Roy Bittan is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 keyboardist

Keyboardist

A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...

, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

's E Street Band

E Street Band

The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...

, which he joined on August 23, 1974. Bittan, nicknamed The Professor, plays the piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

 and synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

s.

Bittan has played on several dozen albums, not only for Springsteen but also as a session musician

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

 primarily for notable singer-songwriters, and rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 and pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 artists which include David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

, Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....

, Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...

, Chicago

Chicago (band)

Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...

, Catie Curtis

Catie Curtis

Catie Curtis is an American singer-songwriter. Her music has been categorized in several genres, including pop, rock, alternative country, indie and folk. She has recorded 11 CDs. The most recent, Stretch Limousine On Fire, will be released in August 2011 on Compass Records.-Early life:Catie...

, Dire Straits

Dire Straits

Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...

, Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

, Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter (singer)

Ian Hunter Patterson is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer of the English rock band Mott the Hoople from its inception in 1969 to its dissolution in 1974, and he again fronted them at the time of their 2009 reunion. Hunter was a musician and songwriter before Mott The Hoople, and...

, Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf

Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...

, Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks

Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...

, Bob Seger

Bob Seger

Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...

, Celine Dion

Celine Dion

Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

, Patty Smyth

Patty Smyth

Patty Smyth is an American rock and roll musician. She first enjoyed mainstream success in 1982 as lead singer of the band Scandal and later scored a solo #2 hit with her song "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough"...

, Jim Steinman

Jim Steinman

James Richard "Jim" Steinman is an American composer, lyricist, and Grammy Award-winning record producer responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer...

, and Bonnie Tyler

Bonnie Tyler

Bonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, most notable for her hits in the 1970s and 1980s including "It's a Heartache", "Holding Out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".-Early life:...

.

Life and career

Bittan was born in Rockaway Beach, Queens

Rockaway Beach, Queens

Rockaway Beach is a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the South Shore of Long Island. The neighborhood is bounded by Arverne to the east and Rockaway Park to the west...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. He is a long-time member of Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

's E Street Band

E Street Band

The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...

, and has performed on the majority of Springsteen's albums, beginning with Born to Run

Born to Run

The album's release was accompanied by a $250,000 promotional campaign by Columbia directed at both consumers and the music industry, making good use of Landau's "I saw rock 'n' roll's future—and its name is Bruce Springsteen" quote. With much publicity, Born to Run vaulted into the top 10 in its...

in 1975. In Springsteen's band introductions, Bittan's "Professor" moniker was given, (albeit falsely) to his being the only group member with a high school diploma

High school diploma

A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...

. Bittan provided background vocals for most of the songs on Born to Run, along with Steven Van Zandt

Steven Van Zandt

Steven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...

. His voice is also featured slightly on the vocal weaving in "Out in the Street

Out in the Street

"Out in the Street" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band from the 1980 album The River. It was recorded at The Power Station in New York between March and May 1980, as one of the last songs recorded for the album...

". However, from the Born in the U.S.A. Tour

Born in the U.S.A. Tour

The Born in the U.S.A. Tour was the supporting concert tour of Bruce Springsteen's massively popular Born in the U.S.A. album. It was his longest and most successful tour to date. It featured a physically transformed Springsteen. After two years of bodybuilding, Springsteen had bulked up...

 on, his voice was no longer used. When Springsteen decided to break his connection with the E Street Band in 1989, Roy Bittan was the one member he retained, both in studio and on the "Other Band" Tour.

With the E Street Band, Bittan uses a Yamaha grand piano, preferring the bright sound to cut through the group's sound compared with other acoustic models. He has also been known to use Yamaha, Korg

Korg

is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...

 and Kurzweil keyboards as part of his live rig. His riffs and melody lines have become signatures for the Springsteen sound. Roy is an avid accordion player, which was a skill he seldom used with the E Street Band until playing "American Land" as the closing number on the 2007-2008 Magic Tour

Magic Tour (Bruce Springsteen)

The Magic Tour was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 concert tour of North America and Western Europe.The tour began October 2, 2007, in Hartford, Connecticut, and concluded August 30, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...

 and then later taking the instrument's part on "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

"4th of July, Asbury Park ", often known just as "Sandy", is a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen, originally appearing as the second song on his album The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle....

" after the passing of bandmate Danny Federici

Danny Federici

Daniel Paul "Danny" Federici was an American musician, best known as the longtime organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.- Career :...

.

Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman

Bittan played piano nearly exclusively on Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf

Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...

's 1977 hit album Bat out of Hell

Bat out of Hell

Bat Out of Hell is the second album by American rock musician Meat Loaf, and his first collaboration with composer Jim Steinman, released in October 1977 on Cleveland International/Epic Records #PE-34974. Selling approximately 200,000 copies per year as of 2010, it is the fifth best-selling album...

. Composer Jim Steinman

Jim Steinman

James Richard "Jim" Steinman is an American composer, lyricist, and Grammy Award-winning record producer responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer...

 wanted Bittan for the album due to his love for Springsteen's early work, particularly on Born to Run. Since then, Bittan has regularly and nearly exclusively collaborated with Steinman, appearing on three more Meat Loaf albums (most notably Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell

Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell

Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell is a 1993 studio album by Meat Loaf and was written and produced by Jim Steinman. It was released sixteen years after Meat Loaf's second solo album Bat Out of Hell. It reached #1 in the US, the UK and Australia...

), Steinman's solo album Bad for Good

Bad for Good

On the original vinyl release, "The Storm" and "Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through" were the A-side and B-side, respectively, of a 33-rpm 7" single, enclosed with the album. These tracks, according to Steinman's concept, are supposed to be the prelude and epilogue, respectively, of the album. The...

, an Air Supply

Air Supply

Air Supply is an Australian soft rock duo, consisting of Graham Russell as guitarist and singer-songwriter and Russell Hitchcock as lead vocalist. They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight Top Ten hits in the United States, in the early 1980s...

 single, a Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

 single, an album by Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box (band)

Pandora's Box was a female pop music group assembled by Jim Steinman in the 1980s. Some of its members had previously worked with Steinman, in the ensemble Fire Inc., on the album Bat Out of Hell, on live shows and on other studio recordings...

, Total Eclipse of the Heart

Total Eclipse of the Heart

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a song written and produced by Jim Steinman and recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for her fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed of Night...

, and others.

Fire Inc.

Bittan played with Fire Inc, a Wagnerian rock

Wagnerian rock

Wagnerian rock is a musical term which likely originated with Jim Steinman, who is quoted as using the phrase in the liner notes of the Meat Loaf album, Rock 'N Roll Hero. The phrase is assumed to be inspired by Steinman's love for the music of Richard Wagner and Phil Spector...

 band that released two songs for the rock and roll film Streets of Fire

Streets of Fire

Streets of Fire is a 1984 film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. It was described in previews, trailers, and posters as "A Rock & Roll Fable." It is an unusual mix of musical, action, drama, and comedy with elements both of retro-1950s and 1980s...

in 1984. The two songs never had any real commercial success. In 1989 Jim Steinman put together another group called Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box (band)

Pandora's Box was a female pop music group assembled by Jim Steinman in the 1980s. Some of its members had previously worked with Steinman, in the ensemble Fire Inc., on the album Bat Out of Hell, on live shows and on other studio recordings...

 in which he included eight of the members from Fire Inc.

Dire Straits

Bittan played on the Dire Straits

Dire Straits

Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...

 album Making Movies

Making Movies

Making Movies is the third album by English rock band Dire Straits, released in 1980.- History :The title of the album comes from a line in the song "Skateaway" and the unreleased song "Making Movies". Rolling Stone ranked the album #52 in their survey of the "100 Best Albums of the 80s"...

. Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

's decision to have the keyboardist on the album's lineup was reportedly influenced by his affection for "Because the Night

Because the Night

"Because the Night" is a song by the Patti Smith Group, written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith which was released as a single in 1978, taken from Smith's album Easter. The song was a hit, rising to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and helping propel sales of Easter to mainstream success –...

", a keyboard-driven hit song cowritten by Springsteen and Patti Smith

Patti Smith

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....

.

Peter Gabriel

Bittan played on the 1978 second solo album from Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

, appearing on several tracks including "On the Air", "Mother of Violence", "D.I.Y." and "White Shadow".

David Bowie

Bittan played on two David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 albums, Station to Station

Station to Station

Station to Station is the tenth studio album by English musician David Bowie, released by RCA Records in 1976. Commonly regarded as one of his most significant works, Station to Station is also notable as the vehicle for Bowie's last great 'character', The Thin White Duke...

(1976) and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Scary Monsters is an album by David Bowie, released in September 1980 by RCA Records. It was Bowie's final studio album for the label and his first following the so-called Berlin Trilogy of Low, "Heroes" and Lodger . Though considered significant in artistic terms, the trilogy had proved less...

(1980).

Stevie Nicks

Bittan played an important part in the sound Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks

Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...

 created for her solo debut away from Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...

, 1981's Bella Donna

Bella Donna (album)

-The Band:* Stevie Nicks – vocals* Lori Perry – backup vocals* Sharon Celani – backup vocals*Tom Petty – vocals, guitar *Michael Campbell – guitar *Don Felder – guitar *Benmont Tench – organ, piano...

. About the time that the album reached number one in the United States, Bittan joined as a sideman

Sideman

A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...

 on a short tour with Nicks along with some of the other top musicians of the day: Benmont Tench

Benmont Tench

Benjamin Montmorency Tench, III is an American keyboardist best known as a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.-Early years:...

 on organ, bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

ist Bob Glaub

Bob Glaub

Bob Glaub is an American bass player and session musician. He's played with such artists and bands as Journey, Jackson Browne, Bee Gees, Eric Carmen, Linda Ronstadt, Leo Sayer, Warren Zevon, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, Bonnie Raitt and many others....

, Waddy Wachtel

Waddy Wachtel

Robert "Waddy" Wachtel is an American musician, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work...

 on guitar, Russ Kunkel

Russ Kunkel

Russell Kunkel , also known as Russ Kunkel, is an American drummer and producer who has worked as a session musician with a number of well-known artists.Kunkel was born in Pittsburgh, PA...

 on drums, and Bobbeye Hall on percussion. Bittan also played on Nicks' second solo album The Wild Heart

The Wild Heart (album)

The Wild Heart is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks. Released on June 10, 1983, a year after Fleetwood Mac's successful #1 album, Mirage, it reached #5 on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts and achieved platinum status on September 12th, 1983...

and has continued to play with her sporadically.

Shwayze

Bittan played piano on the track entitled "Heart And Soul" on Shwayze

Shwayze

Aaron Smith , better known by his stage name Shwayze, is an American rapper.Born and raised in Malibu, California, Shwayze worked at a local Starbucks coffee shop until he met Whitestarr frontman Cisco Adler at a nightclub. One night Shwayze jumped on stage during Whitestarr's performance and...

 and Cisco Adler

Cisco Adler

Cisco Sam Adler is an American musician and former frontman for the band Whitestarr.Adler is the son of music producer and director Lou Adler and Phyllis Somer. He is also a relative of actress Daryl Hannah through his father's marriage to her sister Page Hannah.In 2008 Adler left Whitestarr, and...

's second album, Let It Beat

Let It Beat

-Shwayze:*Cisco Adler - lead vocals, Guitar, Piano*Shwayze - lead vocals-Additional musicians:*Mark Smidt - Trumpet, Trombone, Baritone Sax, Acoustic Guitar, Organ, Bass Guitar, Keyboards, Electric Guitar, Trumpets Horn Arrangement,...

.