Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’ hits a billion streams; ex-wife recounts Billy story she ‘hesitated’ to put in new memoir

Billy Joel‘s signature song is the newest member of the Spotify Billions Club.

“Piano Man,” the title track from Billy’s 1973 breakthrough album, has hit 1 billion streams on the music streaming platform. While far from his biggest hit — it only reached #25 on the Hot 100 — it became Billy’s nickname, his signature song and a permanent fixture in his concert set list.

The only other Billy song to hit 1 billion streams on Spotify is “Uptown Girl,” which is also the title of the new memoir by Christie Brinkley, his wife from 1985 to 1994. The book explains that Christie filed for divorce due to Billy’s drinking problem, which she was afraid to reveal due to the negative publicity she felt it would attract.

“I loved him and I wanted to make it work,” she tells the Los Angeles Times. “I was 100% dedicated to Billy, but I never told anyone about our issues, not even my friends. It was very difficult in that way, but we had a child together and I was trying to protect the family.”

The Times article then notes that Billy’s issues “began to shade into psychosis.” At one point, Christie writes in the book how a drunken Billy ate spaghetti directly from a pan on the stove and then accused everyone in the house of eating his spaghetti and kicked them out of the house.

She tells the Los Angeles Times, “I hesitated to put that scene in the book. But at the same time, it demonstrates what I was up against.”

While it’s been reported that Billy also cheated on Christie, according to People, she writes in the book, “To this day, Billy continues to deny ever having had affairs, and I’ve always believed him.”