Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical What are the best Piano centric Rock/ClassicRock Songs???

Carry on my wayward son.......Kansas

the Journey stuff from the 80's????

anyone?

anyone?

Dont Stop Believing?

How about Jungleland-Bruce Springsteen

Absolutely. Also Open Arms, Send Her My Love, Faithfully, Separate Ways, When You Love A Woman... Lots of Journey's stuff has strong piano/keyboard parts. Jonathan Cain plays a great organ solo on La Raza del Sol on their 2001 DVD, and I have always liked the piano solo at the end of Still She Cries on Trial by Fire.

second that! it took me forever to be able to play/sing Saturday Nights Alright... Not sure why but the rhythm and the mindset required to deliver it is not like my personality, ie, ya gotta be kind of aggresive and crazy to pull it off. Same with old time rock and roll, I still can't do that one because you kind of have to scream it?? can't describe it but my voice type is just not suited to it.. great song though.

Playing and singing, is different than playing solo piano, which is also different than just playing the piano/keyboard part. With band/without band...so many choices

playing and singing, is hardest in my experience...

Let's also not forget about TOTO....hold the line, rosanna, africa..

Randy Newman -

You can leave your hat on

Land of Dreams,

The Blues from Trouble in Paradise

According to my sons who play rock, here are some band names not mention that have great music and maybe someone here can name some of the tunes they play DPVJAZZ
1.TOOL
2.NINE INCH NAILS
3.SUBLIME(R.I.P)
4.RADIOHEAD
5.METALLICA
6.S.T.P.
7.311
8.MASSIVE ATTACK
10.MINOR THREAT/FUGAZI
11.QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
12.THIS WILL DESTROY YOU
13. PEARL JAM
14. THE EXIT

Oh, I love Metallica: Master of Puppets, Fade to Black, Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters, so many more. But they are not well known for piano/keyboard parts in their music.

Hey Frederick- Jefferson Airplane
WOuld you be happy? Lee Michaels (hammond Organ)

--Nothing else matters-- translates well to solo piano.

eric carmen-all by myself
some of the ABBA stuff was piano-heavy

"Saturday Night..." has always been a tricky one for me (playing it live). I have always let someone else sing it because the vocals are to high for me. It's one of those busy tunes where you can forget a lot if you don't play it often enough. I'll have to work through it the night before or sometimes an hour before the show. Same for "American Pie", lots of busy little licks. I always recall the opening and closing gospely chord progressions but all the busy stuff in between you'll forget if you don't revisit the tune once in a while and there are some well-known signature piano licks in Pie that you never want to leave out.

If you ever have the chance, try playing the entire piano part to "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" sometime. It is one of the most challenging pieces in all of Rock/Pop. Took me weeks of woodsheding to completely nail it. And it would be another month of playing regularly on gigs til I really felt comfortable with it. It's one of those pieces where you really "learn" piano in the process. "Bat Out of heck" is another challenge. Is that Roy Bittan or Jim Steinman playing?

very cool Inallkeys, agree totally. I am going to make a youtube of SNAFF sometime soon. American Pie, yup, another toughie. When I auditioned for dueling pianos, these of course were all must knows. When I sat down to learn the 40 or so MUST KNOWS, I knew then it wouldn't work for me personally, at this point at least. Neat on Paradise by the dashboard light, it's a great song, would prolly take me many months of cobbling it together but I bet worth it. Great tune! Love Meatloaf

I find a lot of rock songs don't always "work" on the piano unless they have a melody or have rapid chord changes. I've noticed a lot of pop pieces listed on this thread. Here are a few of my favorite rock/pop pieces that I've always liked playing:

Rock (more or less):
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
Locomotive Breath - Jethro Tull
Alone - Heart
Here I Go Again - White Snake
Rock & Roll Dreams - MeatLoaf
Can't Ya Say - Boston
Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf

Some Disco(ish) "carp":
It's a Sin - Pet Shop Boys
The Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show
Touch Me - Samanth Fox
Ohhhh I Want You - Savage Garden
Don't Leave Me This Way - The Communards
The Crying Game - Boy George

Easy Listening:
Imagine - John Lennon
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
Love At First Sight - Styx
Love Will Keep Us Together - Eagles
100 Years - Five For Fighting
Love Is All Around - Wet Wet Wet
Hopelessly Devoted To You - Olivia Newton John
Take My Breath Away - Berlin
Good Is Good - Sheryl Crowe
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John

Derick

great ones!

a few pop/rock faves...

Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk - Rufus Wainwright
Time of the Season - Zombies
Into My Arms - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
all of Crowded House's ballads (Surprisingly they are attention grabbers, and I've never played them for people who've heard more than their one U.S. hit)

interesting on the crowded house ballads. what is the best one for example?

Stairway to Heaven by Lead Zeppelin is always a show stopper on piano. It's about 8 minutes long, with several different "movements" contained within.

Doesn't anyone here remember the seventies?

Colour My World- Chicago

I have been following Ian Thomas quite a bit:
-Time is the keeper
-Indiana wants me (Ian Thomas collaborated on this one)
-If you are looking (Tranquility Base was the group that recorded this - and unknown in the US but popular in Canada - Kawaigirl1 may know this...)

It would be great if I can get the music. For now I am playing by ear.