Billy Joel. I hope most of you are familiar with this guy’s music. He rocked the charts for many o decades and we’ve all heard Piano Man a million times. Billy Joel is one of my all time favorite artists.
He has lots of great fast songs like All For Leyna, The Ballad of Billy the Kid, Movin’ Out, Allentown etc. Then, there’s bea
utiful songs like Summer Highland Falls, Vienna, And So It Goes, Lullabye and more. But amongst all these wonderful songs, I must choose. The song Scenes from an Italian Restaurant wins. Apparently, it’s based around an italian restaurant (Fontana di Trevi) across from Carnegie Hall (in NYC), where Billy would go take a break when he would be performing in Manhattan a lot. AND apparently one of his waiters actually said the first line of the song “Bottle of white, bottle of red, perhaps a bottle of rosé instead?”
It’s almost eight minutes long, letting us enjoy it for a longer-than-average song time! The beginning is smooth, balladey, switches into a sax solo (Mark Rivera plays sax for Billy and he has got soul), and then completely rocks out. The best part is the fast paced part. You can challenge yourself to learn all the fast words, enjoy those JAMMIN’ piano interludes (the best part), and hear about the story of Brenda and Eddie. They were the perfect couple in high school, but once money and real life caught up, they concluded that their lives would be better spent apart.
Still goin steady in the summer of 75…..
When Billy Joel came to the Bryce Jordan Center this past December, you know that I was right there, amazed at his talent. He barely even looked at the piano when he was playing intricate parts! That’s way too casual for me to comprehend. He’s such an entertainer (as his song, The Entertainer would tell you) because he was crackin’ jokes left and right. You could tell he’s been performing for years. What a guy. He threw the mike stand in the air! I was impressed. And his grand piano rotated in a circle, so that everyone could see all angles. He also played random band marches to be funny and I loved it.
<3 <3 Billy Joel is MY FAVORITE artist. It's hard to pick one song but you picked one of his best and I'm counting on the fact that you know every word of it. I was at the concert too it was amazing. I thought he was going to pass out during Piano Man but he did an amazing job, and I am sooo happy you mentioned Vienna in your post. Also I am impressed. I know and have listened to about 95% of his work and I know that you must have too because some of those songs you mentioned as your favorites are not his best known greatest hits. They should be. (especially Lullaby) If you have some time and haven't listened to it much, I recommend listening to his first album called Cold Spring Harbor. It is often forgotten but it is amazing and his voice is so young and pure in it and you can here some of his influences like the Beatles strongly in his music.