What are the most requested songs in the piano bar?

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What are the most requested songs in the piano bar?

Posted 2 years ago by danvar

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danvar said 2 years ago

Hi,

I have two questions:

What are the most requested songs in the piano bar?

Are there many requests for the old standards?

I discoverd this web site last night and found it very informative and useful - especially as I am interested in working as a piano bar entertainer again after a very long break. By the way, congratulations on a great job with this web site and blogg. It has already answered many of the questions I had about working as a musician on a cruise ship.

Having played guitar for many years in rock, blues, soul, and pop bands, I taught myself to play piano and did my first gig as a pianobar entertainer in 1985. As I don't read music, I never had the opportunity or inclination to learn the old standards, and now wish I had made the effort. I haven't played professionally since 1994 and I am curious to know if there are many requests in the piano bar for old standards like "It had to be you" and "Making Whoppee" ect. I play a good variety of popular songs from the 60s to about 2005.
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David J. Hahn said 2 years ago

Hey danver -

It really depends on what kind of piano bar you are creating with your act. Each piano bar entertainer spins their room a different way. Some of them make it a Howl-at-the-moon kind of party bar, some make it a jazz-and-cabaret piano bar. Typically, the audience will request songs that fit in the genre that you'd established for the room.

For instance, if I saw a guy singing Brown Eyed Girl I wouldn't ask him to play Stormy Weather. Really - I probably wouldn't WANT to hear him sing Stormy Weather, you know? But I would probably ask him for some Jimmy Buffet.

So if you want to stick to a rock/pop repertoire, that could work. Still, though, you'll have to know a crazy # of songs to do the gig well.

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danvar said 2 years ago

Hey David,

Thanks for your reply. Brown eyed girl is more my style than stormy weather and I suppose I should just stick with what suits my voice and style best. Itâ€™s good to know that you are allowed to do that. I should have mentioned that Iâ€™m quite an old geezer now (just turned 55), that Iâ€™m based in the UK and have been out of touch with the music business since 1994. Iâ€™ve been relearning many of the songs I used to perform in the Norwegian piano bars and although my list has just exceeded 200, I still donâ€™t feel confident I have enough material. How many songs do you think I need to get started on the cruise ships? I have made a list of another couple of hundred (old and new) that I intend to relearn/learn while Iâ€™m working.
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David J. Hahn said 2 years ago

The piano bar gig always seemed waaay too intimidating for me, I've never played it myself. I'm a big fan of those that have the cajones to do it.

What if you printed out the list and had it available for the audience to choose from? I've seen performers do that in both Disney World and Chicago's Howl at the Moon.

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danvar said 2 years ago

Thanks, David. Thatâ€™s a great suggestion. It would definitely make me feel less guilty if I couldnâ€™t play a request to say, â€œSorry, I donâ€™t know that song but hereâ€™s a list of all the songs I play.â€ Also, Iâ€™m sure it would make the requester feel less disappointed if he can choose something from the list that I know. Nice one and thanks again.
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danvar said 2 years ago

Thanks, David. Thatâ€™s a great suggestion. It would definitely make me feel less guilty if I couldnâ€™t play a request to say, â€œSorry, I donâ€™t know that song but hereâ€™s a list of all the songs I play.â€ Also, Iâ€™m sure it would make the requester feel less disappointed if he can choose something from the list that I know. Nice one and thanks again.
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CarolynViolin said 2 years ago

Hi Everyone, I'm new here. I'm a professional violinist from Maryland. I play classical and strolling styles and I also improvise. I freelance in the MD/DC area. I also come to NYC on a regular basis, about every other month or so, to do lots of playing and promote myself and try to further my opportunities for more work. Every time that I come to NYC, I play for the musical salon at the Algonquin Hotel, at Butterfield 8 for Trudi Mann's musical showcase, at Birdland for Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and I also play at Nino's Tuscany with legendary "lounge" pianist Irving Fields. Speaking of piano bars, I also started playing at Don't Tell Mama last month. Don't Tell Mama is a very well-known piano bar in NYC. They have different pianists on different nights. On some nights, they do more standards and show music, and on other nights, they will do popular and other stuff. It all depends on who is at the piano. I played a variety of stuff, including "Georgia, Nevertheless, S'Wonderful, Satin Doll", etc. Also on one night, someone requested "It Had To Be You", so I also played that. Don't Tell Mama is a nice place to perform. It's always very crowded, but you get a really nice, appreciative audience all the time. Carolyn Ohlbaum
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David J. Hahn said 2 years ago

I put together a list of top piano songs.

Top 100 Piano Bar Songs

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bilco said 2 years ago

danvar, I am a bassist in a quartet that plays a piano bar in Austin. I have had the same gig since 1994 now.

I would say that the most requested songs asked for there are:

Piano Man (or a request for anything by Billy Joel)
Tiny Dancer (or a request for anything by Elton John)
Country Roads
Sweet Caroline (or a request for anything by Neil Diamond)
Suspicious Minds
Amarillo By Morning
Burnin' Love
Any song by Frank Sinatra
Pancho and Lefty
City of New Orleans
Waltz Across Texas
New York, New York
Behind Closed Doors
American Pie
Brown Eyed Girl
House of the Rising Sun
Proud Mary
Ring of Fire or any Cash song

Most of these are all on David's list, but there are some country songs here that are unique to Texas I guess.

The clientele at Piano Bars is changing. Not so much any more, but there used to be lots of requests for:

Scotch and Soda
Misty
The 12th of Never
Tom Dooley
If You Could Read My Mind
Ain't Misbehavin'
As Time Goes By
Summertime

One of the reasons I like this gig and have played it so long is because the main vocalist/pianist knows thousands of songs and the guitarist is strong on rock from the '70s, so there are nights we are playing "As Time Goes By", "Sweet Home Alabama", "La Grange", "Born to Be Wild," "New York, New York," "Moonglow" and "Last Date" in the same set. The variety keeps it interesting and fun. I have learned a lot about chord progressions from those Sinatra songs. I also learned that keys have personalities. Nothing sounds like Sinatra ballads in Eb!

bilco
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pauldrake said 8 months ago

Those are good requested songs that are to play in the piano bar. I think that in order to play the piano in the long run, you should really try to play those songs mentioned above in order to really get things done and straight. I just hope that things will be well in this one!
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pauldrake said 8 months ago

I think that choosing the following song can be a good thing to play in a piano bar. The following songs are the ones that you need to play the piano with. I just hope that things are really well with this one in the future.
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martinorbidans said 4 months ago

Re song lists

I was carrying ever larger files of music to the point where baggage charges were imminent! A bar guy on board said to me when we docked in Miami. Get a Mac book pro, it will change your life. So I went to the South Beach apple store and spent my wages on it...By the way I do play by ear but my memory does tend to cause a lot of repetition without a written list to call upon.

I am no computer/music genius at all. But I have now had this laptop for 6 months and after a lot of work I have around 10,000 music files which can be called up on screen in a second from my index. And i`ve made lots of style lists and set lists. I guess I missed 4/5 requests on my last contract. It took a while to get used to the mac. I also try to log requests for next night in my fake books. The fact that I can also run a small midi controller for logic and mainstage is a fun extra. Oh and some midi bass pedals are needed if anyone has any to sell?

Every piano bar I have played in is so different. But most repeated requests come out of the great gig book (American song book) Cole Porter, Gershwin etc. And singer songwriters are too many to list too. But Sir Elton John, Billy Joel etc. And I enjoy a bit of Johnny Cash too. But on a 14 night cruise I do try to vary the show every night. The world cruises are more challenging. (4 months with the same people) But of course you can never please all the people all the time .... Cruise line guests are much more demanding than on shore. But I started with one book of 200 songs and kept adding new ones. It`s a journey I guess. But I love having an ever growing list of songs. Whether old or new. But there are more new songs being written than I could ever learn anyway.
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Higgs said 4 months ago

David said: "For instance, if I saw a guy singing Brown Eyed Girl I wouldn't ask him to play Stormy Weather. Really - I probably wouldn't WANT to hear him sing Stormy Weather, you know? But I would probably ask him for some Jimmy Buffet."

(How do I get a fancy little box around this?)

When I did piano bar gigs, I had to go from Brown Eyed Girl to Stormy Weather to Nothing Else Matters to Begin the Beguine to Rhapsody in Blue to Bad Romance to Piano Man (*shudder*) and it was a hell of a lot of fun. You never know what someone is going to request, and it's important to have a really varied repertoire. Some nights, after an evening of Elton John and Billy Joel, I would be begging to do some American Songbook stuff. I mean, really, how often can you do friggin' Margaritaville.

On ships, piano bar entertainers are also expected to do "Name That Tunes" and other type trivia games. I would do theme nights, like colors (Yellow Submarine, Pink Panther etc...) or cities (Do you know the Way to San Jose, I Love Paris, etc...).

I used my Macbook, but I got an iPad last year, and it was awesome. I've collected about 120 PDF fakebooks over the years, and i can't imagine doing the gig without them.
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marakima said 4 months ago

I have a related question -- are Ipads (or other devices/books) frowned upon and/or not allowed at some piano bars? I've heard this might be the case at Ernie Bigg's in Branson.

Also, I've just completed my piano bar demo video, recorded live at my very first and so far only piano bar gig (lots of experience in bands), and if anyone has any advice on how to get gigs or who to send it to, that info would be appreciated. I try to do a wide range, from standards to today, and my set can include some metal/punk/disco etc. as the situation warrants. I had thought that I would apply to cruise ships, but took a 3 day feeler cruise to see what being on a boat would be like, at least for a passenger, and didn't feel well due to motion sickness. It was really disappointing, actually, as ship work seems to be a great way to immediately start playing a lot. But, I don't know if I could get used to the motion, and 6 months is too long to be either sick or on meds.
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wizzard926 said 3 months ago

Country songs can be requested to be played at the piano bar.
The songs could be in the list of top 100 country songs that everyone loves to sing.
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keyz88 said 2 months ago

Q: What are the most requested songs in the piano bar?
A: Depends: Restaurant or Popular Bar? Country Club or Political Fundraiser? Old School Jazz or Old School Top 40? Romantic instrumentals or in-your-face 70's Led Zeppelin? Christmas tunes or elevator music?

There are actual piano bars where I'm from but it pays to diversify... anything goes if you know how to play requests.

I carry an inexpensive electronic tablet for chord charts & lyrics, if needed (and I utilized 4x6 index cards before that). Since an electronic tablet (PC, iPad, Archos, cellphone, etc) has its own lighted screen, there's no need to carry an other illumination. And a $1.99 business card holder from Office Max will prop up the smaller tablets and cell phones just nicely.

Q: Are there many requests for the old standards?
A: Depends (see above)... but the short answer is YES. For ideas of which tunes to play, go to Amazon.com, look up the popular singers or bands for you particular category.. and "make a list" of the songs on their “Best Of” albums. If you recognize the tune, LEARN IT!

As a reference, check out my PIANO SONGLIST (in printable PDF format) on the "F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)"page at:

http://www.RobertJohnsonPiano.com

I try to cover all the bases... so I play a wide variety as I can! My specialty is playing hard rock / pop tunes with a cocktail piano flair. I can't complain when the paychecks go thru...