It’s often easier to spot genius in others than in ourselves, and the story of how Billy Joel‘s “Just the Way You Are” almost didn’t get recorded is a perfect example.
The lilting ballad is now an easy-listening standard, but Joel wasn’t fond of it when he wrote it. In fact, he considered leaving it off his album The Stranger until Linda Ronstadt heard it and changed his mind.
‘Are you out of your mind?’
Joel shared the story in a recent interview with Rick Beato:
“The first really big hit I had was a song called ‘Just the Way You Are,’ which was a ballad,” Joel said. “I didn’t even want to put it on the album cuz I thought it was…too soft, too mushy. Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow were in the studio, and we played the song for them. I said, ‘I don’t like this song that much.’ Linda Ronstadt goes, ‘Are you out of your mind? That’s a hit record! You got to put that on the album. That’s a great song.’ She talked me into it. So, I have to thank Linda Ronstadt for that song.”
We all have to thank Linda Ronstadt. “Just the Way You Are” became one of Joel’s most beloved and top-performing hits. It’s also a near-perfect love song. What woman doesn’t want to be told that she doesn’t need to change herself in any way, that she is loved just as she is? Mercy, the lyrics alone are worth the Grammys it won for Song of the Year and Record of the Year in 1978.
It’s the song Paul McCartney said he wished he’d written
Joel really didn’t know the gem he had in his hands with that song. Not only did Linda Ronstadt love it, but Paul McCartney himself said he wished he had written it.
“When I first heard Billy, it was like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. He’s good. Who’s this?’” McCartney said in the HBO Max documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes. “You know, like you do, your ears prick up. The song that really made me know that that was happening was ‘Just the Way You Are.’ And where I get asked, ‘Is there a song that you wish you’d written?’ And I always … that’s the one I always say.”
Imagine Paul McCartney saying he wished he’d written a song you wrote. You can’t get a pop music compliment higher than that.
“That blew me away,” Joel told Beato. “I mean, that’s amazing. And he’s like the melodic king. He can do no wrong with melody.”
It almost sounds like a McCartney melody when you think about it. No wonder he wishes he’d written it.
Sorry you didn’t like it, Billy, because so many people do
Joel wrote the song for his first wife and business manager, Elizabeth Weber. Unfortunately, the couple divorced in 1982. Joel would later remark that his love songs seemed to curse his relationships, and he rarely played “Just the Way You Are” live after his early concerts.
However, many people have shared that they played the song at their weddings and had long, happy marriages. And praise for the song still shines nearly 50 years after it was written:
“A special love I had with someone…we broke up and he won me back by singing this song.”
“Still one of the most beautiful love songs ever written!”
“I mean, this is what every woman wants to hear. Thank you.”
“This track has aged better than a fine wine, absolute classic.”
“A masterpiece of a song. I’ve been married 37 years now and appreciate this song more than ever today.”
“Our wedding dance song from 1982 still chills me…all these 40 years of married bliss!”
You can watch Beato’s full interview with Billy Joel here:
