Your karaoke Classic?

[Dave]

When I go out for a night on the town, chances are that I will aim for a place with a karaoke machine. There is a place near me that is a rock club that plays some karaoke for it's members and it is literally the only reason that I go there. However, there is a better place in Glasgow that is essentially brilliant. This place is a three-floored club that is split into different partitions that perform different roles within the club. The first floor is all about house and RNB tunes. The second floor is all about the E'oke and is where I generally reside. The third floor is a pop and dance music club-style area.

Now, with my obvious love of Karaoke out of the way, I was wondering if you have a song that you like to perform on occasion? My last two birthday parties have been held in a restaurant that specialises in Karaoke. Now, on both occasions, I have always been the first up to have a bang on the mic. There is two songs that I always go for that are likely to get a crowd reaction. The first song is "Wonderwall" by Oasis. Now, I hate Oasis. They are a band that literally repulses me but this song is a God-damned crowd pleaser. You can pretty much bet that all the lads in club will come up and join you when you start signing. The second song is a cheesy classic that people love to sing along to:


Complete with dance moves.

At the end of the day, the main reason I love Karaoke is because it is a wild laugh. People make a fool of themselves and it is good entertainment. Now, the question remains, do you have a karaoke classic that you perform? Or are you one of those people that wont sing anything?

 

[Ice Cold]

Good thread idea for starters. I am one of the people who won't sing anything 80% of the time, or I will only do 1 song and that's it. Not to sound arrogant but I am a really really good singer, most of the time I wouldn't own up to that but it's going into an explanation. A lot of people get up there who THINK they can sing but can't. They get up there and give it their all and they might be ok but not as well as they think. Now if someone like myself gets up there who really can sing and just blows them out of the water, how does that make them feel? Probably insecure and deflated about their performance, so I don't do that.

I enjoy watching people do what they will, feel how they will, and enjoy themselves. I don't want to spoil the party for anyone, and in some cases I just don't want the attention. A lot of times when I get up and sing, afterwards I have people coming left and right to tell me how good I can sing and how much they liked it. I'm pretty shy so that isn't what I want and has a little bit to do with my reluctance to sing sometimes. I don't always feel like singing in front of a bunch of people I don't know.

What do I sing? Everything, depends on the bar. You can tell what people will and will not respond to by observing the atmosphere, the people, and by paying attention to the trends in what people are singing. A song that I sing that always gets the crowd no matter where I am is "My Girl" by The Temptations. Everyone knows it, everyone loves it, and more often than not the whole bar gets to singing it along with me.

 

[Nitafrong]

I used to do a lot of Karaoke when I was younger but in more reccent years I only ever seem to do it very rarely. When you can get a group together that are prepared to do it though it can be really great fun. I more agree with the views of Dave on this- its all about being energetic and fun with your preformance really rather than having any real talent at it. Often those who really can sing tend to sing serious slow songs that I always feel kill the mood a bit. I remember one particularly inspired Law society event which included three different versions of Bohemian Rhapsody in which the singing got progressivly worse and yet the dance moves got better and better. By the end one of the guys was barely doing any singing and instead some strangely intimate dancing with the curtain pole behind which he suddenly decided to strip behind mid song

I used to do the Grease duet- You're the one I want with a friend of mine except we switched the male and female vocals which we always had a lot of fun with. Other than that I never really had any prepared songs- I found singing with someone else was always a great icebreaker when you were with some people you didn't know. After you have stared down a drunken bar crowd nervously clutching a microphone with someone else and realised halfway through Come on Eileen that neither of you know any lyrics apart from the chorus (very few people actually do know it I have found )- that you can't really help being friends with them. I have also done Its Raining Men a couple of times- generally the 80's always goes down well.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I am not really a huge fan of karaoke, but I will usually have a go if everyone else is joining in as well. I dont think I am a shockingly bad singer, but I am definately not anything special!

The last time I did karaoke was in Lanzerote last summer and I sang "A Town Called Malice" by The Jam in an Irish bar infront of 200 odd people, and actually got told I did it well which was great!

I always enjoy it when I do it, but usually takes alot of pushing to get me to go up haha, always panic over forgetting the words haha

 

[Avrusha92]

My favorite thing to sing at Karaoke is House of the Rising Sun by The Animals, and Use Somebody by Kings of Leon.

I enjoy Use Somebody alot, one of the best things played on the Radio last year unlike all the other crap.

& Wow, what a classic..House of the Rising Sun, this is one of my fav. songs ever! This is a real bar/karaoke song..which everyone loves to sing to.

songs like Use Somebody & House of the Rising Sun gets my crowd going, and love the way I sing it...

 

[Dave]

I used to do a lot of Karaoke when I was younger but in more reccent years I only ever seem to do it very rarely. When you can get a group together that are prepared to do it though it can be really great fun. I more agree with the views of Dave on this- its all about being energetic and fun with your preformance really rather than having any real talent at it. Often those who really can sing tend to sing serious slow songs that I always feel kill the mood a bit. I remember one particularly inspired Law society event which included three different versions of Bohemian Rhapsody in which the singing got progressivly worse and yet the dance moves got better and better. By the end one of the guys was barely doing any singing and instead some strangely intimate dancing with the curtain pole behind which he suddenly decided to strip behind mid song

I used to do the Grease duet- You're the one I want with a friend of mine except we switched the male and female vocals which we always had a lot of fun with. Other than that I never really had any prepared songs- I found singing with someone else was always a great icebreaker when you were with some people you didn't know. After you have stared down a drunken bar crowd nervously clutching a microphone with someone else and realised halfway through Come on Eileen that neither of you know any lyrics apart from the chorus (very few people actually do know it I have found )- that you can't really help being friends with them. I have also done Its Raining Men a couple of times- generally the 80's always goes down well.

You do Grease too!? We MUST duet!

I do agree with you whole-heartedly though, it is about the performance more than the singing. I am not a horrible singer but I am far from talented. Yet, I don't think I've ever been hurried off the stage and I generally always get people to join in with me. Karaoke is a brilliant ice-breaker, like you say. I met my first girlfriend at a party where we were all doing karaoke. It wasn't in like a High School Musical kind of way but it was quite alike. We ended up singing "Keep On Moving" by 5ive, a genuinely amazing song. I sang it myself and then she felt sorry for me and started singing along and a romance was born, essentially.

That being said, I love karaoke and the way it can bond people together through a song. In the time it takes to make a fool of yourself and sing a cheesy song, you have learned all you need to know about a person and how fun they are. If you can do karaoke, I will love you forever.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Karaoke rocks but I'm always shakin like a leaf first time I go up - used to think it was lack of drink but I've got up a couple of nights stone cold sober and that ain't the case - I just paranoid everyone is going to think I'm crap and boo me, throw ice etcetra. I'm normally more relaxed on returns after some kind words.

My favorites would be Otis Reading - Dock of the bay, Queen - Crazy little thing called love, Elton John - Your song, Wet Wet Wet - Love is all around or something by Garth Brooks. I think the secret is to pick something everyone knows, otherwise everyone switches off and it don't matter how well you do or don't sing (although a really obscure song sang very badly can be very funny because you're never 100% that it isn't ment to sound that way)