Top Ten Piano Bar Requests - Tongue Twisters!

At this past Saturday's show, our Secret 80s Song was the classic IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE) by R.E.M., and while in the midst of those stream-of-consciousness lyrics, we started wondering about all the sadistic requests our crowds sometimes make.

So, in the spooky spirit of the season, this week's top ten is devoted to the songs that trip and twist on the tongue...

#10 - AMERICAN PIE - Don Mclean

Not particularly tongue twister-y, just REALLY REALLY long. Painfully long. So long, that by the end of the song, you've forgotten why you started.

#9 - SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES - Bob Dylan

Actually, ANY Bob Dylan song would fit here. The gift that keeps on giving.

#8 - GIVE IT AWAY - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Those sock-wearing, lyric-spitting boys from Southern Cali give us another gem that has something to do with a kaiser, and Bob Marley, and we really don't understand much of the rest of it. But everyone can sing GIVE IT AWAY, GIVE IT AWAY, GIVE IT AWAY NOW...

#7 - BLINDED BY THE LIGHT - Bruce Springsteen/Manfred Mann

While many don't know this is originally a Springsteen tune, it took the fellas of Manfred Mann to make this song a "hit". But even they couldn't make the song intelligible. Revved up like a deuce? Wrapped up like a douche? Who knows what they're saying.

#6 - WALK THIS WAY - Aerosmith

No one slips in more sexual innuendo per stanza than the Toxic Twins of Boston. Even if you can't understand half of them as they speed by during the verses, you can just tell it's something naughty. Heck, Steven Tyler could make Mary Had A Little Lamb sound X-rated.

#5 - RIDIN DIRTY - Chamillionaire

One of the trickiest hip-hop lyrics that gets requested in the piano bar, but you could also add anything by Bone Thugs & Harmony, Eminem or DJ Twista to this list. It's like someone put an outboard motor in their mouth and just let it run.

#4 - COME TOGETHER - The Beatles

Walrus Gumboot? Toejam Football? Spinal Cracker? Does ANYONE know what the "altered consciousness" lads from Liverpool were saying here? Just as long as we can all shout the chorus together, it's all okay.

#3 - ONE WEEK - Barenaked Ladies

Piano players grew complacent in their ways, and lo, the good lord sent down a plague upon them from the North, and it's name was ONE WEEK. The verses are fast, wordy, and just different enough each time to make you wish for relief. But no. Instead we get another section - even faster and wordier. Thanks Canada.

#2 - IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE) - R.E.M.

Take Michael Stipe's penchant for stream of consciousness lyrics, and mix it up with a tempo that breaks land speed records, and you get this composition that has had piano players sucking down oxygen like candy for almost twenty years.

And #1 -

WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE - Billy Joel

The speed-read version of American history from the 40's til the 80's, all in under four minutes. If only all our AP courses could be digested this way.

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