More than 35 years after Billy Joel<\/strong><\/a> released \u201cAnd So It Goes,\u201d fans still say the heartbreaking ballad hits harder than almost anything else in his catalog. For many listeners, the song feels less like a breakup ballad and more like emotional devastation set to music.<\/p>\n Joel is known for many of his hits like \u201cUptown Girl,\u201d<\/a> \u201cPiano Man,\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s Always a Woman.\u201d However, many longtime fans say that \u201cAnd So It Goes\u201d is the song that hurts the most.<\/p>\n Released in 1989, \u201cAnd So It Goes\u201d showed a vulnerable side of the rock star that listeners don\u2019t hear in many of his other hits. Unlike many other dramatic breakup anthems, \u201cAnd So It Goes\u201d captures something quieter. Listeners hear the sadness of accepting that love is lost, even when part of you still wishes it had worked.<\/p>\n Joel told <\/a>Howard Stern <\/strong><\/a>in 2024 that \u201cAnd So It Goes\u201d came from a period when his \u201cheart was broken.\u201d He explained that he knew the lyrics had to be about heartbreak, noting, \u201ceven the chords have a dissonant note in them.\u201d<\/p>\n While Joel has never definitively confirmed the inspiration for the song, fans have long speculated it was inspired by his relationship with supermodel Elle Macpherson<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n The quiet, emotional resignation Joel sings about is part of why fans still find \u201cAnd So It Goes\u201d so devastating.<\/p>\n Billy Joel performs in Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.<\/span> Mirrorpix\/Newscom\/The Mega Agency<\/span><\/p>\n Several years ago, a fan shared in the Billy Joel<\/a> subreddit that they watched him perform the song during a concert at Madison Square Garden. They had never heard the song before, and wrote that they would never listen to it again.<\/p>\n \u201cListening to BJ sing that song is probably one of the greatest moments of my life,\u201d they shared. The fan continued, \u201cI cried (and I rarely cry while listening to music). I don\u2019t want to listen to that song again for fear of losing that experience,\u201d they added<\/a>.<\/p>\n One fan on Facebook<\/a> recalled, \u201cThis song came close to me when I was heartbroken and alone, locked in a dark room. Thank you, Billy.\u201d<\/p>\n A fan on Reddit<\/a> described the song as \u201canother song with this heavy emotional weight to it, the sort of sad resignation that just leaves you feeling \u2026 kinda empty inside.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t think of any other song by any other artist that evokes such emotion. This one gets me every time,\u201d another fan said of the song once<\/a>.<\/p>\n More than three decades later, \u201cAnd So It Goes\u201d still feels painfully personal to listeners who have lived through heartbreak themselves. For many fans, it is not just Joel\u2019s saddest song. It is the one song they return to that captures heartbreak the best.<\/p>\n This story Why Fans Still Love Billy Joel\u2019s Most Heartbreaking Ballad<\/a> first appeared on Closer Weekly<\/i><\/a>. Add Closer Weekly<\/i> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 35 years after Billy Joel released \u201cAnd So It Goes,\u201d fans still say the heartbreaking ballad hits harder than almost anything else in his catalog. For many listeners, the song feels less like a breakup ballad and more like emotional devastation set to music. Joel is known for many of his hits like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2416917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[309195,305662],"class_list":["post-2416916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-billy-joel","tag-howard-stern"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Why-Fans-Still-Love-Billy-Joels-Most-Heartbreaking-Ballad.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2416916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2416918,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416916\/revisions\/2416918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2416917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2416916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2416916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n