Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel song)
| Just the Way You Are | |
|---|---|
| Billy Joel | |
| publication | September 1977 (album) |
| length | 4:50 (album), 3:27 (single) |
| Genre (s) | Soft rock |
| Author (s) | Billy Joel |
| album | The Stranger |
Just the Way You Are (“Just the way you are”) is a soft rock ballad by the US singer-songwriter Billy Joel . Joel composed and wrote the lyrics for the song; The recording was produced by Phil Ramone . The song first appeared on the long-playing record The Stranger and was released as a single by Columbia Records . B-side was the song Get It Right the First Time, also written by Joel, in the uncut The Stranger LP version.
Emergence
The melody of Just the Way You Are occurred to him in a dream, says Joel; He had further musical ideas for this during a business meeting. He then wrote the text of the song about his then wife and manager Elizabeth Weber in two to three hours. After recording, Joel and the men in the studio were not convinced by the song. It was a chick song , a song for girls, was the general opinion. Only after Phoebe Snow and Linda Ronstadt had heard the song by chance and pleaded for it, it was decided to leave it on the album. Joel and Weber divorced in 1982, five years after recording the romantic love song.
text
With Just the Way You Are, Joel makes a declaration of love to the sung about : He loves her exactly as she is, with all her mistakes. He tells her not to “try to change to please me, because you have never let me down before” ( “Don't go changing to try and please me, you never let me down before” ). You don't need a new fashion or a new hair color, because - so the summary in the last repetition of the refrain -
“I said I love you and that is forever;
I promise that with all my heart.
I couldn't
love you any more: I love you exactly as you are.
I said I love you, and that's forever,
And this I promise from the heart.
I could not love you any better
I love you just the way you are. "
Chuck Klosterman calls the lyrics of the song a "musical love letter that tells everyone what they want to hear: You are not without flaws, but you are what I want."
music
The song contains a longer alto saxophone solo by Phil Woods .
Chart successes
In November 1977 the single was released on the Billboard Hot 100 . The piece became Joel's first top ten hit in the United States; highest ranking was position three. It reached number one in the adult contemporary charts. In January 1978, CBS released the single in the UK , which was catalog number CBS 5872 in Europe. Joel made his UK chart debut on February 11, 1978; Just the Way You Are stayed on the charts for nine weeks, reaching number 19. In 1986, the song was re-released as a double A-side with Joel's play She's Always a Woman with catalog number CBS A 6862 and was at number 53 for another week the UK charts. A re-release in the USA in August 1988 on CD together with the number one hit It's Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me did not hit the charts.
Awards
Just the Way You Are won two awards at the 1979 Grammy Awards : the single of the year award and the song of the year award . Joel later said:
“I was completely surprised that the song won a Grammy. It wasn't even rock 'n' roll , it was more like a well-played standard track with a bit of rhythm and blues in it. It reminded me of old Stevie Wonder recordings . "
The single received a gold record in the United States on March 6, 1978 for more than one million copies sold .
Cover versions
Just the Way You Are was supported by numerous other artists gecovert . The most successful version was released by Barry White in 1978. It also appeared on a long-playing record, White's The Man , and was released in December 1978 as the second single on the album. In the UK, it entered the charts before Christmas and stayed for twelve weeks; the highest position was twelfth. In the USA it reached position 102 on the charts.
Other versions sang and performed, including Frank Sinatra , Andy Williams , Diana Krall , Grover Washington, Jr. , Harry Connick, Jr. , Isaac Hayes , Kenny Rogers , Howard Keel and Richard Clayderman .
Web links
- [1] on Billy Joel's website
- Just the Way You Are on Allmusic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Billy Joel skips back 30 years , USA Today July 9, 2008, online version July 11, 2008 viewed November 26, 2010
- ↑ a b Chuck Klosterman, Sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs: a low culture manifesto ; Simon & Schuster, New York 2003, ISBN 0-7432-3600-9 , p. 53, online version at google books
- ↑ a b M.C. Strong: The Great Rock Discography , 3rd ed., Edinburgh / Ffm. 1996, ISBN 0-86241-604-3 , pp. 436f.
- ^ Joel Whitburn, Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001 , Record Research 2002, p. 127
- ↑ a b David Roberts (ed.): Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles and Albums , 19th ed., 2006, ISBN 1904994105 , p. 284
- ↑ David Roberts (ed.): Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles and Albums , 19th ed., 2006, ISBN 1904994105 , p. 599
- ↑ American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
