Brenda and Eddie come to life in new video for Billy Joel's 'Scenes from an Italian Restaurant'

Brenda and Eddie are coming to life in a music video for "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," Billy Joel’s 1977 ode to high school romance and grown-up nostalgia.

The animated short, which premiered Thursday morning on Joel’s YouTube channel, marks the first official music video for a track that appeared nearly 45 years ago on Joel’s 1977 album "The Stranger." Clocking in at 7 minutes, 37 seconds, "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" was never released as a single but became a favorite among Joel’s fans and a staple of classic-rock radio.

Using a combination of comic-book panels, animation and 3D drawings, the video begins with a man and woman meeting over "a bottle of white, a bottle of red" in a New York City restaurant called Cacciatore’s. That scene gives way to flashbacks to what might be the 1950s or ’60s, with a younger version of the couple — he in a leather jacket, she in a sweater and capri pants — riding through the suburbs in a Cadillac-style convertible with tail fins. Marriage follows, then arguments and a divorce; the video closes once more with the couple at their favorite "table near the street."

The video for one of Joel’s most sentimental and beloved songs is sure to be closely scanned for hidden meanings, particularly by his fellow Long Islanders. The name Cacciatore’s, for instance, comes from another song on the same album, "Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)," about a young man who "works at Mr. Cacciatore’s down on Sullivan Street." It’s often said to be a reference to the Napoli Restaurant in Manhattan, now closed, but even that might not the be the inspiration for "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." When Joel played that song at Brookville's C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in May 1977 — said to be the first-ever public performance — he dedicated it to Christiano’s, a since-closed eatery in Syosset.

The video also shows a brief clip of a band playing at a spot called Zanzibar, surely named for the track that appears on Joel’s 1978 album, "52nd Street."

The animated video comes as part of a new promotional push from Joel, who will resume his pandemic-delayed residency at Madison Square Garden with a concert on Nov. 5. That same day, he’ll release a nine-LPdisc box set, "Billy Joel — The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1," which comprises his first six solo albums, the live album "Songs in the Attic" and "Live at The Great American Music Hall — 1975," a previously unreleased concert recording being made available for the first time as a double-disc album. The set includes a booklet with more than 50 pages of archival photos from Joel’s early career, an essay by longtime music writer Anthony DeCurtis and tributes from fellow musicians and admirers.