"Chopsticks" (original name "The Celebrated Chop Waltz") is a simple, widely known waltz for the piano. Written in 1877, it is the only published piece by the British composer Euphemia Allan (under the pen name Arthur de Lulli). Allan—whose brother, Mozart Allan, was a music publisher—was sixteen when she composed the piece, with arrangements for solo and duet. The title "Chop Waltz" comes from Allan's specification that the melody be played in two-part harmony with both hands held in a vertical orientation, little fingers down and palms facing each other, striking the keys with a chopping motion.
- The theme music for the television series My Three Sons (1960–1972), written by Frank De Vol, was based on "Chopsticks", though key changes were added and the meter was changed to .
- In the 1955 Billy Wilder film The Seven Year Itch, Tom Ewell played this together with Marilyn Monroe and tried to kiss her, only to fail.
- In the 1955 season 4 episode of I Love Lucy "Ethel's Home Town", Fred Mertz (William Frawley) plays "Chopsticks".
- In the 1972 Columbo episode "Etude in Black", Columbo plays "Chopsticks" as a way to get under the skin of the pompous murderer/conductor Alex Benedict (John Cassavetes).
- "Chopsticks" accompanied the sequence in the 1972 ABC Saturday Superstar Movie Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter in which Beetle Bailey's comrade Sergeant Snorkel piles a variety of food on top of a secret message he planned to eat, Dagwood sandwich style.
- A simplified version of the tune is featured in the Manfred Mann's Earth Band’s Album version of the song "Blinded by the Light" it was not included in the shortened single version, originally by Bruce Springsteen. The Springsteen version did not contain the tune.
- In Ken Russell's Lisztomania, the audience of adolescent girls attending the first Franz Liszt concert demand that he play "Chopsticks", which he intersperses throughout a fantasia played on the piano based on themes from a Richard Wagner opera, which forces a disgusted Wagner to walk out.
- "Chopsticks" is the second song played by Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia in the famous giant piano scene at FAO Schwarz in the 1988 film Big.
- In the stage musical adaption of The Lion King, "Chopsticks" can be heard in the song "Lioness' Hunt".
- In the episode "Blind Faith" (Season 2 Episode 5) of Quantum Leap, first aired November 1, 1989, Scott Bakula leaps into a blind piano player on stage just in time for the encore performance. Bakula plays "Chopsticks" amusing the large audience in the music hall.
- The character Ryan Sinclair plays "Chopsticks" in "The Haunting of Villa Diodati", an episode of Doctor Who anachronistically set in 1816.
- The melody is quoted in Hoyt Curtin's theme to the 1960s Hanna-Barbera animated sitcom The Jetsons.
- The melody is the basis of J-pop group NiziU's 2021 single "Chopstick".
- Singer-songwriter Liz Phair opens the song “Chopsticks”, from her 1994 album Whip-Smart, with a variation of the waltz played on piano in time, and the theme continues through the song.
- The tune was played in the Laverne & Shirley episode "Breaking Up And Making Up".
- The melody is played by Sean Penn in the 1984 film Racing with the Moon while he is teaching Elizabeth McGovern the piano in an old honky-tonk bar.
- In Brazil the melody is known as "O Bife" (The Beef). An adaptation as a song has been used since the 80s by Danone for commercials for their children's petit suisse brand Danoninho even releasing an LP in 1989 under the name "O Bifinho".
- Peter Sellers plays it for Sinéad Cusack in the 1970 feature film Hoffman.
See also
- "Heart and Soul", 1938 song by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics by Frank Loesser with a similarly simple fingering