Billy Joel - Just The Way You Are

I just picked up the "Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel" CD and
noticed that "JTWUA" is about 8 seconds shorter than the 45. Can anyone
confirm this?

Chendagam, I can confirm that both the mono and stereo sides of my promo 45 have a listed time of (3:27) and an actual time of (3:28) - there was no long/short versions for this promo 45. My commercial 45 for it is under a number of heavy boxes right now, but I'm 99% sure it is the same length as my promo, so feel free to match it up against your CD's length. Torcan, we had a discussion on the Board a while back, featured on both the "Piano Man" and "Movin' Out" threads, that I believe will give you a good explanation as to why there probably was no long/short promo 45 for "Just The Way You Are." Just do a chat board search under "Billy Joel" and "Topic Subject", and select either of the two earlier song threads to access all of the relevant details.

There are three short versions of "Just the
Way You Are":

3:28 - The correct 45 length. It appears on
the 2-CD various artists compilation Pop
Music: The Modern Era 1976-1999 (Legacy,
J2K 65794).
3:35 - It fades 7 later than the actual 45.
This version appears on the original CD
releases of Greatest Hits Vols. 1 & 2
and on the various artists compilation Pop
Classics of the 70's (Columbia, CK 45047)
3:20 - It fades 8 seconds earlier than the
actual 45. This version appears on the import
Billy Joel compilation Piano Man: The Very
Best of Billy Joel.

Edited by David Pro

EdisonLite wrote: I didn't know there were 3 versions of the short version. The 3:20 version, I suppose, could be an instance where they faded 8 seconds early to fit the song on the CD. But it's a little odd that Billy's GH 1 & 2 (one of his best sellers) would have a single version that faded 8 seconds later than the single. Obviously, they didn't use the single tape. I'm guessing they weren't paying close enough attention when they decided they should go with the single version, but faded in the wrong spot.

So, the only single edits on the original GH 1 & 2 CD
which are identical to single masters are "Big Shot",
"My Life" and "Pressure". As it was discussed in
another thread, the 3:35 version of "Tell Her About
It" was unique to the original GH 1 & 2 CD and it
wasn't included in subsequent BJ compilations since
the LP and 45 versions of that song are the same
running 3:50.

David Pro wrote: EdisonLite wrote: I didn't know there were 3 versions of the short version. The 3:20 version, I suppose, could be an instance where they faded 8 seconds early to fit the song on the CD. But it's a little odd that Billy's GH 1 & 2 (one of his best sellers) would have a single version that faded 8 seconds later than the single. Obviously, they didn't use the single tape. I'm guessing they weren't paying close enough attention when they decided they should go with the single version, but faded in the wrong spot. So, the only single edits on the original GH 1 & 2 CD which are identical to single masters are "Big Shot", "My Life" and "Pressure". As it was discussed in another thread, the 3:35 version of "Tell Her About It" was unique to the original GH 1 & 2 CD and it wasn't included in subsequent BJ compilations since the LP and 45 versions of that song are the same running 3:50.

Isn't "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" the single version on
GH 1 & 2?