What was Billy Joel's first Top 40 hit?

"Piano Man" is the first single released by Billy Joel. It was released on November 2, 1973, and has been included on several subsequent albums. Joel's first major hit and his signature song, the song peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 1974. In 2016, the Library of Congress selected "Piano Man" for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its "cultural, historic, or artistic significance."

"Piano Man" is a fictionalized retelling of Joel's own experience as a piano-lounge singer for six months in 1972–73 at the now defunct Executive Room bar in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles. In a talk with The Actors Studio, Joel said that he had to get away from New York due to a conflict with his then recording company and hence lived in Los Angeles for three years with his first wife. Since he needed work to pay the bills, but could not use his better known name, he worked at the Executive Room bar as a piano player using the name "Bill Martin" (Joel's full name is William Martin Joel).

The single broke into the Billboard Top 40 in April 1974, but the single fell considerably short of the top 10 in the US (Billboard#25). "Piano Man" fared better in Canada, where it peaked at #10, and established Joel as a star there. (From 1975–80, every one of Joel's charting singles peaked higher in Canada than in the US, except for songs that reached #1 in both markets).