Only the Good Die Young

"Only the Good Die Young" was the third of the four US singles from The Stranger, released in 1978 and peaking at number 24. The narrator is a young man trying to persuade a Catholic girl to sleep with him. Joel said it was inspired by a high school crush, and that he knew he was hooked on music when he saw her looking at him while he played with his band the Echoes. Some religious groups called it anti-Catholic and pressed radio stations to drop it. Joel said the point of the song was pro-lust, not anti-Catholic, and that once it was banned, the album started shooting up the charts. In 2008 he noted what critics missed: the boy gets nowhere.

Joel wrote it while opening for the Beach Boys in Knoxville, Tennessee, first as a slower song close to reggae, with a Jamaican accent. DeVitto objected, saying Joel had been no closer to Jamaica than the Long Island Rail Road. Ramone suggested playing the track straight in four while DeVitto played a shuffle, and Joel liked the result. Hugh McCracken, a session guitarist Ramone brought in, plays on it. The reggae demo is on the 2005 box set My Lives.

Billboard counted it among Joel's strongest and catchiest songs, and Cash Box praised the rollicking, handclapping beat and the raspy sax solo. Joel played it on Saturday Night Live on 18 February 1978, and it was an encore at Wembley Stadium in 2016.