Hello, and welcome to Hearing Double, where I compare and contrast two unrelated songs of the same name and decide which one does the song’s title the most justice!
I’m a strong believer in saving the best for last, so, naturally, I’ve saved my favorite titles for these last two weeks of Hearing Double.
As I near graduation, I’ve found myself reflecting on what I’ve learned during my time in college — not the kind of knowledge that I’ve gained from classes or professors per se, but the kind that I’ve learned through growing up and finding my own identity. The most important lesson I’ve learned to date is that the best version of myself is my authentic self.
It sounds corny. I know. We’ve all heard “be yourself” so often that it’s lost all meaning, but it really is important. So, without further ado, let’s dive further into this idea with “Just the Way You Are” by Billy Joel and Bruno Mars.
Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” was released in 1977 as part of his best-selling album, “The Stranger.” This song is his seventh most popular on Spotify with over 300 million streams.
“Just the Way You Are” fits perfectly into the piano bar vibe that Joel cultivates through his entire discography, especially in “The Stranger.” I mean, he is the “Piano Man” after all. The soft melody creates a romantic tone that would serve as a beautiful backdrop for a candlelight dinner or a slow dance.
The impression I get from the lyrics is the “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality. The narrator has loved this woman for this long, so why should she feel like she needs to change herself to suit his desires? She is already everything he needs, for better or for worse.
“We never could have come this far / I took the good times, I’ll take the bad times / I take you just the way you are.”
His love is unconditional. Being herself is all she needs to do to earn his love.
Though I appreciate the point he’s trying to make, and I still recognize this as a beautiful love ballad, I do think his argument isn’t without flaws:
“Don’t go trying some new fashion / Don’t change the color of your hair / You always have my unspoken passion / Although I might not seem to care”
The idea is that she shouldn’t change for him, but it seems like he is also discouraging her from making her own choices to change. Through my research, I discovered I’m not the only one who thought this.
In 2016, Joel clarified that he had no misogynistic intentions when writing the lyrics for this song. It wasn’t meant as a demand to stay the same so much as it was reassurance that she doesn’t need to change for his benefit.
Just a thought, though: maybe if he showed he cared more, then she wouldn’t feel so insecure? Or maybe these lyrics need to be taken with a grain of salt. There’s still a lot of love woven through every verse.
Between 1982 and the mid-2000s, live audiences were robbed of this beautiful song because Joel refused to play it following his divorce from the song’s muse, Elizabeth Weber. It hit too close to home for him to feel comfortable performing.
According to Far Out Magazine, Joel claimed,“Every time I wrote a song for a person I was in a relationship with, it didn’t last… it was kind of like the curse.” Well, Billy, at least you delivered one hell of a goodbye kiss.
Bruno Mars’ rendition of “Just the Way You Are,” released in 2010, largely outranks Joel’s version on Spotify with over two billion streams. Similarly to Joel’s version, it comes from his best-selling album, “Doo-Wops & Hooligans.”
There’s something thrilling about this song that I can’t exactly put into words. The drum beat that starts within the first 10 seconds immediately creates an environment of excitement and energy. It maintains a romantic feel without the slow tempo that’s seen in many love songs.
The most beautiful aspect of this song is how lyrically rich it is. The narrator romanticizes every little thing that makes this woman perfect in his eyes:
“Her lips, her lips / I could kiss them all day if she’d let me / Her laugh, her laugh / She hates, but I think it’s so sexy.”
He looks at her through rose-tinted glasses, his unconditional love making her insecurities invisible to him. He sees beauty in everything that she is and everything that she does. I’ve always loved the line: “And when you smile / The whole world stops and stares for a while.”
It’s not just the narrator who feels the way he does — she makes the world fall in love with her. He is merely sharing in the light that follows her.
Both songs are devastatingly beautiful, so it’s very difficult to decide who wins here. Jenna Outcalt, a sixth-semester student and News Editor for The Daily Campus, made a great point as I pondered who to choose:
“It’s one of Bruno Mars’ best… and not even in the top eight Joel songs for me,” she said.
I love Billy Joel, but this song is not his crowning achievement. It is, however, one of the greatest songs Mars has ever produced. So, this week, I’m looking not just at how the songs compare to each other, but also how they compare with the rest of the artist’s catalogue.
Given the song’s merit in the artist’s catalogue as well as the previously mentioned qualities, I have to go with Bruno Mars for this title fight. It’s simple, yet it’s one of the most beautiful pop songs of the 21st century. Perhaps most importantly, it sends the message that being your true selves opens you up to a world of love and acceptance.
Title Winner: Bruno Mars