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"Honesty" was solely written by Billy Joel while production was handled by Phil Ramone. It is the second song from his sixth studio album "52nd Street". The song was also included on South Korean and Japanese edition of Joel's 1985 compilation Greatest Hits Volume 2 as one of the bonus tracks. The song wasn't included on any of Joel's US released compilation packages; however, it appears on the Dutch edition as well as the Japanese edition of Greatest Hits Volume 2, instead of "Don't Ask Me Why". David Spinozza plays the acoustic guitar in the song, Liberty DeVitto plays the drums and Robert Freedman the horn and string orchestration.
"Honesty" is a piano ballad with synthesizer embellishments. It opens with "sad and tender" piano chords. According to Ken Bielen in his book The Words and Music of Billy Joel, Liberty DeVitto's drums and cymbal crashes, remind listeners that "the track is a predecessor of the power ballads of the 1980s and 1990s". It talks about the inherent lack of honesty even in the closest of relationships. In the song Joel sings the lines "Honesty is such a lonely word". Joel further sings about wearing his heart on his sleeve in "Honesty". According to Chuck Klosterman of The New York Times, " implies that the only way you can tell that someone really cares about you is if they tell you you're bad." "Leningrad", a song from Joel's eleventh studio album Storm Front, has been compared to "Honesty". According to the sheet music published on the website Musicnotes.com by Faber Music, "Honesty" is a pop rock and classical rock song written in the key of B♭ major. The song is set in common time and performed in a slow tempo of 80 beats per minute. Joel's vocals range from the note of Bb3 to A4.
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