Billy Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" is one of the best songs every written.
I just recently found out that Billy Joel grew up about five miles from where I now live. A lot of his references in songs relate to his Long Island upbringing (including the village green and parkway diner in this song).
Many of his songs contain references from places in Long Island.
His first album was titled 'Cold Spring Harbor', which is a town out on Long Island. He recorded a song called 'Zanzibar' which was a bar out on Long Island by the same name. His song 'Piano Man' is sort of a semi-autobiography about his own life, when he would play piano in a bar on Long Island. There is also another song of his, which I cannot recall the name of off hand, that references what was once a cafe/bar in East Hampton called The Grand Cafe.
