Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
[6][7] In an interview, Joel cited the second side of The Beatles' album Abbey Road as one of its primary musical influences.
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.
[13][14] A "careful and considerate juxtaposition of different musical idioms,"[15] the track is effectively a medley of three distinct pieces (actually fragments of unfinished songs[16]).
[17] It begins as a gentle, melodic piano ballad depicting, in the first person, a scene of two old classmates reuniting in an Italian restaurant.
Clarinet, trombone, tuba and saxophone solos then lead into a rock and roll section (which Joel calls "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie").
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 piano solo is a fast-paced piece used as a transition between the framing story of the Italian restaurant and their high school days.
Initially, their relationship seemed promising, proving to be popular during their years in high school ("Brenda and Eddie were... king and queen of the prom") and decided to arrange a wedding (even though peers called the idea ridiculous).
[20] According to one analysis, "Brenda and Eddie themselves are not very important, but they give the author an opportunity to reflect on various stages of his life, to examine his present by revisiting his past.
Scott Floman, music critic for Goldmine magazine, described 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.
