There are few songwriters in the world with better resumes than Paul McCartney. During his career with the Beatles, Wings, and as a solo artist, McCartney has some of the biggest hits and greatest songs ever written.
During the fantastic HBO documentary, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, McCartney revealed that one of Joel’s songs from the album The Stranger was one McCartney wished he had written.
The Stranger was the album that thrust Joel into the stardom that would last for half a century. He had been slowly building a decent fan base with his earlier efforts, especially the classic song “The Piano Man,” but he hadn’t gained the superstar status he is known for today.
The Billy Joel song Paul McCartney wishes he wrote
This album has so many songs on it that are well-known today, including “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” “Vienna,” “Only the Good Die Young,” and “She’s Always a Woman.”
There was one other big song on The Stranger, and that was the one McCartney wished he’d written. He named it during the documentary.
The icon said, "When I first heard Billy, it was like ‘Oh, wait a minute. He’s good. Who’s this?' You know, like you do, your ears prick up. The song that really made me know that that was happening was ‘Just the Way You Are.’ And where I get asked, ‘Is there a song that you wish you’d written?’ And I always... that’s the one I always say.
It’s not surprising that this particular song caught the legend’s attention. It is a beautiful, melodic love song, written and performed with feeling and passion. It would be just the sort of tune one might have expected McCartney to pen.
The ironic thing about “Just the Way You Are” is that Billy Joel didn’t even want the song on the album. He admitted in the documentary that he thought it was “too mushy.”
Audiences loved the song. It peaked at no. 3 on the Billboard chart in Feb. 1978, and it won the Grammy for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1978. It remains a Billy Joel standard to this day.
McCartney certainly knows a good song when he hears one, and he loved “Just the Way You Are” by Billy Joel.