Top 10 Piano Bar Requests for Fictional Bands

In honor of Jason Segal's new movie, Sex Tape, we are doing a throwback to his great Forgetting Sarah Marshall performance, and announcing this weeks Top 10 list - for songs from bands that aren't even real. Sometimes, an actual band just won't do the trick, and you need something just a little cheesier. For what it's worth, this list was surprisingly easy to curate. There's no shortage of fake bands out there (don't get cocky, BackStreet Boys...you just barely missed the cutoff...) so enjoy!

#10 - TEAR ME DOWN - Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Being a New York City company, we had to give a nod to the theatrical songs that get requested here (and probably nowhere else in the USA), but this one certainly qualifies. One of the hottest tickets on Broadway (in no small part due to our pal, and TONY winner, Lena Hall!) this is the rocker that kicks off the show, with Neil Patrick Harris doing his punk rock best. Nothing gets a party going like a little punk rock piano.

#9 - ON THE DARK SIDE - Eddie and the Cruisers

An 80s guilty pleasure movie if ever there was one, not many saw it in the theaters (even fewer saw Eddie & The Cruisers II - Eddie Lives!) but everyone remembers this song. So what if it's the same song as R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. Or WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU. Or CHERRY, CHERRY. Or EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY TO LOVE. Or...

#8 - SOUL MAN - The Blues Brothers

Leave it to Jake and Elwood Blues (Jon Belushi and Dan Ackroyd) to create a resurgent interest in 60's soul music with their comic duo, The Blues Brothers. Using the Stax Records house band as the backbone of the fictional outfit, they all but guaranteed the funk would remain the same. Most requesters don't even know this was originally a Sam & Dave tune. When they ask us for "something by the Blues Brothers", inevitably, it comes down to this favorite (the first song I ever got to play on guitar as a teenager...) or EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY TO LOVE. At which point, we might as well play #9 ^^.

#7 - BIG BOTTOM - Spinal Tap

The fake band to end all fake bands. You have to love a song played on 3 bass guitars. So crank those pianos up to 11, and serenade those derrierres. Why should Sir Mixalot have all the fun?

#6 - RAINBOW CONNECTION - The Muppets

It's actually shocking how often this one gets requested in a drunken dueling pianos bar full of carousing bachelorettes and frat boys. And it's always inevitably right after THE THONG SONG, or I WANNA SEX U UP. Poor Kermit.

#5 - I'M A BELIEVER - The Monkees

A band entirely manufactured for a TV show and subsequent touring, they took off like a rocket. And with songs like this one, penned by the great Neil Diamond, they had the material to rival any pop act. Think we'll still be requesting BYE BYE BYE in thirty years?? <<shudder...>>

#4 - SCOTTY DOESN'T KNOW - Eurotrip

Actually recorded by Lustra, but written specifically for the movie Eurotrip, this is one of those 90's nuggets that gets played surprisingly often, but no one can dispute it's singalong power. You have to love a three-word chorus.

#3 - DRACULA'S LAMENT - Peter Bretter

Another song whose shelf life long outlasted the movie it came from, in this case, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. But when you add vampires, puppets, and musical theater, I guess it's just a recipe for some two-chord awesomeness.

#2 - F*CK HER GENTLY - Tenacious D

Nothing brings a PG rated evening to a screeching halt faster than this set of instructions from the comedy duo known to many simply as The D. One of the dirtiest songs in the piano bar lexicon, except for maybe a John Valby tune, or Adam Sandler's AT A MEDIUM PACE (google that one at your own risk...), its placement in the evening must be done with great care. But when given to the right crowd, at the right time, the magic of Jack Black cannot be disputed.

And at #1 ---

SHOUT - Otis Day and the Knights

Don't have your toga handy? Miss the days of collegiate partying? Forgotten how to limbo? It's okay, just shout "hey-ay-ay-ay!" and like a midnight run from the Food King, you are speeding back to Animal House. No other song takes the party up a notch like this one. Jumping up and down? Yup. Screaming catch-phrases at the top of your lungs? Oh yea. Tempo changes? You betcha. Now grab that toga.

And do you mind if we dance with your dates?

Honorable mention: THAT THING YOU DO - The Oneders, WE ALL DIE YOUNG - Steel Dragon, MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW - SoggyBottom Boys

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