Rosenthal has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, and in addition to Rainbow and Joel, has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Enrique Iglesias, Robert Palmer, Steve Vai, Cyndi Lauper, Whitesnake, Little Steven, and Happy the Man.

Rosenthal's early influences included Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Ken Hensley, Chick Corea, Kit Watkins, and Tomita.

In 1985, he produced the debut album for Hammerhead, a Dutch band, which featured Ian Parry (Mono Pacific with Zak Starkey, Airrace with Jason Bonham) on vocals and Joe Franco (Twisted Sister, The Good Rats) on drums.

From 1986 to 1987, Rosenthal played keyboards for Cyndi Lauper on the True Colors world tour, and appeared in the music videos for "Change of Heart", "What's Goin' On", and "Boy Blue", plus the longform videos Live in Paris (which originally aired as an HBO special) and Live in Japan (which was recorded in 1991 when Rosenthal worked once more with Lauper).

From 1988 to 1989, Rosenthal played keyboards for Robert Palmer on the Heavy Nova tour (including one particular stretch of performing 56 concerts on 56 consecutive nights in 56 cities).

In 1992 Rosenthal assembled the virtuoso rock group Red Dawn (featuring Rainbow/Blue Öyster Cult/Billy Joel drummer Chuck Burgi and Rainbow/Alice Cooper/Ted Nugent bassist Greg Smith), having produced and written songs for the resulting 1993 album, Never Say Surrender.

[citation needed] Rosenthal appeared in Joel's music videos for "Hey Girl", "To Make You Feel My Love", and "All About Soul", as well as television appearances over the years including Saturday Night Live, The Grammy Awards, David Letterman, Rosie O'Donnell, VH-1 Storytellers, Ellen, Conan O'Brien, The Today Show, Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon.

[citation needed] He served as the Associate Music Supervisor (along with Stuart Malina) for all four productions of the Joel/Twyla Tharp Tony Award-winning Broadway show, Movin' Out, where he scored and arranged keyboard parts, programmed the synthesizers, and produced the classical playback tracks.

[citation needed] Rosenthal is working on correcting Joel's entire sheet music catalog,[9] and as of November 2022, the revised and now accurate sheet music for the albums Piano Man, Turnstiles, The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, The Nylon Curtain, An Innocent Man, Greatest Hits Volume I & II, Storm Front and River of Dreams have been completed and released by Hal Leonard.

[11] In 1997 Rosenthal played keyboards for Latin pop singer Enrique Iglesias on the Vivir world tour and appeared in his music video "Solo En Tí (Only You)".

[citation needed] In 2000 Rosenthal joined the American progressive rock band Happy the Man for their reunion, replacing long-time keyboardist Kit Watkins (who opted not to rejoin the band), and playing alongside original members Stanley Whitaker (guitar), Frank Wyatt (woodwinds, keyboards), and Rick Kennell (bass).

[citation needed] Rosenthal served as an advisory board member for the Recording Academy's Producers and Engineers Wing (2008–2009), where he collaborated on a committee of high-profile producers and engineers, including Roger Nichols, Chuck Ainlay, Charles Dye, Eric Schilling and Frank Filipetti, to create a reference document titled "Digital Audio Workstation Guidelines for Music Production".

Rosenthal's synth programming credits on Broadway include the aforementioned productions of Movin' Out (where he also wrote the synth book) and the 2008 Broadway production of A Tale of Two Cities, where he programmed three keyboard stations and created a score reduction for the keyboardists enabling the full orchestral score to be performed by a smaller ensemble that could fit in the theater's pit.

[11] He has also consulted on keyboard rig design and synthesizer programming for Chick Corea, Alicia Keys, Brad Cole (Phil Collins), Hardy Hemphill (Shania Twain) and Brocket Parsons (Lady Gaga).

Rosenthal received a NY Emmy award in 2022 in the category of Entertainment - Short Form Content (NYC Next's “New York State of Mind”) and received three Grammy Award nominations: Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1983 (Rainbow's "Anybody There" from the Bent Out of Shape LP), Best Rock Instrumental LP in 1990 (Steve Vai's Passion and Warfare), and Best Musical Show Album in 2003 (Movin' Out Original Broadway Cast Recording).

He won the Keyboard Magazine Readers Poll Winner for Best Hired Gun in 1993 and received Berklee College of Music's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1994.