[4] According to Ramone, the urgency and sexiness of the trumpet part is enhanced by the ascending and descending line played on bass guitar beneath the solo.
"[6] Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine considers the melody of "Zanzibar" to be an homage to Steely Dan's Donald Fagen.
In later performances, Joel alters the lyrics about Pete Rose, reflecting his ban from baseball resulting from gambling allegations.
[9] This version does not fade out the second trumpet solo that ends the song, providing an extra minute and a half of Hubbard's playing.
[5] In January 2021, the song became popular on the short-form-video app TikTok after user @maxmith_ featured it alongside an original dance that became viral.