Top 100 Piano Bar Songs

Thank you so much!! Now I know where to start! I’ve been hoping to get a piano bar gig for some time now, but this has always kept me back (I’m mostly classical/improv in my performance experience, and hardly know a lot of these need-to-know standards).

:) Appreciated.
-E

Pay attention to Standards and Broadway — if you find yourself on traveling route, rather than a party itinerary(or Fun Ship), be aware that the passenger list may be more international, older, and like American baby-boomers they may have a wider frame of reference. There’s a reason why Rod Stewart has sold so many standards recordings.
Standards = what some youngster call ‘classics’. No, They are Standards.

Sometimes the piano bar can be a romantic spot, so you need to know how to play “As Time Goes By”(CASABLANCA), “Moon River”, “At Last”(big band OR R&B), and “It Had to Be You” and a good helping of classic Broadway. BY HEART !!
Be aware that a huge percentage of the Sinatra/standards repertoire is Broadway showtunes – “The Lady is A Tramp”,”I Get a Kick Out of You”. Do not tell older passengers you don’t do any Cole Porter/ Gershwin/ Irving Berlin/ Johnny Mercer, etc….
And I don’t see “Over The Rainbow” on this list. Astonishing.

Perhaps “Piano Bar” is a wilder, drunker, dopier thing than I learned to do 30 years ago — but those songs I’ve mentioned are highly requested in my shipboard experience, even from younger patrons on the Holland America Line, which is known for an older clientele. (I should say that I myself prefer travelers to partiers.)

So do not ignore the boomers, they are becoming what is known as the Mariners – older folks with some money. Some of them do report avoiding cruise ship piano bars.

Thanks for a good site, David Hahn.

Were can i find the piano sheets of these songs ? (free)