3 Billy Joel Songs That He Would Probably Rewrite if He Could

Like many great artists, Billy Joel tends to be a perfectionist with much of his music. Especially when it comes to some of his most beloved works, the Piano Man has critical things to say. Here are three songs Joel probably wishes he could rewrite, no matter how big they get. Personally, we wouldn’t change a thing!

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“We Didn’t Start The Fire”

It’s no secret that Billy Joel isn’t the biggest champion of this one. The songwriter even told Howard Stern that he thinks it’s probably “the worst musical thing” he’s ever written. The reason being, he wrote the words before he wrote the lyrics in “We Didn’t Start The Fire”, which he typically doesn’t do.

“I don’t hate the song, I just don’t think it’s very good musically,” he shared.

“Just The Way You Are”

Although “Just The Way You Are” earned Joel two Grammy awards and a Top 10 chart placement in the US, there’s a reason why he doesn’t play it live anymore.

Joel wrote the song for his first wife, Elizabeth Weber, whom he married in 1973 and divorced in 1982. Initially, Joel didn’t even want to record “Just The Way You Are” because it felt too much like a “chick song” to him.

In 1990, he told Rolling Stone that he often forgot the words while singing the song live because he was so bored. Not to mention, having to sing a love song about a marriage that didn’t last isn’t fun for anyone.

“Every time I wrote a song for a person I was in a relationship with, it didn’t last,” Joel said, as reported by Songfacts. “It was kind of like the curse. Here’s your song—we might as well say goodbye now.”

“When In Rome”

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Billy Joel cited “When In Rome” from his album Storm Front as not being his best work. He also mentioned “C’etait toi (You Were the One)” off of Glass House as another song he felt that way about.

“I’ve written some real stinkers I wish I could take back,” he explained. “Sometimes I’d get six or seven songs I thought were pretty damn good, then there’d be a couple of squeeze-outs at the end just to fill up the album. I realize now I shouldn’t have done that.”

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