How Much is Billy Joel Worth?
Being born back in 1949, Billy Joel grew up being one of the top musicians of his time. One of the few great American songwriters and singers, his net worth over has been built up to over $180 million. Not bad for a boy from the Bronx, New York.
During May 9, 1949, the future Hall of Famer Billy Joel was born in New York City. During his childhood years, his family would make a huge move to Hicksville, Long Island. Soon after the move, at just the age of 4 years old, Billy would realize his love and appreciation for music. In fact, classical music to be precise; which, to this day, he still has a huge love and appreciation for all types of classical music.
Growing up in love with everything music, it was no big surprise to Billy’s family when he joined his first band, named The Echoes, at just the age of 14 years old. He would then go on to debut a single album, Cold Spring Harbor, in 1971 that would be one of the most disappointing endeavors of his career.
However, he would then go on to bounce back and eventually evolve and launch another album in 1972, leading to his signing with Paramount Records. Within just one short year, he would switch record labels and land with Columbia Records in 1973.
Not long after signing with Columbia Records, Billy Joel would eventually make his first TOP 20 song just 2 short years later. That song, ‘Piano Man’, would be the one hit that would really launch his career into the stratosphere.
Feeding off of the momentum from his first hit, Billy would start to record songs and even albums, producing such hits at ‘Streetlife Serenade’, which was released in 1974. However, many of the songs Billy Joel released would relate to a growing frustration within the music industry, as well as Hollywood. This would eventually lead to him leaving Los Angeles during 1976.
Growing and evolving from all of his experiences, Billy Joel would eventually begin to evolve his style of making music. In fact, he would go on to show that his range included pop, as well as jazz, and everything in between.
With his evolution, Billy Joel would go on to release one of his most popular albums of all time, The Stranger, back in 1977. The Stranger was his first breakthrough album, and would actually go on to land 4 songs on the Top 25 U.S. Billboard charts during that time.
Over the next few years, Billy would go on to rack up a bunch of awards, including titles of Grammy’s Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and even a People’s Choice Award.
Throughout the entire 1980s, Billy Joel would continuously prove to everyone that he was a legitimate hit-making superstar. With smash hits being cranked out, that included ‘Uptown Girl’, Tell Her About It’, ‘The Longest Time’, and ‘Innocent Man’, Billy Joel was a musician that could not be stopped. He would eventually go on to release multiple Greatest Hits albums, and then become one of the first American performers to ever release a full-scale production within the Soviet Union.
On top of pumping out hit after hit, Billy would also spend time frequenting all of the benefit circuits, allowing him the opportunity to perform with the likes of artists such as John Mellencamp and Cyndi Lauper. All of which has allowed Billy to help raise over millions of dollars for great causes that he believes in and hopes do well.
Moving forward, in 1989, Billy would be presented with the ultimate award, the Grammy Legend Award. This is right off the heel of one of the most successful rock songs of all time, ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’
Billy Joel would go on to ride out his success until the early 1990s, regardless of the fact that his personal life would take a turn into turmoil. After releasing his 1994 album, ‘River of Dreams’, Billy would start to slow down his studio time, but continue to promote and tour all in combination with another superstar, Elton John.
Several years later, Billy’s total sales amount would surpass the 100 million mark worldwide in 1999. Many years later in 2013, he would be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by his childhood idol, Ray Charles. As if things couldn’t get any better for Billy Joel, he would receive Kennedy Center Honors in 2013.
Billy Joel has had an impressive career. With a total sales amount of over 150 million sales worldwide, he has been able to elevate himself to one of the top-selling artists in the history of music. With 6 Grammy wins and over 23 Grammy nominations, being in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as the Songwriter Hall of Fame, Billy Joel was one of the best.
Actively retiring back in 1993, he has stayed in the music mix with his tours and residencies, as well as repeated album sales. If that weren’t enough, he also had an autobiography written about himself, titled ‘” the Book of Joel: A Memoir.” As if that weren’t enough, he has also owned the Long Island Boat Company, plus one of the most popular shops that makes custom motorcycles. In fact, just through his business choices between June of 2017 and June of 2018, he was able to make himself a cool $46 million.
While Billy Joel may have started out as a musician that didn’t quite know what he was doing, he was able to take his failures and fail forwards. He learned from his past failings and was able to create a music industry that would surpass no one.
Billy Joel Net Worth
By being smart with his money and taking everything he learned into consideration, Billy Joel has been able to grow his wealth from a nobody from New York City, to a hall of fame rock star that is worth over $180 million.
