In 1992, he submitted essays to the school board and was awarded his diploma at Hicksville High's annual-graduation ceremony, 25 years after leaving. 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'." Joel did eventually sign with Columbia. Rather than attend summer school to earn his diploma, Joel decided to begin a career in music: "I told them, 'To hell with it. Though Joel was a comparatively strong student, at the end of his senior year, he did not have enough credits to graduate. He had been playing at a piano bar to help his mother make ends meet, which interfered with his attendance specifically, he missed a crucial English exam, as he had been playing a late-night gig at a piano bar the evening before. Joel attended Hicksville High School until 1967, but he did not graduate with his class.
He boxed successfully on the amateur Golden Gloves circuit for a short time, winning 22 bouts, but abandoned the sport shortly after his nose was broken in his 24th boxing match. As a teenager, Joel took up boxing so he could defend himself. He reluctantly began piano lessons at an early age, at his mother's insistence, his teachers including the noted American pianist Morton Estrin and musician Timothy Ford, but he has admitted to being a better organist than pianist. Billy Joel has a sister, Judith, and a half-brother, Alexander Joel, a classical conductor in Europe, who was the chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig from 2001 to 2014. Rosalind and Howard Joel divorced in 1957. Joel's mother, Rosalind, was born in Brooklyn to Jewish parents, Philip and Rebecca Nyman originally from England. Howard emigrated to Switzerland and later to the United States (via Cuba, as immigration quotas for German Jews prevented direct immigration at the time) to escape the Nazi regime. Joel's father, Howard (born Helmuth) Joel, a classical pianist, was born in Germany, to a Jewish family, the son of a merchant and manufacturer, Karl Amson Joel. William Martin Joel was born in the Bronx on May 9, 1949, and was raised in a Levitt house in a section of Hicksville, New York, that was located in the town of Oyster Bay. However, he continues to tour, and he plays songs from all eras of his solo career. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah", Joel stopped writing and releasing pop/rock material after 1993's River of Dreams. In 2013, Joel received the Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest honor for influencing American culture through the arts. In 2001, Joel received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006). He has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner who has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards. Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the US, all of which he wrote himself. 1 & 2 is one of the best-selling albums in the US. 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. He was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised on Long Island, New York, places which have a heavy influence on his songs. William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist.
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