As with all great artists, Billy Joel’s has a fascinating process for composing his records. He prefers to create the music first, before moving on to the lyrics when he’s satisfied with the sounds he’s conceived.
However, Joel took a break from recording songs with his own lyrics for around 14 years. The resulting song was “All My Life”, written for the second anniversary of Joel and his wife at the time.
“All My Life” hit the number-one spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.