your karaoke set list

everyone was pretty drunk by the last two

(whoops)

haven't been in a while, last song I sang was She's Like the Wind, and the host (a friend of mine) pointed out the ridiculousness of the lyrics throughout

How'd you do on that Lambert song? I couldn't sing a line for my life.

Usually Bowie for me. I do a mean Bowie.

How'd you do on that Lambert song? I couldn't sing a line for my life.

i did alright! i can't let loose & really belt it like he does, but i can stay on key

teenager in love - dion
is it my body? - alice cooper

going through max karaoke's song search to figure out what i'm gonna do today. here's what i have on my list:

debbie gibson - foolish beat
ost - the sound of music
richard harris - macarthur park
glen campbell - wichita lineman
kate bush - cloudbusting
kris kristofferson - help me make it through the night
steely dan - rikki don't lose that number
rose royce - love don't live here anymore
nu shooz - i can't wait
expose - point of no return
diana ross - it's my turn

on Tuesday, it was

Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Michael Buble - Call Me Irresponsible
T.I. - Dead and Gone

one more:

dusty springfield - "i just don't know what to do with myself"

Twista - Slow Jamz

Oi a few stumbles but mostly got it

started doing this Judas Priest one recently - this obv wasn't from a karaoke night (cos nobody ever records those) but it's karaoke in that I didn't record the backing track.

http://mfi.re/listen/20yp0eupnk218bg/Before_the_Dawn.mp3

tonight i will probably be doing

springsteen, downbound train
solange, cranes in the sky
rem, electrolite

depending on who is willing to put up with me, i also would like to do

cate le bon, are you with me now
kylie, can't get you out of my head
julia jacklin, pressure to party
neil young, wreckin ball
and if my friends won't hate me for doing it,
the soft boys, tonight

i have been hosting karaoke twice a week for five years now in the suburbs of portland oregon ama

Wow. Any tips, nuggets, anecdotes to share?

ama

do you have any songs that, when they come up, you know it's going to be bad (or good)

ama?

sure!

nobody in the audience is impressed by the depths of your music knowledge and they generally won't respond to songs they don't know, so pick the hits (or if you want deeper cuts, pick cuts that people at least know but nobody thinks to sing?), however this does not mean you should just sing sweet caroline and bohemian rhapsody. be creative but don't try to shut people out by doing shit nobody's ever heard of before. *this is easily circumvented if you are with a group of friends who all know the song(s) and will be into it.

energy is nearly as valuable as talent. if you can't sing nobody will care if you're having a good time and bringing something to the table, even if it's just that you're having fun up there. people like effort!

don't bother the kj about where you are in line more than once. if it's me, i will be petty and start bumping you down the list every time you ask after the first time. also tip your kj as they don't get paid much and are working for tips!

learn how to use a microphone!!!!! a lot of people don't know that it is not a magical stick that merely needs to be held in the hands. also if you can learn to project your voice like a frickin singer you are an angel and i adore you!

don't put your friends up for songs they don't know & etc. this sucks and just leads to embarrassment and i hate when someone sheepishly quits mid-song. like most things, karaoke is better with consent!

no heckling the singers! i have strict no heckling rules and i enforce them with an iron fist!

if you are in town come to my karaoke night and say hi to me and let's hang out i am fun

My neighborhood watering hole 💦 🕳 has now extended their karaoke to seven nights a week, which is kind of interesting. Lots of recent Spanish language pop songs, most of which I am unfamiliar with but still enjoy listening to. Sometimes songs get entered into the queue but nobody seems to know who entered them so someone has to volunteer to perform them. Radiohead’s “Creep” seems to pop up every night in this fashion, at least when I have been there, last time it happened I stepped up to sing it since it would be another 45 minutes until my selection came up.
(xp)

Wow, I really like your approach, thanks.

Ha, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was another abandoned pick, so one guy who is a pretty good singer but a baritone stepped it to sing some of it in a lower octave and the rest of us including me tried to pitch in just to get through it.

do you have any songs that, when they come up, you know it's going to be bad (or good)

oh man yes? it's so situational though. most of the stuff that i groan at is when people pick the really obvious stuff, song after song, or go for songs that they are doing "ironically". i'd rather see people sing songs they genuinely like as that leads to better performances and sometimes honest emotion on stage. i have a whole thing about karaoke and public catharsis. you're not going to get there with "boom boom pow".

i love to be surprised, in the main. "You? doing that? wow. okay! we'll see how that goes!" is probably my favorite reaction to anyone putting a song in. the absolute worst shit is when a drunk dude late at night wants to do "tears in heaven" or johnny cash's version of "hurt" or whatever. like folks, this is supposed to be a party, come on.

Another ghost selection was “Hey Jude.” This was made worse by the fact that we couldn’t see the lyrics for some reason. It just seemed to go on for ever, feels like it is exhibit A if a hit that should be avoided by most at karaoke night. Truth be told even when listening to the recorded version I am sometimes looking at my watch waiting for Ringo to come back from his bathroom break.

karl btw i love your picks and want to have a spingsteen off with you some night! i sang electrolite a few months ago when i got terrible news from a doctor (turned out the doc was wrong but that was still a tough weekend and i had to get some thoughts about life/death outta my system) and absolutely no one had any idea what the song was, but fuck 'em, had to say my peace about not being scared into a microphone you know

i have attempted to dissuade more than one person over the years from doing hey jude. "you realize this is going to devolve into you saying na nananana nananana for about five minutes, right?" they still always end up doing it. the smart ones bow out with a couple minutes to go

Feel like maybe even somebody put that in just to mess.

Agree that people should basically like the song they are singing and try to sing it as well as they can without worrying about being perfect, even if there is some comedy element to their performance- “doesn’t the original singer have some weird elements to their style?” or “I can’t sing this as well as I’d like so I’ll throw some attitude on it and some funny stuff” - without doing the ironic ironing thing. The Replacements kind of did it right, but most do it wrong.

When people sing too well and too close to the original that can be another problem in The Uncanny Valley.

One older guy sang “My Way” pretty impressively, but there is still a part of me that remains unimpressed.

karl btw i love your picks and want to have a spingsteen off with you some night!

my other bruce material is Brilliant Disguise, but I also have been thinking about Thunder Road. it's down there deep in my links, and in the parentheses i put "hard mode" because it seems like one where you have to walk in ready to go

"dancing in the dark" is one of my karaoke standards bc i can sing with joy and conviction and dance at the same time

i love to be surprised, in the main. "You? doing that? wow. okay! we'll see how that goes!" is probably my favorite reaction to anyone putting a song in.

^^ why Alice Cooper's "Is It My Body?" is another fave. plus it's in my range!

i miss going out with friends for karaoke a lot :(

I forgot I was going to add a Bruce song and maybe should try some Alice Cooper, thanks for reminding me.

Karaoke scratches a certain weird itch that cannot otherwise be scratched imo.

Is there an Iggy Pop song people recommend? Thinking “Lust for Life” or “The Passenger” but then those are kind of repetitive.

passenger's a bit one-note. lust for life is a big energy song, probably great for karaoke! some weird sin might be good? i think passenger & lust for life are the only solo iggy's we have at my joint.

lachera - i also do dancing in the dark, i've done it a million times now going back to my early 20s. just one of my favorite go-tos. gotta be bruce's best yeller

Thanks. Do you actually have a karaoke machine? Place I go to just uses youtube videos.

Hey Ya
How do u want it
Toto

Na na na nanana
Nanana

Na na na nanana
Nanana

Nanana

Hey Jude

*checks watch, lookes at screen*

Thank, you Jude! Nanana

loving clay's posts itt

Yup

one time I went to a karaoke night (hosted by my recently departed friend, DJ Di), and this woman got up on stage, sang through an entire song, and as it ended, said "that was the wrong song", accusing her friend of signing her up for the wrong one after she'd already sang it. Di, never amused by foolishness, said "You're bringing that up now?" and the woman then said her dog just died and screamed "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU ALL!" on the mic.

Di then told me "her dog has died every week at karaoke night for five years now", as this person was apparently a regular.

OMG. Yes, there can be some problematic personalities.

most recently managed to pull off Chicago's "Make Me Smile", only to completely blow it the next time I tried. it's a tricky one

That sounds like a pretty hard one.

Although actually I saw a good bar band play it in the park a few weeks ago.