Roy Bittan

Roy Bittan ( born July 2, 1949 in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York City ) is an American keyboardist, who was probably best known for his work in the E Street Band Bruce Springsteen. There Bittan plays (nicknamed "The Professor "), piano, organ, accordion and synthesizers.

Roy Bittan has appeared on several dozen music albums, not only with Springsteen, but also David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Tracy Chapman, Chicago, Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel, Meat Loaf, Stevie Nicks, Bob Seger, Patti Smith, Jim Steinman and Bonnie Tyler. He also played the keyboards on the 1982 demo recording of the piece Runaway, got through the Jon Bon Jovi a recording contract. Runaway appeared in the same version on the debut album of the band and became an international hit.

Career

Bruce Springsteen

Roy Bittan is since 23 August 1974 Member of the E Street Band and has worked with most previous albums. As this 1989 his work with the band hired provisionally, Bittan was the only member who worked on with Springsteen, both in the studio and on stage. In 1999, the band closed completely back together.

Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman

Roy Bittan played on Meat Loaf 's debut album Bat out of Hell (1977 ) almost all keyboard instruments. Jim Steinman was so convinced of Bittan since its Contribute to the 1975 album Born to Run by Springsteen that he realized several projects with him (including two more Meat Loaf albums, the solo album Bad For Good, for the Australian band Air Supply a the greatest success with Making Love Out of Nothing at All, a single by Barbra Streisand, the concept album original Sin by Pandora 's Box and many more).

Fire Inc and Pandora 's Box

In this " Wagnerian rock " formation ( as Steinman 's music style in reference to Richard Wagner himself calls it) Bittan played with Jim Steinman two songs for the soundtrack to the movie " Streets of Fire " one. However, this was not a great commercial success.

1989 Steinman formed a new " heavy rock " group called Pandora 's Box, and gathered in eight former members of Fire Inc.

Dire Straits

Bittan also seems to have had an important influence on the career of Dire Straits. The 1980 album Making Movies is considered by many as a breakthrough of the band, and Roy Bittans piano was an important contribution to this success. Mark Knopfler was the use of keyboards allegedly by his love for the song Because the Night by Patti Smith (composed by Bruce Springsteen ) affected - keyboard instruments had Roy Bittan played.

• Keyboardist
• American musician
• Born in 1949
• Man