I used to play music in bars when I was in college, and I’m thinking of doing again for a little while before I start grad school.
I got to thinking about something yesterday though. When I played in college, I covered a fair amount of stuff, but it was never the stuff that most “bar bands” cover: Sweet Home Alabama, Joker, American Pie, anything by Bob Marley, etc. When I did cover stuff, it was usually stuff I liked and usually wasn’t a single by that artist.
Yet, I always got people asking me if I knew how to play All Along the Watchtower, Crash Into Me, or some other standard cover song.
As much as I got annoyed by playing some of the same old stuff that you hear everywhere else, I did like the feeling of the entire bar full of drunks singing at the top of their lungs.
So, I’m wondering, what are some songs that almost everyone would know and sing along to, but they’re not always covered by bar bands around America?
Another thing I want to solicit are opinions about present popular songs because I’ve been out of the country for a while, and I still don’t listen to the radio much. So, there might be some songs that still haven’t been played to death that most people know.
As a veteran of bar cover bands (mostly in Queens, NYC) I’d point out that those two things generally aren’t exclusive of each other. That is… things that almost everyone would know (in a bar setting) are indeed the ones that are covered the most often. Because they’re relatively simple, two- or three- chord rock & roll, not a lot of changes, etc.
But… how about Bohiemian (?sp) Rhapsody by Queen? Lots of people would know that and would sing along lustily (MAMMA MIA LET ME GO!!!), but it is fairly complex to carry off in a bar full of drunkards. (Also a little complex for more than one person to perform, you & the band would have to practice first. Good ol’ fashioned 3-chord rock or 8 bar blues doesn’t need much rehearsal, most players can jump right in to “Watchtower in G”.)
Yeah, right on, I agree. Unfortunately, in these settings we’re paid to entertain, not indulge our own desires for musical fulfilment. I know you already know that, my point is sometimes you just gotta play the money songs (Brown Eyed Girl, Knockin’, Watchtower, American Pie) to make the crowd happy.
Something we’d do that wasn’t a bar standard but still got people’s attention was the theme from “Rawhide”, like in the Blues Brothers. Literally, that was the tie in. We’d set it up, do it, and the crowd’d be like “Heh… the Blues Brothers!” No, it isn’t a blues tune, the crowd usually coudn’t sing along, but they knew of it, knew they liked it in a bar setting, it’s up tempo and fun, hey… win - win! Admittedly, it is kind of cheesy, but it gets people up & laughing, then go right into Not Fade Away and the drunks start dancing. Worked every time.
Bohemian Rhapsody is awesome to sing drunk! Actually, all of Queen’s rock anthems are fun to sing drunk. Play any of those and the audience will love you.
Is Wonderwall too cheesy/overplayed?
Is Happiness is a Warm Gun well-known enough?
I would think people would know Gouge Away, Hey, Satisfaction, Tainted Love (at least the chorus part), and Hit The Road Jack well enough to sing along.
I don’t go to these kinds of shows so for all I know those songs are played all the time.
There’s a different standard for choosing covers for songwriters/bands that play original material playing for audiences who want to hear original material compared to your situation- playing in a bar cover band for folks who want to hear songs that they know.
So, I’m coming at it from a different place. Still, I’ll mention that at a show of my own a couple months ago I did a cover of “Freedom” by Wham! and the crowd went nuts, singing along, bouncing up and down in their seats.
(N.B. The song was “Freedom” by Wham! not “Freedom '90” by George Michael)
I saw some friends do “Rio” once (“Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand…”).
They did it through once like the original, like it sounded on the radio.
Then the frontman shouted “punk!”, the guitarist hit a pedal and they did a chorus in dirty, thrashy punk style. Then he shouted “reggae!”, the keyboard hit the button for steel drums and they did it in reggae style. They did some more, but I can’t quite remember. (Short, choppy, electric pop style? Led Zeppelin style?)
The crowd dug it because it was a tune they knew, but it was fun/funny to mix up styles.
Bowing to **bienville ** – I heard a cover of “Imagine” done dirge tempo in a minor key. NOT fun party music, but absolutely captivating in a dark sort of way. “Imagine there’s no heaven. No Earth below.” No, really, imagine that. That’s pretty dark. You’d have the goth/emo kids weeping and slitting their writsts. (OK, maybe better to not do that one.)
Better yet, do it twice.
I vote for Benny and the Jets and especially I Want You to Want Me. The former because everyone likes it but no one knows the words and they love to try anyway. The latter because you can really make it your own and it’s very uptempo.
