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Scenes From An Italian Restaurant - Videos Page
(The Stranger) (1977) |
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Words and Music by Billy Joel
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, hmm hmm. 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 Oh we lost touch long ago You lost weight, I did not know You could ever look so nice after so much time Do you remember those days hanging out at the Village Green? Engineer boots, leather jackets and tight blue jeans Oh you drop a dime in the box play a song about New Orleans Cold beer, hot lights, My sweet romantic teenage nights Oh, oh, oh, oh… Brenda and Eddie were the popular steadies 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. Oh, oh, oh, oh… Brenda and Eddie 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 that you're much too lazy, and Eddie could never afford to live that kind of life." Oh, but there we were wavin' Brenda and Eddie goodbye. Oh, oh, oh Well they got an apartment with deep pile carpets And a couple of paintings from Sears A big waterbed that they bought with the bread They had saved for a couple of years But they started to fight when the money got tight And they just didn't count on the tears. Oh, oh yeah rock 'n roll Oh, oh, oh Well, 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 could 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 their pieces We always knew they would both find a way to get by Oh and that's all I heard about Brenda and Eddie Can't tell you more 'cause I've told you already And here we are wavin' Brenda and Eddie goodbye Oh, oh, oh 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. 
Christiano's restaurant was one of two Italian restaurants, the other is Fontana di Trevi near Carnegie Hall, which were the inspiration for the song.
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Studio and Live Versions
An official music video for "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" was released in 2021, forty-four years after the song was released on The Stranger. The video is animated and in the style of a graphic novel. It was released in part to coincide with the release of Billy Joel: The Vinyl Collection, Vol. I. A video about the making of the music video can be seen here.
A video for "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" that I made. The intro with wine glasses is from another fan video. I added photos and a couple other clips. © 2009-2010 One Final Serenade except as stated. All Rights Reserved. Words & Music by Billy Joel. "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" is © 1977 Sony Music Entertainment.
1977: This is the world premiere of "Scenes" from a concert at C.W. Post Campus in 1977, aired on WIOQ (audio only).
1977: Live at Nassau Coliseum (radio broadcast) (audio only).
1982: Live version from the concert video Live in Long Island.
1984: From the televised concert Live at Wembley Arena, including band introductions.
1986: From a concert in Philadelphia.
1987 (audio only): From Billy's concert in Moscow in 1987, later released on 2014's A Matter of Trust.
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1990: From the video Live at Yankee Stadium.
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1994: From the River of Dreams concert in Germany.
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1999/2000: From the Millennium Concert on New Year's Eve (televised)
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2006: Great live version from a televised concert in Tokyo, Japan.
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2008: From Live at Shea, the last concert held at Shea Stadium (DVD released in 2011).
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2013: This is a great live version of the song from the 2013 New Orleans Jazz Fest.
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2014: Members of The Billy Joel band (R. Javors, R. Cannata, L. Devitto) with David Clark and others, at the Long Island Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
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2015: Live at the Carrier Dome (Syracuse, NY) (audience shot)
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(NBC has since taken down the video) 2016: Billy and the band perform "Scenes" on The Tonight Show, from January 6, 2016. Billy and Jimmy Fallon also sang The Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden," and everyone sang an impromptu version of "The Longest Time" during the commercial break.
Videos - The Making of "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant"
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Billy discusses how "Scenes" was structurally similar to Side Two to The Beatles' album "Abbey Road." See 2:18 and 7:17. This is from a Master Class in 1994 at Princeton which was also on Disc 4 to The Complete Hits box set.
2001: Billy discusses how he composed "Scenes" at a Q&A session which was aired on A&E as "In His Own Words."
The Washington Post's Neely Tucker discusses and analyzes "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" as performed at Shea in 2008.
Similar to video above (right), but Billy first discusses "Stiletto."
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Billy briefly discusses and then sings "Scenes" on VH-1 Storytellers from 1997.
Billy discusses how he wrote "Scenes" in this 2008 interview excerpt.
2012: In this mini-concert at The Roxy in November 2012, Billy discusses how he wrote "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant."
From 2021, a video about the making of the new official video for "Scenes."
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Fan Videos
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Music video produced with zero budget in 1990 by students of the Universidad Anahuac and Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Nicely done.
This is a Peanuts version of "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" Very well done, worth watching.
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Music video by John D'Onofrio. A new generation of fans still appreciate this timeless song. [Update: Video has been removed from YouTube]
Michael Cavanagh's cover of "Scenes." Cavanagh was the singer and pianist for the Broadway musical "Movin' Out."
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