Piano dueling is a fun topic. There are many wonderful songs for dueling pianos. What are the best dueling piano songs?
Piano duelings are on many occasions for entertainment, such as fundraising, school, or even street events. However, piano duelings are mainly featured in hundreds of private clubs throughout the United States and Europe.
In this article, we are sharing some of the best dueling piano songs including the most requested songs.
Table of Contents
What are Dueling Pianos?
First, let’s take a look at what piano dueling is. It is a musical feast that features two piano players facing each other and taking turns playing and singing. It is a duel not truly for contesting each other, but for entertaining the crowd.
Many piano duelings allow the audience to submit song requests and the musicians skillfully play the songs with a lot of improvising to charm the audience.
On average, the dueling piano performances last two to three hours.
The History of Piano Duels
The piano duels have a fairly long history. Since the 1800s, piano duels occurred across Europe frequently. Many famous composers and pianists, like Beethoven, Mozart, Clementi, Liszt, etc. had piano duels with numerous other musicians.
In the 1930s, Pat O’Brien’s Bar in New Orleans became a regular establishment for dueling pianists. The format was quite different from the earlier European duelings since the audience could make song requests for the pianists to duel over.
Then rock and roll music took the piano dueling stages in the 1980s. Songs, like Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey, became super popular in dueling pianos, even to this day.
Nowadays, piano dueling is still pretty popular. Besides the private clubs and bars, many dueling piano companies travel and perform around the country. You can also engage them to perform at events like weddings, fundraisings, etc.
The dueling piano shows offer an immersive music experience for the audience since they can participate in singing, dancing, and laughing along with the musicians.
Piano Duels is not Piano Duets
Piano duels and piano duets are two very different things. A piano duet is often referred to as “piano four hands.” While duets can be played on two pianos, usually, two players perform on one piano. During the Classical and Romantic periods, many composers such as Mozart, Schubert, etc, created many wonderful pieces for piano four hands.
One Top Pick
My favorite dueling piano song is Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. I also would say it is the most popular classic dueling piano song.
American singer Neil Diamond wrote and performed the song, which was released in May 1969. John F. Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline, was the inspiration for the song. She was eleven years old at the time it was released.
Sweet Caroline has proven to be enduringly popular. It is not only a favored dueling piano song, but it is also adopted in sporting events. The song is so popular in United Kindom it has become an anthem for many sports in England. In the US, Sweet Caroline had become Fenway’s beloved ballpark anthem since 1997, when it was played during a game after someone related to an employee had a baby named ‘Caroline’.
This well-liked song is especially entertaining in a piano dueling performance.
100 Best Dueling Piano Songs
There are so many wonderful songs for dueling pianos with an incredibly wide range of styles, genres, and event categories. Hence, it is not an easy feat to pick them. Here, we share our 100 best dueling piano songs, starting with the 20 most requested songs, then followed by several genres.
20 Most Requested Songs
- 1. Don’t Stop Believing – Journey
- 2. Your Song – Elton John
- 3. Just a Friend – Biz Markie
- 4. Empire State of Mind – Alicia Keys
- 5. Great Balls of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis
- 6. Piano Man – Billy Joel
- 7. You Don’t Have to Call Me Darlin – David Allan Coe
- 8. Hey Ya – Outkast
- 9. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
- 10. Mustang Sally – Wilson Pickett
- 11. Killing Me Softly – Roberta Flack
- 12. Hotel California – The Eagles
- 13. Hey Jude – The Beatles
- 14. Friends in Low Places – Garth Brooks
- 15. Baby Got Back – Sir Mix-a-Lot
- 16. Perfect Country Western Song – David Allen Coe
- 17. Old Time Rock and Roll – Bob Seger
- 18. Paradise by the Dashboard Light – Meatloaf
- 19. Unchained Melody – The Righteous Brothers
- 20. When Doves Cry – Prince
20 Pop and Rock Songs
- 1. American Pie – Don McLean
- 2. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynrd
- 3. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
- 4. Twist and Shout – The Beatles
- 5. Livin’ on a Prayer – Bon Jovi
- 6. Proud Mary – Tina Turner
- 7. Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
- 8. Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
- 9. Family Tradition – Hank Williams Jr.
- 10. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
- 11. Joy to the World – Three Dog Night
- 12. What’s Up? – 4 Non-Blondes
- 13. I’ll Be There For You – Bon Jovi
- 14. Anyway You Want It – Journey
- 15. Only The Good Die Young – Billy Joel
- 16. Tiny Dancer – Elton John
- 17. Celebration – Kool and The Gang
- 18. New York, New York – Frank Sinatra
- 19. My Girl – Temptations
- 20. Surrender – Cheap Trick
10 Songs from Musicals
- 1. Singin’ in the Rain – Gene Kelly (Singin’ in the Rain)
- 2. Footloose – Kenny Loggins (Footloose)
- 3. Cabaret – Fred Ebb and John Kander (Cabaret)
- 4. Stayin’ Alive – The Bee Gees (Saturday Night Fever)
- 5. Hakuna Matata – Tim Rice (The Lion King)
- 6. Summer Nights – Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey (Grease)
- 7. All That Jazz – Fred Ebb and John Kander (Chicago)
- 8. My Favorite Things – Robert Wise (The Sound of Music)
- 9. Can You Feel The Love Tonight? – Tim Rice (The Lion King)
- 10. Somewhere – Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story)
20 Disney Songs
- 1. There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow – The Sherman Brothers
- 2. The Tiki Room – The Sherman Brothers
- 3. Kiss The Girl (Little Mermaid)
- 4. Les Poissons (Little Mermaid)
- 5. Under The Sea (Little Mermaid)
- 6. Part of Your World (Little Mermaid)
- 7. Love is an Open Door (Frozen)
- 8. Let It Go (Frozen)
- 9. Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? (Frozen)
- 10. In Summer (Frozen)
- 11. Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast)
- 12. Be Our Guest (Beauty and the Beast)
- 13. Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)
- 14. Arabian Nights (Aladdin)
- 15. Friend Like Me (Aladdin)
- 16. Prince Ali (Aladdin)
- 17. A Whole New World (Aladdin)
- 18. I Want To Be Like You (The Jungle Book)
- 19. The Bare Necessities (The Jungle Book)
- 20. You’ve Got A Friend In Me (Toy Story)
20 Country Songs
- 1. Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash
- 2. Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffet
- 3. Wagon Wheel – Old Crow Medicine Show
- 4. Devil Went Down to Georgia – Charlie Daniels
- 5. Meet Virginia – Train
- 6. Take Me Home, Country Roads – John Denver
- 7. I Love This Bar – Toby Keith
- 8. Aimee – Pure Prairie League
- 9. Chicken Fried – Zac Brown Band
- 10. People Are Crazy – Billy Currington
- 11. Life is a Highway – Rascal Flatts
- 12. Bless the Broken Road – Rascal Flatts
- 13. Callin’ Baton Rouge – Garth Brooks
- 14. Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
- 15. Pretty Good at Drinkin’ Beer – Billy Currington
- 16. Country Girl Shake It For Me – Luke Bryan
- 17. Courtesy of the Red White and Blue – Toby Keith
- 18. Cheeseburger in Paradise – Jimmy Buffet
- 19. You’re Still The One – Shania Twain
- 20. Amazed – Lonestar
10 New Songs
- 1. Can’t Stop The Feeling – Justin Timberlake
- 2. Shake It Off – Taylor Swift
- 3. Sorry – Justin Bieber
- 4. Shut Up and Dance – Walk The Moon
- 5. Hello – Adele
- 6. Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
- 7. Happy – Pharrell Williams
- 8. Fireball – Pitbull
- 9. Honey, I’m Good – Andy Grammar
- 10. Springsteen – Eric Church
Summary
There is nothing more fun than going to a dueling pianos bar with friends or attending a dueling pianos event. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience. Whenever you go, bring along a list of your favorite piano bar songs to put on the request list.
Your goal should be to pick something you’ll have fun singing. Even though not every request will be granted, if your song is fun enough to sing, chances are that the musicians will perform your choice.
Get out there and enjoy a dueling piano performance!
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