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Backstage Restaurant (318 W. 45th St.), Steve Ross has been proclaimed "The Crown Prince of Manhattan's Piano Bars" by The New York Times. "I sing theatre songs almost exclusively," he says. "I do full arrangements of them. My repertoire goes from obscure songs like Gershwin's 'Feeling Sentimental' that I found on a Ben Bagley album to today's top requests – 'What I Did for Love,' 'All that Jaz' and 'Send In The Clowns.'"

Steve feels that a cabaret pianist should not expect people to tip him if he plays a request. And a tip glass placed on top of the piano is gross. "But one night," he recalls, "a man did tip me $100 to play Tchaikovsky's 'Piano Concerto.' I only knew the 'Tonight We Love' theme from it, so I played it in five different keys, working up to a grand climax. He liked it so much, he gave me $35 additional to play it again."

Mr. Ross can be heard on a new album, Steve Ross (Stolen Moments Records). Beginning in December, he will also be playing at Ted Hook's new club, Onstage, (349 W. 46th St.).

Charles De Forest, who alternates with Steve Ross at Backstage, will also be playing at Onstage. He describes himself as a melody person. "I particularly like Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen because their melodies do something inside you. I also like to do obscure numbers like 'Roundabout' by Vernon Duke (from Two's Company) and 'Alone Too Long' by Arthur Schwartz (from By The Beautiful Sea). I love movie tunes and do a lot of them. Piano bars are informal and you should play what people want to hear. A pianist should never say to anyone, 'I don't do that number anymore,' or, 'I hate that song.' But some people go too far. They ask me to play disco – on a piano – alone???"

The pianist can be heard on a popular album: Charles De Forest Sings Joan Crawford and Eleanor Powell (Stax Records) with songs from the stars' films.

Are there no women saloon pianist/singers? Yes, marvelous Lynn Richards at The Priory (224 E. 53rd St.), who, like Hugh Shannon has a royal following and spends vacations in a castle in Scotland. Lynn's fans of yesteryear have grown up

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married and had children. "They still come in to hear me," she says, "and their children know my repertoire. My most requested numbers are 'Down In The Depths' by Porter and Rodgers and Hart's 'Little Girl Blue.' But I don't start singing until my audience is through with supper. As soon as dessert is served, that's when I start to sing for my supper.

Jimmy Lyon in the Waldorf-Astoria's Peacock Alley doesn't sing, but he does play Cole Porter's own 1906 Steinway, which the hotel gave to the composer when he lived in the Waldorf Towers. "It's a fantastic piano," Jimmy says, "and, of course, I play mostly Porter on it. A lot of Porter's friends have come in to hear me play on his piano and they get very nostalgic." Lyon, who has played with the bands of Benny Goodman and Fred Waring, has also been, for years, Mabel Mercer's accompanist. His soon to be released album is called Cole Porter's Music Played on Cole Porter's Piano.

Richard Shadroui at the Chateau Bahia (863 First Ave.) is right across from the U.N. and draws a continental crowd. "They love Noel Coward – and especially 'Don't Put Your Daughter On The Stage, Mrs. Worthington.' They also request offbeat numbers like 'A Little Priest' from Sweeney Todd, 'Gee Officer Krupke' from West Side Story and the River City number from Music Man. I do a lot of Kander and Ebb and Jones and Schmidt songs. I have a cabaret style and try to do the numbers as they were done in their shows.

Forrest Perrin, a veteran free-lance pianist and band leader, plays for private parties at the '21 Club and all over town. He has a vast repertoire of show tunes and says they are stronger than ever. He is constantly amused by people who request a tune by its lyric rather than its title. "They ask me for 'Sometimes I Wonder,'" he says, "when they mean 'Stardust' and for 'Funny, But,' when they mean 'I'm In The Mood For Love' (the lyric goes, 'Funny, but when you're near me ...'). Nobody asks for 'As Time Goes By.' They call it, 'Play It Again Sam.'"

Many of these pianists can be heard on the Paul Lazarus radio show, "Anything Goes," on WBAI, Jan. 7th from 9:30 am until noon.

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