# Best Bar Song of All Time... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2002, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006 "2002-11-27T00:51:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Anahita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9a28c/32.png) [@Anahita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anahita)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/41 "2002-11-27T16:22:01Z")
Sympathy for the Devil. The Stones. Of course. ---
**Author:** ![DaddyTimesTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@DaddyTimesTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaddyTimesTwo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/42 "2002-11-27T16:26:14Z")
I kiind of assumed that **commander Cody** covered _Smoke_, I just didn’t say it well. And I’ve heard some other versions of “That’s What I Like About the South”, and **Commader** ’s blows them all away. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/43 "2002-11-27T16:29:01Z")
“One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers is the correct answer to this question. The thread may now be closed. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/44 "2002-11-27T16:36:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ShibbOleth \* > \*\ ***Munch** , that’s what I meant by the “unofficial refrain” to _Living Next Door to Alice_ (see my post above). \*\* Heh. Oops! I’d also like to nominate “At a Medium Pace” by Adam Sandler. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/45 "2002-11-27T19:35:30Z")
To add another category that me and some friends were talking about the other day. What is the best song to get kicked out a bar by. Not kicked out as in you got in trouble, kicked out as in you are pushing closing time to the very last second. Our concensus was “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys” by Willie Nelson. Deffinately something with Willie singing anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/46 "2002-11-27T19:44:46Z")
**Labdad** , my favourite Phil Harris novelty song is _The Thing_. The three syllables that are represented only by a drum fill throughout the song would lend itself well to pub recitations by imaginative drunks. But my favourite would have to be Finnegan’s Wake, natch. ---
**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/47 "2002-11-27T20:03:48Z")
I’ve always been partial to this bit: > [@](#): > > Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrtote that song > [@](#): > > And he told me it was the perfect country & western song > [@](#): > > I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the perfect country & western song because he hadn’t said anything at all about mama, > [@](#): > > Or trains > [@](#): > > Or trucks > [@](#): > > Or prison > [@](#): > > Or gettin’ drunk > [@](#): > > Well he sat down and wrote another verse to the song > [@](#): > > And he sent it to me > [@](#): > > And after reading it > [@](#): > > I realized that my friend had written the perfect country & western song > [@](#): > > And I felt obliged to include it on this album > [@](#): > > The last verse goes like this here > [@](#): > > Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison > [@](#): > > And I went to pick her up in the rain > [@](#): > > But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck > [@](#): > > She got run over by a damned old train Now shut up and drink!🆒 ---
**Author:** ![DeepPurple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@DeepPurple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepPurple)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/48 "2002-11-27T20:19:51Z")
I think it may depend on the bar. The one I most often frequented wouldn’t have had Bon Jovi on the jukebox. Our crowd all sang “Walk on the Wild Side” by Mr. Lou Reed ---
**Author:** ![whatami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/85f322/32.png) [@whatami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatami)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/49 "2002-11-27T22:47:55Z")
No one mentioned Freedbird!!! ---
**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/50 "2002-11-28T04:07:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by whatami \* > \*\*No one mentioned Freedbird!!! \*\* 😕 I’ve never heard of it. Is it anything like Freebird? ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/51 "2002-11-28T04:10:41Z")
It’s the past tense version of the song. \*If I’d left here tomorrow, would you have still remembered me? 'Cause I had to be travelling on then, there were too many places I’d had to see… \* ---
**Author:** ![xanadu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c4cdca/32.png) [@xanadu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanadu)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/52 "2002-11-28T04:22:49Z")
Brown Eyed Girl!!! ---
**Author:** ![fizgig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@fizgig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizgig)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/53 "2002-11-28T04:28:57Z")
I guess it’s not officially a bar song, but when I was underage, my friends and I would hang at the party house, or go camping, and belt out “Five Dollar Fine” by Chris LeDeux. Also, pretty much anything by Bocephus, especially “All My Rowdy Friends (are coming over tonight)” and “Family Tradition.” Now, I’d have to go with Margaritaville, the perfect karaoke song for Drunk Bastards Who Can’t Sing. ---
**Author:** ![jools](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@jools](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jools)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/54 "2002-11-28T07:17:59Z")
The song that always got us going Takin care of business - BTO ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/55 "2002-11-28T08:42:56Z")
“Wild Thing” “We Will Rock You” and the classic ('cept England) “Roddy McCorley” ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/56 "2002-11-28T18:14:51Z")
If Only You Were Lonely - The Replacements ---
**Author:** ![IGJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/igjoe/32/5420_2.png) [@IGJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IGJoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/57 "2002-11-28T18:36:45Z")
_Cecilia_ - Simon and Garfunkel “Oh Ce-CEEEEELLLL-ya…!” _The Last Saskatchewan Pirate_ by Captain Tractor usually gets everyone up on the dance floor too. That’s probably just a regional thing, though. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![boomvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@boomvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boomvark)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/58 "2002-11-28T20:50:16Z")
Pretty much depends on where you are, I’d guess. Around here it’s damn near anything by Jimmy Buffett. _Barrett’s Privateers_ is moving up the list, though. It’s trivially easy to get our particular bunch of drunks to yell along with the chorus. Granted, a number of outside observers have remarked that we seem to have weirder drunks than the average trailer-park community does. ---
**Author:** ![da\_pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@da\_pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/da_pope)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/59 "2002-11-28T21:41:18Z")
i gotta second ‘you don’t hafta call me darlin, darlin’. I hung out at the ‘townie’ bar in college, this was a table-poundin tune. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006/60 "2002-11-29T00:25:06Z")
Y’all have named a lot of good songs, but a lot of them I don’t think are well-known enough to get a crowd singing along. They’re certainly songs I love to hear in bars, but I don’t think I’d sing along. At least in the South, the great sing-along song has got to be “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. You can hate the screw-you-hippie mentality of it, you can be a progressive Southerner, you can be a grad student in Semiotics, you can even be a transplanted Yankee (well, maybe), but that song appears to be totally irresisitible to a bar full of drunks at about an hour before last-call. “_Where the skies are so blue…_” (The Oxford American ran a great short piece on this phenomenon in the 2000 music issue, if anyone recalls.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-bar-song-of-all-time/139006.md?page=4)