In his 2014 appearance on a Howard Stern town hall special, Joel explained that the original sheet music printed for this song was wrong, with an extra chord in the intro.This was Joel's first chart entry in the UK.It took me maybe two or three hours to write the lyrics." And I said, 'I have to go!' I got home and I ended up writing it all in one sitting, pretty much. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and going, 'This is a great idea for a song.' A couple of weeks later, I'm in a business meeting, and the dream reoccurs to me right at that moment because my mind had drifted off from hearing numbers and legal jargon. Joel expanded to USA Today: "I dreamt the melody, not the words.He added that the drum pattern was suggested by his producer at the time, Phil Ramone. On a Jblog for the Australian newspaper The Herald Sun, Joel said that he dreamt the melody and chord progression and wrote the lyrics over a few days after the dream recurred.This was the first single off The Stranger, which was Billy Joel's sixth album.This same setup can be heard on the Paul Simon song "Still Crazy After All These Years."
Joel played a Fender Rhodes electric piano on this track, using the instrument's phase shifter effect.The song was also covered by Frank Sinatra and Isaac Hayes, whose version is in 6/8 time with a long introductory rap. Barry White's cover version hit #12 in the UK in 1978.Phil Woods, who is a prominent jazz player, played the alto saxophone for this song.We were sitting around listening to it going naaah, that's a chick song."
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On Australian TV in 2006, Joel confirmed: "We almost didn't put it on an album. Ramone brought Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow into the recording studio to hear the song, and of course they loved it, which was good enough for Billy.
He credits his producer, Phil Ramone, with convincing him that it was a great song.