Songfacts®:

• After Billy Joel attempted suicide back in 1970 (by drinking furniture polish), it failed to kill him and he wrote the song "Tomorrow is Today" as the suicide note. Later on he was asked if he could write a song that could help prevent teenage suicide. Joel agreed, but the first recording concerned him because it had a dreary and depressing tone that he thought might give troubled teens the wrong message. As a result, he created a new version with bouncy, joyous beats and lyrics about personal forgiveness and optimism for life.
• During the song, Joel noticeably hesitates with one of the verse lines and laughs after it. He decided to keep this mistake in the recorded version because it seemed to be proof of his personal fallibility, as in the line "You probably don't want to hear advice from someone else - But I wouldn't be telling you if I hadn't been there myself." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Landon - Winchester, OH, for above 2
• The video, which was directed by Richard Friedman, opens with a kid about to throw himself off a bridge. Billy Joel then appears in some kind of guardian angel role and shows the young man what would happen if he went through with it and the effect it would have on his family. Angel Billy talks him down, and things quickly get better when he reconciles with his girlfriend.
  
  The video, like the song, contains many of the same missive you would find in any anti-suicide screed, but it's presented in a lighthearted way, which in many ways makes the message more powerful.