“Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” by Billy Joel

"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" sits deep in Billy Joel's 1977 album The Stranger, and at seven minutes and 37 seconds it's the longest rock cut he ever put on a studio record. Phil Ramone produced it, and Joel wrote words and music alike, piling one section on top of the next like courses at a long, loud dinner. He has named the second side of the Beatles' Abbey Road as a chief model, and the debt shows in the way the song swaps moods and tempos without ever stopping for breath.

The band carries it. Joel's piano sets the table, Dominic Cortese's accordion and Richie Cannata's clarinet bring the old-neighborhood flavor, and then Cannata's saxophone, Liberty DeVitto's drums and Doug Stegmeyer's bass kick the whole thing into a full-tilt rock stomp before it winds back down. It's a New York street scene of the kind Joel does best, sly and sentimental at once.

He first played it live on May 6, 1977, at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, and dedicated it to Christiano's, a restaurant in nearby Syosset. It never came out as a single, yet it became one of his most loved songs with fans and critics, turns up on most of his compilations and has stayed a concert favorite. Rolling Stone placed it 324th on its 2021 list of the greatest songs of all time.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.