Bill Maguire asks [050330 MMDigest], "I would like to know from
MMDers, which rolls or music seemed to be most popular with the
general public, from your experience?"

Bill, it depends on the venue.  If there are lots of people who
love to sing (as Dave Levin and I found ten to twenty years ago in
Harvard Square) then good sing-alongs with unfaded words work well.

"Let Me Call You Sweetheart" always brought them up to sing.
Ragtime didn't.  If no one was around the piano, the Supertone
version of Stars and Stripes Forever worked wonders.

In a dance venue, the dancers' favorites work well.  We once had
a Can-Can line kicking it up in Harvard Square.

Dave's approach was to have about a thousand rolls along, and to
allow people to choose the rolls to be played.  Teens would always
request rolls we didn't have -- the latest rock, rap, punk, or whatever
-- just to be annoying and to test us.  Most of their requests were
un-piano-able anyway.  Once in a while QRS had indeed made that roll,
but the version was always "unacceptable" to the teens.  Why?
It didn't have their favorite singer (or shouter) on it.

Age group matters.  Everyone likes hearing favorites from childhood.
In 1985, the people who _really_ liked the WW1 through 1930s rolls
were between 75 and 90 years old.  Those people are mostly gone now.
The current of geezers (about to include me!) remember WW2 through
1960 as their favorite stuff.

One particular 1930s roll, "As Time Goes By," was always a problem.
The arrangement was very different from the version played in the movie
"Casablanca", and it annoyed the listeners.  Some other rolls had
similar problems, such as the "wrong" "Moon River".

If the people expect ragtime, then ragtime thrills them, mostly.
Some of the old rolls are poor renditions, from the current perspective
of ragtime as 'American Classical Music'.

Amateur "Maple-Leaf Rag" pianists (I'm one) will find fault and
disappointment with the QRS roll that's supposedly a hand-played
version by Joplin himself.  They may seethe at J. Lawrence Cook's
version of the same rag.  Recent arrangements (such as Doug Henderson's
Artcraft rolls) are often far superior to older arrangements.

I now live in North Carolina instead of New England.  The rules here
are different.  The few times I've taken the piano out, most of the
requests have been for "country" music.  Very few rolls qualify.
"Tie a Yellow Ribbon" is the only one I can think of right now.
"If it ain't country," said one listener, "I don't want to hear it."

Personally I find it a bit dull be stuck to the theme, "My honey
done left me and my dog done died."

Peter Neilson