For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to find a song that incorporates whistling. Alrighty then. How about Billy Joel’s “The Stranger”?

“The Stranger” was written and recorded by Billy Joel and was the title track from his 1977 album of the same name. “The Stranger” wasn’t released as a single in the U.S., but it became one of his most revered compositions. It was released as a single in Japan, where it became very popular and peaked at number 2, selling almost half a million copies. It also charted in Australia, New Zealand, and France. In Japan, it was the last single from the album, while in the U.S. and the UK, “She’s Always a Woman,” released the previous year, was the last single from the album.

This song is about how, when we think we know somebody, we often hardly know that person at all. “The Stranger” is the collective for the unknown things about people we know: “Although we share so many secrets, there are some we never tell.”

According to Joel, the song can also relate to how we don’t always know ourselves. He says that his halfhearted suicide attempt at age 21 (he tried to end his life by drinking furniture polish) was an inspiration for the song, as it revealed a dark side of his personality that wasn’t readily apparent.

“The Stranger” begins and ends with a quiet melody, played on piano and whistled by Joel with accompaniment from his band. Joel said that he pictured a solitary man walking down an empty street in the night in a trench coat, coat collar turned up, and disappearing into the fog. Then the sting of an electric guitar rips apart this image and Joel and his band launch into a jarring rocker.

In an interview with USA Today, Joel said, “After we recorded the song, I remember thinking, ‘it needs some sort of introduction. It needs a prelude or a theme, and then it should slam into the song.’ I played the theme on the piano to show Phil Ramone, the album’s producer, and whistled along with it, and I said, ‘What instrument do you think should do that?’ And Phil said, ‘You just did it.’ I heard it played back and went, ‘That’s kind of cool, I like that.’ It was really the theme to the album because it was born in the studio during the process, and it just kind of captured the mood.”

Here are the lyrics to “The Stranger.”

Well, we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out
And show ourselves when everyone has gone
Some are satin, some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of a stranger
But we'd love to try them on

Well, we all fall in love
But we disregard the danger
Though we share so many secrets
There are some we never tell
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger?
Did you ever let your lover
See the stranger in yourself?

Don't be afraid to try again
Everyone goes south every now and then, ooh
You've done it
Why can't someone else?
You should know by now
You've been there yourself

Once I used to believe
I was such a great romancer
Then I came home to a woman
That I could not recognize
When I pressed her for a reason
She refused to even answer
It was then I felt the stranger
Kick me right between the eyes

Well, we all fall in love
But we disregard the danger
Though we share so many secrets
There are some we never tell
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger?
Did you ever let your lover
See the stranger in yourself?

Don't be afraid to try again
Everyone goes south every now and then, ooh
You've done it
Why can't someone else
You should know by now
You've been there yourself

You may never understand
How the stranger is inspired
But he isn't always evil
And he is not always wrong
Though you drown in good intentions
You will never quench the fire
You'll give in to your desire
When the stranger comes along