Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Best pop/rock pianists?

Here is another thread that was posted recently on Billy Joel in the Piano Forum Board... this thread has some great Billy Joel Videos in it including River of dreams, The Piano Man, Goodnight Saigon, and more.

Earlier thread on Billy Joel:
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/1/16260.html

Neil sedaka; yes he wrote some fun pop songs but he seems less popular amongst the younger crowd.
BJ and EJ attract fans young and old. Calender Girl was one of his hits.

I like both Taupins and Joels lyrics myself.

Billy Joel doing New York State Of Mind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeSWaHdlVow

BTW this tune has been covered by Bennett and Streisand.

Scenes from Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGqgZgdkzoc

Now on this song... his (B. Joel's) style reminds me of some of the things Elton does in his playing. the same kind of feel to it.

Okay, so Neil Sedaka is one of the greats, or at least should be mentioned with the greatest. I mention him strictly on his piano playing abilities, not as an entertainer, or rock and roll pioneer.

I feel certain if you asked Billy Joel or Elton John, they would defer to Neil for his classical background. EJ even did a song with Neil, Bad Blood. Neil has written, many hit pop songs, including two versions of the very popular Breaking Up is Hard To Do.

Also taken from his website:
So, strictly from a piano playing point of view, I personally feel Neil Sedaka is one of the grestest pop piano players ever, with a career spanning six decades.

Good Night Saigon by Billy Joel link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvIE32rdvKU

this is the pretty much the way he did it at the concert I saw... with the chopper sounds, film clips in the background,
and the singers dressed like a band of brothers. At the concert I was at they had some local vietnam vets join the circle of the band of brothers. It was very moving.

You know all of these artists would say they aren't no.1 Rock Pianist... all would feel almost embarrassed if someone gave them an award for being no.1 anything.

They all respect each other's body of work.
They are all professionals in the business of making music. And the cool thing is they put the piano up front and center as the instrument of choice.

Billy Joel's Allentown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4fajzslVxA&NR

Allentown performed live in Long Island Concert
1982
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOkxnk1hxRo&mode=related&search=

Below is a picture of Ray Charles and Billy joel recording "Baby Grand"

This thread is about who is the best pianist, not the most influential musician.

As a youth in the 1930's and 1940's, two of Ray's greatest and earliest musical influences were Country-Western and Classical music. He played both and was given access to musical instruments while a student at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in the 1940's.

While still a teenager in the 40's, after leaving the FSDB, Ray played in several bands, including Country bands.

Rock is a mixture of both black and white forms of music. R&B played an important part, but R&B per se is NOT Rock 'n' Roll or Rockabilly. Rock and Rockabilly have a completely different rythym structure than the classic R&B of the 1940's and 50's.

Rockabilly especially was strongly influenced by Country music, as was the Rock 'n' Roll of acts like the Everly Brothers.

And R&B didn't just spring forth from a void. There were earlier forms of music, both black and white, that were influential in the birth of R&B.

If we start talking about who or what influenced whom, this thread could get pretty complicated--which is why I prefer to stick to simply discussing the individual piano-playing and songwriting abilities of specific artists, rather than who was supposedly the most influential.

As to who is the most influential, is best discussed in a separate thread of its own.

Ok sticking to who is best pianist alone...
toss up perhaps between Elton and Billy.

Both have great chops!

Behold...
recent thread on Billy Preston ....
videos, articles, interviews in it.
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/37/686.html

Well said, Wolfie!

And I would like to stress that I do NOT consider Jerry Lee Lewis to be the "best" pop/rock pianist ever. If you've read this thread carefully, you'll know that I haven't proclaimed any one artist to be the "best". As to who is "best", is simply too subjective.

Every pianist we've discussed has their strengths and weaknesses. JLL could play with incredible energy, excitement and showmanship--but could never match up with Elton and Billy in the songwriting department.

As to who is TECHNICALLY a better pianist, will have to be decided by people who know far more about the instrument than I do.

I'd just like to say this is a GREAT thread, and thanks to all who have participated in it, whether I agree with them on certain points or not!

Yep... R&B did not come forth from a void.
Like I said earlier. JLLs playing is chock full of blues. He was a great pianist, though the last time I saw him on letterman he lost a few steps due to age.

Origins for R&B from black spirituals (and earlier style the white hymns) , blues and Jazz (R.C. 's I Got A Woman melody).... then Rock and Roll. Ray has had an influence on almost every kind of modern popular music.... witness RC's spirtual and country music contribution's.
Ray is an American Musical Genius and so many professional musicians credit him with inspiring them.

I truly would be hard pressed to pick either Billy Joel or Elton John as the best of the two; they each have their strengths and probably its best not to to pick one over the other as far as their playing goes. But if I were forced to pick the better pianist of the two I might pick Elton simply because he is like an energizer bunny and is still very active in touring all these years.

I do wish Billy Joel hadn't decided to stop writing pop songs. Meanwhile Elton continues to pump out great new songs that sing.

Interesting discussion. Elton vs. Billy Joel... close match???? I have seen Billy in concert.
I want to see Elton Jphn but his ticket prices were sky high when he recently played in my area.
But I have all Elton's concert DVDs to keep me happy.

Yes a great thread indeed. I even managed to put all the other recent threads on these great pop/rock pianists into this thread so folks can find the links we all found at youtube. LOL

I gotta itch to do some Haiku again.
After I find the thread on Stevie. LOL.

Recent thread on Stevie Wonder... videos, pictures, interviews , discussion etc.

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/37/704.html

I can't argue with that! Well said!

Wow, how many responses.
So, I would suggest something: Lets first choose pianists and then categories in which we would rate them.
Then each of us would tell in his opinion three best in each category and finally we would count the points and get the winner. I guess its obvius that I like statistics
In case of pianists we should make a list of candidates and we should agree whether Ray Charles and similar belong to pop/rock pianists or not.
In case of categories I suggest two categories: tecnique and songwriting. But, if you have your opinion go ahead and tell.
And then we could tell the winner to add a title ˝Best poprock pianist, chosen by members of Non Classical Piano World Forum >˝ in his collections of awards

I normally don't chime in on these "who's the best" threads, but I couldn't let a Neil Sedaka nomination go unchallenged. :rolleyes:

I'm surprised that nobody's nominated any women pop/rock pianists... imho Tori Amos and Vienna Teng belong right up there as pop artists with serious piano chops. And their music is more piano-centered, too, in a way that Neil Sedaka's never was.