Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" is a song from Billy Joel's 1977 album The Stranger. It has been described as "a characteristic Joel observation on New York life." In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the 324th greatest song of all time. The song was also described as "a seven minute epic" by American Songwriter.

Although never released as a single, it became one of Joel's most celebrated compositions among fans and critics alike. It appears on most of his compilation albums and is a live favorite. In an interview, Joel cited the second side of The Beatles' album Abbey Road as one of its primary musical influences. At 7 minutes and 37 seconds, it is the longest of Joel's rock music studio cuts, only surpassed by live recordings and five tracks from Joel's 2001 classical album Fantasies & Delusions. When Joel first performed the song, at the C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University in New York state on May 6, 1977, he dedicated it to Christiano's restaurant (now closed) in the nearby hamlet of Syosset. However, in 2012 Joel admitted this "was like saying 'Yankees' when you're playing in New York," and that he referenced the local establishment merely to gain applause. Later, he stated that the track was inspired by a "couple of places": Fontana di Trevi on West 57th Street, opposite Carnegie Hall in New York city, and Benito Two (or possibly Il Cortile) on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, Manhattan.

A "careful and considerate juxtaposition of different musical idioms," the track is effectively a medley of three distinct pieces (actually fragments of unfinished songs). According to Joel, it was recorded as one composition in "about seven takes," with himself and the other musicians playing together live in the studio. It begins as a gentle, melodic piano ballad depicting, in the first person, a scene of two old classmates reuniting in an Italian restaurant. This segues into a triumphant and uptempo jazz influenced section as the classmates catch up with each other's lives and begin to reminisce. Clarinet, trombone, tuba and saxophone solos then lead into a rock and roll section (which Joel calls "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie"). This section tells a story in the third person about high school sweethearts who were an "it" couple, who marry young and quickly divorce. The song consists of 5 parts (Introduction, Transition and Dixieland Jazz, Piano Solo, The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie, Outro), each lasting a separate amount of time. The tempo then slows as the song transitions back to the style of the first section and the two part fondly, with one character remarking "I'll meet you anytime you want / At our Italian restaurant."

The song starts with a piano introduction in the style of a medium ballad (70 bpm). The first lines "A bottle of white, a bottle of red" are told in a first person and set up the scene of an Italian restaurant. Joel himself remarked that this is used as a framing story, with friends reminiscing on the good old days. The lines "I'll meet you anytime you want / In our Italian restaurant" ends this section and transitions to a saxophone solo played by Richie Cannata on a tenor saxophone. It is used as a transition piece between entering the restaurant and the discussion. A soprano saxophone melody is played over traditional Dixieland instrumentals such as tuba, clarinet, and trombone.

The piano solo is a fast paced piece used as a transition between the framing story of the Italian restaurant and their high school days. Joel uses alternating octaves in the bass and plays a descending melody in the right hand.