship with Kenny Goss, a former cheerleader coach and sportswear executive from Dallas, and his partner since June 1996.

On 23 July 2006. Michael was again accused of engaging in anonymous public sex, this time at London's Hampstead Heath. The anonymous partner was later discovered to be 58-year-old Norman Kirtland, an unemployed van driver. Despite stating that he intended to sue both the ''News of the World'' tabloid who photographed the incident and Norman Kirtland for slander, Michael stated that he openly cruises for anonymous sex and that this was not an issue in his relationship with partner Kenny Goss.

On 17 June 2008, Michael said he was thrilled by California's legalisation of same-sex marriage, calling the move "way overdue."

Drugs

On 26 February 2006, Michael was arrested for possession of Class C drugs, an incident that he described as "my own stupid fault, as usual." He was cautioned by the police and released.

Michael was arrested in Cricklewood, North-West London, after motorists reported a car obstructing the road at traffic lights. He pleaded guilty on 8 May 2007 to driving while unfit through drugs. He was banned from driving for two years, and sentenced to community service. During September 2007, on Desert Island Discs, he said that his cannabis use was a problem; he wished he could smoke less of it and was constantly trying to do so.

On 19 September 2008, Michael was arrested in a public toilet in the Hampstead Heath area of London for possession of Class A and C drugs. He was taken to the police station and cautioned for controlled substance possession.

On 5 December 2009, in an interview with ''The Guardian'', Michael explains he had cut back on cannabis and now smokes only 'seven or eight' spliffs per day instead of the 25 he used to smoke.

In the early hours of Sunday 4 July 2010 he was returning from the Gay Pride parade. The singer was spotted on CCTV driving into the front of a Snappy Snaps store in Hampstead, North London and was arrested on suspicion of being unfit to drive after reports that a car had crashed into a building. On 12 August, London's Metropolitan Police said he was "charged with possession of cannabis and with driving while unfit through drink or drugs". Michael had also been taking the prescription medication Amitriptyline.

On 24 August 2010 the singer pleaded guilty at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court in London after admitting driving under the influence of drugs and on 14 September 2010 at the same court, was sentenced to eight weeks in prison, a fine, and a five year ban from driving. Michael was released from Highpoint Prison in Suffolk on 11 October 2010, after serving four weeks.

It was reported that Michael had also been taking the prescription medication, Amitriptyline, some of the side effects of which are listed on Medline include tiredness, drowsiness, blurred vision, fainting, dizziness and hallucinating.

Politics

Michael wrote "Shoot the Dog", a song critical about the friendly relationship between the American and British governments and their involvement in the Iraq War.

During 2000, Michael joined Melissa Etheridge, Garth Brooks, Queen Latifah, the Pet Shop Boys, and k.d. lang, to perform in Washington, D.C. as part of 'Equality Rocks' – a concert to benefit the Human Rights Campaign.

During 2007, he sent the £1.45 million piano that John Lennon used to write "Imagine" around the United States on a "peace tour," having it on display at places where violence had taken place, such as Dallas' Dealey Plaza, where U.S. President John. F. Kennedy was shot.

He devoted his concert in Sofia, Bulgaria from his "Twenty Five Tour" to the Bulgarian nurses prosecuted in the HIV trial in Libya.

Charity

During 1984, he sang as part of Band Aid on the charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for famine relief in Ethiopia. This single scored No.1 on the UK music charts over Christmas 1984, holding Michael's own song, "Last Christmas" by Wham!, at #2. Michael donated the royalties from "Last Christmas" to Band Aid and subsequently sang with Elton John at Live Aid (the Band Aid charity concert) in 1985.

In 2003 he paired up with Ronan Keating on the British version of ''Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'' and won £32,000 (this after having their original £64,000 winnings halved after missing the £125,000 question).

The proceeds from the single "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" were divided among 10 different charities for children, AIDS and education.

Michael is supporting a campaign to help raise US$32 million (GBP15 million) for terminally ill children.

Assets

According to reports, between the years 2006 and 2008, he is said to have earned £48.5 million ($97 million) from the 25 Live tour alone, as well as earning millions more for private concerts that he periodically does, such as for Billionaire Vladimir Potanin and super rich fashion shop owner Sir Philip Green. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2009, George Michael is worth £90 million in currency alone.

Memoirs

In 1991 George released an autobiography titled "Bare" through Penguin Books, which he co-wrote with writer Tony Parsons. The over 200 page book covers various aspects of his life, including details of his relationship with a former girlfriend. On 16 January 2008, Michael signed a contract with HarperCollins for an autobiography which he is to write "entirely himself".

Discography

Studio albums

1987: ''Faith''

1990: ''Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1''

1996: ''Older''

1999: ''Songs from the Last Century''

2004: ''Patience''

Awards

Tours

Faith World Tour (1988–1989)

Cover to Cover (1991)

25 Live (2006–2008)

George Michael Live in Australia (2010)

Symphonica Tour (2011)

See also

List of best-selling music artists

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. dance chart

List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B; chart

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart

List of number-one hits (United States)

List of number-one dance hits (United States)

List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart

List of number-one singles (UK)

List of artists by total number of UK number one singles

List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart

References

External links

George Michael Blog

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Coordinates	39°29′″N176°55′″N
name	Paloma Faith
background	solo_singer
birth name	Paloma Faith Blomfield
born	July 21, 1985Hackney, London, UK
instrument	Vocals
genre	Soul, pop, jazz
occupation	Singer-songwriter, actress
years active	2006–present
label	Epic Records
website	}}

Paloma Faith (born Paloma Faith Blomfield; 21 July 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and actress. In 2009, she released her debut single "Stone Cold Sober" and her debut album, ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?'', which was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. Her album stayed within the top 40 album charts for over forty weeks. The album has spawned five singles: "Stone Cold Sober", "New York", title track "Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?", "Upside Down" and "Smoke & Mirrors". Faith has also recorded the theme song to the 2010 British film ''4.3.2.1'' and appeared on the charity record, "I Put a Spell on You". Faith made her feature film debut in the 2007 remake of ''St Trinian's''. She has since appeared in two more feature films, ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' and ''Dread''. In March 2010, Faith revealed that she is working on a second album.

Early life

Faith was born in Hackney, London to a Spanish father and an English mother who split up when Faith was two years old. Faith was raised by her mother in Stoke Newington. As a child, Faith was encouraged to dance by her mother and she took weekly ballet classes in Dalston.

After completing her A-Levels, Faith went on to study for a degree in contemporary dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, which Faith describes as "the worst experience of [her] life". Faith then went on to study for an MA in theatre directing at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, funding her studies by working various part-time jobs, which included; a sales assistant at Agent Provocateur, a singer in a burlesque cabaret, a life model and a magician's assistant.

Music career

2007–08: Career beginnings

Faith's first foray into music began when she mimicked famous soul and jazz singers including Etta James and Billie Holiday, whom she admired and cites as influences for her own work. Faith met her managers Jamie Binns and Christian Wåhlberg of Lateral Management in 2007. Binns had been tipped off by the producer Peanut, a client who had recently worked with Faith in his studio and been suitably impressed. He met up with Faith shortly afterwards and was "completely blown away", later saying: "I wasn't sure what this girl was going to do - she was an actress and a singer - but there was just something about her in that artistic realness that when I came out of the meeting I called Christian and said, 'We have to do something with this girl!'" Although Faith had been looking for a manager, she was still wary about entering into a formal agreement with Binns and Wåhlberg. She instead wanted to build their relationship before any contracts were signed. The managers spent six months to a year helping Faith with the A&R; process, setting up sessions, and guiding and advising her before Faith was officially signed to Lateral Management.

During her time at college, Faith worked in a pub where the manager asked her to front his band, which they later called 'Paloma and the Penetrators'. During a performance with the band at a cabaret show, Faith was scouted by an A&R; man from Epic Records, who invited Faith to sing for the manager of the label. Twenty minutes into the audition, Faith asked the manager to turn his phone off and when he refused, she walked out. Epic A&R; Joanna Charrington told HitQuarters "When she played a showcase for us it was clear that she was a star but the material was a bit generic. She didn't have the hit songs." Not being one hundred percent convinced the label executives decided to wait. During this time Charrington regularly checked Faith's Myspace page "to see if she had something that had a special direction or sound." After several months her attention was eventually piqued by "Broken Doll", which she thought was a well-crafted song with a "fantastic chorus and brilliant lyrics." Charrington told Epic managing director Nick Raphael "I think we should get this girl back in. She sounds like she is getting it now. We can help her get the songs." Faith revealed in an interview that the manager called her and offered her a contract saying he had seen many acts since and none had been as memorable as her. Faith turned down an opportunity to join Amy Winehouse's band and she began to write and perform her own songs.

Faith's first recognised work was the song "It's Christmas (And I Hate You)", which she recorded as a duet with singer-songwriter, Josh Weller in 2008. Faith's music is influenced by soul and jazz and her singing style has been compared favourably to those of Amy Winehouse and Duffy.

2009–10: ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?''

Faith released her debut single, "Stone Cold Sober", in mid-2009 and it reached Number 17 on the UK Singles Chart. Faith's second single, "New York" was released in September 2009. The song made its peak position in early October, peaking at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart. Faith then released her debut album, ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?'', on 28 September 2009. Faith wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album in the UK, Sweden and America and recorded it entirely in London. It debuted at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart and later peaked at Nº9, it remained in the chart for sixteen weeks. The album became BBC Radio 2's 'Album of the Week' from the 19 September 2009. In the same year, Faith appeared as a guest vocalist on Basement Jaxx's ''Scars'' album and on American hip hop artist, MF Doom's, album, ''Born Like This''. Faith released her third single, the album's title track, "Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?" on 21 December 2009. The song did not perform as well as Faith's previous singles and failed to reach the top twenty. It peaked at number 64 in January 2010. In March 2010, Faith released her fourth single, "Upside Down", which peaked at Number 55 in the UK. To promote the album, Faith went on her first tour, featuring dates in the UK, Germany and France.

On 4 November 2009, Faith announced her first headlining tour of the UK and Ireland starting on 17 March 2010. ''The Times'' described the tour as being "full of theatrical artifice, but based on the rock-solid foundation of [Faith]'s sensational singing voice and a personality that sparkled like a rough diamond". Faith performed a live set for the BBC's ''Radio 2 Introduces...'' and gave an interview to the station's host, Dermot O'Leary. Faith also appeared on current events programme ''This Week'' discussing her views on the British education system with Michael Portillo. During this month she also appeared as a guest on ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'', performed the song "Upside Down" on ''The Hollyoaks Music Show,'' and performed her single "New York" on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross''. She also appeared on the BBC's ''Later with Jools Holland'', recorded on 13 October 2009, and his live Hootenanny on 31 December 2009. Faith performed at numerous festivals throughout that summer, including T4 on the Beach. "Stone Cold Sober" was used as the backing track for a Rimmel commercial starring Lily Cole and the B-side, "I Just Wait", was used in a UK television alcohol awareness advert. Samsung's Corby mobile phone TV commercial featured Faith's "Technicolour" song. Faith became involved in an album artwork competition with BBC Blast in November 2009, in which teenagers won the chance to work alongside leading artists, photographers and music industry professionals to create new publicity artwork for the singer.

During an interview with Digital Spy in March 2010, Faith revealed that she is working on a second album. She also revealed that if she continues to make losses for her record label they will drop her. Faith's manager subsequently refuted any suggestion that her contract with the label was under threat, saying that, on the contrary, debut album UK sales of 500,000 without a hit single is an impressive foundation for a long-term career, and Sony are "smart enough" to recognise that and are 110% behind her. Faith, along with Adam Deacon and Bashy, recorded the theme song to the 2010 British film ''4.3.2.1''. The track, titled "Keep Moving", was released on 28 May 2010. In the same month, Faith performed at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival with the The Guy Barker Orchestra. The performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 2. In June 2010, it was announced that Faith would re-release an updated version of "New York" featuring rapper Ghostface Killah. The single was released on 1 August 2010. Faith released a live EP album following an appearance at the 2010 iTunes Festival. The album charted at number 11 on the iTunes top 200 albums. Faith revealed in a September interview that she would be releasing her new single "Smoke & Mirrors" in October 2010. The track was her final single from her debut album and its video was uploaded to YouTube.

2011–present: Second Studio Album

In January 2011, Faith was nominated for "British Female Solo Artist" at the 2011 BRIT Awards. At the ceremony, Faith performed "Forget You" alongside Cee Lo Green. Faith appears on the charity single "Hard Times" alongside Plan B and Elton John. During an interview with Popjustice, Faith revealed her second album would contain more "agony and suffering." The singer also hoped the album would be done with one producer as she wanted a "solid piece of work." She explained "I love the beautiful side of things like that Tom Waitsy, Rufus Wainwrighty, Ed Harcourt sort of stuff, and in contrast I like all the OutKast production, Gnarls Barkley and 'Beggin' and all that sort of sound. Contemporary but with a nod to the past. But you never know. You might just meet someone and something else would make sense." In July 2011, Faith revealed her frustrations about releasing the follow up to ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?''. She did not know when the album was going to be completed and said the process was slow. She told Kristy Kelly of Digital Spy, "The album's not finished yet and I'm not sure when it will be. If I had my way it would be out tomorrow, but there are so many other people involved that nothing happens quickly." Faith also admitted being signed to a major record label made her feel under pressure to be instantly successful.

Acting career

In 2006, Faith made her primetime television acting debut in the series ''Mayo''. In 2007, Faith appeared in an episode of the BBC police drama ''HolbyBlue'', and in the same year Faith made her feature film acting debut as Andrea in ''St Trinian's''. In 2009, Faith appeared in Terry Gilliam's ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' as Sally, the girlfriend of the Devil (played by Tom Waits). She also appeared in horror film ''Dread'' as Clara Thornhill, and in the video for Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's song, "The Beat That My Heart Skipped". Faith has said that she was able to attend movie auditions during promotion for her debut album, in the hope that she lands a role once all of her album commitments are over. In August 2010, Faith appeared in Channel 4's series ''Coming Up''. Faith will appear in the forthcoming short film, ''A Nice Touch'' with Dougray Scott.

Discography

;Studio albums ''Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?''

;Singles

"Stone Cold Sober"

"New York"

"Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?"

"Upside Down"

"New York" (feat. Ghostface Killah)

"Smoke & Mirrors"

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" !! colspan=4 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Feature films |- align="center" ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Year ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Title ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Role ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Notes |- | 2007 || ''St Trinian's'' || Andrea || Film debut |- | rowspan="2"|2009 ||''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' || Sally || |- |''Dread'' || Clara Thornhill || |- | 2011 || ''A Nice Touch'' || || |- align="center" ! colspan=4 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Television roles |- align="center" ! style="background:#CCCCCC;" | Year ! style="background:#CCCCCC;" | Title ! style="background:#CCCCCC;" | Role ! style="background:#CCCCCC;" | Notes |- | 2006 || ''Mayo'' || Guest || |- | 2007 || ''HolbyBlue'' || Donna Reynolds || |- | 2010 || ''Coming Up: I Don't Care'' || Rainy || |- |}

References

External links

''True Faith – The Paloma Faith Interview'', Paloma Faith's first interview on Wordpress blog, VonPipMusicalExpress

BBC Blast – Paloma Faith publicity artwork competition at BBC Blast

Paloma Faith live photos Jan 2007 by Bartolomy

Category:1985 births Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:English female singers Category:English film actors Category:English people of Spanish descent Category:Living people Category:People from Hackney Category:Alumni of the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Category:People from Stoke Newington

da:Paloma Faith de:Paloma Faith es:Paloma Faith fr:Paloma Faith it:Paloma Faith pl:Paloma Faith pt:Paloma Faith ro:Paloma Faith ru:Палома Фейт fi:Paloma Faith sv:Paloma Faith

Coordinates	39°29′″N176°55′″N
name	The Cure
background	group_or_band
origin	Crawley, England
genre	Alternative rock, gothic rock, New Wave, post-punk
years active	1976–present
label	Fiction, Suretone, Geffen, Polydor, Elektra, Asylum, Sire|, Warner
associated acts	Malice, Easy Cure, The Glove, Siouxsie and the Banshees
website
current members	Robert SmithSimon Gallup Porl Thompson Jason Cooper
past members	Michael DempseyMatthieu HartleyPhil ThornalleyAndy AndersonBoris WilliamsPerry Bamonte Lol Tolhurst Roger O'Donnell }}

The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with its debut album ''Three Imaginary Boys'' (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre.

After the release of ''Pornography'' (1982), the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music (as well as a unique stage look). The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004. The Cure have released thirteen studio albums and over thirty singles during the course of their career.

History

Formation and early years (1973–1979)

The first incarnation of what became The Cure was The Obelisk, a band formed by students at Notre Dame Middle School in Crawley, Sussex. The band made their public debut in a one-off performance in April 1973, and featured Robert Smith (piano), Michael "Mick" Dempsey (guitar), Laurence "Lol" Tolhurst (percussion), Marc Ceccagno (lead guitar) and Alan Hill (bass guitar). The first real incarnation though came in January 1976 when Ceccagno formed Malice with Smith and Dempsey along with two other classmates from St. Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, with Ceccagno on lead, Smith on guitar, and Dempsey switching to bass. Ceccagno soon left, however, to form a jazz-rock fusion band called Amulet. Increasingly influenced by the emergence of punk rock, Malice's remaining members became known as Easy Cure in January 1977. By this time, Smith and Dempsey had been joined by Lol Tolhurst from The Obelisk on drums, and new lead guitarist Porl Thompson. Both Malice and Easy Cure also trialled several unsuccessful vocalists before Smith finally assumed the role of Easy Cure's frontman in September 1977.

That year, Easy Cure won a talent competition with German label Hansa Records, and received a recording contract. Although the band recorded tracks for the company, none were ever released. Following disagreements in March 1978 over the direction the band should take, the contract with Hansa was dissolved. Smith later recalled, "We were very young. They just thought they could turn us into a teen group. They actually wanted us to do cover versions and we always refused." Thompson was dropped from the band in May, and the remaining trio (Smith/Tolhurst/Dempsey) were soon renamed The Cure by Smith. Later that month the band recorded their first sessions as a trio at Chestnut Studios in Sussex, which were distributed as a demo tape to a dozen major record labels. The demo found its way to Polydor Records scout Chris Parry, who signed The Cure to his newly formed Fiction label—distributed by Polydor—in September 1978. However, as a stopgap while Fiction finalised distribution arrangements with Polydor, in December 1978 The Cure released their debut single "Killing an Arab" on the Small Wonder label. "Killing an Arab" garnered both acclaim and controversy: while the single's provocative title led to accusations of racism, the song is actually based on French existentialist Albert Camus' novel ''The Stranger''. The band placed a sticker label that denied the racist connotations on the single's 1979 reissue on Fiction. An early ''NME'' article on the band wrote that The Cure "are like a breath of fresh suburban air on the capital's smog-ridden pub and club circuit" and noted "With a John Peel session and more extensive London gigging on their immediate agenda, it remains to be seen whether or not The Cure can retain their refreshing ''joie de vivre''."

The Cure released their debut album ''Three Imaginary Boys'' in May 1979. Due to the band's inexperience in the studio, Parry and engineer Mike Hedges took control of the recording. The band, particularly Smith, were unhappy with their debut; in a 1987 interview, he admitted, "a lot of it was very superficial – I didn't even like it at the time. There were criticisms made that it was very lightweight, and I thought they were justified. Even when we'd made it, I wanted to do something that I thought had more substance to it". The band's second single "Boys Don't Cry" was released in June. The Cure then embarked as the support band for Siouxsie & The Banshees' ''Join Hands'' promotional tour of England, Northern Ireland, and Wales between August and October. The tour saw Smith and Tolhurst pull double duty each night by performing with The Cure and as the guitarist / drummer with The Banshees when their guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris both walked out on the group just two days into the tour. That musical experience had a strong impact on him: "On stage that first night with the Banshees, I was blown away by how powerful I felt playing that kind of music. It was so different to what we were doing with The Cure. Before that, I'd wanted us to be like The Buzzcocks or Elvis Costello, the punk Beatles. Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing."

The Cure's third single "Jumping Someone Else's Train" was released in early October 1979. Soon afterwards, Dempsey was dropped from the band due to his cold reception to material Smith had written for the upcoming album. Dempsey joined the Associates, while Simon Gallup (bass) and Matthieu Hartley (keyboards) from The Magspies joined The Cure. The Associates toured as support band for The Cure and The Passions on the ''Future Pastimes Tour'' of England between November and December—all three bands were on the Fiction Records roster—with the new Cure line-up already performing a number of new songs for the projected second album. Meanwhile, a spin-off band comprising Smith, Tolhurst, Dempsey, Gallup, Hartley and Thompson, with backing vocals from assorted family and friends, and lead vocals provided by their local postman Frankie Bell released a 7-inch single in December under the assumed name of Cult Hero.

Gothic phase (1980–1982)

Wary, due to the band's lack of creative control on the first album, Smith exerted a greater influence on the recording of The Cure's second album ''Seventeen Seconds'', which he co-produced with Mike Hedges. The album was released in 1980 and reached number 20 on the UK charts. A single from the album, "A Forest", became the band's first UK hit single, reaching number 31 on the singles chart. The album was a departure from The Cure's sound up to that point, with Hedges describing it as "morose, atmospheric, very different to ''Three Imaginary Boys''." In its review of ''Seventeen Seconds'' the ''NME'' said, "For a group as young as The Cure, it seems amazing that they have covered so much territory in such a brief time." At the same time, Smith was pressed concerning the concept of an alleged "anti-image". Smith told the press he was fed up with the anti-image association that some considered to be "elaborately disguising their plainness", stating, "We had to get away from that anti-image thing, which we didn't even create in the first place. And it seemed like we were trying to be more obscure. We just didn't like the standard rock thing. The whole thing really got out of hand." That same year ''Three Imaginary Boys'' was repackaged for the American market as ''Boys Don't Cry'', with new artwork and a modified tracklist. The Cure set out on their first world tour to promote both releases. At the end of the tour, Matthieu Hartley left the band. Hartley said, "I realised that the group was heading towards suicidal, sombre music—the sort of thing that didn't interest me at all."

The band reconvened with Hedges to produce their third album ''Faith'' (1981), which furthered the mood of misery present on ''Seventeen Seconds''. The album peaked at number 14 on the UK charts. Included with cassette copies of ''Faith'' was an instrumental soundtrack for ''Carnage Visors'', an animated film shown in place of an opening act for the band's 1981 Picture Tour. In late 1981, The Cure released the non-album single "Charlotte Sometimes". By this point, the sombre mood of the music had a profound effect on the attitude of the band. The band would refuse requests for older songs in concert, and sometimes Smith would be so absorbed by the persona he projected onstage he would leave at the end in tears.

In 1982, The Cure recorded and released ''Pornography'', the third and final album of an "oppressively dispirited" trio that cemented the Cure's stature as purveyors of the emerging gothic rock genre. Smith has said that during the recording of ''Pornography'' he was "undergoing a lot of mental stress. But it had nothing to do with the group, it just had to do with what I was like, my age and things. I think I got to my worst round about ''Pornography''. Looking back and getting other people's opinions of what went on, I was a pretty monstrous sort of person at that time". Gallup described the album by saying, "Nihilism took over [. . .] We sang 'It doesn't matter if we all die' and that is exactly what we thought at the time." Parry was concerned that the album did not have a hit song for radio play and instructed Smith and producer Phil Thornalley to polish the track "The Hanging Garden" for release as a single. Despite the concerns about the album's uncommercial sound, ''Pornography'' became the band's first UK Top 10 album, charting at number eight. The release of ''Pornography'' was followed by the Fourteen Explicit Moments tour, where the band finally dropped the anti-image angle and first adopted their signature look of big, towering hair and smeared lipstick on their faces. The tour also saw a series of incidents that prompted Simon Gallup to leave The Cure at the tour's conclusion. Gallup and Smith did not talk to each other for eighteen months following his departure.

Increasing commercial success (1983–1986)

With Gallup's departure from The Cure and with Smith's work with Siouxsie & the Banshees, rumours spread that The Cure had broken up. In December 1982, Smith remarked to ''Melody Maker'', "Do The Cure really exist any more? I've been pondering that question myself [. . .] it has got to a point where I don't fancy working in that format again." He added, "Whatever happens, it won't be me, Laurence, and Simon together any more. I know that."

Parry was concerned at the state of his label's top band, and became convinced that the solution was for The Cure to reinvent its musical style. Parry managed to convince Smith and Tolhurst of the idea; Parry said, "It appealed to Robert because he wanted to destroy The Cure anyway." With Tolhurst now playing keyboards instead of drums, the duo released the single "Let's Go to Bed" in late 1982. While Smith wrote the single off as a throwaway, "stupid" pop song to the press, it became a minor hit in the UK, reaching number 44 on the singles chart. It was followed in 1983 by two more successful songs: the synthesiser-based "The Walk" (number 12), and the jazz-influenced "The Lovecats", which became the band's first British Top 10 hit, reaching number seven. The group released these studio singles and their B-sides as the compilation album ''Japanese Whispers'', designed by Smith for the Japanese market only, but released worldwide on the decision of the record company. The same year, Smith also recorded and toured with Siouxsie & the Banshees, contributing as guitarist on their ''Nocturne'' live video and their ''Hyaena'' studio album. Meanwhile, he recorded the ''Blue Sunshine'' album with Banshees bassist Steven Severin as The Glove, while Lol Tolhurst produced the first two singles and debut album of the English band And Also The Trees.

In 1984, The Cure released ''The Top'', a generally psychedelic album on which Smith played all the instruments except the drums—played by Andy Anderson—and the saxophone—played by returnee Porl Thompson. The album was a Top 10 hit in the UK, and was their first studio album to break the ''Billboard'' 200 in the U.S., reaching number 180. ''Melody Maker'' praised the album as "psychedelia that can't be dated", while pondering, "I've yet to meet anyone who can tell me why The Cure are having hits now of all times." The Cure then embarked on their worldwide "Top Tour" with Thompson, Anderson, and producer-turned-bassist Phil Thornalley on board. Released in late 1984, The Cure's first live album, ''Concert'' consisted of performances from this tour. Near the tour's end, Anderson was fired for destroying a hotel room and was replaced by Boris Williams. Thornalley also left due to the rigors of the road. However, the bassist slot was not vacant long, for a Cure roadie named Gary Biddles had brokered a reunion between Smith and former bassist Simon Gallup, who had been playing in the band Fools Dance. Soon after reconciling, Smith asked Gallup to rejoin the band. Smith was ecstatic about Gallup's return and declared to ''Melody Maker'', "It's a group again."

In 1985, the new line-up of Smith, Tolhurst, Gallup, Thompson, and Williams released ''The Head on the Door'', an album which managed to bind together the optimistic and pessimistic aspects of the band's music that they had previously shifted between. ''The Head on the Door'' reached number seven in the UK and was the band's first entry into American Top 75 at number 59, a success partly due to the international impact of the LP's two singles, "In Between Days" and "Close to Me". Following the album and world tour, the band released the singles compilation ''Standing on a Beach'' in three formats (each with a different track listing and a specific name) in 1986. This compilation made the US Top 50, and saw the re-issue of three previous singles: "Boys Don't Cry" (in a new form), "Let's Go To Bed" and later "Charlotte Sometimes". This release was accompanied by a VHS or LaserDisc called ''Staring at the Sea'', which featured videos for each track on the compilation. The Cure toured to support the compilation and released a live concert VHS of the show, filmed in the south of France called ''The Cure in Orange''. During this time, The Cure became a very popular band in Europe (particularly in France, Germany and the Benelux countries) and increasingly popular in the U.S.

''Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me'' and worldwide success (1987–1993)

In 1987, The Cure released the double LP ''Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me'', which reached number six in the UK, the Top 10 in several countries and was the band's first entry into the U.S. Top 40 at number 35 (where it was certified platinum), due to the combination of the band's rising popularity and the success of lead single, "Why Can't I Be You?". The album's third single, "Just Like Heaven" was the band's most successful single to date in the US, being their first to enter the ''Billboard'' Top 40. After the album's release, the band embarked on the successful Kissing Tour. During the European leg of the tour, Lol Tolhurst's alcohol consumption was interfering with his ability to perform so The Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Roger O'Donnell was frequently called upon to stand in for him. In 1989, The Cure released the album ''Disintegration'', which saw a return to the gothic atmospheres of earlier releases like ''Faith'' and ''Pornography''. It became their highest charting album in the UK to date, entering at number three and featuring three Top 30 singles in the UK and Germany ("Lullaby", "Lovesong" and "Pictures of You"). ''Disintegration'' also reached number twelve on the US charts. The first single stateside, "Fascination Street", reached number one on the American Modern Rock chart, but was quickly overshadowed when its third US single, "Lovesong", reached number two on the American pop charts (the only Cure single to reach the US Top 10). By 1992, ''Disintegration'' had sold over three million copies worldwide.

During the ''Disintegration'' sessions, the band gave Smith an ultimatum that either Tolhurst would have to leave the band or they would. In February 1989, Tolhurst's exit was made official and announced to the press; this resulted in Roger O'Donnell becoming a full-fledged member of the band and left Smith as The Cure's only remaining founder member. Smith attributed Tolhurst's dismissal to an inability to exert himself and issues with alcohol, concluding, "He was out of step with everything. It had just become detrimental to everything we'd do." Because Tolhurst was still on the payroll during the recording of ''Disintegration'', he was credited in the album's liner notes as playing "other instruments", however it has since been revealed that he contributed nothing to the album in either performance or song writing. The Cure then embarked on the Prayer Tour, which saw the band playing stadiums in America.

In May 1990, Roger O'Donnell quit and was replaced with the band's guitar technician Perry Bamonte. That November, The Cure released a collection of remixes called ''Mixed Up''. The album was not well received and quickly slid down the charts. The one new song on the collection, "Never Enough", was released as a single. In 1991 The Cure were awarded the BRIT Award for Best British Band. That same year Tolhurst filed a lawsuit against Smith and Fiction Records in 1991 over royalties payments, and claimed joint ownership of the name "The Cure" with Smith; the verdict was handed out in September 1994 in favour of Smith. In respite from the lawsuit, the band returned to the studio to record their next album. ''Wish'' reached number one in the UK and number two in the US and yielded the international hits "High" and "Friday I'm in Love". The Cure also embarked on the "Wish Tour" with Cranes, and released the live albums ''Show'' (September 1993) and ''Paris'' (October 1993). As a promotional exercise with the Our Price music chain in the UK, a limited edition EP was released consisting of instrumental outtakes from the ''Wish'' sessions. Entitled ''Lost Wishes'', the proceeds from the four-track cassette tape went to charity.

In the years between the release of ''Wish'' and the start of sessions for The Cure's next album, the band's line-up shifted again. Thompson left the band once more during 1993 to play with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and Bamonte took over as lead guitarist. Boris Williams also left the band, and was replaced by Jason Cooper (formerly of My Life Story).

Period of transition (1994–1999)

The album sessions began in 1994 with only Smith and Bamonte present; the pair were later joined by Gallup (who was recovering from physical problems), and Roger O'Donnell, who had been asked to rejoin the band at the end of 1994. The Cure performed "Burn" in the movie The Crow and "Dredd Song," the theme song of the 1995 movie ''Judge Dredd'' starring Sylvester Stallone. It was not released on a Cure album until 2004 on ''Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978–2001 (The Fiction Years)''.''Wild Mood Swings'', finally released in 1996, was poorly received compared with previous albums and marked the end of the band's commercial peak. Early in 1996, the Cure played festivals in South America, followed by a world tour in support of the album ''Galore''. ''Galore'' contained all of the Cure's singles released between 1987 and 1997, as well as the new single "Wrong Number", which featured longtime David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Gabrels also accompanied the Cure on a brief American radio festival tour as an onstage guest guitarist for "Wrong Number". In 1998 The Cure contributed to the soundtrack album for ''The X-Files'' feature film as well as the Depeche Mode tribute album ''For the Masses'', with their cover of "World in My Eyes".

Recent years (2000–present)

With only one album left in their record contract and with commercial response to ''Wild Mood Swings'' and the ''Galore'' compilation lacklustre, Smith once again considered that the end of The Cure might be near and thus wanted to make an album that reflected the more serious side of the band. The Grammy-nominated album ''Bloodflowers'' was released in 2000 after being delayed since 1998. According to Smith, The album was the third of a trilogy along with ''Pornography'' and ''Disintegration''. The band also embarked on the nine-month Dream Tour, attended by over one million people worldwide. In 2001, The Cure left Fiction and released their ''Greatest Hits'' album and DVD, which featured the music videos for a number of classic Cure songs. In 2002, the band headlined twelve major summer music festivals, and played three extended concerts (one in Brussels, two in Berlin) in which they performed the albums ''Pornography'', ''Disintegration'' and ''Bloodflowers'' in their respective entireties each night. The Berlin performances were released on DVD as ''The Cure: Trilogy'' in 2003.

In 2003, The Cure signed with Geffen Records. In 2004, they released a new four-disc boxed set on Fiction Records titled ''Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities, 1978-2001 (The Fiction Years)''. The compilation includes seventy Cure songs, some previously unreleased, and a 76-page full-colour book of photographs, history and quotes, packaged in a hard cover. The album peaked at number 106 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album charts. The band released their twelfth album ''The Cure'' on Geffen in 2004, which was produced by Ross Robinson. It made a top ten debut on both sides of the Atlantic in July 2004. To promote the album, the band headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that May. From 24 July to 29 August, The Cure headlined the Curiosa concert tour of North America. While attendances were lower than expected, Curiosa was still one of the more successful American summer festivals of 2004. The same year the band was honoured with an MTV Icon television special.

In May 2005, Roger O'Donnell and Perry Bamonte were fired from the band. O'Donnell claims Smith informed him he was reducing the band to a three-piece. Previously O'Donnell said he had only found out about the band's upcoming tour dates via a fan site and added, "It was sad to find out after nearly 20 years the way I did but then I should have expected no less or more." The remaining members of the band—Smith, Gallup and Cooper—made several appearances as a trio before it was announced in June that Porl Thompson would be returning for the band's 2005 Festival summer shows, as well as their set at Live 8 in Paris on 2 July. Later that year, the band recorded a cover of John Lennon's "Love" for Amnesty International's charity album ''Make Some Noise''. It is available for download on the Amnesty website, while the album was released on CD in 2006. On 1 April 2006, The Cure appeared at the Royal Albert Hall on behalf of the Teenage Cancer Trust. It was their only show through to the end the year. In December a live DVD, entitled ''The Cure: Festival 2005'' including 30 songs of their 2005 Festival tour was released.

The Cure began writing and recording material for their thirteenth album in 2006. Smith initially stated it would be a double album. The Cure announced a last-minute postponement of their autumn 2007 North American 4Tour in August in order to continue working on the album, rescheduling the dates for spring 2008. Titled ''4:13 Dream'', the album was released in October 2008. The group released four singles and an EP—"The Only One", "Freakshow", "Sleep When I'm Dead", "The Perfect Boy" and ''Hypnagogic States'' respectively—on or near to the 13th of each month, in the months leading up to the album's release. In February 2009, The Cure received the 2009 Shockwaves NME Award for Godlike Genius.

In 2011, the band played their first 3 studio albums in their entirety during two shows in Sydney, Australia. These "Reflections" shows notably featured Roger O'Donnell and Laurence Tolhurst, both in a keyboard and percussion role. The shows are due to be released on DVD in 2011.

Musical style

The Cure are often identified with the gothic rock subgenre of alternative rock, and are viewed as one of the form's definitive bands. However, the band has routinely rejected classification, particularly as a gothic rock band. Robert Smith said in 2006, "It's so pitiful when 'goth' is still tagged onto the name The Cure", and added, "We're not categorisable. I suppose we were post-punk when we came out, but in total it's impossible [...] I just play Cure music, whatever that is." Smith has also expressed his distaste for gothic rock, describing it as "incredibly dull and monotonous. A dirge really." While typically viewed as producers of dark and gloomy music, The Cure have also yielded a number of upbeat songs. ''Spin'' has said "The Cure have always been an either/or sort of band: either [...] Robert Smith is wallowing in gothic sadness or he's licking sticky-sweet cotton-candy pop off his lipstick-stained fingers."

The Cure's primary musical traits have been listed as "dominant, melodic bass lines; whiny, strangulated vocals; and a lyric obsession with existential, almost literary despair." Most Cure songs start with Smith and Gallup writing the drum parts and bass lines. Both record demos at home and then bring them into the studio for fine-tuning. Smith said in 1992, "I think when people talk about the 'Cure sound,' they mean songs based on 6-string bass, acoustic guitar, and my voice, plus the string sound from the Solina." On top of this foundation is laid "towering layers of guitars and synthesisers". Keyboards have been a component of the band's sound since ''Seventeen Seconds'', and their importance increased with the instrument's extensive use on ''Disintegration''. With the Departure of Roger O'Donnell in 2005, keyboards have not been as prominent in the band's album 4:13 Dream and their live shows.

Music videos

The band's early music videos have been described as "dreadful affairs" and have been maligned for their poor quality, particularly by the band itself. Lol Tolhurst said, "Those videos were unmitigated disasters; we weren't actors and our personalities weren't coming across." It was with the video for "Let's Go to Bed", their first collaboration with director Tim Pope, that The Cure would become noted for their videos. Pope added a playful element to the band's videos; the director insisted in a 1987 ''Spin'' interview, "I think that side of them was always there, but was never brought out." Pope would go on to direct the majority of The Cure's videos, and his videos, which became synonymous with the band, helped expand The Cure's audience during the 1980s. Pope explained the appeal of working with The Cure by saying, "The Cure is the ultimate band for a filmmaker to work with because Robert Smith really understands the camera. His songs are so cinematic. I mean on one level there's this stupidity and humour, right, but beneath that there are all [Smith's] psychological obsessions and claustrophobia."

Legacy

The Cure were one of the first alternative bands to have chart and commercial success in an era before alternative rock had broken into the mainstream. In 1992 the ''NME'' declared The Cure had during the 1980s become "a goth hit machine (19 to date), an international phenomenon and, yep, the most successful alternative band that ever shuffled disconsolately about the earth". Smith has noted he looks at Cure-influenced bands like Interpol and My Chemical Romance with affection, adding, "I also think [Interpol bassist] Carlos D.'s obsession with Simon Gallup is sweet." Interpol lead singer, Paul Banks was quoted as saying ""The Cure is the band that all of us in Interpol can say influenced us. When I was younger I listened to them a lot. Carlos as well. Actually, he took a straight influence from this band on the way he played the bass and the keys. To me, Robert Smith is also one of these examples: you can't be Robert Smith if you're not Robert Smith. It's one of the bands with the deepest influence on Interpol, because we all like them. They're legendary."

Several references to The Cure and their music have been made in popular culture. A number of films have used the title of a Cure song as the film's title, including ''Boys Don't Cry'' (1999) and ''Just Like Heaven'' (2005). The Cure's gloomy image has been the subject of parody at times. In series two of ''The Mighty Boosh'', The Moon sings 'The Lovecats' over the credits. In the same episode, a powerful gothic hairspray, Goth Juice, is said to be "The most powerful hairspray known to man. Made from the tears of Robert Smith." ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' often featured brief clips of the stars of the show performing comical songs and nursery rhymes as The Cure in a morose style. Robert Smith appeared in the final episode of the first series of ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' singing "The Sun has got his hat on" before punching the character Ray (played by Robert Newman) whilst uttering Ray's catch phrase "Oh no what a personal disaster". Robert Smith was also portrayed on an episode of ''South Park'' (Season 1, Episode 12) where he transforms into the form of Mothra and battles Mecha-Streisand to save the day and Kyle shouts "''Disintegration'' is the best album ever!" In Craig Thompson's graphic novel ''Blankets'' the chapter seven is called "Just Like Heaven". The same chapter shows Raina singing some lyrics from this song to Craig.

Discography

''Three Imaginary Boys'' (1979)

''Seventeen Seconds'' (1980)

''Faith'' (1981)

''Pornography'' (1982)

''The Top'' (1984)

''The Head on the Door'' (1985)

''Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me'' (1987)

''Disintegration'' (1989)

''Wish'' (1992)

''Wild Mood Swings'' (1996)

''Bloodflowers'' (2000)

''The Cure'' (2004)

''4:13 Dream'' (2008)

Members

;Current line-up

Robert Smith – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1976–present)

Porl Thompson – guitars, keyboards (1976–1978, 1983–1993, 2005–present)

Simon Gallup – bass guitar, keyboards (1979–1982, 1985–present)

Jason Cooper – drums, percussion (1995–present)

References

Sources

Apter, Jeff. (2006). ''Never Enough: The Story of the Cure''. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-827-1

Further reading

''Ten Imaginary Years'', by L. Barbarian, Steve Sutherland and Robert Smith (1988) Zomba Books ISBN 0-946391-87-4

''The Cure: A Visual Documentary'', by Dave Thompson and Jo-Ann Greene(1988) Omnibus Press ISBN 0-7119-1387-0

''The Cure: Songwords 1978–1989'' S. Hopkins, Robert Smith and T. Foo (1989) Omnibus Press ISBN 0-7119-1951-8

''In Between Days: An Armchair Guide To The Cure'' by Dave Thompson, Helter Skelter Publishing (October 2005) ISBN 1-905139-00-4

''The Cure – Greatest Hits'' (songbook containing 20 of their best, transcribed note-for-note with tab, chord symbols and complete lyrics), Hal Leonard Corporation (May 2002) ISBN 0-634-04667-5

''Robert Smith: "The Cure" and Wishful Thinking'' by Richard Carman (2005) Independent Music Press (UK) ISBN 9-78095-497041-3

''Jeremy Wulc : My dream comes true : Carnet de route avec The Cure. (2009) Editions : Camion Blanc

External links

'Chain of Flowers' – News about The Cure

Category:BRIT Award winners Category:English alternative rock groups Category:British New Wave musical groups Category:Gothic rock groups Category:Musical groups established in 1976 Category:British post-punk music groups Category:People from Crawley

af:The Cure ca:The Cure cs:The Cure da:The Cure de:The Cure et:The Cure el:The Cure eml:The Cure es:The Cure eu:The Cure fa:د کیور fr:The Cure ga:The Cure gl:The Cure hr:The Cure ia:The Cure is:The Cure it:The Cure he:הקיור ka:The Cure lv:The Cure lb:The Cure lt:The Cure hu:The Cure mk:The Cure nah:The Cure nl:The Cure ja:ザ・キュアー no:The Cure uz:The Cure pl:The Cure pt:The Cure ro:The Cure ru:The Cure simple:The Cure sk:The Cure sr:The Cure fi:The Cure sv:The Cure th:เดอะเคียว tr:The Cure uk:The Cure vls:The Cure zh:治疗乐队

Coordinates	39°29′″N176°55′″N
name	Billy Joel
background	solo_singer
birth name	William Martin Joel
alias	Bill Joel,Bill Martin
birth date	May 09, 1949
birth place	The Bronx, New York City,
origin	Hicksville, New York,
instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar, harmonica, keyboard, accordion, organ, melodica, clavinet, percussion, harpsichord
genre	Rock, pop, jazz, classical
occupation	Singer-songwriter, pianist
years active	1964–present
label	Columbia,Family Productions,Famous Music,Sony Classical
associated acts	Echoes,The Hassles,Attila,Elton John,Bruce Springsteen
website
notable instruments	Piano }}

William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical 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, according to the RIAA.

Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006) and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame (2009). In 2008, ''Billboard'' magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, with Joel at No. 23. With the exception of the 2007 single "All My Life," Joel discontinued recording new material after 1993's ''River of Dreams'' but continues to tour.

Early life

Joel was born in The Bronx and raised in Hicksville, New York. His father, Howard (born Helmuth), was born in Germany, the son of German merchant and manufacturer Karl Amson Joel who, after the advent of the Nazi regime, emigrated to Switzerland and later to the United States. Billy Joel's mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in England to Philip and Rebecca Nyman. Both Joel's parents were Jewish. They divorced in 1960, and his father moved to Vienna, Austria. Billy has a sister, Judith Joel, and a half-brother, Alexander Joel, who is an acclaimed classical conductor in Europe, currently chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig.

Joel's father was an accomplished classical pianist. Billy reluctantly began piano lessons at an early age, at his mother's insistence; his teachers included the noted American pianist Morton Estrin and musician/songwriter Timothy Ford. His interest in music, rather than sports, was a source of teasing and bullying in his early years. (He has said in interviews that his piano instructor also taught ballet. Her name was Frances Neiman, and she was a Juilliard trained musician. She gave both classic piano and ballet lessons in the studio attached to the rear of her house, leading 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 twenty-two bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after having his nose broken in his twenty-fourth boxing match.

Joel attended Hicksville High School, class of 1967. However, he did not graduate from Hicksville. Due to playing at a piano bar, he was one English credit short of the graduation requirement; he overslept on the day of an important exam, owing to his late-night musician's lifestyle. He left high school without a diploma 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'." Columbia did, in fact, become the label that eventually signed him. In 1992, he submitted essays to the school board and was awarded his diploma at Hicksville High's annual graduation ceremony—25 years after he had left.

Music career

Early career

Upon seeing The Beatles on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical career, and set about finding a local Long Island band to join. Eventually he found the Echoes, a group that specialized in British Invasion covers. The Echoes became a popular New York attraction, which convinced him to leave high school to become a professional musician. He began playing for the Echoes when he was 14 years old.

Joel began playing recording sessions with the Echoes in 1965, when he was 16 years old. Joel played piano on several recordings produced by Shadow Morton, including (as claimed by Joel, but denied by songwriter Ellie Greenwich) the Shangri-Las' ''Leader of the Pack'', as well as several records released through Kama Sutra Productions. During this time, the Echoes started to play numerous late-night shows.

Later, in 1965, the Echoes changed their name to the Emeralds and then to the Lost Souls. For two years, Joel played sessions and performed with the Lost Souls. In 1967, he left that band to join the Hassles, a Long Island band that had signed a contract with United Artists Records. Over the next year and a half, they released ''The Hassles'' in 1967, ''Hour of the Wolf'' in 1968, and four singles, all of which failed commercially. Following The Hassles' demise in 1969, he formed the duo Attila with Hassles drummer Jon Small. Attila released their eponymous debut album in July 1970, and disbanded the following October. The reason for the group's break-up has been attributed to Joel's affair with Small's wife, Elizabeth, whom Joel eventually married.

''Cold Spring Harbor''

Joel signed his first solo record contract with Artie Ripp's 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, Ripp mastered and released the album at the wrong speed, resulting in Joel's voice sounding a semitone too high. In addition, the onerous terms of Ripp's Family Productions contract also guaranteed Joel very little money from the sales of his albums.

Popular cuts such as "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now" were originally released on this album, although they did not gain much attention until released as live performances in 1981 on ''Songs in the Attic''. Since then, they have become favorite concert numbers. ''Cold Spring Harbor'' gained a second chance on the charts in 1984, 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. ''Cold Spring Harbor'' caught the attention of Merrilee Rush ("Angel of the Morning") and she recorded a femme version of "She’s Got a Way (He’s Got a Way)" for Scepter Records in 1971.

Joel gigged locally in New York City in the fall of 1971 and moved out to Los Angeles early in 1972, adopting the stage name ''Bill Martin''. While in California he did a six month gig in The Executive Room piano bar on Wilshire Boulevard. It was there he composed his signature hit "Piano Man" about the various patrons of the lounge. Subsequently he toured with his band members (Rhys Clark on drums, Al Hertzberg on guitar, and Larry Russell on bass) until the end of June 1972 throughout the US and Puerto Rico, opening for headliners such as J. Geils Band, The Beach Boys and Taj Mahal. At the Mar y sol festival in Puerto Rico, he electrified the crowd and got a big boost for his career.

In addition Philadelphia radio station WMMR-FM started playing a tape of a new song of Joel's, "Captain Jack", taken from a live concert. It became an underground hit on the East Coast. Herb Gordon, an executive of Columbia Records, heard Joel's music and made his company aware of Joel's talent. Joel signed a recording contract with Columbia in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles. He lived there for three years (and has since declared that those three years were a big mistake), returning to New York City in 1975.

Early Columbia years: 1973–1976

Joel's experiences in Los Angeles connected him with record company executives, who bought out his contract with Ripp under the condition that the Family Productions logo be displayed alongside the Columbia logo for the next ten albums. There was a stipulation that Family Productions would receive a 25-cent royalty for every album Joel sold. The stand-out track for ''Piano Man'' was the title track, which, despite only making it to #25 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, stands as Joel's signature song (he ends nearly all of his concerts with it).

The touring band changed as well in 1973. Don Evans replaced Al Hertzberg on guitar, and Patrick McDonald took over the bass position previously held by Larry Russell, and was then replaced in late 1974 by Doug Stegmeyer, who remained with Billy until 1989. Rhys Clark returned as drummer, Tom Whitehorse on banjo and pedal steel and then Johnny Almond on sax and keyboards rounded out the band. Billy's infectious spirit and talent galvanized the band into a tight performing unit, touring the U.S. and Canada extensively and appearing on the popular music shows of the day. Joel's songwriting was now attracting more attention; Helen Reddy recorded "You're My Home" (from ''Piano Man'') in 1974.

Joel remained in Los Angeles to write ''Streetlife Serenade'', his second album on the Columbia label. It was around this time that Jon Troy, an old friend from the New York neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, acted as Joel's manager although he would soon be replaced by Joel's wife Elizabeth. References to both suburbia and the inner city pepper the album.

The stand-out track on the album is "The Entertainer", a #34 hit in the U.S. which picks up thematically where "Piano Man" left off. Joel was upset that "Piano Man" had been significantly edited down 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", alluding to shortening of singles for radio play, as compared with the longer versions that appear on albums. Although ''Streetlife Serenade'' is often considered one of Joel's weaker albums (Joel has confirmed his distaste for the album), it nevertheless contains some notable tracks, including the title track, "Los Angelenos" and the instrumental "Root Beer Rag", which was a staple of his live set in the '70s and was resurrected frequently in 2007 and 2008. ''Streetlife Serenade'' also marks the beginning of a more confident vocal style on Joel's part.

In late 1975, he played piano and organ on several tracks on Bo Diddley's ''The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll'' all-star album.

Disenchanted with the L.A. music scene, Joel returned to New York in 1976. There he recorded ''Turnstiles'', for which he used his own hand-picked musicians in the studio for the first time, and also adopted a more hands-on role. Songs were initially recorded at Caribou Ranch with members of Elton John's band, and produced by famed Chicago producer James William Guercio, but Joel was dissatisfied with the results. The songs were re-recorded in New York, and Joel took over, producing the album himself.

The minor hit "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" echoed the Phil Spector sound, and was covered by Ronnie Spector (in a 2008 radio interview, Joel said he does not perform "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" in his live shows anymore because it is in too high a key and "shreds" his vocal cords.) The album also featured the song "New York State of Mind", a bluesy, jazzy epic that has become one of Joel's signature songs, and which was later covered by fellow Columbia labelmates Barbra Streisand, on her 1977 ''Streisand Superman'' album, and as a duet with Tony Bennett, on his 2001 ''Playing with My Friends: Bennett Sings the Blues'' album. Other songs on the album include "Summer, Highland Falls", "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" and "Say Goodbye to Hollywood", which became a Top 40 hit in 1981 in a live version. Songs such as the powerful "Prelude/Angry Young Man" has become a mainstay of his concerts.

''The Stranger'' and ''52nd Street''

For ''The Stranger'', Columbia Records teamed Joel with producer Phil Ramone. The album yielded four Top-25 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" (#24), and "She's Always a Woman" (#17). Album sales exceeded Columbia's previous top-selling album, Simon & Garfunkel's ''Bridge Over Troubled Water'', and was certified multi-platinum. His first-ever Top Ten album, it reached #2 on the charts. Ramone subsequently produced every Billy Joel studio release up to ''Storm Front'', initially released in 1989. This album also featured "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", an album-oriented rock classic, which has become one of his best-known songs.

''The Stranger'' netted Joel Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, for "Just the Way You Are", which was written as a gift to his wife Elizabeth. He received a late night phone call to his hotel room in Paris (he was on tour) in February 1979, letting him know he had won in both categories.

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, 40s, and 50s. 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. The album won Grammys for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male and Album of the Year. ''52nd Street'' was the first album to be released on compact disc when it went on sale alongside Sony's CD player CDP-101 on October 1, 1982, in Japan.

Despite the publicity photos and album cover showing Joel holding a trumpet, he does not play the instrument on the album, though two tracks on the album do feature some well-known jazz trumpeters. Freddie Hubbard plays two solos on "Zanzibar" and Jon Faddis joins Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker in the horn section for "Half a Mile Away".

In 1979, Joel travelled to Havana, Cuba, to participate in the historic Havana Jam festival that took place between March 2–4, alongside Rita Coolidge, Kris Kristofferson; Stephen Stills, the CBS Jazz All-Stars, the Trio of Doom, Fania All-Stars, Billy Swan, Bonnie Bramlett, Mike Finnegan, Weather Report, plus an array of Cuban artists such as Irakere, Pacho Alonso, Tata Güines and Orquesta Aragón. His performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos's documentary ''Havana Jam '79''.

Early 1980s

The success of his piano-driven ballads like "Just the Way You Are," "She's Always a Woman" and "Honesty" never sat well with Joel, as many critics were quick to slap the "balladeer" tag on him. With ''Glass Houses'', he attacked the new wave popularity with aplomb and delivered several harder-edged songs custom made for the live shows in arenas and stadiums he was by then playing almost exclusively. The front cover consisted of Joel's real-life modern glass house. The album spent 6 weeks at #1 on the Billboard chart and yielded such hits as "You May Be Right" (used as the theme song, covered by Southside Johnny, for the CBS mid-90s sitcom ''Dave's World'') (#7, May 1980), "Close To The Borderline" (B-side 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 and Roll to Me", which became Joel's first Billboard #1 song (for two weeks) in July 1980. "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" spent 11 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and was the 7th biggest hit of 1980 according to American Top 40. ''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. The album's closing song, "Through The Long Night", (B-side of the "It's Still Rock & Roll to Me" single) was a lullaby that featured Joel harmonizing with himself in a song he says was inspired by The Beatles' "Yes It Is."

His next release, ''Songs in the Attic'', was composed of live performances of less well-known songs from the beginning of his career. It was recorded during larger US arenas and intimate night club shows in June and July 1980. This release introduced many fans, who 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 over 3 million copies. Though not as successful as some of his previous albums, the album was still considered a success by Joel.

The next wave of Joel's career commenced with the recording of ''The Nylon Curtain''. Considered his most audacious and ambitious album by many critics, and cited by Joel himself to the present day as his favorite of his works, 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 fall of 1981. Joel was sidelined when he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident on Long Island on April 15, 1982, which delayed the completion of the album a few weeks. 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 Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on December 30, 1982.

''The Nylon Curtain'' went to #7 on the charts, partially due to heavy airplay on MTV for the videos to the singles "Allentown" and "Pressure". "Allentown" spent six weeks at a peak position of #17 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, making it one of the most-played radio songs of 1982, pushing it into 1983's year-end Top 70, and making it the most successful song from ''The Nylon Curtain'' album, besting "Pressure". which peaked at #20 (where it resided for three weeks) and "Goodnight Saigon" which reached #56 on U.S. charts.

Christie Brinkley, ''An Innocent Man'', and ''The Bridge''

The song "Uptown Girl" was one of the first songs written when Joel returned from vacation. Many believe that "Uptown Girl" was about supermodel Christie Brinkley, whom he started dating during the song's creation (the music video also included Brinkley). However, Michael Heatley and Frank Hopkinson in their book, ''The Girl In The Song'', speculate that it was actually about model Elle Macpherson, his future missus Christie, and a then-unknown model/singer named Whitney Houston, who were staying at the same hotel as he. On November 16, 2010, during an interview on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius Radio, Billy Joel stated that the song was originally called "Uptown Girls" and that he had started to write the melody of the song around the same time he was dating Macpherson. Joel said when he started to write the lyrics, the song was only about Brinkley, "...rather than it be about all these different girls, she (Brinkley) became the "Uptown Girl" and I started writing about one person...so they (Heatley/Hopkinson) got the story wrong." The song became a worldwide hit upon its release, #3 in the U.S. 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 1960s, 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 and ranking at #20 on Billboard's 1983 Hot 100 year-end chart. Also, the James Brown-inspired song "Easy Money" would be featured in the 1983 Rodney Dangerfield film of the same name.

In December the title song, "An Innocent Man", would be released as a single and would peak at #10 in the U.S. and #8 in the UK, early in 1984. That March, "The Longest Time" would finally be released as a single, peaking at #14 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. That summer, "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" would be released and hit #27 while "Keeping the Faith" would peak at #18 in January 1985. In the video for "Keeping the Faith", Christie Brinkley also plays the "redhead girl in a Chevrolet". ''An Innocent Man'' was also nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy, but lost to Michael Jackson's ''Thriller''.

Joel would participate in the USA For Africa ''We Are The World'' project in 1985, capping off a series of successful singles for Joel.

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; both reached the top 40, peaking at #9 and #34, respectively. ''Greatest Hits'' was highly successful and has since been certified double diamond by the RIAA for over 10.5 million copies (21 million units) sold. To date it is the sixth 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.

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 hits "A Matter of Trust" and "Modern Woman" from the film ''Ruthless People'', a dark comedy from the directors of ''Airplane!'' (both #10). In a departure from his "piano man" persona, Joel is shown in its video 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. The reason "Modern Woman" has been left off many of Joel's compilation sets (the exception appears to be ''My Lives'') is that he has since said in interviews he does not care for the song.

On November 18, 1986, an extended version of the song "Big Man On Mulberry Street" was used on a Season 3 episode of ''Moonlighting''. The episode itself was also titled "Big Man on Mulberry Street." In a dream sequence, Maddie Hayes envisions David Addison with his ex-wife. An extra horn solo was added to the song. ''The Bridge'' was also Joel's last album to carry the Family Productions logo, finally severing his ties with Artie Ripp. Joel has also stated in many interviews, most recently in a 2008 interview in ''Performing Songwriter'' magazine, that he does not think ''The Bridge'' is a good album.

Shortly after The Bridge tour ended in late 1987, Joel completed voice work on Disney's ''Oliver & Company,'' released in 1988, a loose adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel ''Oliver Twist.'' Joel brought both his acting and musical talents to the film as Dodger. For the film, Joel recorded a song titled "Why Should I Worry?" Critics were generally positive toward the film, and pointed to Joel's acting contribution as one of its highlights, despite it being his first acting job. In interviews, Joel explained that he took the job due to his love of Disney cartoons as a child.

The Russia trip

In October 1986, 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 live performances at indoor arenas in Moscow, Leningrad and Tbilisi. Joel and his family (including young daughter Alexa) and his full touring band made the trip in August 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.

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. According to Joel, each time the fans were hit with the bright lights, anybody who seemed to be enjoying themselves froze. In addition, people who were "overreacting" were removed by security.

The album ''КОНЦЕРТ'' (Russian for "Concert") was released in October 1987. Singer Peter Hewlitt was brought in to hit the high notes on his most vocally challenging songs, like "An Innocent Man." Joel also did versions of The Beatles' classic "Back in the U.S.S.R." and Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'". It has been estimated that Joel lost more than $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.

''Storm Front'' and ''River of Dreams''

The release of the album ''Storm Front'' coincided with major changes in Joel's career and inaugurated a period of serious upheaval in his business affairs. In August 1989, just before the album was released, Joel fired his manager (and former brother-in-law) Frank Weber after an audit revealed major discrepancies in Weber's accounting. Joel subsequently sued Weber for $90 million, claiming fraud and breach of fiduciary duty and in January 1990 he was awarded $2 million in a partial judgement against Weber; in April, the court dismissed a $30 million countersuit filed by Weber.

The first single for the album "We Didn't Start the Fire", was released in September 1989 and it became Joel's third and most recent US #1 hit, spending two weeks at the top; it was also Billboard's second-last #1 single of the 1980s. ''Storm Front'' was released in October, and it eventually became Joel's first #1 album since ''Glass Houses'', nine 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, guitarist David Brown, and saxophone player Mark Rivera, and bringing in new faces, including talented multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero. ''Storm Front'''s second single, "I Go to Extremes" made it to #6 in early 1990. The album was also notable for its song "Leningrad", written after Joel met a clown in the Soviet city of that name 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 is the ballad "And So It Goes" (#37 in late 1990). The song was originally written in 1983, around the time Joel was writing songs for ''An Innocent Man''; but "And So It Goes" did not fit that album's retro theme, so it was held back until ''Storm Front''. Joel said in a 1996 Masterclass session in Pittsburgh that ''Storm Front'' was a turbulent album and that "And So It Goes," as the last song on the album, portrayed the calm and tranquility that often follows a violent thunderstorm.

In the summer of 1992, Joel filed another $90 million lawsuit against his former lawyer Allen Grubman, alleging a wide range of offenses including fraud, breach of fiduciary responsibility, malpractice and breach of contract but the case was eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Joel started work on ''River of Dreams'' in 1992 and finished the album 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, reaching #3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 & ranking at #21 on ''Billboard'''s 1993 year-end Hot 100 chart. In addition to the title track, the album includes the hits "All About Soul" (with Color Me Badd on backing vocals) 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 more than a decade.

1994–2007

On August 25, 1994, Joel and second wife Christie Brinkley divorced. On December 31, 1999, Joel performed at New York's Madison Square Garden. At the time, Joel said that it would be his last concert. The concert (dubbed The Night of the 2000 Years) ran for close to four hours and was later released as ''2000 Years: The Millennium Concert''.

1997's "To Make You Feel My Love" and "Hey Girl" both charted from Joel's ''Greatest Hits Volume III'' album. Joel wrote and recorded the song "Shameless" that was later covered by Garth Brooks and reached number 1 on Billboard's country charts. Joel performed with Brooks during his Central Park concert in 1997 with an estimated 980,000 people in attendance, the largest audience to attend a U.S. concert.

In 2001, Joel released ''Fantasies & Delusions'', a collection of classical piano pieces. All were composed by 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.

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. The singer's stint of 12 shows at Madison Square Garden broke a previous record set by New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen, who played 10 sold-out shows at the same arena. The record earned Joel the first retired number (12) in the arena owned by a non-athlete. This honor has also been given to Joel at the Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia) (formerly 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. He also had a banner raised in his honor for being the highest grossing act in the history of the Times Union Center (formerly the Knickerbocker Arena and Pepsi Arena) in Albany, New York. This honor was given to him as part of the April 17, 2007, show he did there. 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 2006 tour.

Joel visited the United Kingdom and Ireland for the first time in many years as part of the European leg of his 2006 tour. On July 31, 2006, he performed a free concert in Rome, with the Colosseum as the backdrop. Organizers estimated 500,000 people turned out for the concert, which was opened by Bryan Adams.

Joel toured South Africa, Australia, Japan, and Hawaii in late 2006, and subsequently toured the Southeastern United States in February and March 2007 before hitting the Midwest in the spring of 2007. On January 3 of that year, 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. The song, titled "All My Life", was Joel's newest single (with second track "You're My Home", live from Madison Square Garden 2006 tour) and was released into stores on February 27, 2007. On February 4, Joel sang the national anthem for Super Bowl XLI, becoming the first to sing the national anthem twice at a Super Bowl. and on April 17, 2007, Joel was honored in Albany, New York, for his ninth concert at the Times Union Center. He is now holding the highest box office attendance of any artist to play at the arena. A banner was raised in his honor marking this achievement.

On December 1, 2007, Joel premiered his new song "Christmas in Fallujah." The song was performed by Cass Dillon, a new Long Island based musician, as Joel felt it should be sung by someone in a soldier's age range. The track was dedicated to servicemen based in Iraq. Joel wrote it in September 2007 after reading numerous letters sent to him from American soldiers in Iraq. "Christmas in Fallujah" is only the second pop/rock song released by Joel since 1993's ''River of Dreams''. Proceeds from the song benefitted the Homes For Our Troops foundation.

2008–present

On January 26, 2008, Joel performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra celebrating the 151st anniversary of the Academy of Music. Joel premiered his new classical piece titled, "Waltz No. 2 (Steinway Hall)". He also played many of his less well-known pieces with full orchestral backing, including the rarely performed ''Nylon Curtain'' songs "Scandinavian Skies" and "Where's the Orchestra?".

On March 10, 2008, Joel inducted his friend John Mellencamp into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. During his induction speech, Joel said:

Joel's staying power as a touring act continues to the present day. He sold out 10 concerts at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut from May to July 2008. Mohegan Sun honored him with a banner displaying his name and the number 10 to hang in the arena. On June 19, 2008, he played a concert at the grand re-opening of Caesars Windsor (formerly Casino Windsor) in Windsor, Ontario, Canada to an invite-only crowd for Casino VIPs. His mood was light, and joke-filled, even introducing himself as "Billy Joel's dad" and stating "you guys overpaid to see a fat bald guy." He also admitted that Canadian folk-pop musician Gordon Lightfoot was the musical inspiration for "She's Always A Woman".

On July 16, 2008, and July 18, 2008, Joel played the final concerts at Shea Stadium before its demolition. His guests included Tony Bennett, Don Henley, John Mayer, John Mellencamp, Steven Tyler, Roger Daltrey, Garth Brooks, and Paul McCartney. McCartney ended the show with a reference to his own performance there with the Beatles in 1965, the first major stadium concert of the rock and roll industry. The concerts were featured in the 2010 documentary film ''Last Play at Shea''. The film was released on DVD on February 8, 2011. The CD from the show was released on March 8, 2011.

On December 11, 2008, Joel recorded his own rendition of "Christmas in Fallujah" during a concert at Acer Arena in Sydney and released it as a live single in Australia only. It is the only official release of Joel performing "Christmas in Fallujah", as Cass Dillon sang on the 2007 studio recording and the handful of times the song was played live in 2007. Joel sang the song throughout his December 2008 tour of Australia.

On May 19, 2009, Joel's former drummer, Liberty DeVitto, filed a lawsuit in NYC claiming Joel and Sony Music owed DeVitto over 10 years of royalty payments. DeVitto has never been given songwriting credit on any of Joel's songs, but he claims that he helped write some of them. In April 2010, it was announced that Joel and DeVitto amicably resolved the lawsuit.

2011 Re-Releases

2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Joel's first album, ''Cold Spring Harbor.'' According to Billy Joel's website, in commemoration of this anniversary, "Columbia/Legacy Recordings will celebrate the occasion with a definitive reissue project of newly restored and expanded Legacy editions of the complete Billy Joel catalog, newly curated collections of rarities from the vaults, previously unavailable studio tracks and live performances, home video releases and more." The website's press release also mentions that the album ''Piano Man'' will be re-released in a Legacy edition in 2011. During these shows, the two have played their own songs, each other's songs and performed duets. They grossed over US $46 million in just 24 dates in their sold out 2003 tour. Joel and John resumed the Face to Face tour in March 2009 and it ended again, at least for the time being, in March 2010. In February 2010, Joel denied rumors in the trade press that he canceled a summer 2010 leg of the tour, claiming there were never any dates booked and that he intended to take the year off. Joel told ''Rolling Stone'' magazine: "We’ll probably pick it up again. It’s always fun playing with him."

Other ventures

In 1996, Joel merged his long-held love of boating with his desire for a second career. He formed, with Long Island boating businessman Peter Needham, the Long Island Boat Company.

In November 2010, Joel opened a shop on Oyster Bay, Long Island to manufacture custom-made, retro-styled motorcycles and accessories.

In 2011, Joel announced that he was releasing an autobiography that he had written with Fred Schruers, titled ''The Book of Joel: A Memoir''. The book was originally going to be released in June 2011, but in March 2011 Joel decided against publishing the book and officially cancelled his deal with HarperCollins. ''Rolling Stone'' noted, "HarperCollins acquired the book project for $3 million in 2008. [However,] Joel is expected to return his advance on that sum to the publisher." According to ''Billboard'', "the HarperCollins book was billed as an 'emotional ride' that would detail the music legend's failed marriage to Christie Brinkley, as well as his battles with substance abuse." In explaining his decision to cancel the book's release, Joel stated, "It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I'm not all that interested in talking about the past, and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music."

Personal life

Marriages, relationships, and family

Joel married his business manager, Elizabeth Weber Small, on September 5, 1973. She was the former wife of his music partner, Jon Small, in the short-lived duo Attila. They divorced on July 20, 1982.

Joel mentioned in a television interview on the UK's Channel Five that he had dated Elle Macpherson in the 1980s prior to his marriage to Christie Brinkley. Joel has also said that the songs "This Night" and "And So It Goes" were written about his relationship with Macpherson.

Joel married Christie Brinkley on March 23, 1985. Their daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, was born December 29, 1985. Alexa was given the middle name of Ray after Ray Charles, one of Joel's musical idols. Joel and Brinkley divorced on August 25, 1994, although the couple remain friendly.

On October 2, 2004, Joel married 23-year-old Katie Lee. At the time of the wedding, Joel was 55. 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''. She did not return for a second season, instead going on tour with her husband. She then began writing a weekly column in ''Hamptons'' magazine, and became a field correspondent for the entertainment television show ''Extra''. On June 17, 2009, both confirmed that they have split after five years of marriage.

Depression

Joel battled depression for many years. In 1970, a career downturn and personal problems aggravated his condition. He left a suicide note (which inspired the lyrics to "Tomorrow Is Today") and attempted to commit suicide by drinking furniture polish, saying later, "I drank furniture polish. It looked tastier than bleach." His drummer, Jon Small, rushed him to the hospital. Joel checked into Meadowbrook Hospital, where he was put on suicide watch and received treatment for depression. Joel later recorded "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" as a message to help prevent teen suicide.

Substance abuse treatment

In 2002, Joel entered Silver Hill Hospital, a substance abuse and psychiatric center in New Canaan, Connecticut. In March 2005, he checked into the Betty Ford Center, where he spent 30 days for the treatment of alcohol-related problems.

Politics

Although Joel has donated money to Democratic candidates running for office, he has never publicly endorsed any candidate or made clear his political affiliation—although he did play a benefit with Bruce Springsteen to raise money for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008. He has also played at benefit concerts (like the first Live Aid concert in 1985) that have helped raise funds for political causes. However, Joel has said about musicians endorsing political candidates, "People who pay for your tickets, I don't think they want to hear who you're going to vote for and how you think they should vote."

Religion

Joel was born to non-observant Jewish parents and considers himself a cultural Jew.

Discography

Band

:''Further information: Billy Joel Band''

Awards and achievements

Despite having never graduated from high school because of a missed exam, Joel has been presented with multiple honorary doctorates:

Doctor of Humane Letters from Fairfield University (1991)

Doctor of Music 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)

Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music (2008)

His High School Diploma was finally awarded 25 years after he left High School by the School Board.

Joel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio in 1999. Joel was on the site selection committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame board. Seven members of the committee voted for San Francisco and seven voted for Cleveland, Ohio, this was a tied vote so Billy Joel was the tie breaking vote, which gave Cleveland the hall in 1986.

Joel was also named MusiCares Person of the Year for 2002, 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 October 15, 2006. In 2005, Joel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Joel has banners in the rafters of the Times Union Center, Nassau Coliseum, Madison Square Garden, Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT, Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, and Hartford Civic Center in Hartford. (Joel is erroneously cited as the first artist to perform a concert at Yankee Stadium in New York City; The Isley Brothers first performed there in 1969, and the Latin supergroup, The Fania All-Stars played and recorded live albums at the stadium during the 1970s.)

He has also sponsored the Billy Joel Visiting Composer Series at Syracuse University.

Joel is the only performing artist to have played both Yankee and Shea Stadiums, as well as Giants Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Other media contributions

''Don Kirshner's Rock Concert'' (1974) (Television) (Performed "Piano Man", "Somewhere Along the Line", and "Captain Jack")

''The Midnight Special'' (1975) (Television) (Sang "Travelin' Prayer" and "The Ballad of Billy the Kid")

''The Mike Douglas Show'' (1976) (Television)

''Billy Joel Tonight'' (1976) (Time Life Video) (VHS) (Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London, CT)

''Saturday Night Live'' (February 18, 1978) (NBC) (hosted by Chevy Chase) (Sang "Just The Way You Are" and "Only The Good Die Young") (Billy passed up going to his 10 year high school reunion to appear on the show)

''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (1978) (London, England) (Television)

''Musikladen'' (1978) (German television concert)

''20/20'' (1980) (Television)

''Saturday Night Live'' (November 14, 1981) (NBC) (hosted by Bernadette Peters) (Sang "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)" and "She's Got A Way" live via satellite hook-up from his Mid-town Manhattan recording studio)

''Live from Long Island'' (1982) (CBS/Fox) (VHS) (Originally aired on HBO as ''Billy Joel: A Television First''. Recorded live at Nassau Coliseum)

''MTV Night School with Billy Joel'' (1983) (Television) (Billy takes questions from music students and plays some songs, much like his later "master classes.")

''MTV Special: Innocent Man Tour'' (1983) (Television) ("Behind-the-scenes" look at Joel's ''Innocent Man'' tour)

''From a Piano Man to an Innocent Man'' (1984) (BBC Television Broadcast)

''Today'' (June 1984) Introduces music video for "The Longest Time."

''Farm Aid'' (September 1985) (Television)

Contributed piano on Twisted Sister's song "Be Chrool to Your Scuel" on their 1985 album ''Come Out and Play''

''Video Album, Vol. 1'' (1986) (CBS/Fox) (VHS)

''Video Album, Vol. 2'' (1986) (CBS/Fox) (VHS)

''Late Night with David Letterman'' (September 1986)

''MLB World Series Game 2'' (October 19, 1986) (Television) (Performed the National Anthem)

''Live From Leningrad USSR'' (1987) (CBS) (VHS) (Originally aired on HBO)

''Oliver & Company'' (1988) (Provided both the voice and singing voice for the character Dodger in the Disney full-length animated feature.)

''Sesame Street'' (1988) (Sang "Just the Way You Are" to Oscar the Grouch, and "The Alphabet Song" with the kids)

''1989 NFL Super Bowl XXIII'' (Sang National Anthem, Joe Robbie Stadium, Miami, Florida)

''Late Night with David Letterman'' (August 17, 1989) (NBC) Performs with musical guest Mick Jones

''Saturday Night Live'' (October 21, 1989) (NBC) (hosted by Kathleen Turner) (Sang "We Didn't Start The Fire" and "The Downeaster Alexa") (acts in a sketch called "Die Squaren Ost Berliner" which was a German take-off of "Hollywood Squares" as a character named Josef Besselmeier)

''Eye of the Storm'' (1990) (VHS) (Sony) (Compilation of five music videos from the ''Storm Front'' album)

''Live at Yankee Stadium'' (1990) (Sony) (DVD/VHS)

''A Matter of Trust'' (1991) (CBS) (VHS) (Documentary of the 1986 Russian tour)

''Late Show with David Letterman'' (August 30, 1993) First musical guest on the show, performing "No Man's Land"

''Saturday Night Live'' (October 23, 1993) (NBC) (hosted by John Malkovich) (Sang "The River Of Dreams" and "All About Soul")

''Shades of Grey'' (1993) (Sony) (PBS documentary on the making of ''River of Dreams''. Released on VHS)

''Live from the River of Dreams'' (Sony) (1994) (Originally aired on 3Sat (German television); released on DVD in the ''My Lives'' box set in 2005) Live from Frankfurt, Germany.

During the 1994 Grammy Award Show, the director cut short Frank Sinatra's acceptance speech for receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. Joel extended his performance of "The River of Dreams" by stopping the song partway through, looking at the celebrity audience with a grin while pretending to check his watch and saying, "valuable advertising time going by...dollars...dollars...dollars..." which was met with laughter from the audience. He then resumed playing the song.

''Greatest Hits, Vol. III'' (Sony) (1997) (DVD/VHS)

''The Rosie O'Donnell Show'' (1997) (Television)

''Behind the Music'' (1997) (Television)

''VH1 Storytellers'' (1997) (Television)

''VH1 Video Time Line'' (1998) (Television)

''60 Minutes'' (April 26, 1998) Interviewed by Steve Kroft.

''Inside the Actor's Studio'' (1999) (Bravo Network)

''Mad About You'': "Murray at the Dog Show" (1999) (NBC Television) (Appeared as himself; wrote the music for the song "Lullabye For You" which was featured in the episode. Paul Reiser wrote the lyrics.)

''ABC 2000'' (1999/2000) (Television, VHS) (International broadcast; portions of Joel's New Year's Eve concert were aired live)

''Piano Grand! A Smithsonian Celebration'' (2000) (Joel served as host and performer; aired on PBS; released on DVD)

''MLB World Series- Subway Series Game 1'' (2000) (Television) (Performed the National Anthem)

''America: A Tribute To Heroes'' (2001) (Television, Radio, DVD)

''Charlie Rose'' (2001) (PBS television/DVD)

''The Concert for New York City'' (2001) (Television, VHS/DVD)

''A&E; Special: In His Own Words'' (2001) (A&E; Network) (Master class recorded at the University of Pennsylvania)

''The Essential Video Collection'' (2001) (Sony) (DVD/VHS) (Music Video compilation)

''Movin' Out'' (2002), is a musical based on twenty-four Billy Joel songs which was a smash hit on Broadway from 2002 to 2005 (last Broadway show was on December 11, 2005). Joel was composer, lyricist, and orchestrator and won a Tony Award for Best Orchestrations. The musical is really a dance performance choreographed by famed choreographer Twyla Tharp, with Joel's songs sung by Michael Cavanaugh.

''The 2003 Tony Awards'' (Television) (Performed "New York State of Mind")

''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (2005) (Television) (Performed "Miami 2017" and "Only the Good Die Young")

''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (2005) (NBC) (Performed "Everybody Loves You Now" and "Vienna")

''The Today Show'' (2005) (NBC) (Performed "Keepin' the Faith" and "She's Right on Time")

''The Today Show'' (2006) (NBC) (Performed "The Good Life" with Tony Bennett live)

''The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch'' (2006) (CNBC)

''American Chopper'' (2006) ("The Billy Joel Bike") (Television, DVD)

''Tokyo, Japan'' (2006) (Television, DVD) (Concert was taped and produced by The Fuji Television Network)

''NFL Super Bowl XLI'' (2007) (Joel is the first to sing the National Anthem in two Super Bowls.)

''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' (March 24, 2008) (Appeared with wife, Katie, and performed "Only the Good Die Young")

''The South Bank Show'' (July 13, 2008) (Joel discussed his career)

''The Howard Stern Show'' (November 16, 2010) (Sirius XM) (Interview and musical performance)

See also

List of best-selling music artists

References

External links

Billy Joel – Official Website

Billy Joel at Rolling Stone.com

History of Live Performances by Billy Joel

Interview at TonyAwards.com

Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Grammy Award winners Category:MusiCares Person of the Year Honorees Category:English-language singers Category:American Ashkenazi Jews Category:American pop rock singers Category:American crooners Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:American pop pianists Category:American rock pianists Category:American people of German-Jewish descent Category:American people of British-Jewish descent Category:American atheists Category:Jewish atheists Category:New York Democrats Category:Musicians from New York Category:People from Long Island Category:People from the Bronx Category:1949 births Category:Living people

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