Born in the Bronx, New York, Joel was raised in Hicksville, New York. His father Howard was originally from Germany where his father (Billy Joel's grandfather) Karl Amson Joel had owned the fourth-largest mail order company in Germany before being dispossessed by the Nazis.
His mother, Rosalind Nyman, was born in England, to a Jewish family. His parents later divorced, and his father moved back to Vienna, Austria. His sister Judith Joel, and half-brother Alexander Joel is an acclaimed classical pianist and conductor in Europe, now living in New York