# Why Billy Joel Almost Passed on Recording What Became His First Hit Single in 1977

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/why-billy-joel-almost-passed-on-recording-what-became-his-first-hit-single-in-1977/
- Published: 2026-11-13T17:30:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-13T18:40:35+00:00
- Original publisher: American Songwriter
- Original article: https://americansongwriter.com/why-billy-joel-almost-passed-on-recording-what-became-his-first-hit-single-in-1977/
- Topics: Americas, Entertainment, Music, World

## Key points

- Joel nearly left the song off *The Stranger*.
- It became his first Top 5 hit.
- He wrote it for his first wife, Elizabeth.

## Summary

Billy Joel nearly left “Just the Way You Are” off his 1977 album *The Stranger*, dismissing it with fellow musicians as a “gloppy ballad” and “a chick song”. Instead, it became his first major hit, reaching the US Top 5 and helping establish one of his best-known songs.

Joel wrote the song for his first wife, Elizabeth, and later said its message was that a partner need not change to please him, though she could change for herself. The couple separated in 1982; Joel joked that songs he wrote for partners seemed to bring a “curse” to those relationships. Paul McCartney later said it was the song he wished he had written, while Frank Sinatra recorded a version that Joel found amusingly similar to his own playful soundcheck rendition.

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