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Roy Bittan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roy Bittan (born July 2, 1949 in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York City) is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974. Bittan, nicknamed "The Professor", plays the piano, organ, accordion and synthesizers.
Bittan has played on several dozen albums, not only for Springsteen but also David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Tracy Chapman, Chicago, Catie Curtis, Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel, Meat Loaf, Stevie Nicks, Bob Seger, Patty Smyth, Jim Steinman, and Bonnie Tyler. Bittan also played keyboards on the breakthrough Bon Jovi single, "Runaway."
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Bittan is a long-time member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, and has performed on the majority of Springsteens albums, most notably Born To Run, Born In The U.S.A., and The Rising.
When Springsteen decided to break his cooperation with the E Street Band in 1989, Roy Bittan was the one member kept on, both in studio and on stage. Bittan then returned for the lengthly re-union tour in 1999.
Roy Bittan played piano near exclusively on Meat Loaf's seminal 1977 album Bat Out Of Hell. According to music folklore, composer Jim Steinman pursued Bittan for the album due to his love for Springsteen's early work, particularly on the 1975 album Born To Run. Since then, Bittan has regularly and near-exclusively collaborated with Steinman, appearing on two more Meat Loaf albums (most notably Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell), Steinman's solo album Bad for Good, an Air Supply single, a Barbra Streisand single, an album by Pandora's Box, and more.
Roy Bittan played with Fire Inc. that was a Wagnerian rock band that released two songs for the rock and roll film Streets of Fire in 1984. The two songs never had any real commercial success. In 1989 Jim Steinman put together another group called Pandora's Box in which he included eight of the members from Fire Inc.
Additionally, Roy Bittan seemed to have an important influence on Dire Straits career. Making Movies has been considered by many a breakthrough album for the band, and Roy Bittan's piano was an important ingredient to its success. Mark Knopfler's decision to have the keyboardist on the album's lineup was reportedly influenced by his affection for Because the Night, a keyboard-driven hit song cowritten by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith.
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Categories: Articles lacking sources from October 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Keyboardist stubs | 1949 births | Living people | American accordionists | American rock keyboardists | American organists | Pop organists | American rock pianists | American session musicians | People from Queens | The E Street Band members