History Music / BillyJoel

* AuthorAvatar: Averted in "The Ballad of Billy the Kid." According to Joel, the Billy from Oyster Bay was a bartender named Billy he knew from his Long Island days.

* OddCouple: Joel and his former wife Christie Brinkley

* HistoricalBiographySong: "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" details Billy's rise to infamy, his crimes throughout the American west, and his eventual death at the hands of a judge. Joel then compares himself to the outlaw in the final verse.

* ''Fantasies & Delusions'' (2001)

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" has almost nothing to do with the historical Billy the Kid--for starters, the real man wasn't a bank robber, and was gunned down by a sheriff, not hanged. Joel has always acknowledged this, describing the song as a Western movie.

* DyingTown: "Allentown". Some residents of the real Allentown had some umbrage with his depiction of the city.

* AmbiguousSituation: The captain of the ''Alexa'' in "The Downeaster Alexa" sets sail for to Martha's Vineyard, but on the way diverts to Nantucket, for no given reason.

** {{Lampshaded}} in "The Entertainer" when he complains "It was a beautiful song / But it ran too long / If you'e gonna have a hit / You gotta make it fit / So they cut it down to 3:05".

** ''Last Play at Shea'', which used his July 16th and 18th 2008 concerts at [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams the New York Mets' Shea Stadium]], the last ones ever performed there before the building was demolished, as a launchpad for covering his career, the history of American suburbia on Long Island, and of the Mets.

* HotBlooded: In his younger days. He had a reputation of responding to negative reviews by tearing up copies of the reviewer's newspaper or magazine. He would get into arguments with musicians (for example when he and Liberty [=DeVitto=] had a dispute over Joel's original intent for "Only The Good Die Young" to be a {{reggae}} song), and many of his songs tended to have {{angst}}y or confrontational lyrics. It's surprising to see Joel in modern times as a kind yet snarky CoolOldGuy.

* ''[[Music/TheStrangerAlbum The Stranger]]'' (1977)

* ''Songs In The Attic''[[note]]Live-in-the-studio re-recordings of select songs from his pre-1977 albums, made with his band at the time to give the songs a harder edge.[[/note]] (1981)

* ''[[Music/StormFrontAlbum Storm Front]]'' (1989)

His discography has a wide range of styles, including schmaltzy SoftRock love songs that perhaps reveal TooMuchInformation about his relationships (especially that with ex-wife [[UptownGirl Christie Brinkley]]), tributes to 1950s artists and stylings, attempts at working class rock comparable to Music/BruceSpringsteen, jazzy ruminations on fame, religion, substance abuse (something he has experience in), or his hometown of New York City, bluesy piano numbers, and pure classical compositions. Said range contributed to the formation of ''Theatre/MovinOut'', one of the first and best known examples of the JukeboxMusical. He is also known for voicing Dodger in the Disney animated film ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany''.

His discography has a wide range of styles, including schmaltzy SoftRock love songs that perhaps reveal TooMuchInformation about his relationships (especially that with ex-wife [[UptownGirl Christie Brinkley]]), tributes to 1950s artists and stylings, attempts at working class rock comparable to Music/BruceSpringsteen, jazzy ruminations on fame, religion, substance abuse (something he has experience in), or his hometown of New York City, bluesy piano numbers, and pure classical compositions. Said range contributed to the formation of ''MovinOut'', one of the first and best known examples of the JukeboxMusical. He is also known for voicing Dodger in the Disney animated film ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany''.

* Attila, an early 1970s PsychedelicRock band, whose first and only album is often called [[BileFascination "one of the worst albums ever recorded"]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: Both ''Glass Houses'' and especially ''The Nylon Curtain'' are this compared to Joel's other albums. ''Storm Front'' and especially ''River Of Dreams'' are this compared to ''An Innocent Man'' and ''The Bridge''. It didn't help that [[CreatorBreakdown Joel's financial issues and eventual divorce from Christie Brinkley]] happened during this time period, and it's reflected in many of the songs from this time.

* GenreRoulette: He's gone from pop to Southwestern funk to soul to Music/AaronCopland-like ballads to a ''classical music'' album in a late Romantic style somewhat reminiscent of Claude Debussy or Charles Gounod. He even emulated Music/TheBeatles -- Music/JohnLennon in particular -- in the B side of the ''Nylon Curtain'' album. He also stated that "We Didn't Start the Fire" was originally going to be a ''WhatCouldHaveBeen rap'' song.

* JustTheWayYouAre: {{Trope Namer|s}}

* {{Manipulative B|astard}}itch: "Laura" (with a healthy dollop of PassiveAggressiveKombat) and "She's Always a Woman". "Stiletto" is the rare case in which the protagonist knows she's one, but enjoys it. WordOfGod said it was about any female performer who has the audience in their hands.

* RarelyPerformedSong: "You're Only Human (Second Wind) counts as this. Released in 1985 as a single from Joel's compilation album "Greatest Hits - Volume I & Volume II" in 1985. Charting at #9 on the Billboard Charts when it was originally released, the upbeat synth driven song (which itself is a bit of a departure from the piano driven style Joel is known for) heavily contrasts the lyrics, which encourages those struggling with depression not to resort to suicide. Due to Joel feeling that the subject matter of the song is too (understandably) depressing, he did not perform the song in concert once, between 1986 & 2016, performing it then, and only then as a dedication to the people of Orlando (following a nightclub shooting that had recently occurred.) Also appearing in the music video for "You're Only Human", is a young Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame), playing an extra/friend of the video's protagonist (keep an eye out for the red haired kid with thick glasses - that's Adam!)

* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: "We Didn't Start The Fire," which has often been accused of being a rip-off of the {{Trope Namer|s}}, Music/{{REM}}'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," as a result.[[note]]Of course, since "We Didn't Start The Fire" started life as a ''rap song'', it's highly doubtful Joel was copying R.E.M.[[/note]]

* TheStoner: "Captain Jack", perhaps the most accurate deconstruction of the life of a college stoner.

* UptownGirl: {{Trope Namer|s}}. Joel began to write the song for his then-girlfriend Elle [=McPherson=], but it ended up becoming a tribute to Christie Brinkley, who married Joel after starring in the song's video.

His discography has a wide range of styles, including schmaltzy soft-rock love songs that perhaps reveal TooMuchInformation about his relationships (especially that with ex-wife [[UptownGirl Christie Brinkley]]), tributes to 1950s artists and stylings, attempts at working class rock comparable to Music/BruceSpringsteen, jazzy ruminations on fame, religion, substance abuse (something he has experience in), or his hometown of New York City, bluesy piano numbers, and pure classical compositions. Said range contributed to the formation of ''MovinOut'', one of the first and best known examples of the JukeboxMusical. He is also known for voicing Dodger in the Disney animated film ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany''.

Joel has mostly retired from pop songwriting and recording since the late '90s, but he still tours quite frequently, sometimes [[DreamTeam with close friend]] Music/EltonJohn. He is currently the "artist-in-residence" at Madison Square Garden, playing at least one show there every month for several years (when [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic venues are open, anyways]]).