My Lives
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My Lives
''My Lives'' is a box set compilation of demos, outtakes, B-sides, soundtrack cuts, live recordings and album cuts by American singer/songwriter Billy Joel. It was released on November 22, 2005. The album name is derivative of the Billy Joel song "My Life". The liner notes were written by longtime ''Rolling Stone'' magazine contributor Anthony DeCurtis. The 4-CD set is notable for including numerous tracks that were previously released but had never been available on an official Billy Joel album, including songs from his days with the Lost Souls, the Hassles, and Attila; various B-sides; and soundtrack contributions such as "Why Should I Worry?" which his character sang in the Disney animated film ''Oliver & Company''. A bonus DVD is also included featuring live performances from ''River of Dreams'' Tour. The cover of the boxed set was painted by Joel's daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, when she was seven years old. Release It was Joel's 20th album to chart on the '' Billboard'' 200, ...
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Box Set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists and bands with an extremely long and successful career often have anthology or "essential" collections of their boxes of music released as box sets. These often include rare and never-before-released tracks. Some box sets collect previously released boxes of singles or albums by a music artist, and often collect the complete discography of an artist such as Pink Floyd's ''Oh, by the Way'' and ''Discovery'' sets. Sometimes bands release expanded versions of their most successful albums such as Pink Floyd's ''Immersion'' box set versions of their ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' (1973), ''Wish You Were Here'' (1975) and ''The Wall'' (1979) albums. Pink Floyd have also released ''The Early Years 1965–1972'' box set which features mostly unreleased mate ...
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A-side And B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company intends to be the initial focus of promotional efforts and radio airplay and hopefully become a hit record. The B-side (or "flip-side") is a secondary recording that typically receives less attention, although some B-sides have been as successful as, or more so than, their A-sides. Use of this language has largely declined in the 21st century as the music industry has transitioned away from analog recordings towards digital formats without physical sides, such as CDs, downloads and streaming. Nevertheless, some artists and labels continue to employ the terms ''A-side'' and ''B-side'' metaphorically to describe the type of content a particular release features, with ''B-side'' sometimes representing a "bonus" track or other material. The ...
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Piano Man (song)
"Piano Man" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel. As his first single in North America, it was included on Joel's 1973 album of the same name and later released as a single on November 2, 1973. The song is sung from Joel's point of view as a piano player at a bar, reminiscing about his experiences there and the people he encountered. "Piano Man" is based on Joel's real-life experiences as a lounge musician in Los Angeles from 1972 to 1973, which he had decided to pursue in an effort to escape his contracted New York City-based record company at the time, Family Productions, following the poor commercial performance of the album ''Cold Spring Harbor''. Joel describes various characters, including a bartender named John and a "real estate novelist" named Paul, all based on real-life individuals. Joel's first major hit and his signature song, "Piano Man" peaked at #25 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in April 1974. Following Joel's break ...
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Cold Spring Harbor (album)
''Cold Spring Harbor'' is the debut studio album by American recording artist Billy Joel, released on November 1, 1971, by Family Productions. Composition and recording ''Cold Spring Harbor'' was named after a hamlet of the same name in the Town of Huntington, New York. It is located on Long Island Sound near Joel's hometown. The front cover was photographed at Harbor Road in Cold Spring Harbor. His song "Tomorrow Is Today" drew from his period of depression and hospitalization the year before. Joel later released live versions of "She's Got a Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now", first included on this album, in his ''Songs in the Attic'' (1981), recorded in live performances. "She's Got a Way" was also released as a single in early 1982, and peaked at No. 23 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Production Mastering Through an error in the album's mastering, the songs played slightly too fast, causing Joel's voice to sound unnaturally high (one-half of a semitone higher—Joel ...
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She's Got A Way
"She's Got a Way" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, originally released on his first studio album, '' Cold Spring Harbor'' (1971) and as a single from that album in some countries. It was also featured as a single from the 1981 live album ''Songs in the Attic'', peaking at number 23 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in early 1982. Lyrics and music "She's Got a Way" is a love ballad. The lyrics to "She's Got a Way" have the singer describing how various characteristics of a particular woman, such as her laugh, make him love her, even though he can't understand why. To music critic Mark Bego, it's a song about a woman who has "mesmerized" him. Joel biographer Fred Schruers describes the lyrics as a "plainspoken, never-quite-corny adoration of a loved one." According to a friend of the couple, Bruce Gentile, the song was written about Joel's first wife Elizabeth. Joel's liner notes for ''Songs in the Attic'' seem to agree with this, commenting, "Written in 1970 ...
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Attila (rock Band)
Attila was an American rock band, most notable for having featured a young Billy Joel as a member. History Joel was a member of a band called The Hassles; he and the drummer Jon Small broke away from the Hassles and formed Attila in 1969. The instrumentation was organ and drums, with Joel also handling the bass lines with a keyboard, similar to the Doors' Ray Manzarek. Their creative partnership ended in 1970 when Joel ran off with Small's wife, Elizabeth, whom he later married, although this did not end their collaborations, as Small produced Joel's ''Концерт'' video as well as the '' Live at Shea Stadium'' performance. ''Attila'' album Their only album, ''Attila'', was released on July 27, 1970. Joel himself has gone on record as describing the album as "psychedelic bullshit". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote, "''Attila'' undoubtedly is the worst album released in the history of rock & roll — hell, the history of recorded music itself. There have been many ...
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David Porter (musician)
David Porter (born November 21, 1941) is an American record producer, songwriter, singer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Porter was a 2005 inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, with catalog sales exceeding 400 million units. In 2015, ''Rolling Stone'' listed him among the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. He is best known for songwriting, having written Sam & Dave's " Soul Man" (1968 Grammy winner), and "Hold On, I'm Comin'". His songs have been sampled in Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover" (1993 Grammy winner), and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" (1999 Grammy winner). He is also the founder of the Memphis-based Consortium MMT, a nonprofit organization seeking to develop the music industry in Memphis. Porter has over 1700 songwriter and composer credits for a range of artists, including Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Celine Dion, Otis Redding, Drake, ZZ Top, Tom Jones, Ted Nugent, Bonnie Raitt, Wu-Tang Clan, Eminem, Patsy Cline, Albert King and Eurythmics. Biography ...
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Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a session musician and record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. Hayes and Porter were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of writing scores of songs for themselves, the duo Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, and others. In 2002, Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. " Soul Man", written by Hayes and Porter and first performed by Sam & Dave, was recognized as one of the most influential songs of the past 50 years by the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was also honored by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, and by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as one of the Songs of the Century. During the late 1960s, Hayes also be ...
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William Joel
William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 12 pop and rock studio albums from 1971 to 1993 as well as one studio album of classical compositions in 2001. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as the seventh-best-selling recording artist and the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States, with over 160 million records sold worldwide. His 1985 compilation album, '' Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2'', is one of the best-selling albums in the United States. Born in The Bronx, Joel grew up on Long Island, where both places influenced his music. Growing up, he took piano lessons at his mother's insistence. After dropping out of high school to pursue a music career, Joel took part in two short-lived bands, The Hassles and Attila, bef ...
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The Hassles
The Hassles were a rock group in the 1960s, most notable for recording the first releases to feature Billy Joel. The group released two full-length albums (United Artists Records) and a number of singles. History The original line-up of the group consisted of vocalist John Dizek (September 25, 1948 – June 27, 2017), guitarist Richard McKenna, drummer Jon Small, and organist Harry Weber. In 1966 Weber was fired from the band due to excessive drug use (found dead a few years later on a railroad track) and was replaced by Howie Arthur Blauvelt and Billy Joel on bass and keyboards respectively. It is with this lineup that the band recorded their self-titled debut album in 1967. Blauvelt departed the band early in 1968 but returned later on in the year. Dizek departed the band in late 1968, at which point Joel took over on vocals. The band released their second album, ''Hour of the Wolf'', in 1969, before disbanding. Following the demise of The Hassles, Joel and Small formed the duo At ...
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Demo (music)
A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed format, such as cassette tape, compact disc, or digital audio files, and to thereby pass along those ideas to record labels, producers, or other artists. Musicians often use demos as quick sketches to share with bandmates or arrangers, or simply for personal reference during the songwriting process; in other cases, a songwriter might make a demo to send to artists in hopes of having the song professionally recorded, or a publisher may need a simple recording for publishing or copyright purposes. Background Demos are typically recorded on relatively crude equipment such as "boom box" cassette recorders, small four- or eight-track machines, or on personal computers with audio recording software. Songwriters' and publishers' demos are recorded ...
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Billboard 200
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Often, a recording act will be remembered by its " number ones", those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, and acquired its current name in March 1992. Its previous names include the ''Billboard'' Top LPs (1961–1972), ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), ''Billboard'' Top 200 Albums (1984–1985) and ''Billboard'' Top Pop Albums (1985–1992). The chart is based mostly on sales – both at retail and digital – of albums in the United States. The weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday (to coinc ...
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