"Just the Way You Are" is a soft rock ballad written and composed by Billy Joel, who wrote both the music and the lyrics himself. He wrote it for his first wife, Elizabeth Weber. The original recording was produced by Phil Ramone, with orchestration by Patrick Williams, and was made in 1976 at Columbia. It appears on Joel's fifth studio album, The Stranger (1977), where it runs 4:47, and features a saxophone solo by Phil Woods. Released as the album's second single in November 1977, it was edited to 3:27.
The single reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart in January 1978, Joel's first US top 10 entry and first US gold single. It won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 1979 Grammy Awards and is considered a pop standard. Paul McCartney said it was the song he most wished he had written. Joel performed it on Saturday Night Live in February 1978. Later versions include Barry White's cover, which charted in 1978-79, and recordings by Diana Krall, Frank Sinatra, Cilla Black, Engelbert Humperdinck and Jessye Norman.
