I love old Elton John. Ditto Billy Joel.
And now I love Tori Amos, Something Corporate, Ben Folds, Five for Fighting, Keane, and many others.
It seems that piano rock (I want that t-shirt!) is making a very big comeback, so I’m looking for some good bands.
Any suggestions?
I recommend LittleHorse. They have two pianos, and some really fun songs.
For something a bit more orchestral (but still often with piano in the foreground), Rufus Wainwright is crafting some very unique and interesting pop.
Piano: Nick Cave
Non-piano keyboards: The Dresden Dolls, Heather Duby
Another Aussie band is The Whitlams who have been popular for years now. Personally I find them a little dirge-like and mournful but everyone else I know that likes Ben Folds is a fan of theirs.
Warren Zevon
The classic player was Leon Russell – check out the Joe Cocker album Mad Dogs and Englishmen, for which he was the musical director (and did some very funky playing).
No mention of Steely Dan?! Listen to their first album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, first. Then listen to all their other albums.
You might also like Dean Friedman.
I assume you’ve seen the Wikipedia entry on piano rock?
Madness had a number of songs with prominent piano parts (off the top of my head, “Disappear,” “Shut Up,” “The Sun and the Rain,” and their version of “Swan Lake”). And (from the same producers, coincidentally or not) Elvis Costello’s album Punch the Clock has some wonderful piano on it.
Bruce Hornsby
If you want to explore the avant-garde side of piano rock a little more then checkout anything by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Specifically…their album Brain Salad Surgery.
Ben Folds Five.
Nellie McKay
And Keane. And Something Corporate 
How come I immediately thought Joe Jackson? There is no mention of him on that Wikipedia piano rock article. Am I way off base here?
It’s too bad that Bruce is known only by his hit The Way It Is. I caught him in concert as an opening act and he was fantastic.
Joe definitely makes the list.
How about Jerry Lee Lewis?
Aqualung… You probably know the song “Brighter than Sunshine” from any number of recent movie soundtracks.
And if we’re mentioning ELP, we must then follow with Kansas. Check out “Song for America.” Yeow.
Augustana recently had a hit with their song “Boston”, which I thought was quite good. From a quick listen to iTunes’ samples of the rest of the album, however, it seems it was the lone piano ballad on the album. Disappointing.
I second Ben Folds.
You ought to check out his myspace sight and listen to the song bitches. Haha… that from the guy that wrote the soundtrack for Over the Hedge.
