<Tr> <Th> Producer (s) </Th> <Td> Phil Ramone </Td> </Tr> <P> "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" is a song from Billy Joel's 1977 album The Stranger . </P> <P> Although never released as a single, it has become one of Joel's most celebrated compositions among fans, appearing on most of his compilation albums and a live favourite . In an interview, Joel cites the second side of The Beatles' album Abbey Road as one of its primary musical influences . The song is effectively a medley of three distinct pieces fused into one: "Italian Restaurant" begins as a gentle, melodic piano ballad, depicting a scene of two old classmates reuniting in an Italian restaurant; this segues into a triumphant and uptempo jazz - influenced section featuring a clarinet, trombone, tuba and saxophone solo, followed by a rock and roll section (which Joel calls "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie"). At 7 minutes and 37 seconds, it is the longest of Joel's rock music studio cuts, only surpassed by live recordings and five tracks from Joel's 2001 classical album Fantasies & Delusions . </P> <P> The song has been highly acclaimed in retrospective reviews, with Scott Floman, music critic for Goldmine magazine, describing 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 ." </P>

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