Just the Way You Are

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"Just the Way You Are" is a love song from Billy Joel's 1977 pop rock album, The Stranger. Written as a birthday gift to Joel's first wife Elizabeth Weber, this song demonstrates the trust on one side of a relationship while convincing the other is fine, "Just the way you are". After they divorced, when performing, Joel said he would imagine what he would eat for dinner or what he would do after the show. This is his first US Top 10 (reaching #3) and UK Top 20 single. It features an alto sax solo by jazz artist, Phil Woods, who replaced Richie Cannata (who played sax for most of the Stranger's songs) when the latter's style of playing was deemed unfit for the song. Guitarist Steve Khan, who played on most of the songs on The Stranger missed playing this one because he was on a trip, and had to be replaced. The Bossa Nova style of the song was strongly encouraged by producer Phil Ramone.

"Just the Way You Are" has been covered by several artists, including Diana Krall and Barry White. The song was programmed into the Yamaha PSS series of synthesizers, popular in the late 1980s, as a demonstration mode.

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