As a DC & piano bar enthusiast... this article brought me great joy! As a promoter, I found the stats super interesting... and the next time I'm in DC, I'm going to stop by for a cocktail & a tune or several. Cheers!
Very interesting, very challenging! I'd never heard Pink Pony Club, and now that I have listened to it... It just strikes me as very MOR. Which is about right, right? We used to mock piano bars and lounge lizards, not because of the quality of the musicianship (I'm sorry, this was not meant to be a knock on Rifkin), but because we knew that the songs requested in bars are a kind of lowest-common-denominator nostalgia-twisted reinvention of what piano bar denizens thought of as their glorious youth.
And perhaps this list is still reflecting that, only with some interesting trying-to-stay-relevant add ins from the last few years.
Very cool. It looks like you say that Beatles are in the top artists if you look at the whole set but when you look at only the top 50 there are only 2 artists from the 60s. What does popularity by decade look like if you plot every song by year? That would put the Beatles back into that plot.
Well, the end of the world truly is near if the winning song is a pole dancer and drag queen anthem. Or at least for the people low enough to frequent a piano bar. Pathetic way to enjoy music.
Great article. I wonder too as with DJ playlists how much location influences the results. Of course Joel is a pianist icon but would they ranks as high in LA or the melting pot of Vegas? Curious. What's really odd to me is the Alabama song sitting at number 5. A great sing-along but I wonder about the theme being a "touchy subject" and being irrelevant for young adults today. Are there that many that would know the song?
Looking Glass were not one-hit wonders. Jimmy Loves Maryanne spent 15 weeks on the charts and reached number 33 on the Hot 100 and 16 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
This was a good one, thanks for sharing. For “Fly Me To The Moon” I feel like there should be a shout out to Basie (or perhaps a nod if we’re in a piano bar) and certainly a tip of the hat to Bart Howard for what I think is the original version, titled “In Other Words.”
Very amusing article. One thing I have spent more time wondering that I should is how so many of mid-80s hits "feel like" they have been accepted as standards since being released. "Time After Time", "Careless Whisper", "So Far Away", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", perhaps "Smooth Operator", "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" etc. I wonder if these batch of songs is aging much more slowly than expected. Anyway, this is just to say that "Pink Pony Club" and "Good Luck Babe" feel similarly timeless.
And of course, The Killers are seriously underrated.
As a DC & piano bar enthusiast... this article brought me great joy! As a promoter, I found the stats super interesting... and the next time I'm in DC, I'm going to stop by for a cocktail & a tune or several. Cheers!
Is there a Spotify playlist of this list available?
Very interesting, very challenging! I'd never heard Pink Pony Club, and now that I have listened to it... It just strikes me as very MOR. Which is about right, right? We used to mock piano bars and lounge lizards, not because of the quality of the musicianship (I'm sorry, this was not meant to be a knock on Rifkin), but because we knew that the songs requested in bars are a kind of lowest-common-denominator nostalgia-twisted reinvention of what piano bar denizens thought of as their glorious youth.
And perhaps this list is still reflecting that, only with some interesting trying-to-stay-relevant add ins from the last few years.
Very cool. It looks like you say that Beatles are in the top artists if you look at the whole set but when you look at only the top 50 there are only 2 artists from the 60s. What does popularity by decade look like if you plot every song by year? That would put the Beatles back into that plot.
https://brianhoward.substack.com/p/billy-joel-is-a-deranged-psychopath?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Did someone say Piano Man?
How gay is the piano bar scene in DC?
Now THIS is how you're supposed to use data. So cool!
Well, the end of the world truly is near if the winning song is a pole dancer and drag queen anthem. Or at least for the people low enough to frequent a piano bar. Pathetic way to enjoy music.
I think most people just like the melody and the massive chorus
You can’t separate that from the content.
I disagree. People constantly enjoy songs without an idea of what the lyrics are even saying.
That doesn’t make it right.
Great article. I wonder too as with DJ playlists how much location influences the results. Of course Joel is a pianist icon but would they ranks as high in LA or the melting pot of Vegas? Curious. What's really odd to me is the Alabama song sitting at number 5. A great sing-along but I wonder about the theme being a "touchy subject" and being irrelevant for young adults today. Are there that many that would know the song?
Looking Glass were not one-hit wonders. Jimmy Loves Maryanne spent 15 weeks on the charts and reached number 33 on the Hot 100 and 16 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
I think it’s fair to say that from the contemporary perspective that they only had one enduring hit
This was a good one, thanks for sharing. For “Fly Me To The Moon” I feel like there should be a shout out to Basie (or perhaps a nod if we’re in a piano bar) and certainly a tip of the hat to Bart Howard for what I think is the original version, titled “In Other Words.”
Very amusing article. One thing I have spent more time wondering that I should is how so many of mid-80s hits "feel like" they have been accepted as standards since being released. "Time After Time", "Careless Whisper", "So Far Away", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", perhaps "Smooth Operator", "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" etc. I wonder if these batch of songs is aging much more slowly than expected. Anyway, this is just to say that "Pink Pony Club" and "Good Luck Babe" feel similarly timeless.
And of course, The Killers are seriously underrated.