Billy Joel: High School Dropout

From a New York Times article on Billy Joel from June 26th, 1992:

Twenty-five years after he was supposed to have graduated from high school, Billy Joel received his diploma this week at Hicksville High School on Long Island.

The 43-year-old singer and songwriter didn't graduate with his class in 1967 because, as Richard Hogen, the school's principal explained yesterday, “he was missing one credit in English.”

And the reason for that missing credit was that while he was in high school, Billy Joel was working as a musician.  And the day of that crucial English exam, he overslept.

But rather attend summer school to get his diploma, he decided to focus on music.  As Billy said in one of his biographies, “I told them, ‘If I’m not going to Columbia University, I'm going to Columbia Records.  And you don't need a high school diploma over there.’”