The Playlist: Bar Songs

Sorry about the slight delay in posting this. Apparently when I come back from vacation, I forget what day of the week it is...


Crowded malls. Credit card bills. The search for the perfect present. Doesn't it all just get to be too much sometimes?

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. ...Wouldn't you like to get away?

Yes, I did just blatantly steal from the 'Cheers' theme song. And while this isn't Boston and there probably isn't a person named Sam Malone for 100 miles, if you do plan on spending some time in your own favorite watering hole this holiday season, here are a few songs worth putting a quarter in the jukebox for.

Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville (1977)
Album: Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes


The signature song from the leader of the Parrot Heads was a Top 10 hit and remains his most successful song to date. The tale of a laid-back lifestyle in Key West, Fla. based around "searching for my lost shaker of salt" and "that frozen concoction that helps me hang on" led to its own merchandising campaign. Now you can find a restaurant, seafood, chicken wings, tequila and even footwear which bears the song's name.

Billy Joel - Piano Man (1973)
Album: Piano Man


If 'Margaritaville' is a happy drinking song then 'Piano Man' ranks a little higher on the sad-o-meter. It's Joel's signature song and he continues to close concerts to this day with it but if you listen to the lyrics, the story of bar customers who could have done more with their lives is just a bit depressing. There's John the bartender, Davy "who's still in the Navy and probably will be for life," and the waitress and businessman "sharing a drink they call loneliness." FYI: Joel wrote the song as a fictionalized retelling of the people he met while working as a lounge singer in Los Angeles.

Toby Keith - I Love This Bar (2003)
Album: Shock'n Y'all


I myself have heard this many a time in the past few weeks at Shelby's own drinking establishments. And for being from a completely different musical genre and released 30 years later, this isn't so different from 'Piano Man.' It just happens to be much more upbeat. It was a No. 1 hit for Keith on the Billboard Country charts where it stayed for five weeks and was parodied in 2004 by country music comedian Cledus T. Judd, who renamed the song 'I Love NASCAR.'

Garth Brooks - Friends in Low Places (1990)
Album: No Fences



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The song helped propel Brooks into superstardom in the early 90s and to this day is regarded one of the top country songs of all time. Brooks was working as a shoe salesman in Nashville when the composers of the song met him and gave him work to do making demos of their songs. It wasn't much later that Brooks himself would turn one of those demos into one of the biggest songs of his career. Allegedly, in the fall of 1990 when the song was at its peak, Brooks received letters from high schoolers wanting to use it as their class song. Both the principals and Brooks agreed it probably wasn't the best idea.

Semisonic - Closing Time (1998)
Album: Feeling Strangely Fine


This one certainly takes me back to high school. Yes, I just dated myself. The song talks about last calls and having to leave the bar - 'You don't have to go home but you can't stay here' - but I just recently realized it's not about alcohol at all. According to the band's drummer, it's a cleverly disguised song about being born. Which kinda adds up considering those handful of lines that didn't make sense until just now - 'Time for you to go out to the places you will be from ... This room won't be open till your brothers or your sisters come.' ...Wow. You learn something every day.

There’s my list - what’s yours? Shoot me an e-mail at grahamcawthon@shelbystar.com and it might end up featured in a future column.