You would hope that but if the song didn’t get much radio play, it probably isn’t that “well-known”. I noticed that the show sticks pretty much to top 40 in the rock and roll era, albums be damned.
Not that I’d agree with that since much of early rock was album orientated but that’s not what people remember. They remember the songs.
You kidding? I guarantee if they made the contestant sing the first verse, at least half of them would fail.
Yes, but verse two would eliminate everyone.
Or “Eres Tu” by Mocedades!
Evil: “Hot Rod Lincoln” by Commander Cody
More evil: “Life is a Rock” by Reunion
Satan Himself: “Rubber Biscuit” by The Blues Brothers 
last verse to Devil went down to Georgia - 10 extra points to the player if they ask “which version” (radio or album) - both were heard on the radio depending upon type of radio station (rock stations usually played album, country stations usually played the “radio” version.)
Au contrare. I saw Queen live back in the day, Freddie Mercury and all. They did, in fact, perform Bohemian Rhapsody. There’s even a youtubevideo of a live performance. True, they go to a video for the major harmonic part, but even then the lyrics are easily understandable.
OK, we have a winner! I love this song, but I can’t sing along with much of it! Not only are the words sung at high speed, making them hard to pick up on and memorize, but there are no BREATHING PLACES in the verses! Even if I could get all the words, I’d turn blue in the face trying to sing them all! :eek:
I had completely forgotten this song even existed. Now I have to go download it (all legal and paid for, I swear!) and I blame YOU!
I find the show pretty obnoxious as it is (hate annoying buzzers; different songs for the contestants makes no sense at all), but if you really want to ramp it up*, here are some ideas.
Who Let The Dogs Out (Baha Men)
Don’t laugh. Listen to the whole song sometime. This thing is tricky as hell, not only because of the two superfast parts, but because of the other stanzas which sound completely different, and which switch around with no rhyme or reason. And of course, they’ll have to sing the annoying chorus part exactly the right number of times, every time; that alone is some serious memorization.
Garden of Eden (Guns 'n Roses)
Starts out at a blistering uniform pace…then cuts down to half speed with no warning whatsoever. Plus it’s metal, which’d probably be the biggest factor for a lot of contestants.
Adiemus (Adiemus)
Completely made-up language, which means that not only is there no choice but to get a copy of the lyrics and study every damn sound, even then there’s a pretty huge chance of screwing up along the way. Bonus points for being a song that everyone’s heard somewhere and should get right.
Kyrie (Mr. Mister)
To see if anyone 1. remembers one of many obscure artists on the fringes of pop and 2. is actually dumb enough to still think it’s “carry a laser”, ye gods. 
Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen)
For such a famous song, it has some parts that are really difficult to understand. “God in a little hotown jam, so the put 'er out a lid my ham…” Not to mention all the stuff about killing and then having no hope and all.
U Can’t Touch This (MC Hammer)
A lot of contestants (say, all of them) are going to be made fools of by this. How do I put this…there are about a bazillion words here, and only a few of them repeat at all. And it’s fast. And it’s pretty long, especially for something that fast.
Gonna Make You Sweat (C&C Music Factory)
U Can’t Touch This minus any sense.
Original, non-Americanized, undancified, unaltered, unbutchered Macarena (Los Del Rio)
“Hey, where the hell did all these Spanish words come from?”
Toxic (Crazy Town)
Just for the hell of it. (And for the shocked looks on contestants expecting it to be like the Brittney Spears song.)
‘Seven Seconds’ by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N’Dour should sort the men from the boys.
Erm, it’s Incy Wincy…
Bumble Bee, originally by LaVerne Baker, but also a #21 U.S. hit by The Searchers in 1965:
Shoo-wee, you hurt me like a bee
A bumble bee, an evil bumble bee