Billy Joel revealed in an interview with Rick Beato that he almost left "Just the Way You Are" off his 1977 album The Stranger, believing the soft ballad was "too mushy." It was singer Linda Ronstadt, listening in the studio alongside Phoebe Snow, who convinced him the song was a hit and persuaded him to keep it on the record, a decision Joel now credits her for entirely.

The song went on to become Joel's first US Top 10 hit and first UK Top 20 single, as well as his first American Gold single. It won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammys, marking the first of four Grammy wins in Joel's career. Paul McCartney has also praised the track, saying in the HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes that it is the song he most wishes he had written himself, a compliment Joel said "blew me away."