Just the Way You Are

This was yet another song that Joel wrote about his first wife Elizabeth Small. He gave it to her as a gift for her birthday. The couple were married for 9 years until they finally ended it in a divorce in 1982. Not a stranger to pretty women he later married super model Christine Brinkley. Prior to its release, he performed this song on a show for Saturday Night Live 3 months in 1977.
Joel explained that the origins of the melody came from a dream that he only remembered a few weeks later while he was in a business meeting. He left the meeting in a hurry and wrote the entire set of lyrics in one go. His producer, Phil Ramone, suggested a drum pattern that he adopted into the song.
Until the release of this song in 1978 Joel’s biggest hit had been “Piano Man” which had reached the number 25 spot on the US charts. “Just the Way You Are” was his very first breakthrough into the UK charts and in fact won him a Grammy Award for Song of the Year while the entire album, “The Stranger” was given a Grammy for Record of the Year as well.
Joel admitted in an interview in 2008, 30 years after the songs initial release, that he was surprised to win the award saying that the song wasn’t even Rock ‘n Roll. He described the tune as more of a rhythm and blues style track saying it reminded him of Stevie Wonder’s work.
Interestingly enough he changed his mind about putting this song onto the album after he finished the recording. That is until Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow heard it and they persuaded him to include it. Joel says they were listening to it together and he called it a “chick song”.
This track was covered twice by prominent artists. First by Barry White whose version soared into the number twelve position on the UK charts. It was also covered in a duo between Frank Sinatra and Isaac Hayes who did an extended version with a long introduction. The song is no stranger to well known musicians, the original included the jazz player, Phil Woods on the saxophone.