Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Top five favorite non-classical music

Cat Stevens
Fairport Convention
Boys of the Lough
The Police
Elton John
Beatles
Meatloaf
Chris de Burgh
Simon and Garfunkle
Bessie Smith

I could go on and on and on and on

The Beach Boys (American vocal greatest, music is about singing, the voice was the first instrument)

The Beatles (World greatest)

The Kinks (English Greatest)

Paloma Faith (A Character, you're not allowed to be one of those these days. You MUST "conform"!))

The Doors (Great, ridiculed and despised by many, but brilliant musicians, The Doors wasn't all about Jim Morrison. I love them)

Big Daddy (Tragically under recognised despite their glorious sound and unique take on life, the universe and everything. Music how it should be played.... EXACTLY how it WASN'T written.. Possibly the best ever example of not subjugating the personality of the performer to the ego of the composer, hanging tough.... staying hungry!! Oh, dangerous example of thinking for yourself there.
Stunning blend of superb voices and a lot of self mocking and everybody else mocking too. God Bless the Passive Anarchists)

Turn up loads, it is too good to miss any of the effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW7n8eArJV0

I never could count!

Janis Joplin
Creedance Clearwater Revival
Jimi Hendrix
Led Zeppelin
Queen
Joe Cocker
Beatles
The Kinks
The Doors
Rolling Stones
Frank Sinatra
Billy Holiday
Dinah Washington
Roberta Flack
Ella Fitzgerald
Chet Baker
Nina Simone
LOTS of blues and LOTS of "made for whites" songs from the 30's and 40's
...

I really cannot cut it at 5, sorry!

Laura Nyro
Steve Goodman
Diana Ross & the Supremes
Duke Ellington
The Whole "Great American Songbook"

...and though they're in the "grey area" too, the whole Gilbert & Sullivan canon.

The composer for the more well known and arguably better of Meatloafs stuff is a man called Jim Steinman. He had a solo album called Bad For Good. Most of the tracks on it have been recorded by Meatloaf now but it's definitely worth checking out if you haven't heard it.

Different vocalist, not sure if it's Jim Steinman, but some of them sound better than Meatloaf.

Just checked Wiki. Jim Steinman does sing the songs on the album. Great orchestra piece on it which I had forgotten about as well called The Storm.

It's been fun reading these lists! Here's twelve of my faves, in no particular order:

Paul Simon (with or without Garfunkle)
Carol King
Joni Mitchell
James Taylor
Earth, Wind, and Fire
Todd Rundgren
Rory Gallagher
ZZ Top
Jo Stafford
Sarah Vaughan
Mel Torme
Hoagy Carmichael

This list is subject to addition. (Seals & Crofts, The Mamas and The Papas, Aretha Franklin, Firefall...)

What stands out in this list?

Yes Really! Really Really!

And I can't believe I forgot to put Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young & Buffalo Springfield on my list! And Dave Brubeck. And Talking Heads! And Jeff Beck! And Erin O'Donnell! And Jennifer Knapp! And Bachman Turner Overdrive! And Stevie Wonder! And Sam and Dave! And Electric Light Orchestra! And Edie Brickell! And Landon Pigg! And The Temptations! And Alanis Morissette! And Steely Dan! And Steve Miller! And...

So many songs. So little time.

Haha, there you go again. BTO doesn't fit!

I can't seem to help it! And, I keep thinking of faves, in no particular order, like:

CTA/Chicago
Grateful Dead
Sly & The Family Stone
REM
Smash Mouth
Heart
Bonnie Raitt
The B52s
Moody Blues
The Bee Gees

What stands out in *this* list, Damon? Surely, *something!*

Oh! And here's a classic that's sure to please you:

Another great one has gone... Lou Reed.



With some fantastic songs that I'll be playing today, NOT with my piano, but one day I'll learn a couple of them.

a few (5) ...
thumbs up to thom yorke and radiohead
neil young
pink floyd
godspeed you black emperor
nick drake

RIP, Lou.

I was so sorry to hear of his passing. He, and the Velvets, and Nico, were very much part of my college years, and they opened my ears in ways that nobody else did.

I was a huge fan - I was probably the only 13 or 14 year old on the planet that actually liked Berlin when it first came out.

When I first heard the news yesterday, I thought of playing the Magic and Loss album - one that I subliminally ignored, as it came out too close to the time of my father's passing. Instead, I blasted Waves of Fear from The Blue Mask with it's wonderfully abrasive guitar and a vocal performance full of gut-wrenching paranoia (that's just my take....).

I make my living playing and teaching Classical and Jazz piano, so I've decided also to leave the Jazz out and make my list of 5 kinda current "pop (for lack of a better word)" things that have caught my ear:

David Bowie - The Next Day (sounds like retirement did him a lot of good...)/ Sleigh Bells - Bitter Rivals / Vampire Weekend (I forget the title)
Haim - Days are gone (way beyond their years)/ Replacements - Songs for Slim (has a great roots-rock slippery/sloppy kinda vibe that I just don't hear anymore)

Off the top of my head:

Wise Guys
Jean Michel Jarre
Jean-Jacques Goldman
Bangles
A.L.Webber