History Main / IconicSongRequest

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Mutants Are Revolting", Music/{{Devo}} pledge their support to the mutant revolt and promise to do "everything they can" to support it. A mutant yells "Play 'Whip It'!", to which Mark Mothersbaugh responds "[[BluntNo No]]", and they play 'Beautiful World' instead.

* Israeli {{Sketch Comedy}} show 'The Jews are Coming' uses this trope in a sketch about Hayim Nahman Bialik, widely known as Israel's 'national poet' and the most prominent poet of the early days of the modern Hebrew language, who wrote some harrowing, beautiful poetry about love, faith and the horrors of war as well as some iconic children's nursery rhymes. Bialik is shown performing in a poetry cafe, dramatically reciting one of his epic poems about war and death, when audience members start shouting "'See-Saw'! Do 'See-Saw'!"

* Israeli {{Sketch Comedy}} show 'The Jews are Coming' uses this trope in a sketch about Hayim Nahman Bialik, widely known as Israel's 'national poet' and the most prominent poet of the early days of the modern Hebrew language, who wrote some harrowing, beautiful poetry about love, faith and the horrors of war as well as some iconic children's nursery rhymes. Bialik is shown performing in a poetry cafe, dramatically reciting one of his epic poems about war and death, when audience members start shouting "'See-Saw'! Do 'See-Saw'!"

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Brian meets a bitter recluse who used to be a famous singer of commercial jingles. When she tried to pursue a career in opera, she was hounded by requests to sing her famous jingles and got booed off the stage, which made her disappear from the public eye.

* Though it mostly applies to acoustic, in Poland you listen to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eom6_ZZuHWE Dzem]][[note]]There should be a diacritical mark over the "z" but it won't reproduce here.[[/note]]. There are two types of guitarists - these who are playing "Whisky" and these who aren't playing it yet.

!Examples:

[[folder: Film ]]
* ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'': "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." Referenced all the time, usually mangled as "[[BeamMeUpScotty Play it again, Sam]]"
* ''Film/WaynesWorld'': The guitar store has a sign that says "No [[Music/LedZeppelin Stairway]]".
* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' someone shouts for "Freebird" during Lightning [=McQueen=]'s sponsors' appearance.
* A variation appears in Film/StepBrothers. The band hired to play at a fancy reception is very clear about being a ''strictly 80's doo-wop Billy Joel'' cover-band. One member of the audience keeps drunkenly (and abusively) yelling requests for other Billy Joel songs until the leader of the band flips out and they all storm off. Their reaction seems to imply they get heckled like this a lot.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* If watching LiveActionTV {{Sit Com}}s from TheSixties has taught anyone anything, it's that the drunk in the piano bar will always ask for "Melancholy Baby".
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Riker is giving a trombone concert and Troi insists that he play a fictional tune "Nightbird". He reluctantly agrees, and then is saved by a summons to the bridge.
** Although this is less this trope, and more Troi teasing Riker because "Nightbird" is implied to be an incredibly difficult song, as she comments to the person she's attending the performance with that Riker has never been able to make it through the solo section.

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Stand Up Comedy ]]
* One of Creator/BillHicks' most infamous rants (the "Hitler had the right idea, [[KillAllHumans he was just an underachiever!]]" one) was triggered by a heckler repeatedly shouting "Freebird".
* Stand-up comedians suffer from a similar fate when audience members shout requests for them to repeat their iconic bits.
** In one of Creator/{{Robin Williams}}'s later comedy albums, someone shouts a request for him to do Mork from ''Series/MorkAndMindy''. He declines, saying, "I don't 'nanoo' no more!"
** On one of his earlier albums recorded at the height of "Mork and Mindy"'s popularity, he turns down the same request by saying "I'm not doing Mork tonight because this is why I perform HERE, to do something different." The audience applauds in appreciation.
** In a Creator/PattonOswalt comedy double album, he gets demands for his "piss drinkers" routine, and fields a number of other requests. At first he reacts to the barrage of demands by saying that it's his version of hell, but then decides that it's actually great to have people begging for his material.
** For a while, Jay Mohr could barely get through a show without someone demanding his Creator/ChristopherWalken impression.

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'': The audience is occasionally heard trolling your band with requests for "Free Bird". Lampshaded in a loading screen tip which reads "They don't really want you to play 'Free Bird', they're just heckling you."
** Fast forward to ''Guitar Hero II'', and what's the final encore in career mode? Guess.
--> "[[CallBack FINE. They're NOT just heckling you this time. SIGH.]]"
* In ''Guitar Hero II'', one of the random loading screen messages says, "Remember, NO STAIRWAY!", possibly calling back to ''Film/WaynesWorld''. Or commenting on the fact that Harmonix had/has yet to license Led Zeppelin songs for ''Guitar Hero'' or ''VideoGame/RockBand''. Possibly even both.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Webcomic/HarkAVagrant: I said [[http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=212 play some god damn]] Music/BillyJoel!

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (variant): Barney wants to see the Music/RedHotChiliPeppers play, and so starts a chant for "Chilly Willy".

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* "PLAY SOME HIP!" Was a frequent cry in Canadian bars in the 1990s; some musicians covered ''Music/TheTragicallyHip'' and some didn't, though all were pretty annoyed by the request.
* Music/FrankZappa once heard someone request ''Caravan'' by Music/DukeEllington, but ''with a drum solo''. He referenced this bizarre request on his albums ''Music/FreakOut'' and ''Music/AbsolutelyFree''.
** One times Zappa and his band performed somewhere in Europe when a fan requested ''Whippin' Post'' by Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand. As Zappa or none of his band members knew the song they couldn't fulfill this bizarre request, though Zappa did try to find out what the song was like, learned to play it, added it to his concert tours and included it on CD soon afterwards.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'', someone in the audience asks LudwigVanBeethoven to play "Freebird". Beethoven wails on him, and subsequently quits music for a career in wrestling.

-->There are a few songs that every piano player just knows, just as sure as your average guitar player needs to learn [[Music/DeepPurple "Smoke on the Water"]]. [[Music/{{Journey}} "Don't Stop Believing"]] is one of them; "Music/{{Imagine}}", that's a good one; [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore the really obvious one is]] [[Music/BillyJoel "Piano Man"]]. So just for your own sanity, learn that one because you will hear a lot of requests for that one. I swear, one day I'm gonna put up a WaynesWorld-style sign that says [[BerserkButton "Absolutely No 'Piano Man']]".

* Music/{{Hawkwind}} can get shirty when the demand goes up for ''Silver Machine'', their only major single hit, from ''forty-four'' years ago. A live version from a released LP starts with Dave Brock muttering "Yeah, my mum's got a washing machine!", and the track fades into a simulated explosion just as it gets to the first chorus.[[note]] It doesn't help that the single was performed with lead vocals from [[Music/{{Motorhead}} Lemmy]], a former band member who left shortly afterwards to stellar sucess with his new band, and who remained non persona grata with the autocratic Brock.[[/note]]

-> ''"Life is '''too fucking short''' to play or hear Freebird."''

-->--[[http://blogcritics.org/music/article/modest-mouse-on-freebird/ Isaac Brock]].

* Music/LynyrdSkynyrd's "Free Bird", of course. On the Modest Mouse live album ''Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again'', when an audience member shouts for the band to play "Freebird," the lead singer Isaac Brock responds with [[http://blogcritics.org/music/article/modest-mouse-on-freebird/ this speech]].

* Webcomic/HarkAVagrant: I said [[http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=212 play some god damn]] BillyJoel!

-->There are a few songs that every piano player just knows, just as sure as your average guitar player needs to learn [[DeepPurple "Smoke on the Water"]]. [[Music/{{Journey}} "Don't Stop Believing"]] is one of them; "Music/{{Imagine}}", that's a good one; [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore the really obvious one is]] [[Music/BillyJoel "Piano Man"]]. So just for your own sanity, learn that one because you will hear a lot of requests for that one. I swear, one day I'm gonna put up a WaynesWorld-style sign that says [[BerserkButton "Absolutely No 'Piano Man']]".

* Do not ask Music/RyanAdams to play a Music/BryanAdams song. Especially "[[BerserkButton Summer Of 69]]".

* ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'': The audience is occasionally heard trolling your band with requests for Music/LynyrdSkynyrd's "Freebird", but you actually do get to play "Freebird" as the final boss of ''VideoGame/GuitarHero II.''
** One of the loading screen messages even lampshades it: "They don't really want you to play 'Freebird', they're just heckling you."
** With "Freebird" part of the ''GHII'' setlist, a loading screen gives a CallBack to the one above: "FINE. They're NOT just heckling you this time. SIGH." It's funny to notice how indignant the message looks.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* A variation appears in StepBrothers. The band hired to play at a fancy reception is very clear about being a ''strictly 80's doo-wop Billy Joel'' cover-band. One member of the audience keeps drunkenly (and abusively) yelling requests for other Billy Joel songs until the leader of the band flips out and they all storm off. Their reaction seems to imply they get heckled like this a lot.

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:{{Music}}]]

* In his review of Semisonic's "Closing Time", ToddInTheShadows says that said song is one, along with a few others:
-->There are a few songs that every piano player just knows, just as sure as your average guitar player needs to learn [[DeepPurple "Smoke on the Water"]]. [[Music/{{Journey}} "Don't Stop Believing"]] is one of them; "Music/Imagine", that's a good one; [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore the really obvious one is]] [[BillyJoel "Piano Man"]]. So just for your own sanity, learn that one because you will hear a lot of requests for that one. I swear, one day I'm gonna put up a WaynesWorld-style sign that says [[BerserkButton "Absolutely No 'Piano Man']]".

[[AC:StandUpComedy]]

** In one of Robin Williams' later comedy albums, someone shouts a request for him to do Mork from ''Series/MorkAndMindy''. He declines, saying, "I don't 'nanoo' no more!"

** In a Patton Oswalt comedy double album, he gets demands for his "piss drinkers" routine, and fields a number of other requests. At first he reacts to the barrage of demands by saying that it's his version of hell, but then decides that it's actually great to have people begging for his material.
** For a while, Jay Mohr could barely get through a show without someone demanding his Christopher Walken impression.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'': The audience is occasionally heard trolling your band with requests for LynyrdSkynyrd's "Freebird", but you actually do get to play "Freebird" as the final boss of ''VideoGame/GuitarHero II.''

* In ''Guitar Hero II'', one of the random loading screen messages says, "Remember, NO STAIRWAY!", possibly calling back to ''Wayne's World''. Or commenting on the fact that Harmonix had/has yet to license Led Zeppelin songs for ''Guitar Hero'' or ''Rock Band''. Possibly even both.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

* In [[http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=570854 this Touhou fan-comic]][[labelnote:*]]see [[http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/860085/4koma-6-girls-al_bhed_eyes-alcohol-bags_under_eyes here]] for a version with comments but also with '''NSFW''' ads[[/labelnote]], the Prismriver Sisters don't appreciate one of these.
* HarkAVagrant: I said [[http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=212 play some god damn]] BillyJoel!

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (variant): Barney wants to see the RedHotChiliPeppers play, and so starts a chant for "Chilly Willy".

* ''GuitarHero'': The audience is occasionally heard trolling your band with requests for LynyrdSkynyrd's "Freebird", but you actually do get to play "Freebird" as the final boss of ''GuitarHero II.''

-> ''"Life is '''too fucking short''' to play or hear [[LynyrdSkynyrd Freebird]]."''