Billy Joel almost skipped putting the song “Just the Way You Are” on his album The Stranger—until Linda Ronstadt convinced him to keep it.
In a new interview with Rick Beato, Joel, 77, admitted that Ronstadt stopped him from scrapping the Grammy-winning love ballad when recording his megahit 1977 album.
“I didn’t even want to put it on the album because I thought it was too mushy,” Joel told Beato of “Just the Way You Are” during the July 2026 sitdown. “And then we were in the studio. I thought it was too soft, too mushy.”
“Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow are in the studio, and we played the song for them,” Joel continued. “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.'”
“It’s really, she talked me into it,” Joel revealed. “So, I have to thank Linda Ronstadt for that song.”
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“Just the Way You Are” featured a romantic piano medley, a Phil Woods saxophone solo, and lyrics about unconditional love.
After Ronstadt stopped by his studio, Joel realized that “Just the Way You Are” would appeal to his female fan base.
“[Ronstadt ] said, ‘You guys are crazy, you’ve gotta keep that on the album,'” Joel recalled in a 2008 interview with The Republican. “We said ‘Yeah? Well ok, I guess girls like that song, it’s a chick song.’”
Not only did Joel include “Just the Way You Are” on his album, but the song went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 amid a 27-week run on the music chart.
In response to the song, The Stranger became one of Joel’s biggest albums and was Columbia Records’ biggest-selling album from 1977 until 1985, per Joel’s official website. While the Phil Ramone-produced album included other hits such as “Movin’ Out” and “Only the Good Die Young,” “Just the Way You Are” was by far the biggest song and helped propel The Stranger to multi-platinum status.
And it’s lucky that Ronstadt stepped in. In The Republican interview, Joel revealed that The Stranger had been a do-or-die album for him.
“I found out after the fact that had The Stranger not been a successful selling album, they (Columbia Records) probably would have dropped me from the label,” he shared. “I don’t really know what’s going to be a big commercial hit. We almost left ‘Just The Way You Are’ off the album because we really didn’t like it that much.”
But Joel’s issues with the song continued. For starters, he wrote “Just the Way You Are” for his first wife, Elizabeth Weber. After they divorced in 1982, he grew tired of playing the song live and boycotted it onstage for years.
In an interview published by USA Today, Joel jokingly warned fans against using “Just the Way You Are” as their wedding song.
“Hey, look, I wrote that song for my first ex-wife. So what the hell do I know?” he cracked, before adding, “I’m aware that it’s been played a lot. And that it means a great deal to some people. But I’m able to see it both ways.”
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