Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
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| “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Billy Joel | |||||
| Album | The Stranger | ||||
| Released | September 1977 | ||||
| Recorded | A & R Recording, Inc., New York City | ||||
| Genre | Jazz Rock |
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| Length | 7:37 | ||||
| Label | Columbia Records | ||||
| Writer | Billy Joel | ||||
| Producer | Phil Ramone | ||||
| The Stranger track listing | |||||
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"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" is a song from Billy Joel's 1977 album The Stranger.
Although never released as a single, it has become one of Joel's most celebrated compositions among fans, appearing on most of his compilation albums. The song is effectively a medley of three individual songs which are fused together. In an interview, Joel cites the second side of The Beatles album Abbey Road as one of the main influences behind it. The song starts with a gentle melodic piano ballad, which sets the scene of two lovers in an Italian restaurant, supposedly a restaurant in Levittown, NY named Domenico's (though Billy has expressed in interviews that it's not one specific restaurant), moving on to a triumphant and uptempo jazz-influenced piece in the middle, which then segues into a rock and roll section (which Joel refers to as "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie").
At 7:34, it is the longest of Joel's studio cuts.
In the Broadway production Movin' Out, the lyrics are changed slightly to have the Brenda and Eddie story take place in 1965 instead of 1975.
