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This Billy Joel trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and follows the whole career: the Bronx birth and Hicksville childhood, the teenage boxing, the Hassles and Attila, the debut album mastered at the wrong speed, the six months playing a Los Angeles bar under a fake name that produced his signature song, and the run of albums with Phil Ramone that made him a household name. It covers the records and the stories behind them: which album beat Simon & Garfunkel as Columbia's best-seller, why 52nd Street was the first album ever sold on CD, what the Glass Houses cover was a riposte to, the motorcycle crash, the models who inspired Uptown Girl, the Soviet tour, the manager he sued for $90 million, the Face to Face tours with Elton John, the last shows at Shea and the monthly Madison Square Garden residency that ended at show 150. The opening questions are for anyone who knows the hits; the later ones are for people who own Songs in the Attic on vinyl. Every answer was checked against a reference source and each question shows its citation once you have answered. No lyrics are quoted.
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Q 01In which New York City borough was Billy Joel born in 1949?
The Bronx
The family moved to Hicksville on Long Island when he was one, and his mother insisted on piano lessons. His father Howard was a German-born amateur classical pianist.
Q 02Which sport did the teenage Billy Joel compete in on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit?
Boxing
He fought as a welterweight and has said a broken nose ended his interest. He was also baptized in a Church of Christ at age 11.
Q 03How did Billy Joel finally receive his Hicksville High diploma in 1992, 25 years after leaving?
He submitted essays to the board
He had told the school that if he wasn't going to Columbia University he was going to Columbia Records, where no diploma was needed. He got it at the annual graduation ceremony.
Q 04With drummer Jon Small, Billy Joel formed which heavy-rock duo in 1969?
Attila
Their one album came out in July 1970. Small later directed Joel's music videos, and Joel eventually married Small's ex-wife Elizabeth.
Q 05What went wrong with Billy Joel's 1971 debut album Cold Spring Harbor?
It was mastered at too high a speed
Family Productions' Artie Ripp said he spent $450,000 developing Joel. 'She's Got a Way' and 'Everybody Loves You Now' were largely ignored until live versions surfaced in 1981.
Q 06A live radio performance of which Philadelphia favourite got Billy Joel a major-label deal in 1972?
Captain Jack
It became the most requested track in the station's history. Columbia president Clive Davis signed him and he moved to Los Angeles for three years.
Q 07Under what stage name did Billy Joel play a Los Angeles piano bar for six months in 1972-73?
Bill Martin
His full name is William Martin Joel. The Executive Room on Wilshire Boulevard and its regulars became the subject of his signature song.
Q 08What position did 'Piano Man' peak at on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974?
No. 25
It was his first Top 40 hit. The Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2015.
Q 09Which song did Billy Joel write as a sarcastic response to 'Piano Man' being cut down for radio?
The Entertainer
It appeared on 1974's Streetlife Serenade, along with the instrumental 'Root Beer Rag'. The lyric complains that the hit was cut to 3:05.
Q 10Which famous producer declined Billy Joel's follow-up to his 1976 album after seeing him play in New Jersey?
George Martin
Joel's wife Elizabeth had phoned him. She then contacted Phil Ramone, who came to Joel's Carnegie Hall show in June 1977 and made The Stranger.
Q 11Which producer made The Stranger with Billy Joel in 1977, beginning a partnership that lasted until 1986?
Phil Ramone
Storm Front in 1989 was the first album since Turnstiles without him, with Mick Jones of Foreigner producing instead.
Q 12The Stranger overtook which album to become its label's best-seller?
Bridge over Troubled Water
It sold over 10 million copies and reached No. 2. Rolling Stone later ranked it the 70th greatest album of all time.
Q 13'Just the Way You Are', which won Grammys for Record and Song of the Year, was written for whom?
His first wife Elizabeth Weber
Q 21'Uptown Girl' was inspired by a chance hotel-bar encounter with two supermodels and which singer?
Whitney Houston
Christie Brinkley, Elle Macpherson and the singer were on a modelling assignment in the Caribbean and approached him while he played the piano. The song was originally titled 'Uptown Girls'.
Q 22Which album beat An Innocent Man to the Album of the Year Grammy?
Thriller
Joel's Greatest Hits compilation the following year went on to double-diamond status, over 23 million units.
Q 23'A Matter of Trust' and 'Modern Woman' from The Bridge featured in which 1986 comedy?
Ruthless People
He said the song came to him in a dream. It reached No. 3 and he later stopped playing it after the divorce.
Q 1452nd Street (1978) was named after the Manhattan street that then housed the world headquarters of what?
CBS/Columbia Records
It was his first No. 1 album, sold over seven million and won Album of the Year at the Grammys, his only win in that category.
Q 1552nd Street holds what place in the history of recorded music?
First album commercially released on CD
Sony put it out on the new format in Japan in 1982. The album's 'My Life' was also covered as the theme to the sitcom Bosom Buddies.
Q 16Which single gave Billy Joel his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1980?
It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
It spent eleven weeks in the Top 10 and was the ninth biggest-selling single of the year. Glass Houses spent six weeks at No. 1.
Q 17What is Billy Joel about to do on the cover of Glass Houses (1980)?
Throw a rock through his own window
He said it was a riposte to critics who called him a mellow balladeer. The album won him a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male.
Q 18What delayed the recording of The Nylon Curtain in 1982?
A serious motorcycle accident
A car ran a red light on Long Island; he was flipped over it, crushing his left thumb and dislocating his other wrist. The album still reached No. 7.
Q 19Which director made the MTV-staple videos for 'Allentown' and 'Pressure'?
Russell Mulcahy
He was the Bohemian Rhapsody-era pioneer who later directed Highlander. The videos helped The Nylon Curtain sell despite its heavier themes.
Q 20An Innocent Man (1983) was Billy Joel's tribute to which musical era?
1950s and 60s R&B and doo-wop
It produced 'Tell Her About It', 'Uptown Girl' and 'The Longest Time', and lost the Album of the Year Grammy to Thriller.
Both reached No. 10. The Bridge was his last album to carry the Family Productions logo before he cut ties with Artie Ripp.
Q 24In which country did Billy Joel play six arena concerts in 1987, one of the first Western rock tours there?
The Soviet Union
After an improvised show in Tbilisi he played Moscow and Leningrad to perhaps 100,000 people, and the tour was the country's first live rock radio broadcast. A clown he met inspired the song 'Leningrad'.
Q 25Billy Joel voiced Dodger, a streetwise Jack Russell terrier, in which 1988 Disney film?
Oliver & Company
The character is based on Dickens's Artful Dodger. It remains a rare acting credit for him.
Q 26For how much did Billy Joel sue his former manager and ex-brother-in-law Frank Weber in 1989?
$90 million
An audit had found major discrepancies. He won a $2 million partial judgment in 1990, and 'The Great Wall of China' on River of Dreams is about Weber.
Q 27Which Foreigner guitarist co-produced Billy Joel's Storm Front (1989)?
Mick Jones
Joel had played keyboards on Jones's 1988 solo album. Storm Front became his first No. 1 album since Glass Houses nine years earlier.
Q 28How many Billy Joel singles have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?
Three
'It's Still Rock and Roll to Me', 'Tell Her About It' and 'We Didn't Start the Fire', the last of which spent two weeks on top in 1989. He has had 33 Top 40 hits.
Q 29'The Downeaster Alexa' on Storm Front was written about the struggles of whom?
Long Island fishermen
Alexa is also the name of his daughter, born in 1985. 'And So It Goes' closes the album as the calm after the storm.
Q 30Who painted the cover art for River of Dreams (1993)?
Christie Brinkley
It shows a scene from each song. The couple announced their separation the following April and divorced in August 1994.