Billy Joel's first band, formed when he was a teenager, was The Echoes.
Joel joined the group at age 16, while he was growing up in Hicksville on Long Island. The Echoes specialized in covers of songs associated with the British Invasion, reflecting the enormous impact of the Beatles and other British groups on young American musicians in the mid-1960s. The band began recording in 1965, giving Joel some of his earliest studio experience as a keyboard player.
The group went through several name changes. In late 1965, The Echoes briefly became the Emeralds and then the Lost Souls. Joel remained connected with the band until 1967, when he left to join The Hassles, a Long Island group that had signed with United Artists Records.
The Echoes are easy to confuse with The Hassles or Attila, but they came earlier in Joel's story. The Hassles were his next major band, while Attila was the experimental duo Joel formed with Jon Small after leaving The Hassles. Those early groups helped Joel develop the performance and recording experience that preceded his solo career.