Ten Great Piano Rock Songs by Ten Different Singers

As I like piano in rock music, I decided to write an article featuring ten different piano rock songs. It’s similar to my previous articles ‘Ten Great Bob Seger Songs by Ten Different Piano Players’ and ‘Ten Powerful Rock Ballads by Elton John’. They are my two favourite singers and are featured in this article, with one of the songs from those articles featured here, but with different text. I’ll be featuring classic rock songs where I’m embedding official YouTube audio of these songs in it. This will allow you to listen to any or all of them if you wish. Not all the songs on this list feature piano solos or it being the loudest instrument, but they are songs I consider to be great featuring good use of piano.

157 Riverside Avenue - REO Speedwagon (1971) 

This is from REO Speedwagon’s debut album, long before their popular period. Their first lead

singer who sings this song is Terry Luttrel. It opens with an impressive piano intro which is soon

joined by other instruments. This song has a ragtime influence. There is a special piano solo by Neal

Doughty and two great guitar solos by Gary Richrath. Terry sings like Bob Seger which is fitting as

there’s a reference to Mainstreet in it and “Mainstreet” would be one of Bob Seger’s hits released

five years later.

Rikki Don’t Lose That Number - Steely Dan (1974) 

Followed by the marimba opening, Michael Omartian’s piano comes in, soon followed by Donald

Fagen’s singing. It has a light relaxed feel and does rock. The electric guitars are most prominent in

the chorus and there is a guitar solo which gives a sudden edge to the song making it more intense.

This song is jazz rock which beautifully mixes the two styles of music together. This was a Number

Four US hit for the band. 

The Pretender - Jackson Browne (1976) 

It opens with Jackson’s singing followed by Craig Doerge’s piano. Jackson sings with powerful

emotion, with parts of it being intense. It’s a mid-tempo rock song. It has great rock piano notes. The

drums are played by Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro who interestingly plays drums on the next two

songs. 

Jump Street - Boz Scaggs (1976)

This is an intense rock song that sounds similar to “157 Riverside Avenue”, as both songs have a

ragtime influence. It is both piano and guitar driven, featuring incredible piano and strong guitars. It

sounds like Elton John which makes sense as the song was co-written by its piano player David

Paich who would soon form Toto. Elton John is an influence of Toto and two other Toto members are

also on this track. The next track is a Toto song written and sung by David Paich. The live version is

also worth checking out as it features the additions of organ and horns.

Lovers in the Night - Toto (1982)

This is an album track from Toto’s very popular album “Toto IV”. It opens with a dark and special

piano part played by David Paich. There are intense guitars by Steve Lukather and synthesizer

interjections by Steve Porcaro. Parts of the song go back and forth between the piano/synth

combination and the guitars. There are two great guitar solos which feature good piano

accompaniment. 

I Don’t Wanna Go On With You Like That - Elton John (1988)

This song was a major US hit for Elton John reaching Number Two in the Billboard Hot 100. It’s

opened by Elton’s piano. There are also keyboards and subtle acoustic guitar. Elton is singing strong

and his piano matches well with his voice. In the end section Elton solos playing great piano and

gives a bit of singing. 

I Go To Extremes - Billy Joel (1989)

This next song comes from American singer/pianist Billy Joel who has musical similarities with Elton

John. It sounds a bit like the previous song, but rocks harder as it has electric guitars on it. It’s

catchy with interesting lyrics. It has two powerful rock & roll piano solos by Billy. This is one of Billy’s

hits.

Running on Faith - Eric Clapton (1989) 

This song is well known for its inclusion on Eric Clapton’s popular live “Unplugged” album in 1992. It

however first appeared on his “Journeyman” album three years ago in 1989. The studio version is

better than the live version as it benefits from the studio production. It was written by songwriter

Jerry Lynn Williams and first recorded by Eric Clapton. The first few seconds are piano played by

Greg Phillinganes. Greg plays along well with Eric’s acoustic guitar solo. Though there are a lot of

other instruments on this track, the piano provides great notes and can be heard. This song features

powerful drumming and choir. 

The Fire Inside - Bob Seger (1991)

This song has incredible inspired piano playing by Roy Bittan including two beautifully complicated

solos. It’s guitar part is acoustic played by Toto’s Steve Lukather and there is good supporting organ.

This is great melodic songwriting that’s an example of Bob Seger at his best.

World Gone Crazy - The Doobie Brothers (2010)

Though this song is sung by original lead singer Tom Johnston, it has a Michael McDonald influence,

with its piano playing and composition. This song has elements of jazz in its piano and horns that

later come on. Tom is singing powerfully. At the two minute and twenty second mark, there is a

noticeable organ that goes on for twenty to twenty five seconds. This is followed by a musically

diverse section that begins with drumming only, a piano solo, back and forth between horns and

electric guitar and a saxophone solo before returning to the chorus. Bill Payne delivers incredible

piano playing on this song. As non-relationship songs are my favourite type of songs, I’m pleased to

conclude this list with one.

If you enjoyed this article, you might be interested in my similar article ‘Toto Tribute Album’ writing of an imaginary tribute album to Toto featuring all of the artists on this list (and others) except Toto. Quite a few of the session musicians on these songs have played on songs for other artists featured on this list.