Billy Joel with, "Just The Way You Are", from his 1977 album, "The Stranger".

Recently, someone said to me that if I don't upload content, I will soon be forgotten. Well then, so be it - if I am forgotten, then I will be forgotten. What many of my friends don't know about me, is that I don't have time to make videos anymore. It is a time consuming process - VERY time consuming. To make matters worse, some information for those of my friends who don't know what is going on in my llife, I would like to tell you that I nearly lost my dear husband, Jon in mid-July, 2024. He spent two weeks in hospital after he was diagnosed with Acute Kidney Failure, plus a severe UTI plus Sepsis, plus Prostate problems. After the two weeks in the hospital, he was sent to a rehab facility where he had to undergo antibiotic treatment for two weeks. When he came home from that little indaba, he underwent a Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP) on th 19th September - a prodedure which to date has failed. I have now become his chief caregiver, which means that I nurse my husband 24/7 at home. I am suffering from severe Caregiver Exhaustion - Yes, Caregiver Exhaustion is a thing...I know...I have it. So please forgive me if I no longer make videos. I just don't have time to do this anymore. Apart from the fact - if you don't make videos regularly, the chances are you will forget how to use your video editor. This is also what has happened to me. My brain is mush - part of Caregiver Exhaustion. However, my husband, Jon asked me to make this video by Billy Joel for him, so I share with you a video that is not my best offering because I haven't used my editor for quite some time, But, having said that, I hope you will enjoy it. Dedicated to my darling husband, Jon. The picture of me, shown in the video, was taken at our civil wedding ceremony which was held in the Overland Courthouse in Missouri and was officiated by Judge Charles Billings on the 12th February, 2003. Our formal white wedding was held on a farm in Rolla, Missouri in September of that year for friends and family.

"Just the Way You Are" is a song by Billy Joel from his fifth studio album The Stranger (1977), released as the album's second single in early November 1977. It became both Joel's first US Top 10 and UK Top 20 single (reaching No. 3 and No. 19 respectively), as well as Joel's first Gold single in the US. The song also topped the Billboard Easy Listening Chart for the entire month of January 1978.

"Just the Way You Are" garnered two Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1979 and is considered a pop standard.

Background
Joel shared that the melody and chord progression for this song came to him while he was dreaming. In an interview on the Howard Stern Radio Show on November 16, 2010, Joel said that the inspiration for writing the name of the song and how it sounds in the chorus was directly taken from the last line in the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons song "Rag Doll", which incidentally was also a larger inspiration for Joel's later song "Uptown Girl".

"Just the Way You Are", which Joel had written for his first wife (and also his business manager at the time) Elizabeth Weber, was initially not liked by either Joel or his band, and Joel had originally decided against making the track a part of The Stranger, but at the request of both Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow (both were recording in other studios in the same building at the time), he agreed to put the song on the final mix. However, the album's producer, Phil Ramone, later contradicted Joel's claim, stating in an interview that they could not afford to exclude the song because Joel did not have that much material from which to choose for the album. The song also shares some similarities to "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc, due to the keyboard and background vocal tape loops Joel and Ramone used.

After Joel and Weber divorced in 1982, Joel rarely performed the song live after 1986 until the 2000s, and Joel has publicly stated that he disliked playing the song live in the wake of his divorce from Weber. He noted that during performances of the song around the time of his first divorce, his drummer Liberty DeVitto would jokingly parody the lyrics in the chorus as "She got the house. She got the car."

When "Just the Way You Are" was released as a single, it was shortened by over a minute. The differences are the removal of the second verse and an earlier fade. A live performance of the song was also used as a music video. On February 18, 1978, the song peaked at No. 3, and Joel performed a shorter version of the song as the musical guest that day on Saturday Night Live (along with "Only the Good Die Young"). The single version (fading 8 seconds later) was included in the first release of Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II, but the full album version was restored for the remastered release of that compilation.

The saxophone solo is played by Phil Woods, a well-known jazz performer and Grammy award winner. Woods' performance on the song exposed him to a wider audience and introduced his music to rock fans.

Reception
Cash Box said that "a slight influence of Stevie Wonder is evident in the melody and light Latin rhythm". Record World called it "a thoughtful ballad, very well produced, with a sax break that excels".

Michael Galluci of Ultimate Classic Rock described the song as "one of the most perfectly constructed songs in Joel's catalog".