Every Wednesday night my closest girlfriends and I make our way down to a local gay bar for drumroll Karaoke night!
Now, for quite a few weeks I stuck to songs that I know well and can perform reasonably well. These songs included
Tori Amos - Caught a Light Sneeze
Lonestar - Amazed
and of course
Melissa Ethridge - Like the Way I Do
If you’ve ever frequented a bar on a karaoke night, you’ll know that watching people sing the same songs every week is Booooooring.
For this reason, I started mixing in stuff like Britney’s One More Time and The Divinyls I Touch Myself. These were fun for awhile but are getting a little stale and so tonight I’ve vowed not to sing ANYTHING I’ve sung before.
This puts me at a serious disadvantage as it feels like I’ve sung every song that I’m even remotely comfortable with at this point.
Today I have decided to compile a list of popular karaoke songs to research, review and carefully choose my poison for the night. (Very, very slow day at work)
So what’s your favorite karaoke tune? Which songs do you absolutely rock on the karaoke mic?
I used to do “Criminal” by Fiona Apple a lot, but it’s too low really. “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar is a great fun one.
Other good ones:
Heart of Glass - Blondie (any Blondie, really)
Let’s Hear it for the Boy - Deniece Williams
Fame - Irene Cara (my new favorite)
Flashdance - Irene Cara
Vacation - The Go-Go’s
Shoop - Salt n Pepa (good for you and friends to do together)
I’m sure there’s more that I just can’t think of, I’ll pop back in if they come to mind!
I can rock a good version of Smashmouth’s All-Star and can handle just about anything by Soul Asylum (I love 'em, but Dave Pirner really isn’t that great of a singer…in the same way that I’m really not that great of a singer).
I’m partial to the song What’s Up. Being male, it takes about 4 beers before I can hit the high notes, but it’s well worth it. Also, My Way the Sex Pistols version, not Frank, and anything by the Tragically Hip.
On preview, Woo Hoo! My new cordless keyboard and mouse are damn fine
Oh, another fun one that everybody knows and is not that hard to sing:
These Boots Were Made for Walking, Nancy Sinatra
Preferably sung while dressed in a mini and go-go boots.
However, drunk people singing her daddy’s, My Way, is usually just sad. Drunk people singing Achy Breaky Heart calls for extreme violence. BAR FIGHT!!!
I like to go the classy crooner route, and bust out with Chris Isaak, Harry Connick Jr., or even the Chairman of the Board himself. I’ve been known to ham it up on the mike, all suave and sophisticated-like. But sometimes I switch it up and go with an extra-emotional rendition of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” or Elvis Presley’s “In the Ghetto” (sometimes with a friend providing the Eric Cartman vocals along with me). I’ve also turned “A Land Down Under” by Men At Work into a thoughtful William Shatner-style spoken word piece, and teamed up with a friend to perform Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s parts in “Dre Day” like swingin’ Vegas lounge singers.
Last time I did Karaoke I did the theme song from the cartoon The Flintstones. easy enough, right?
But I didn’t have enough beer, errrr I mean I got nervous before I went up and asked my sister-in-law to sing with me. Well she started on some key that I couldn’t match or harmonize with. I was awful. After a few lines I left to drown my humiliation in alcohol and SIL had a fun time doing my song…
Think I’ll stick to singing alone in front of my stereo.
