Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Billy Joel
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A bottle of white, a bottle of red Perhaps a bottle of rose instead We'll get a table near the street In our old familiar place You and I,face to face A bottle of red, a bottle of white It all depends upon your appetite I'll meet you any time you want In our Italian Restaurant. Things are okay with me these days Got a good job, got a good office Got a new wife, got a new life And the family's fine We lost touch long ago You lost weight I did not know You could ever look so good after So much time. I remember those days hanging out At the village green Engineer boots, leather jackets And tight blue jeans Drop a dime in the box play the Song about New Orleans Cold beer, hot lights My sweet romantic teenage nights Brenda and Eddie were the Popular steadys And the king and the queen Of the prom Riding around with the car top Down and the radio on. Nobody looked any finer Or was more of a hit at the Parkway Diner We never knew we could want more Than that out of life Surely Brenda and Eddie would Always know how to survive. Brenda and Eddy were still going Steady in the summer of '75 When they decided the marriage would Be at the end of July Everyone said they were crazy "Brenda you know you're much too lazy Eddie could never afford to live that Kind of life." But there we were wavin' Brenda and Eddie goodbye. They got an apartment with deep Pile carpet And a couple of paintings from Sears A big waterbed that they bought With the bread They had saved for a couple Of years They started to fight when the Money got tight And they just didn't count on The tears. They lived for a while in a Very nice style But it's always the same in the end They got a divorce as a matter Of course And they parted the closest Of friends Then the king and the queen went Back to the green But you can never go back There again. Brenda and Eddie had had it Already by the summer of '75 From the high to the low to The end of the show For the rest of their lives They couldn't go back to The greasers The best they could do was Pick up the pieces We always knew they would both Find a way to get by That's all I heard about Brenda and Eddie Can't tell you more than I Told you already And here we are wavin' Brenda And Eddie goodbye. A bottle of red, a bottle of white Whatever kind of mood you're in tonight I'll meet you anytime you want In our Italian Restaurant.
Watch: New Singing Lesson Videos Can Make Anyone A Great Singer
Written by: Billy Joel
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
10 facts about this song
Artist"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, who has been making music since the 1960s.
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AlbumThe song appears on Joel’s 1977 album "The Stranger," which is considered to be Joel's breakthrough album and ranks as one of his most successful, going ten times platinum.
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Song Length"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" stands out because of its length. It is over seven minutes long, making it one of the longest songs in Billy Joel's discography.
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Song StructureInstead of following a traditional verse-chorus structure, the song is structured as a suite, composed of three distinct sections with different melodies and tempos.
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Musical StyleReferred to as a mini-rock opera by many, the song switches between jazz, ragtime, and rock styles.
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ConceptIt is framed as a conversation in an Italian restaurant and tells the story of Brenda and Eddie, a fictional Long Island couple who divorce after trying to maintain their high school-era relationship into adulthood.
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Critical ReactionThe song is considered a fan favorite and has been praised for its narrative structure, originality, and musical maturity.
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Live PerformancesBilly Joel has confirmed that he always tries to include the song in his sets due to its popularity with fans, even though its length and complexity make it challenging to perform live.
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Song Influence"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" has greatly influenced other artists, particularly among those in the rock and pop genres. It's often compared to Billy Joel's own piano ballad stylings and to the early work of Elton John.
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Song LocationThe song's title was inspired by a real Italian restaurant, Christiano’s, in Syosset, New York, where Joel used to dine. However, Joel could not remember the name of the restaurant, so he named the song "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant".
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Citation
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"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant Lyrics." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 4 Dec. 2023. <https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/180692/Billy+Joel/Scenes+from+an+Italian+Restaurant>.
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