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

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
We lost touch long ago
You lost weight I did not know
You could ever look so good after
So much time.

I remember those days hanging out
At the village green
Engineer boots, leather jackets
And tight blue jeans
Drop a dime in the box play the
Song about New Orleans
Cold beer, hot lights
My sweet romantic teenage nights

Brenda and Eddie were the
Popular steadys
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.

Brenda and Eddy 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 you're much too lazy
Eddie could never afford to live that
Kind of life."
But there we were wavin' Brenda and
Eddie goodbye.

They got an apartment with deep
Pile carpet
And a couple of paintings from Sears
A big waterbed that they bought
With the bread
They had saved for a couple
Of years
They started to fight when the
Money got tight
And they just didn't count on
The tears.

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 can 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 the pieces
We always knew they would both
Find a way to get by
That's all I heard about
Brenda and Eddie
Can't tell you more than I
Told you already
And here we are wavin' Brenda
And Eddie goodbye.

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.



Lyrics submitted by kevin

Track duration: 07:37

"Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" as written by Billy Joel

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Scenes From An Italian Restaurant song meanings
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47 Comments

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  • +1
    Song Meaning:Billy remembers how Brenda and Eddie's relationship fell apart, how they peaked in high school and were now just trying to make ends meet.
    Billy and a friend from high school catch up on each other's lives in their old meeting place.
    There's no hidden meaning for the ongoing 'reds and whites' debate. It's just wine. The whole song is sort of sweet and reminiscent, an account of his high school experience, so I doubt he would mention drugs.
    That's all. Great song. One of his best.
    Flag scorpio641on July 09, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Wow, people really do hear what they want to hear and refuse to hear the truth. I am 100 percent, absolutely positive that he's saying "redS" and "whiteS" at the end. If you really can't hear it, get a good, clear copy of the song and listen to it with (good) headphones. If your subconscious desires were blocking it out before, you'll hear it then. The lyrics around it change as well. In the beginning of the song, the wine goes along with appetite. At the end of the song when the reference has changed to pills, the reds and whites go along with mood. This makes perfect sense as reds are downers, and whites are uppers, so which one you wanted to take would depend on your mood.

    The reason behind this is clear if you really listen to the song. It's about the rise and fall of a young couple's relationship and, hence, even their lives. What began as romance sank into failure and depression. How people see this as a happy, nostalgic song is beyond me. I suppose those folks think "The River" by Springsteen is a love song...
    Flag JimmyCarlBlackon May 20, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I listened to this album until it no longer had grooves. Back then you had to get up each time the ablum ended and set the needle back at the start. There wasn't a Saturday that I didn't lock myself in my bedroom through the afternoon as I listened to Joel. For me, this song was always a song of relaxation. I could picture two people lazily sitting across from each other at a table in a quaint neighborhood restaurant as they talked about good times over a bottle of wine. Joel's music was my escapism from the hell that was my family life. He's a talented musician whose music spans decades with many hits. He also put on a great concert.
    Flag SweetCheeks2on February 21, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I always envisioned Billy Joel sitting down to dinner with an old high school friend/flame. His date goes to the bathroom, and he then hears to separate stories at nearby tables (thus the two changes in musical theme). It basically edifies in him the sense that this restaurant was a place that was pivotal in the lives of many people.

    The last stanza would then be him hearing yet another table being asked about what they would like to drink.

    One of the most evocative and descriptive songs of all time.
    Flag Guitarearlon November 29, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:Ooooh so disappointed! Always thought that it was actually Brenda and Eddie meeting up in the Italian Restaurant, to reminisce about the past!
    Flag hellonewman1on August 10, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:one of my collge proffessors went to school with Brenda, Eddie, and Billy Joel. He confirmed that Brenda and Eddie were a real couple, however they got married in 75 and divorced in 76. But
    (Brenda and Eddie had had it already by the summer of '76
    From the high to the low to the end of the show
    For the rest of their lives)
    didn't flow with the song.
    Flag Thanosiedon July 17, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:When my wife and I originally starting dating, she probably realized I was a musician of sorts and a music lover, among a lot of other things. Maybe some she liked, maybe others she was kind of leery about. It wasn't like she didn't have musical tastes of her own, and what was interesting was how those tastes found thereself a common ground of sorts. Enter the Billy Joel boxed set she used to carry around... and this song. This song it was so funny because she would play it and then proceed to act out the whole thing. It was very dramatic. The song is very dramatic. Our lives were often very dramatic. I found the whole thing very endearing. Those were the days. My part in all of this was to flip the CD over to Captain Jack because that's where Billy Joel very interestingly utilizes the word 'materbate'.. and in juvenile fashion I would make the CD repeat that one line over and over again, endlessly.. with the windows down, in traffic. I have ultimate respect for Billy Joel. There really is no one quite that special and talented to the extreme level. That said, my musical taste, especially back then, was a little bit in a different area than a simple Billy Joel collection, per se. Captain Jack was definitely one of those curiousities were I just always had to kind of look at the thing askew. But, then again, most likely because of his enormous talent, and that experience I had back years ago with my wife to be, that that song completely grows on me. After all, if you listen to it, it is a very respectful good song in a really weird way. Same with this song, Scenes From an Italian Restaurant..LOL!
    Flag caucasianon August 21, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think the beginning of this song is Billy (or another narrator) sitting in a local Italian restaurant that is probably frequently attended by people the narrator's age. I think when Billy says "I'll meet you any time you want, in our Italian restaurant" he is telling this other person that he is dining with that he is there for her and will always come down to "[their] Italian restaurant" to talk about old times and help each other deal with the present. When Billy says "Do you remember those days hanging out at the village green?..." I think the two former high school classmates are remembering old times and reflecting upon old styles and pastimes that might not be so popular now adays. When Billy starts singing about "Brenda and Eddie" I think it is most likely that he is talking about two OTHER people named Brenda and Eddie who were very popular during high school. The rest of the song is pretty self explanatory about their lives and stories and what happened to them after high school. At the end of the song, Billy goes back to the "bottle of red; bottle of white" theme. This is bringing us back to the present and their conversation about the good old days. When he again says "I'll meet you anytime you want, in our Italian restaurant" he is telling the person he has reminisced with that he will meet with her any other time she wants to in this same restaurant because he can relate to her.
    Flag ChiTownIllini26on July 28, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I will admit, though,, throughout the song, he does exaggerate the plosives (D and T sounds) to the point of hissing ("whatever kind of mood you're in TSSSonight"), which does make it sound a little like "a bottle of reds, a bottle of whites." But I think that's just Billy Joel's odd enunciation, not a hidden message.
    Flag ProfessorKnowItAllon May 15, 2009   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:I'm pretty sure Billy Joel has never written a song better than this.
    Flag mozz71on March 12, 2009   Link

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