Brinkley writes in her memoir that it initially started out as a song for a "mystery girl" Joel had been having phone conversations with, but when his relationship with Brinkley began, he finished it in her honor. Their relationship was then forever immortalized in the hit song's iconic music video, in which Brinkley appears in.

Christie Brinkley says 'booze was the other woman' in her marriage to Billy Joel: 'He preferred to be with 'her' rather than with me.'