"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. In an interview, Joel cites the second side of The Beatles album Abbey Road as one of its primary musical influences. The song is effectively a medley of three distinct pieces fused into one: "Italian Restaurant" begins as a gentle, melodic piano ballad, depicting a scene of two old classmates reuniting in an Italian restaurant; this segues into a triumphant and uptempo jazz-influenced section featuring a clarinet and saxophone solo, followed by a rock and roll finale (which Joel calls "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie").
On May 6, 1977, before the song's official release, Joel premiered it at Long Island University C.W. Post Campus. He dedicated the song to Christiano's restaurant, located in Syosset, New York.
At 7 minutes and 37 seconds, it is the longest of Joel's studio cuts.
The song has been highly acclaimed in retrospective reviews, with Scott Floman, music critic for Goldmine magazine, describing the song as "an epic multi-sectioned masterpiece which starts as a slow smoky ballad, builds up to a jaunty piano rocker with a New Orleans flavor that also shows off Joel’s knack for telling stories and creating rhymes, before finally returning to smoky ballad territory again."
After years of speculation about exactly which restaurant inspired the song, Joel stated in an interview included on The Stranger 30th anniversary edition DVD that the song was written about a restaurant located across from Carnegie Hall called Fontana di Trevi, which he frequented during a series of June 1977 concerts in Manhattan. The song's famous signature line: A bottle of white, a bottle of red, perhaps a bottle of rosé instead?" was actually spoken to him by a waiter at Fontana di Trevi while Joel ordered. He has further stated that the restaurant in the story has more than one real-life counterpart; however, Fontana di Trevi was on his mind while he was writing the song.
A slight lyrical change appears in the Broadway production Movin' Out (The Brenda-and-Eddy story takes place in 1965 instead of 1975.)
The song includes a number of mondegreens, as listed on the "Kiss This Guy" Archive of Misheard Lyrics.
Famous quotes containing the words scenes, italian and/or restaurant:
“One reason writers write is out of revenge. Life hurts; certain ideas and experiences hurt; one wants to clarify, to set out illuminations, to replay the old bad scenes and get the Treppenworte said—the words one didn’t have the strength or ripeness to say when those words were necessary for one’s dignity or survival.”
—Cynthia Ozick (b. 1928)
“Until recently the word fascist was considered shameful. Fortunately, that period has passed. In fact, there is now a reassessment of how much grandpa Benito did for Italy.”
—Alessandra Mussolini, Italian actor, politician, and medical student. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, p. 19 (February 17, 1992)
“A restaurant is a fantasy—a kind of living fantasy in which diners are the most important members of the cast.”
—Warner Leroy, U.S. restaurateur, founder of Maxwell’s Plum restaurant, New York City. New York Times (July 9, 1976)