Which Billy Joel song was his first U.S. Top 10 single?

Billy Joel’s first U.S. Top 10 single was “Just the Way You Are.”

The ballad appeared on The Stranger, Joel’s fifth studio album, which was released in 1977. Issued as the album’s second single in November 1977, it reached No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. That made it Joel’s first American Top 10 hit and also his first U.S. gold single.

The song was produced by Phil Ramone and features a prominent alto-saxophone solo by jazz musician Phil Woods. Joel initially had doubts about including the track on The Stranger, but it became one of the album’s defining songs and helped establish him as a major pop songwriter. It won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1979.

Listeners sometimes guess “Piano Man” because it is Joel’s signature song, but that 1973 single did not become his first U.S. Top 10 hit. “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” and “Only the Good Die Young” were also major Joel songs, yet “Just the Way You Are” reached the Top 10 first.