Raph_PH · CC BY 2.0

Joel taught himself to write songs that sounded simple and weren't, releasing twelve self-written studio albums between 1971 and 1993 that moved between pop, rock, and — on his final album, in 2001 — classical composition. Nicknamed the Piano Man after his 1973 song about a bar he'd once played in, he grew up taking piano lessons in Levittown, on Long Island, after his mother insisted on it. He has sold more than 160 million records, making him one of the best-selling solo artists in American history.