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.[2]

Joel had Top 10 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and has 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote singlehandedly. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 100 million records worldwide.[3] 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). Joel \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"retired\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" from recording pop music in 1993 but continues to tour (often with Elton John). In 2001, he released Fantasies & Delusions, a CD of classical compositions for piano. In 2007, he briefly returned to pop songwriting and recording with a single entitled \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"All My Life\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" â