The familiar strains of Billy Joel's "River of Dreams" echo through Nan's Piano Bar on the top floor of the Freight House Entertainment Complex in downtown Davenport.

But it's a fair certainty the Piano Man never counted on his song being sung a la William Shatner, or with a 1970s-era spoken echo, or with a straining falsetto or taking the five-second break in the song and extending it to a half-minute.

Yet all those touches are added by the two performers - Paul Creed and Matt Nichols - onstage this night for what's become known as "dueling pianos."

The dueling pianos concept has already been popular across the country for about 20 years and was a dream for about that long of Jeff Johnson, who owns the Freight House and books the dueling pianos there, as well as at the Edje nightclub at Jumer's Casino & Hotel in Rock Island (dueling pianos is there in June, as part of alternating months of various entertainment types) and at the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque, Iowa.

With no disrespect to the men and women who play piano for a living, dueling pianists say their concept takes it a step further.

"We do a show, not just a bunch of songs," the Orlando, Fla.-based Creed says. "I can't stand that."

Creed and Nichols estimate that there are 300 dueling pianist performers throughout the country, some who work together frequently and others who are paired up by clubs. Each takes written requests from audience members and plays them. When one player thinks the other is better-suited for a song, he'll wad the request up and throw it to his counterpart.

One will serve as backup to another on vocals, piano and with a built-in clapboard at the piano.

They not only play the songs, at facing baby grand piano cases, but they also interact with the audience, making fun of the crowd, each other and themselves.

"It's almost like improv comedy," Creed said.

Case in point: A request for ABBA's "Dancing Queen" was introduced by Creed as "Let's just rip this off like a Band-Aid and get it over with" - and, following the all-falsetto performance, suggested that a bit of his masculinity was gone.

Ribald versions of some classics also get a good response from the crowd and are often a part of birthday or bachelorette party shenanigans.

"The audience participation is really unique," Johnson said. "It's not like watching a band or a guy up there just playing piano favorites."

Song titles are written by the audience members on slips of paper available at the tables. Whether a song is a "request" or a "suggestion," each man says, depends on whether currency accompanies the title.

"We do suggestions," Nichols told the Freight House crowd. "We just do them later in the evening."

Pianists have a repertoire of at least 200 songs, Johnson said, while almost all of them know 50 or 60 songs that are keyboard standards.

"Anything that you heard Top 40 in the past 50 years could essentially work well," said Nichols, who is based in New York.

The 1980s Journey hit "Don't Stop Believin'" has exploded in the past few years, and, Nichols said, has become a staple. Inexplicably, rap from the '90s has also become huge. ("Baby Got Back," anyone?)

"As time goes on, certain songs become classics," Nichols said. "Now it's part of the repertoire."

Singing along is not only encouraged, it's nearly demanded.

"There's a lot of satisfaction," Nichols said. "You make people happy and you get them involved. There's always a certain level of satisfaction for a musician when people appreciate what you do."

Johnson, who has also been booking dueling pianos for a steady stream of corporate events, first saw the concept in New Orleans. It's something that is more popular in the heartland than the rest of the country, the two performers said.

"It's hugely more popular through the Midwest, all the way down through Texas, compared to either coast, from what I've seen," Creed said.

Creed, 45, has played in dueling pianos since 1995, and Nichols, 25, has been doing so since 2006.

They worked together for several months in Orlando and learned some showbiz telepathy during that time.

"You can almost read the other person's mind. Even when they're doing something spontaneous, you learn how to keep going with them. We have a good time. In turn, the audience has a good time," Nichols said.

"We're having fun with what we're doing," Creed said.

Dueling pianos is not something every keyboard player can succeed at, the men say.

"You can't just play piano and sing and get up on stage and be able to do this," Nichols said. "There's an immense amount of knowledge involved, and crucial decision-making. You have to look at this field of requests and pick the one you know is going to work. Also, you have to know what works for your partner.

"That's every single song," he added.

The phrase "dueling pianos," Nichols said, makes him and many audience members think of the scene in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" where Donald Duck and Daffy Duck are at war on the keyboards.

Nothing could be further from that violent image, he said.

"A better moniker for it is singalong. In essence, the whole point of this is that we work together. We're a team," he added. "The whole goal is to give these people a good time."