Loved watching Billie Eilish and Finneas playing “Sunny” on a Wurlitzer 203? Here's a few more of our favorite live Wurlitzer videos

We loved Billie Eilish and Finneas’s performance of Sunny — and, of course, we always love seeing a console Wurlitzer out in the wild. It’s pretty rare to see them on stage. That’s because they aren’t as convenient as a Nord (or even a portable Wurlitzer), nor are they as visually dramatic as a conventional piano — but they have a full, rich tone with vintage character that rivals any other keyboard.

There are a lot of really cool, multi-layered tonal elements in the original Sunny, and Billie Eilish and Finneas managed to distill it into a really beautiful two-person performance that still has a lot of musical richness. This brings us to one of our favorite things about the Wurlitzer: although it has a lot of character (listen to that vibrato!) and an instantly-recognizable tone, it never overpowers a good vocal performance.

A Wurlitzer 203w that we currently have (probably the same model as Finneas is playing in "Sunny.”) Although the music rack is not pictured, we do have it (the original one!).

Part of the reason is because the Wurlitzer not only features all-analog electronics, but it also has physical tone generators (reeds). This creates rich harmonics (i.e., timbre; i.e., that mysterious tonal factor that makes every instrument sound unique), and you just can’t recreate those with a digital keyboard. These harmonics blend beautifully with a delicate vocal like Billie Eilish’s on Sunny. There’s also a lot of dynamics in Finneas’s performance: you can hear that Wurlitzer smoothness contrasted with the characteristic Wurlitzer bark.

What kind of Wurlitzer is Finneas playing? It looks like a classic black 200/200a, but the giveaway that Finneas’s Wurlitzer is rare and unusual is the console base. Wurlitzer released several black console models throughout the 1970s, all of which looked extremely similar. We suspect that Finneas’s Wurlitzer is a 203 or 203w, because there are no dots on the knobs. Dots on the knobs indicate a later model: either a late-release 203, or a 210. All console models have a great (and very similar) sound: the differences are more historical than practical. But, if you’re interested, we wrote about them here.

More great live Wurlitzer performances

If you’ve listened to Billie Eilish and Finneas’s Sunny cover on repeat, and want more Wurlitzer, here’s some of our favorite live Wurly videos:

Watermelon Sugar — Harry Styles (performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk). The Wurlitzer, played by keyboardist Charlotte Clark, gives a little alien sparkle to this surrealist love song. Here, the Wurlitzer imparts a lovely mellowness; on the album, the keyboard may or may not be a Wurlitzer (we think it sounds a little more digital). Still cool, just a different vibe. (The whole Tiny Desk concert is worth a watch, but Watermelon Sugar starts around 5 minutes in.)

Instant Karma — John Lennon. We are huge proponents of having multiple Wurlitzers, and apparently John Lennon was too. In this video, not only is he playing a Wurlitzer, but Yoko Ono is sitting next to him, playing a second Wurlitzer. Bonus: it looks like Lennon’s Wurlitzer is an original blonde 200, which were only manufactured for a brief period in the late 1960s.

Hurting Each Other — The Carpenters. Richard Carpenter was a huge Wurlitzer aficionado — he had a rare avocado green model, and plays it in a lot of Carpenters videos. Wurlitzers are a staple of 1970s music: really, one of the most sophisticated portable keyboards available at the time. In fact, everything in this video is peak 70s in the best way.

Bonus Wurlitzer songs (that we couldn’t find a Wurlitzer video for):

Even when musicians play Wurlitzers on their album, a lot of the time they play a different kind of keyboard on stage. It’s very interesting to contrast the different vibe that a Wurlitzer offers, compared to a digital keyboard, acoustic piano, or a Rhodes. So, we included both a live version (featuring some non-Wurlitzer piano) as well as the album version.