Todd Rundgren “Sons of 1984”. It was interesting in that the album version featured two different audiences singing the songlive, neither of whom had heard the song before being taught it.
Decades later, it had become such an audience favorite that when it was used as the last song of an performance of the whole album, the audience kept singing the chorus for several minutes after the curtain came down and the band stopped playing.
That Country Joe and the Fish song from Woodstock.
Tom Petty said the same thing when the audience took over “Breakdown”.
I don’t have a specific recording but my heart did quite a flippity flop when I saw Pearl Jam and we all sang “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In a Small Town.”
Closer to the Heart by Rush.
Chaka Khan was there last Saturday for our local street protest but Brixton did okay:
wasn’t. Sorry
Not as emotional, but I saw this Justin Timberlake + Garth Brooks + Crowd singing Friends In Low Places and thought it was really really cute and fun.
As an anti-anecdote, my husband was in a band that toured many many years ago with Ani DiFranco and he tells stories about how she hated for the audience to sing and would even ask them not to. I thought, boy is she in the wrong line of work!
That’s a good one.
Chuck Berry’s My Ding-a-Ling. Everybody’s having fun with this one.
The Pogues’ Dirty Old Town. Shane can hardly sing, but the crowd picks up the slack every time.
There are several videos of each.[quote=“madsircool, post:22, topic:718673”]
That Country Joe and the Fish song from Woodstock.
[/QUOTE]I came in for that one. I’ve been to a number of Pete Seeger performances where this was very popular with the crowd. Not quite the same but there’s also the Alice’s Restaurant refrain.
At least on one live version of War Pigs by Black Sabbath, Ozzy sings the first line and the crowd sings the next. Very cool.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Billy Joel in concert twice, and both times the audience started out singing along with him on Piano Man, but then take over at the chorus, and Billy just stops singing. It’s hard to find a good version online, but it’s pretty magical to witness in person.
I came in here to say this. He didn’t even sing when I saw him in concert; the audience did and it was great.
Another vote for this, those presumably we were all at different shows in different cities.
I love audience sing alongs - at shows where I’m part of the audience, not so much to listen to. Though watching a video clip is kind of fun. Some of the best times I’ve had at concerts are not necessarily my favorite artists but ones that have a large catalog of songs that everyone knows the words to. The Eagles concerts are a nonstop sing along for instance. We get a lot of older bands (I hesitate to say" has been" because heck, people still enjoy their music) here for festivals and whatnot and those are always the best for audience participation. I’m thinking of people like Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Styx. Not the hippest, but it’s such a joy to be among people sharing a joyous lighthearted experience.
Garth Brooks “Friends in Low Places” was my first thought upon seeing the thread title.
Pretty much an entire George Strait concert.
His last few tours have been virtually the same. His stage is a circle in the center of the arena. The band is in the center of the stage. There is a microphone stand at 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock. He sings nothing but his hits for a about 2 hours, singing 2 songs at each station and rotating around the stage. The entire audience sings along the entire show.
If you like George, it’s a blast.
Rodrigo y Gabriela do an acoustic version of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here - this is the version they did at Glastonbury in 2007 (the first half of the clip). They don’t sing at all, they just let the crowd do it all.
Not on record, but when we saw Richard Thompson in Philadelphia his last song was “Tear Stained Letter”. He got the audience to do the Woe woe woe part, and left the stage while we were singing it.
The Dubliners’ “Bugger Off”.