When Joel started writing the song, it was titled "Levittown", after the Long Island town right next to Hicksville, where Joel had grown up. He had originally written a chord progression and lyrics for the song, but struggled for a topic for the song. Joel remembered reading about the decline of the steel industry in the Lehigh Valley, which includes the cities of both Bethlehem and Allentown. While the steel industry was based in Bethlehem with none of it in Allentown, Joel titled the song "Allentown" because it sounded better and was easier to find rhymes for. Although Joel started writing the song in the late 1970s, it was not finished until 1982. The booklet in the 2-CD set "Greatest Hits Volumes 1 and 2" lists the song as "copyrighted 1981" on page 17.