In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, so that today the hall of a house is the space inside the front door through which the rooms are reached.

Thus:

Deriving from the above, a hall is often the term used to designate a British or Irish country house.

In later medieval Europe, the main room of a castle or manor house was the great hall.

Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a passage, corridor, or hallway.

In a medieval building, the hall was where the fire was kept. With time, its functions as dormitory, kitchen, parlour and so on were divided off to separate rooms or, in the case of the kitchen, a separate building.

On the same principle:

Many buildings at colleges and universities are formally titled "_______ Hall", typically being named after the person who endowed it, for example, King's Hall, Cambridge. Others, such as Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, commemorate respected people. Between these in age, Nassau Hall at Princeton University began as the single building of the then college. In medieval origin, these were the halls in which the members of the university lived together during term time. In many cases, some aspect of this community remains.

At colleges in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Hall is the dining hall for students, with High Table at one end for fellows. Typically, at "Formal Hall", gowns are worn for dinner during the evening, whereas for "informal Hall" they are not.

Many Livery Companies (e.g., in the City of London) have a Hall that is their headquarters and meeting place.

Similarly:

A hall is also a building consisting largely of a principal room, that is rented out for meetings and social affairs. It may be privately or government-owned, such as a function hall owned by one company used for weddings and cotillions (organized and run by the same company on a contractual basis) or a community hall available for rent to anyone.

In religious architecture, as in Islamic architecture, the prayer hall is a large room dedicated to the practice of the worship. (example : the prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia) Following a line of similar development:

In office buildings and larger buildings (theatres, cinemas etc.), the entrance hall is generally known as the foyer (the French for fire-place). The atrium, a name sometimes used in public buildings for the entrance hall, was the central courtyard of a Roman house.

References

Category:Rooms

ar:قاعة be:Калідор be-x-old:Хол cs:Hala de:Halle (Architektur) io:Halo it:Foyer he:מבואה ka:ჰოლი (ოთახი) hu:Csarnok nl:Foyer pl:Hala (budownictwo) pt:Hall sr:Хала sv:Hall (rum) vi:Hall yi:זאל zh:禮堂

Name	Todd Rundgren
Background	solo_singer
Born	June 22, 1948
Origin	Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, United States
Genre	Rock, Progressive rock, soft rock, power pop, pop rock, hard rock, blue-eyed soul
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, video director, recording engineer, computer programmer
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, saxophone, theremin
Years active	1967–present
Birth name	Todd Harry Rundgren
Label	Ampex, Bearsville
Associated acts	Nazz, Utopia, The New Cars, Meat Loaf, Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band
Website	http://www.tr-i.com/
Notable instruments	}}

Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP ''Something/Anything?'' in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings as solo artist, and during the seventies and eighties with the band Utopia. He has also been prolific as a producer and engineer on the recorded work of other musicians.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Rundgren engineered and/or produced many notable albums for other acts, including ''Straight Up'' by Badfinger, ''Stage Fright'' by The Band, ''We're an American Band'' by Grand Funk Railroad, ''Bat Out of Hell'' by Meat Loaf (now ranked as the fifth biggest-selling album of all time), and ''Skylarking'' by XTC. In the 1980s and 1990s his interest in video and computers led to Rundgren's "Time Heals" being the eighth video played on MTV, and "Change Myself" was generated on commercially available Amiga Computers.

His best-known songs include "Hello It's Me" and "I Saw the Light" which have heavy rotation on classic rock radio stations, and "Bang the Drum All Day" featured in many sports arenas, commercials, and movie trailers.

Early career

Rundgren was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began his career in Woody's Truck Stop, a Philadelphia-based group based on the model of Paul Butterfield Blues Band. However, Rundgren and bassist Carson Van Osten left the band to form the garage rock group Nazz in 1967 with Thom Mooney (drums) and Robert "Stewkey" Antoni (vocals and keyboards). The group gained minor recognition with the Rundgren-penned songs "Open My Eyes" and "Hello It's Me". (He later recorded a solo, uptempo version of "Hello It's Me"; it became one of his signature songs.) Nazz released three albums during this time - ''Nazz'' (1968), ''Nazz Nazz'' (1969), and ''Nazz III'' (1971). "Open My Eyes" gained belated recognition thanks to its inclusion in ''Nuggets'' (1972), the genre-defining anthology of American 1960s garage punk and psychedelia compiled by musician Lenny Kaye. The group's second LP was originally intended as double album (titled ''Fungo Bat''), but instead a truncated version was released as ''Nazz Nazz'' in April 1969. Rundgren and Van Osten left the band shortly after. Under Stewkey's leadership the band continued (with new members) until 1970, and their label released a third LP ''Nazz III'' on which most of Rundgren's vocals on the unreleased songs from the ''Fungo Bat'' sessions were replaced by Stewkey's.

Rundgren's distinctive style was informed by a wide variety of musical influences—British pop-rock (notably The Beatles, The Who, The Yardbirds, Cream and The Move), the intricate vocal harmonies of The Beach Boys, classic American rock'n'roll, Broadway musicals, the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan and American soul and R&B;, but as his music evolved he demonstrated an increasing interest in other genres as well, such as hard rock and experimental music.

Particularly during the early years of his career, Rundgren's songwriting was heavily influenced by the music of singer-songwriter Laura Nyro:

:"I knew her fairly well. I met her right after ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession''. I actually had arranged a meeting, just because I was so infatuated with her and I wanted to meet the person who had produced all this music. We got along, and we were kind of friendly, and actually, after I met her the first time, she asked me if I wanted to be her band leader. But the Nazz had just signed a record contract and I couldn't skip out on the band, even though it was incredibly tempting."

Rundgren's debut solo album ''Runt'' (1970) includes the strongly Nyro-influenced "Baby Let’s Swing", which was written about her and mentions her by name.

Nazz manager Michael Friedman who had joined Albert Grossman management brought Rundgren to the firm where he became both a solo artist and producer for many artists in the Grossman stable.

Solo work

After leaving the Nazz in 1969, Rundgren relocated temporarily to New York and began working as a producer for other groups. He also apparently considered working as a computer programmer. Ultimately, he became one of the first artists signed to the Bearsville Records label established by Albert Grossman, and in 1970 he formed the 'band' Runt, consisting of himself, Hunt Sales on drums, and his brother Tony Sales on bass (the Sales brothers are the sons of US comedian Soupy Sales and went on to play with Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Tin Machine). Rundgren himself wrote, produced, sang and played guitars, keyboards and other instruments. Whether Runt is best described as a band or simply as a pseudonym for Rundgren as a solo artist is unclear—for the album ''Runt'' (1970) the group appeared to be a bona-fide trio, but on their second album ''Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren'' (1971), Hunt Sales plays only on two tracks and is replaced by N.D. Smart on the rest of the album. Furthermore, only Rundgren is pictured on the covers of both albums, and both albums have been subsequently reissued with the same titles and cover art, but bearing the artist credit "Todd Rundgren". Whether a solo project or a band, Runt had a #20 hit in the U.S. with "We Gotta Get You a Woman" in 1970, and two other Runt songs placed in the lower reaches of the Hot 100.

By 1972, the Runt persona/band identity had been abandoned, and Rundgren's next project, the ambitious double LP ''Something/Anything?'' (1972) was credited simply to Rundgren, who wrote, played, sang, engineered, and produced everything on three of the four sides of the album. ''Something/Anything?'' featured the top 20 U.S. hits "I Saw The Light" (#16; an original song, not the Hank Williams classic), and a remake of the Nazz near-hit "Hello It's Me", which reached #5 in the U.S. and is Rundgren's biggest hit. The former song featured Rundgren on all vocals and instruments. On his ensuing concert tour, his backing band was the Hello People, whose own album he later produced.

Changing style

Although he opposed the use of drugs during his days with Nazz, in the early 1970s Rundgren changed his views and began experimenting with various mind-altering substances including marijuana, LSD and the stimulant Ritalin and this had a marked effect both on the style of his music and his productivity:

:"It (Ritalin) caused me to crank out songs at an incredible pace. 'I Saw the Light' took me all of 20 minutes. You can see why, too, the rhymes are just moon/June/spoon kind of stuff..."

Speaking of the effect on ''A Wizard, A True Star'', Rundgren commented:

:"With drugs I could suddenly abstract my thought processes in a certain way, and I wanted to see if I could put them on a record. A lot of people recognised it as the dynamics of a psychedelic trip - it was almost like painting with your head."

Though he often revisited the classic popular song format, during the early 1970s Rundgren's music began to incorporate elements of progressive rock. 1973's transitional ''A Wizard, a True Star'' marked the beginning of this trend, which came to fruition with his next two solo albums ''Todd'' (1974) and ''Initiation'' (1975) and the early recordings under the aegis of his new group project Utopia.

''A Wizard, A True Star'', which was sequenced as a continuous medley, featured a wildly eclectic range of songs set in dazzling arrangements and production, with Rundgren experimenting with the synthesiser and exploiting virtually every studio effect and technique then available. Backing musicians included renowned horn players Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker, guitarist Rick Derringer and several other musicians who subsequently joined the original incarnation of Utopia. Although it featured predominantly original material (including the anthemic "Just One Victory", which became a concert favorite), the album set a pattern followed on subsequent solo albums, with Rundgren recording cover versions of his favorite songs—in this case, "Never Never Land", from the Broadway musical version of ''Peter Pan'', and a medley of soul classics, including a unique version of the Capitols' "Cool Jerk" played in the 7/8 time signature. The album was also notable for its extended running time—over 55 minutes in length, compared to around 40–45 minutes for a typical pop-rock LP of the period. This reflected Rundgren's skills as a mastering engineer, since this extended running time took the album close to the practical maximum for an LP—due to the inherent physical limitations of the vinyl LP medium, on records with running times over 45 minutes there is an unfavorable trade-off between duration and the audio quality and volume. On the album cover, packed with his handwritten notes, he advised listeners to crank up their Victrolas accordingly.

''Todd'' (1974) continued in this vein and featured similarly diverse material. Alongside originals such as "A Dream Goes On Forever" and "Heavy Metal Kids", both of which became concert staples, Rundgren also satirised his chosen profession with the song "An Elpees' Worth of Tunes" and revisited his teenage obsession with the music of Gilbert & Sullivan in a rendition of "The Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song" (from ''Iolanthe'').

By contrast, Rundgren's work with Utopia (see below) and his next solo album took him decisively into progressive rock. ''Initiation'' (1975) addressed cosmic themes, showed a strong interest in spirituality (particularly Far Eastern religion and philosophy), and displayed the musical influence of psychedelic rock, as well as the avant-garde jazz fusion of contemporary acts such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Frank Zappa. Once again the original LP issue saw Rundgren pushing the medium to its physical limits, with the side-long suite "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" clocking in at over 35 minutes.

When touring, the music was presented in a lavish stage setting that echoed the ambitious space-themed shows of acts like Parliament/Funkadelic and he adopted an outlandish space-rock image on stage, including multi-coloured dyed hair. In this period he regularly played the eye-catching psychedelic Gibson SG (known as "Sunny") which Eric Clapton had played in Cream. After he had stopped using it ca. 1968, Clapton gave the guitar to George Harrison, who subsequently 'loaned' it to British singer Jackie Lomax. In 1972, after meeting at a recording session, Lomax sold the guitar to Rundgren for $500 with an option to buy it back, which he never took up. Rundgren played it extensively during the early years of Utopia before retiring the instrument, which he eventually auctioned off; he now owns a reproduction ''NME'' - September 1974

His 1976 album ''Faithful'' marked a return to the pop/rock genre, featuring one side of original songs and one side of covers of significant songs from 1966, including the Yardbirds' "Happening Ten Years Time Ago" (the B-side of that Yardbirds single gave Nazz its name) and a nearly identical re-creation of the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations". ''Faithful'' was followed by ''Hermit of Mink Hollow'' (1978); this included the hit ballad "Can We Still Be Friends", which reached #29 in the U.S. and was accompanied by an innovative self-produced music video, and the album became the second most successful of his career (after ''Something? Anything!''), reaching #36 in the U.S. During 1978 Rundgren undertook an American tour playing at smaller venues including The Bottom Line in New York and the Roxy in Los Angeles; this resulted in the double live album ''Back to the Bars'', which featured a mixture of material from his solo work and Utopia, performed with backing musicians including Utopia, Edgar Winter, Spencer Davis, Daryl Hall and John Oates and Stevie Nicks.

Subsequent solo releases included the album-long concept work ''Healing'' (1981) and the New Wave-tinged ''The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect'' (1982) which included a cover of The Small Faces hit "Tin Soldier". The latter album also marked the end of Rundgren's tenure with Bearsville Records. He then signed with Warner Bros. Records who issued his next album, ''A Cappella'' (1985), which was recorded using Rundgren's multi-tracked voice, accompanied by arrangements constructed entirely from programmed vocal samples. "Bang the Drum All Day", from ''The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect'' was a minor chart hit which has become more prominent in subsequent years, having been adopted as an unofficial theme by several professional sports franchises, notably the Green Bay Packers, and becoming popular on radio, where it was often featured on Friday afternoons. It is now considered one of Rundgren's most popular songs. In 1986, Rundgren scored four episodes of the popular children's television show Pee Wee's Playhouse.

''Nearly Human'' (1989) and ''2nd Wind'' (1991) were both recorded live - the former in the studio, the latter in a theater before a live audience, which was instructed to remain silent. Each song on these albums was recorded as a complete single take with no later overdubbing. Both albums marked, in part, a return to his Philly soul roots. ''2nd Wind'' also included several excerpts from Rundgren's musical ''Up Against It'', which was adapted from the screenplay (originally titled "Prick Up Your Ears") that British playwright Joe Orton had originally offered to The Beatles for their never-made follow-up to ''Help!''. ''2nd Wind'' was Rundgren's last release through a major label and all his subsequent recordings have been self-released.

After a long absence from touring, Rundgren hit the road with ''Nearly Human - 2nd Wind'' band, which included brass and a trio of slinky backup singers (one of whom, Michele Gray, Rundgren married). He also toured during this period with Ringo Starr's All-Starr band.

The next few years saw Rundgren recording under the pseudonym TR-i ("Todd Rundgren interactive") for two albums. The first of these, 1993's ''No World Order'', consisted of hundreds of seconds-long snippets of music that could be combined in various ways to suit the listener. Initially targeted for the Philips CD-i platform, ''No World Order'' featured interactive controls for tempo, mood, and other parameters, along with pre-programmed mixes by Rundgren himself, Bob Clearmountain, Don Was, and Jerry Harrison. The disc was also released for PC and Macintosh and in two versions on standard audio CD, the continuous mix disc ''No World Order'' and, later, the more song-oriented ''No World Order Lite.'' The music itself was quite a departure from Rundgren's previous work, with a dance/techno feel and much rapping by Rundgren. The follow-up, 1995's ''The Individualist'', featured interactive video content that could be viewed or in one case, played; it was a simple video game along with the music, which was more rock-oriented than ''No World Order.''

Rundgren returned to recording under his own name for ''With a Twist'', an album of bossa-nova covers of his older material. His Patronet work, which trickled out to subscribers over more than a year, was released in 2000 as ''One Long Year''. In 2004, Rundgren released ''Liars'', a concept album about "paucity of truth" that features a mixture of his older and newer sounds.

In early 2008, Rundgren launched his official Myspace page. Later that year, he released the rock album ''Arena''. In concert, he had been performing the album in full and in sequence before its release.

Rundgren released the live compilation album, ''For Lack of Honest Work'', in 2010. The album was advertised as a collection of bootleg recording that were approved by Rundgren himself.

April 2011 saw the release of ''Todd Rundgren's Johnson'', a collection of Robert Johnson covers which had been recorded more than a year earlier. On another 2011 release, scheduled for September 13, a further album of covers entitled ''re:Production''. sees him performing tracks he had previously produced for other acts, including Grand Funk Railroad's "Walk Like a Man" and XTC's "Dear God."

Utopia

Rundgren's back-up band for ''A Wizard, a True Star'' evolved into the first version of Utopia, a larger prog-rock ensemble, which included multiple keyboards, synthesizers and brass and featured a character completely disguised in a silver suit, "M. Frog Labat" (Jean-Yves Labat de Rossi) on synthesizers, who also put out his own electronics/keyboards-based solo album. This incarnation premiered on 1974's ''Todd Rundgren's Utopia'', which was book-ended by the 14-minute "Utopia Theme" (recorded live in concert) and the 30-minute suite "The Ikon", which occupied the whole of Side 2 of the album. Like ''Wizard'', the album also showcased Rundgren's skills as a recording and mastering engineer, clocking in at over 30 minutes per side.

A slightly altered version of this group performed on the eclectic 1975 live album ''Another Live''. It featured three new extended progressive tracks (which appear only on this LP), a version of "Heavy Metal Kids" (from ''Todd'') and covers of "Something's Coming" (from "West Side Story") and "Do Ya" by The Move. By the time this album was recorded the Utopia lineup included keyboard player/trumpeter/vocalist Roger Powell and drummer John "Willie" Wilcox.

In 1976 Siegler left Utopia and was replaced by Kasim Sulton (bass, keybaords, vocals), who had previously played with New York singer-poetess Cherry Vanilla. This formidable ensemble was widely regarded as one of the best live acts of its day—all four members were highly accomplished on their main instrument as well as being able to play multiple other instruments, and all four could sing lead vocals.

After 1977's prog-rock fusion homage, ''Ra'', Utopia moved toward a more concise pop-oriented style with 1977's ''Oops! Wrong Planet'', which included "Love Is the Answer", later a hit for England Dan & John Ford Coley, followed by the more successful ''Adventures In Utopia'' in 1980, which spawned the hits "Road to Utopia", "Set Me Free" and "Caravan". During that year Utopia also acted as the backing band for the Rundgren-produced Shaun Cassidy solo album ''Wasp''.

Other releases include ''Deface the Music'' (also 1980), an uncanny Beatles homage that borders on parody; the more politicised ''Swing to the Right'' (1982), incorporating more new wave elements; their pop-referenced, self-titled album ''Utopia'' (1982), as well as ''Oblivion'' (1984), which showed a cynical side of Utopia, sporting a black cover; 1985's ''P.O.V.'' includes "Mated", later a staple of Rundgren solo tours. Rundgren eventually disbanded Utopia in the mid-80s; they released ''Trivia'' (1986) as their "swan song" effort. However, in 1992 a brief tour of Japan reunited the Rundgren/Powell/Sulton/Wilcox lineup, and "Redux '92: Live In Japan" was released on Rhino Records.

Eventually, the compilation ''Oblivion'', ''P.O.V.'' and ''Some Trivia'' was released in 1996, an effort by Rhino Records to re-release selections from the Todd/Utopia discography. In addition, many Utopia concerts from the mid-1970s onwards were taped (e.g. their 1975 London debut, recorded by BBC Radio) and these were widely bootlegged by fans, although some have since gained an official release and can now be obtained as commercial digital downloads from iTunes.

Production, video and other work

In addition to his own recordings, Rundgren has engineered and/or produced albums for many notable acts. Sparked by his dissatisfaction with the sound quality of the Nazz albums, Rundgren learned how to engineer and master his own records and since 1970 he has overseen production of all his solo recordings and those by Utopia. His earliest outside credits were as producer on a long-unreleased Janis Joplin track (recorded with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band) and as recording engineer for the LP ''Stage Fright'' by The Band. Other notable production credits include Halfnelson (first incarnation of Sparks), New York Dolls, Badfinger, Grand Funk Railroad, Hall & Oates, Ian and Sylvia (on their "Great Speckled Bird" album), Meat Loaf, Patti Smith, Shaun Cassidy, The Tubes, Tom Robinson Band, XTC, Bad Religion, Cheap Trick, The Hello People, Hiroshi Takano, Bourgeois Tagg, Dragon (aka Hunter), 12 Rods, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Psychedelic Furs, Steve Hillage, The American Dream, and many others. The difficult XTC sessions produced the album ''Skylarking'', now considered a high point for band and producer despite its acrimonious origin. Rundgren's production of Meat Loaf's ''Bat out of Hell'' (on which he also played lead guitar) helped that album become one of the top selling LPs released in the 1970s. The industry regard for Rundgren's production work has been a lofty one: Jim Steinman, with whom Rundgren worked on ''Bat Out of Hell'', has said in interviews that ''"Todd Rundgren is a genius and I don't use that word a lot."''

Rundgren has long been on the cutting edge of music and video technologies. His music video for the song "Time Heals" was among the first videos aired on MTV, and a video he produced for RCA, accompanied by Gustav Holst's ''The Planets'', was used as a demo for their videodisc players. His experience with computer graphics dates back to 1981, when he developed one of the first computer paint programs, dubbed the Utopia Graphics System; it ran on an Apple II with Apple's digitizer tablet. He is also the co-developer of the computer screensaver system Flowfazer.

In the 1990s, Rundgren was an early adopter of the NewTek Video Toaster and made several videos with it. The first, for "Change Myself" from ''2nd Wind'', was widely distributed as a demo reel for the Toaster; he also used the system for videos from ''No World Order'' (songs "Fascist Christ" and "Property"). Later, he set up a company to produce 3D animation using the Toaster; this company's first demo, "Theology" (a look at religious architecture through the ages featuring music by former Utopia bandmate Roger Powell) also became a widely-circulated item among Toaster users. Most of Rundgren's Toaster work is available on the video compilation ''The Desktop Collection.''

Rundgren composed music for the 1986 TV series ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' and ''Crime Story'' as well as the movies "Undercover" (a/k/a "Under Cover") (1987), and ''Dumb and Dumber'' (1994), plus background cues for several other TV shows. He hosted a syndicated radio show called "The Difference" in the early 1990s.

As the Internet gained mass acceptance in the mid-1990s Rundgren, along with longtime manager Eric Gardner and Apple digital music exec Kelli Richards, started Patronet, which offered fans (patrons) access to his works in progress and new unreleased tracks in exchange for a subscription fee, cutting out record labels. The songs from Rundgren's first Patronet run were later released as the album ''One Long Year.'' Since then, Rundgren has severed his connections with major record labels and continues to offer new music direct to subscribers via his website, although he also continues to record and release CDs through independent labels. (However, as of November 2007, the PatroNet.com website offers the following message: "PatroNet is undergoing a major software revision and is not accepting memberships at this time.")

Rundgren produced the 1999 debut album for the band Splender, entitled "Halfway to the Sky."

In the summer of 2001, Rundgren joined artists such as Alan Parsons, The Who's John Entwistle, Heart's Ann Wilson and Ambrosia's David Pack for the successful "A Walk Down Abbey Road" tour, in which the musicians played their own hits alongside Beatles favorites. The also did a short tour of Japan in Winter of 2001. John Entwistle's guitarist/vocalist, Godfrey Townsend acted as musical director for the tours and stayed on for the following year's "sequel" tour which included Todd and Parsons returning, with a slightly changed lineup which featured Jack Bruce of Cream, Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad, Christopher Cross and Eric Carmen. Godfrey also brought drummer/vocalist Steve Murphy on board for "A Walk Down Abbey Road's" 2002 Summer tour.

Rundgren toured the US and Europe in 2004 with Joe Jackson and the string quartet Ethel, appearing on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' performing their collaborative cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". (video)

In 2009, Rundgren produced ''Cause I Sez So'' by the New York Dolls. In October, in one of the last concerts at the famed Wachovia Spectrum, Rundgren and Philadelphia area musicians The Hooters and Hall & Oates headlined a concert titled "Last Call". Tickets were as low as $6.00, the deep discount reflected ticket prices in 1967 when the Spectrum first staged concerts.

The year also included a lecture at DePauw University in Indiana, in which he discussed "Music, Technology and Risk-Taking."

In late-October to early-November 2010, Rundgren was the IU Class of 1963 Wells Scholars Professor at Indiana University. He taught a course with IU Professor Glenn Gass entitled The Ballad of Todd Rundgren.

The New Cars

In late 2005, rumors began circulating that the influential Boston-based band The Cars were planning to re-form despite bass player Benjamin Orr's death and the oft-mentioned refusal of former lead singer Ric Ocasek to even consider any reunion. Soon the rumors mentioned that Rundgren had joined Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes in rehearsals for a possible new Cars lineup. Initial speculation pointed to The New Cars being fleshed out with Clem Burke of Blondie and Art Alexakis of Everclear. Eventually it was revealed that The New Cars were to complete their lineup with veteran bass player and former Rundgren bandmate Kasim Sulton and studio drummer Prairie Prince of The Tubes, who had played on XTC's Rundgren-produced ''Skylarking'' and who has recorded and toured with Rundgren.

In early 2006, the new lineup played a few private shows for industry professionals, played live on ''The Tonight Show'' and made other media appearances before commencing a 2006 summer tour with the re-formed Blondie.

Rundgren has referred to the project as "an opportunity ... for me to pay my bills, play to a larger audience, work with musicians I know and like, and ideally have some fun for a year."

The New Cars' first single, "Not Tonight," was released on March 20, 2006. A portion of the song is featured on a promotional teaser for the band online. A live album/greatest hits collection, ''The New Cars: It's Alive'', was released in June, 2006. The album includes classic Cars songs (and two Rundgren hits) recorded live plus three new studio tracks.

Touring, 2009-2011

In April 2009, Rundgren discussed his career during an Ubben Lecture at Indiana's DePauw University.

In September 2009, Rundgren assembled a very limited-engagement tour with Jesse Gress, Kasim Sulton, Prairie Prince, Greg Hawkes, Bobby Strickland, and Roger Powell (and his wife Michele as costume designer and back-up singer for the concerts finale'), covering his 1973 album, "A Wizard, A True Star." The shows included a complete, start-to-finish rendition of the album, with multiple costume changes and theatrical props to accent the songs. The opening band for the shows was Utopia, with Roger Powell, Kasim Sulton, and Prairie Prince.

In December 2009, Rundgren once again took the AWATS Live show on the road with four shows in California. Roger Powell returned to his real job in the computer/software industry and was replaced by Ralph Schuckett, who played keyboards on the studio recording of the original album.

The AWATS show has had two European dates as well; playing in London, England at the Hammersmith Apollo on February 6, 2010, and the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Holland on February 8, 2010. Rundgren opened the London and Amsterdam shows by showcasing his new project, entitled 'Todd Rundgren's Johnson'; consisting of Rundgren, Jesse Gress (guitar), Prairie Prince (drums) and Kasim Sulton (bass) reworking Robert Johnson songs.

In January 2010 Rundgren gave his first ever concert performance in Australia as a participant in the ''Rogue's Gallery'' show, produced by Hal Willner for the 2010 Sydney Festival. In October 2010 Rundgren returned for a three-date tour of Australia performing his 'Johnson' project, with concerts at The Basement, Sydney, the Great Southern Blues Festival at Bateman's Bay and the Corner Hotel in Melbourne. The band consisted of Todd, guitarist Jesse Gress, Australian bassplayer Damien Steele Scott and Australian drummer Mick Skelton.

A Photographic Journal of each American show was created by rock photographer J Bloomrosen.

In October 2010, Rundgren was selected as the Class of 1963 Wells Scholars Professor at Indiana University (Bloomington). In that capacity, he taught two weeks of a four-week, one-credit hour honors seminar designed for 22 Wells Scholars (HON-H300: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren). Co-teaching the class was IU Professor of Music Glenn Gass—whose relationship with Rundgren helped make the professorship possible—and IU Distinguished Professor of Sociology Bernice Pescosolido, who was instrumental in helping to plan the course.

In September 2010, Rundgren performed his "Todd" and "Healing" albums live for the first time ever in Akron, OH and followed that up with five more of the album concerts in Muskegon MI, Indianapolis IN, St. Louis MO, Glenside PA, and Morristown NJ. A large LED display and lasers were on display throughout the shows with Todd and the band dressed in extravagant costumes. Todd brought out his SG Gibson "The Fool" replica guitar and also performed a few songs on the piano. Todd's band consisted of Jesse Gress, Greg Hawkes, Prairie Prince, Bobby Strickland, and Kasim Sulton. Led by Choir Master Dirk Hillyer, local choirs from near each venue joined Todd and the band during parts of the "Healing" album set which added a brand new element to the music for fans that had only heard it by listening to the album. The shows closed with the song, "Sons Of 1984" which included fan participation even after Todd and the band left the stage.

In January 2011, a reunion of the most of the members of the 1974 Utopia personnel (Rundgren, Klingman, Shuckett, Siegler, and Ellman) was held for two nights in New York City, with proceeds to defray medical treatment for Klingman. Material was drawn from the 1972-1975 catalogs of Rundgren and Todd Rundgren's Utopia.

In March 2011, Todd took the "Todd" and "Healing" albums live concerts back on the road for a mini-tour and included stops in Hartford CT, Boston MA, Red Bank NJ, Toledo OH, and Columbus OH. A summer tour promises a selection of the artist's "greatest hits."

Personal life

Rundgren's son, Rex (born 1980), was a minor league baseball player for several years.

In popular culture

Rundgren also composed and recorded theme music for the American pilot for cult UK sci-fi comedy ''Red Dwarf'', though it never aired.

On the day Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon, he left an eight-track tape of Rundgren's album ''The Ballad of Todd Rundgren'', along with other artifacts, in his New York hotel room in an orderly semicircle on the hotel dresser. "I left it as a statement, I guess," he was quoted as saying in ''Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon'' (Jack Jones, Villard Books, 1992). Chapman had been obsessed with Rundgren and told Jones, "Right between the chambers of your heart is how Rundgren's music is to me. I cannot overestimate the depth of what his music meant to me."

In the pilot of ''That 70s Show'', the main characters attend a Todd Rundgren concert. One of the jokes has character Jackie pretending to be a serious Rundgren fan, but she doesn't know how to pronounce his name correctly ("Runderman", "Grunion"). During the end credits, all the main characters sing along to "Hello It's Me". This credit sequence was again used in the final episode of the show.

Rundgren's "I Saw The Light" featured prominently in a scene in the Farelly Brothers film ''Kingpin'', but this wasn't his first association with the Farellys. He also did the score for ''Dumb and Dumber'', and "Can We Still Be Friends" appeared in that film's soundtrack. Also, in the Farelly Brothers produced film The Ringer, the two main characters sing Rundgren's "We Got to Get You A Woman" from his Runt album.

"Can We Still Be Friends" can also be heard briefly during the climactic sex scene in the movie ''Vanilla Sky'', and during an emotional relationship situation between the doctors of the TV series ''Nip/Tuck''.

Stephen Colbert, on his Comedy Central show ''The Colbert Report'', invited Cars vocalist and guitarist Ric Ocasek to add anyone of his choice to the "On Notice" board. Ocasek chose Todd Rundgren.

The song "International Feel" is featured in the film ''Daft Punk's Electroma''.

On the ''30 Rock'' episode "The C Word," Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon is telling producer Pete and writer Frank about the obscenity Lutz called her, stating, "He called me the worst name ever. I'm not gonna repeat it. That's how much I hate it." Then after multiple guesses by the two, she says, "No! It's the one that rhymes with the name of your favorite Todd Rundgren album," referring to ''Runt'', but Frank replies, "It rhymes with ''Hermit of Mink Hollow''?" As an additional bit of trivia, Fey and Rundgren both attended the same suburban Philadelphia high school.

Two tracks from ''Healing'' appeared on ''Miami Vice'', "Tiny Demons" in the episode "Little Prince" and "Flesh" in the episode "Tale of the Goat".

On the NBC show the ''The Office'' episode "The Fight," Michael Scott Steve Carell parodies the chorus of "Bang the Drum All Day", substituting the word "drum" with "mug".

In an episode of ''Gilmore Girls'', Kelly Bishop's character tells her daughter that something minor she did was the worst possible thing. Lauren Graham's character retorts saying something along the lines of "Liv Tyler grew up thinking Todd Rundgren was her father, don't you think that's a little bit worse?"

In the closing moments of episode 11 of season 3 of ''Six Feet Under'', Nate sits in the car that his missing wife last drove as "I Saw The Light" is playing on the radio.

His song "Hello It's Me" was featured in a "Tums" Commercial.

His songs "A Dream Goes on Forever" and "Hello It's Me" were both featured in the soundtrack of the movie ''The Virgin Suicides''.

In their song "Synthesise" (2009) the English electronic duo Simian Mobile Disco repeatedly use a sample, of Rundgren singing "I was born to Synthesize", taken from his song "Born to Synthesize".

His song "Izzat Love?" was sampled by Neon Indian for their song "Deadbeat Summer".

His song "Hodja" from his album A Cappella is performed by John Stamos and others in the "Full House" episode "A Pox in Our House."

Several of Rundgren's songs have featured on Robert Florence and Ryan Macleod's Scottish videogame review shows, ''Consolevania'' and ''videoGaiden''. These include "Bang the Drum All Day", "Hello It's Me", "A Dream Goes On Forever", "Sons of 1984", "Can We Still Be Friends", "I Saw The Light", "Just One Victory" and "Today".

Argentina rock musician Charly Garcia released in 2002 a record called Influencia (Influence). It contains two versions of Todd Rundgren's song Influenza, one in Spanish with lyrics adapted by Charly, and one in English. Todd's influence in Charly Garcia's music is manifested in this record, even though he is almost unknown in Argentina.

In the movie Duets, Paul Giamatti, sings "Hello, It's Me" in a karaoke contest.

TV Girl sampled "Hello, It's Me" on "If You Want It" from their self-titled 2010 debut EP. Todd Rundgren replied by asking Warner Music Group to issue takedown notices to their bandcamp and all the blogs that featured the song.

In her 1997 recording "Blurring the Edges," American singer/songwriter Meredith Brooks lists "...lots of Todd Rundgren" in the lyrics to the opening track, "I Need."

Discography

References

External links

Official website

The Todd Rundgren Connection

TR & Utopia Video Vault

Todd Rundgren "Todd" and "Healing" albums performed live 2010 Tour information

Rundgren Radio online talk show for Todd fans

Rundgren audio interview from Toddstock 2008 on RundgrenRadio.com

Ubben Lecture at DePauw University, includes A/V April 8, 2009

The New Cars official site

Todd Rundgren at the Internet Off Broadway Database

Rundgren audio interview about his album ARENA on RundgrenRadio.com

Rundgren audio interview about his album A Wizard, A True Star on RundgrenRadio.com

"A Wizard, A True Star" Concert Photo Books by Rock Photographer J Bloomrosen

Interview with Todd Rundgren RadioLIVE New Zealand, June 2010.

ToddFan.com - A Todd Rundgren Fan Community

Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:People from Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American pop pianists Category:American record producers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:Musicians from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:American New Wave musicians Category:Protopunk musicians Category:Progressive rock musicians Category:The New Cars members

de:Todd Rundgren es:Todd Rundgren fr:Todd Rundgren it:Todd Rundgren nl:Todd Rundgren ja:トッド・ラングレン no:Todd Rundgren ru:Рандгрен, Тодд simple:Todd Rundgren sv:Todd Rundgren uk:Тодд Рандґрен zh:托德·朗德格伦

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

bg:Били Джоел da:Billy Joel de:Billy Joel es:Billy Joel fa:بیلی جوئل fr:Billy Joel ga:Billy Joel ko:빌리 조엘 hi:बिली जोएल id:Billy Joel it:Billy Joel he:בילי ג'ואל kn:ಬಿಲ್ಲೀ ಜೋಯಲ್ lt:Billy Joel hu:Billy Joel nl:Billy Joel ja:ビリー・ジョエル no:Billy Joel oc:Billy Joel pl:Billy Joel pt:Billy Joel ro:Billy Joel ru:Джоэл, Билли simple:Billy Joel sk:Billy Joel fi:Billy Joel sv:Billy Joel te:బిల్లీ జోయెల్ th:บิลลี โจเอล tr:Billy Joel uk:Біллі Джоел zh:比利·乔尔

Name	Bonnie Raitt
Landscape	Yes
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Bonnie Lynn Raitt
Born	November 08, 1949Burbank, California, United States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, slide guitar
Genre	Blues, country, folk-rock
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, political activist, philanthropist
Years active	1971–present
Label	Warner, Capitol
Website	bonnieraitt.com }}

Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renonwned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially accessible recordings in the 1990s including "Nick of Time", "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up on You", and the slow ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me". Raitt has received nine Grammy Awards in her career and is a lifelong political activist.

Biography

Early life

Raitt, the daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt and his first wife, pianist Marjorie Haydock, began playing guitar at an early age, something few of her high school female friends did. Later she would become famous for her bottleneck-style guitar playing. "I had played a little at school and at camp", she later recalled in a July 2002 interview. The camp Raitt refers to is Camp Regis-Applejack, located in the heart of the Adirondacks. :

''My parents would drag me out to perform for my family, like all parents do, but it was a hobby—nothing more... I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living. I grew up... in a Quaker family, and for me being Quaker was a political calling rather than a religious one.''

Pre-recording career

In 1967, Raitt entered Harvard's Radcliffe College as a freshman, majoring in African Studies. "My plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism", Raitt recalled. "I wanted to help undo the damage that Western colonialism had done to native cultures around the world. Cambridge was a hotbed of this kind of thinking, and I was thrilled."

One day, Raitt was told by a friend that blues promoter Dick Waterman was giving an interview at WHRB, Harvard's college radio station. An important figure in the blues revival of the 1960s, Waterman was also a resident of Cambridge. Raitt went to see Waterman, and the two soon became friends, "much to the chagrin of my parents, who didn't expect their freshman daughter to be running around with 65-year-old bluesmen," recalled Raitt. "I was amazed by his passion for the music and the integrity with which he managed the musicians."

During Raitt's sophomore year, Waterman relocated to Philadelphia, and a number of local musicians he counted among his friends went with him. Raitt had become a strong part of that community, recalling that "... these people had become my friends, my mentors, and though I had every intention of graduating, I decided to take the semester off and move to Philadelphia .... It was an opportunity that young white girls just don't get, and as it turns out, an opportunity that changed everything."

By now, Raitt was also playing folk and rhythm and blues clubs in the Boston area, performing alongside established blues legends such as Howlin' Wolf, Sippie Wallace, and Mississippi Fred McDowell, all of whom she met through Waterman.

Signing with Warner Bros.

In the fall of 1970, while opening for McDowell at the Gaslight Cafe in New York, she was seen by a reporter from ''Newsweek'' Magazine, who began to spread word of her performance. Scouts from major record companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer with Warner Bros. who soon released her debut album, ''Bonnie Raitt'', in 1971. The album was warmly received by the music press, many of whom praised her skills as an interpreter and as a bottleneck guitarist; at the time, very few women in popular music had strong reputations as guitarists.

While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers, Raitt gained little public acclaim for her work. Her critical stature continued to grow but record sales remained modest. Her second album, ''Give It Up'', was released in 1972 to universal acclaim; though many critics still regard it as her best work, it did not change her commercial fortunes. 1973's ''Takin' My Time'' was also met with critical acclaim, but these notices were not matched by the sales.

Raitt was beginning to receive greater press coverage, including a 1975 cover story for ''Rolling Stone Magazine'', but with 1974's ''Streetlights'', reviews for her work were becoming increasingly mixed. By now, Raitt was already experimenting with different producers and different styles, and she began to adopt a more mainstream sound that continued through 1975's ''Home Plate''.

In 1976, Raitt made an appearance on Warren Zevon's eponymous album with his friend Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

Commercial success

1977's ''Sweet Forgiveness'' gave Raitt her first commercial breakthrough when it yielded a hit single in her cover of Del Shannon's "Runaway." Recast as a heavy R&B; recording based on a rhythmic groove inspired by Al Green, Raitt's version of "Runaway" was disparaged by many critics, but its commercial success prompted a bidding war between Warner Bros. and Columbia Records. "There was this big Columbia – Warner war going on at the time", recalled Raitt in a 1990 interview. "James Taylor had just left Warner Bros. and made a big album for Columbia...And then, Warner signed Paul Simon away from Columbia, and they didn't want me to have a hit record for Columbia — no matter what! So, I renegotiated my contract, and they basically matched Columbia's offer. Frankly the deal was a really big deal."

Warner Bros. held higher expectations for Raitt's next album, 1979's ''The Glow'', but it was released to poor reviews as well as modest sales. Raitt would have one commercial success in 1979 when she helped organize the five MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) concerts at Madison Square Garden. The shows spawned a three-record gold album as well as a Warner Bros. feature film, ''No Nukes''. The shows featured co-founders Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, John Hall, and Raitt as well as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, and numerous others.

For her next record, 1982's ''Green Light'', Raitt made a conscious attempt to revisit the sound of her earlier records, but to her surprise, many of her peers and members of the press would compare her new sound to the burgeoning New Wave movement. The album received her strongest reviews in years, but her sales did not improve and this would have a severe impact on her relationship with Warner Bros.

Drop from Warner Bros.

In 1983, as Raitt was finishing work on her follow-up album, entitled ''Tongue & Groove'', Warner Bros. "cleaned house", dropping a number of major artists from their roster. Van Morrison and Arlo Guthrie were two of the most high-profile cases, and the day after mastering was completed on ''Tongue & Groove'', Raitt was notified that she was to be dropped too. The album was shelved indefinitely, and Raitt was left without a label. By now, Raitt was also struggling with alcohol and drug abuse.

Despite her personal and professional problems, Raitt continued to tour and participate in political activism. In 1985, she sang and appeared in the video of "Sun City", the anti-apartheid record written and produced by Steven Van Zandt. Along with her participation in Farm Aid and Amnesty International concerts, Raitt would later travel to Moscow in 1987 as part of the first joint Soviet/American Peace Concert later shown on Showtime television. Also in 1987, Raitt would organize a benefit in Los Angeles, for Countdown '87 to Stop Contra Aid, featuring herself, Don Henley, Herbie Hancock, Holly Near and others.

''Tongue and Groove's'' name change and release

Two years after dropping her from their label, Warner Bros. notified Raitt of their plans to release ''Tongue & Groove''. "I said it wasn't really fair", recalled Raitt. "I think at this point they felt kind of bad. I mean, I was out there touring on my savings to keep my name up, and my ability to draw was less and less. So they agreed to let me go in and recut half of it, and that's when it came out as ''Nine Lives''." A critical and commercial disappointment, 1986's ''Nine Lives'' would be Raitt's last new recording for Warner Bros.

In late 1987, she joined k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes as female background vocals for Roy Orbison's television special, ''Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night''. Following this highly acclaimed broadcast, she began working on new material. By now, Raitt was clean and sober, having broken her substance abuse — for which she would credit Stevie Ray Vaughan in a Minnesota State Fair concert the night after Vaughan's 1990 death. During this time, Raitt considered signing with Prince's own label, Paisley Park, but negotiations would ultimately fall through. Instead she began recording a bluesy mix of pop and rock under the production guidance of Don Was at Capitol Records.

Raitt had met Was through Hal Wilner, who was putting together ''Stay Awake'', a tribute album to Disney music for A&M;. Was and Wilner both wanted Raitt to sing lead on an adult-contemporary arrangement created by Was for "Baby Mine", the lullaby from ''Dumbo''. Raitt was very pleased with the sessions, and she asked Don to produce her next album.

Peak commercial success

After nearly 20 years, Bonnie Raitt achieved belated commercial success with her tenth album, ''Nick of Time''. Released in the spring of 1989, ''Nick of Time'' went to the top of the U.S. charts following Raitt's Grammy sweep in early 1990. At the same time, she walked away with a fourth Grammy Award for her duet "In the Mood" with John Lee Hooker on his album ''The Healer''. Nick of Time (album) was also the first of many of her recordings to feature her longtime rhythm section of Ricky Fataar and James "Hutch" Hutchinson (Although previously Fataar had played on her Green Light album and Hutchinson had worked on Nine Lives). ''Nick of Time'' has sold over six million copies in the US alone.''

She followed up this success with three more Grammy Awards for her 1991 album, ''Luck of the Draw'' which has currently sold nearly 8 million copies in the United States. Three years later, in 1994, she added two more Grammys with her album ''Longing In Their Hearts'', her second no. 1 album. Both of these albums were multi-platinum successes. Raitt's collaboration with Was would amicably come to an end with 1995's live release, ''Road Tested''. Released to solid reviews, it sold well enough to be certified gold.

For her next studio album, Raitt hired Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as her producers. "I loved working with Don Was but I wanted to give myself and my fans a stretch and do something different", Raitt said. Her work with Froom and Blake was released on ''Fundamental'' in 1998.

Current era

In March 2000, Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

''Silver Lining'' was released in 2002 while ''Souls Alike'' was released in September 2005.

Australian Country Music Artist Graeme Connors has said, "Bonnie Raitt does something with a lyric no one else can do; she bends it and twists it right into your heart." (ABC Radio NSW Australia interview with Interviewer Chris Coleman on 18 January 2007)

In 2007, she accepted an invitation to contribute to ''Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino''. With Jon Cleary, she sang a medley of "I'm in Love Again" and "All by Myself".

Raitt appeared on the June 7, 2008 broadcast of Garrison Keillor's radio program "A Prairie Home Companion". She performed two blues songs with Kevin "Keb' Mo'" Moore: "No Getting Over You" and "There Ain't Nothin' in Ramblin'." Raitt also sang Dimming of the Day with Richard Thompson. This show, along with another on which Raitt with her band in October 2006, is archived on the Prairie Home Companion web site.

Political activism

Raitt's web site urges fans to learn more about preserving the environment. She was a founding member of Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979 and a catalyst for the larger anti-nuclear movement, becoming involved with groups like the Abalone Alliance and Alliance for Survival.

In 1994 at the urging of Dick Waterman, Raitt funded the replacement of a headstone for one of her mentors, Fred McDowell through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. Raitt would later finance memorial headstones in Mississippi for Memphis Minnie, Sam Chatmon, and Tommy Johnson through the Mt. Zion Fund.

Bonnie Raitt is a staunch leftist. In July 2004, she drew thunderous applause at the Stockholm Jazz Festival for dedicating a classic to sitting (and later re-elected) U.S. President George W. Bush. She was quoted as saying, "We're gonna sing this for George Bush because he's out of here, people!" before she launched into the opening licks of "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)", a cover that was featured on her 1979 album ''The Glow''. In 2002, she signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the U.S.A. She has visited children in the program and sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.

Raitt worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, for her 2005 Fall/Winter and 2006 Spring/Summer/Fall tours.

Raitt is part of the No Nukes group which is against the expansion of nuclear power. In 2007 the group recorded a music video of a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth".

During the 2008 Democratic primary campaign Raitt, along with Jackson Browne and bassist James "Hutch" Hutchinson, performed at campaign appearances for candidate John Edwards.

Personal life

Raitt and actor Michael O'Keefe were married on April 27, 1991, and announced their divorce on November 9, 1999.

Discography

References

External links

Official website

Official Facebook Page

[ Allmusic Guide Profile]

Bonnie's Pride

Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:American alternative country singers Category:American anti–nuclear power activists Category:American blues guitarists Category:American blues musicians Category:American blues singers Category:American female guitarists Category:American female singers Category:American folk singers Category:Feminist musicians Category:American Quakers Category:American record producers Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:Blues rock musicians Category:Musicians from California Category:Electric blues musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:MusiCares Person of the Year Honorees Category:People from Burbank, California Category:People from the San Fernando Valley Category:Radcliffe College alumni Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Slide guitarists Category:American humanitarians

da:Bonnie Raitt de:Bonnie Raitt es:Bonnie Raitt fr:Bonnie Raitt it:Bonnie Raitt nl:Bonnie Raitt ja:ボニー・レイット pl:Bonnie Raitt pt:Bonnie Raitt ru:Рэйтт, Бонни sc:Bonnie Raitt simple:Bonnie Raitt fi:Bonnie Raitt sv:Bonnie Raitt th:บอนนีย์ เรตต์ uk:Бонні Рейтт

name	Diane Birch
background	solo_singer
birth date	January 24, 1983
origin	Michigan
instrument	Piano/Rhodes/Wurlitzer/Vocal
genre	Soul, blues
years active	2009—
label	S-Curve
website	}}

Diane Birch (born January 24, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter.

Early life

Birch was born in Michigan and her father was a Seventh-day Adventist preacher whose work took him to several countries. As a child Birch lived with her family in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Sydney, Australia. When she was ten, her family returned to the United States of America, and settled in Portland, Oregon. Diane attended Portland Adventist Elementary School and later, Portland Adventist Academy.

Birch began studying piano using the Suzuki method at the age of seven and she listened to opera, classical and church music while growing up.

Career

Birch moved to Los Angeles to compose music for films and instead played piano at the Beverly Hotel and L'Orangerie. Prince heard her perform at the Polo Lounge in 2006 and invited her to join him at his home for a music session with his band. Birch moved to London, signed a publishing contract and wrote most of the songs that appeared on her debut album.

In 2007, she moved to New York after signing with Steve Greenberg's S-Curve Records.

Birch's debut album, ''Bible Belt'', was released in 2009 on S-Curve Records and received supportive reviews in Rolling Stone, Paper Magazine and the Huffington Post.

In 2009 Birch appeared on the ''Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'', ''Late Show with David Letterman'', the Carson Daly Show, Jimmy Kimmel, ''The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien'', ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' and the webcast, ''Live from Daryl's House''

Her song ''Rise Up'' was the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week in October 2009 and her song ''Valentino'' appeared in the movie Valentine's Day (film)'.

In 2010 Birch was the opening act for Stevie Wonder at the "Hard Rock Calling Festival" in Hyde Park and Nîmes, France and Nick Jonas and the Administration. Birch performed shows in Osaka and Tokyo. In September, Birch released the single track "Gee Whiz It's Christmas" on Amazon and iTunes. Birch also co-wrote and sang the song "Too Soon to End" by Alain Clark.In December Birch released a digital only EP called "The Velveteen Age".

In addition to keyboards Birch also plays guitar.

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions				! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"
		2009	style="text-align:left;"				* First studio album	* Release date: May 19, 2009	S-Curve">Music recording sales certification
! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"
2009	style="text-align:left;"			* First studio album	* Release date: May 19, 2009	S-Curve	87	77	26
2010				* with The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band	* Covers album	* Release date: December 7, 2010	S-Curve Records>S-Curve

Other appearances

! Year	! Song	! Album
	"Valentino"
"Too Soon to End" (with Alain Clark)	"ColourBlind"

Singles

Year	Single	Peak positions		Album
		! style="width:35px;"	! style="width:35px;"
2009		—	—
2010		—	—	The Velveteen Age
2011		—	—	Wind Up Bird Song (Single)

Music videos

! Year	! Title	! Director
2009		Moh Azima
		Dennis Liu
	Gavin Elder

References

External links

Diane Birch youtube channel

Diane Birch: The 'Bible Belt,' In Eclectic Song from National Public Radio

Diane Birch live in concert from NPR station WXPN

Diane Birch performs Rewind as part of Guardian How I wrote series

Category:1983 births Category:Living people Category:American expatriates in Australia Category:American expatriates in South Africa Category:American expatriates in Zimbabwe Category:American female singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American pianists Category:American soul singers Category:Songwriters from Michigan

da:Diane Birch de:Diane Birch ko:다이앤 버치 ja:ダイアン・バーチ pt:Diane Birch sv:Diane Birch