She's Always a Woman

"She's Always a Woman" reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 18 on the Cash Box Top 100 in 1978. Joel wrote it for his then-wife, Elizabeth Weber, who had taken over management of his career.

Joel said Gordon Lightfoot's mellow acoustic ballads were an influence, and he tried to copy the fingerpicking of folk guitar by playing arpeggiated triads with his right hand. He said the production was kept minimal on purpose, to capture the tune as a folk song. It is in 6/8 and in the key of E-flat major, and it uses mellotron flutes, the only time he used the instrument in his career.

Billboard praised its subtle orchestration and sophisticated melody and compared it to ballads by Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. Cash Box said the tune flowed sweetly and praised Joel's singing. In 1986 it was released in the UK as a double A-side with Just the Way You Are and reached number 53. Fyfe Dangerfield of Guillemots recorded a version in 2010 for a John Lewis department store advertisement. It peaked at number 7 on the UK chart, and the Joel original re-entered at number 29.