# People Who Think They Can Sing
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 11, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891 "2002-09-11T01:19:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/1 "2002-09-11T01:19:41Z")
There’s nothing I hate more than TV personalities who think they can sing. Let’s start with, although I love her dearly, Lucille Ball. Then, we can sink to the Bradies, Michael J. Fox’s electric guitar performance w/Joan Jett, Huxtiballs’ dancing/singing (sp?), that little squirt, Sam, with the red hair from what sit-com? (God blessed me to forget!) Anyway…are you other SDopers with me on this? Please share…!
And then, I’ll attack singers who think they can act! (Ug!)
- Jinx
on and so on.
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2002, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/2 "2002-09-11T01:34:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jinx \*
> **There’s nothing I hate more than TV personalities who think they can sing… that little squirt, Sam, with the red hair from what sit-com? (God blessed me to forget!)**
[Danny Cooksey](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Cooksey,+Danny), from **Diff’rent Strokes**! I wish like anything I’d seen that episode of the Tonight Show!
Carroll O’Connor thought he could sing. And we shall not speak of Roseanne. But John Goodman **can** sing…
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### Author:  [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/3 "2002-09-12T01:06:07Z")
I adore **Carol Burnett** , but the woman should not sing.
And who told poor **Cybill Shepherd** that she is a torch singer?
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/4 "2002-09-12T02:34:10Z")
**Pundit** : Well, has Carol Burnett ever tried to do straight-up singing? I’ve only heard her sing either in character, which was supposed to be funny, and was. When she was “Eunice”, singing “Feelings…wo wo wo FEEEEEEEEELINGGGGGGGGS!” I about lost it! Or she was paired with classic singers—in one case Julie Andrews, in the other, Placido Domingo—and the humor was in the contrast.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/5 "2002-09-12T03:22:53Z")
Anybody remember that song that Eddie Murphy put out? _My girl wants to party all the time, party all the time…_ Sorry
More recently they’ve been playing something on the pop radio here lately from Jennifer Love Hewitt but I just change the station so I don’t know whether she can actually sing or not.
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### Author:  [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/6 "2002-09-12T05:13:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ShibbOleth \*
> \*\*Anybody remember that song that Eddie Murphy put out? _My girl wants to party all the time, party all the time…_ Sorry
> \*\*
That was awful!
Awful!
😛 \<----------------barfing
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### Author:  [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/7 "2002-09-12T05:26:10Z")
Allanis Morisette and Celine Dion.
Isn’t Jennifer Love Hewitt the one who’s had a huge singing carreer in Asia for quite some time that actually predates her television stardom in the U.S? Who am I thinking of?
By the way, Bad 4 Good’s first album “Refugee” got 4 and a half stars on allmusic. Wonder if it was good?
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### Author:  [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/8 "2002-09-12T06:29:21Z")
I think Jennifer Lopez has the thinnest, reediest voice ever.
I’d say Bob Dylan, but I don’t want Ukelele Ike to blow a gasket.
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### Author:  [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/9 "2002-09-12T12:52:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \*
> \*\*Well, has Carol Burnett ever tried to do straight-up singing? \*\*
Oh, yes. I remember one time she had Ray Charles as a guest on her show, and actually sat at the piano with him and sang “Georgia On My Mind.” It wasn’t a joke - it was straight up singing. She wasn’t any good, but who would be in that situation?? It takes guts to do Ray’s signature song with him sitting next to you. Or gall.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/10 "2002-09-12T13:11:56Z")
Rodney Allen Rippey ruined singing in American TV commercials. Up to the point where he made his first big hit for Jack in the Box, only people who could actually _sing_ would get the jobs. Then they realized they could hook more people into their ads by hiring _bad_ singers, so people would think that they had real people in the ads (“Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce, blah blah blah blah”).
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### Author:  [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/11 "2002-09-12T17:52:36Z")
Don Johnson and Patrick Swayze both tried singing in the late 80s, thankfully both stopped very shortly afterwards.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/12 "2002-09-12T18:29:26Z")
I remember when newsman **Edwin Newman** hosted _SNL_ back in the late '70s. He said, “Well, I told them I wanted to sing, and so I will,” and the audience laughingly braced for some really awful sounds. Then he belted out a red-hot, terrific rendition of _Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone_, and got a standing ovation.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/13 "2002-09-12T21:46:45Z")
John Travolta.
I’m 41, old enough to remember when “Welcome Back, Kotter” first went on the air. Italian girls in my neighborhood thought Vinny Barbarino was the hottest man alive. Travolta tried to cash in by making a record… anybody remember his wimpy vocals on “Let Her In”?
Gonna let her in… gonna let her in, hmm hmmm.
Gonna let her in my life, let her in my liiiiife."
Oh God, it was torture. So bad, I couldn’t believe he was hired to star in “Grease.” So bad, I still cant believe “Grease” was such a big hit.
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### Author:  [@dreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dreamer)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/14 "2002-09-12T21:54:14Z")
I actually have this CD from **Cybill Shepherd**. I don’t remember where I got it from but it’s the most horrible CD I’ve ever heard!!
I missed the MTV Music Awards where Jennifer Love Hewitt sang so I can’t comment. Did anyone see that? How was she?
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2002, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/15 "2002-09-13T00:52:29Z")
Let’s (not) hear it for the Davids. Hasselhoff and Soul. Does anyone remember David Soul’s top 10 hit?
_Don’t give up on us, baby
Don’t make the wrong seem right. . ._
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2002, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/16 "2002-09-13T07:12:50Z")
And let us not forget the special case of Rick Springfield. Was he a bad actor who mistakenly thought he could sing? Or a bad singer who mistakenly thought he could act?
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### Author:  [@Lure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lure)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2002, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/17 "2002-09-13T07:22:30Z")
However it was that sang the national anthem at the Monday football game in NE.I was in the kitchen when I heard this terrible voice trying to impart some feeling into his rendition and had to come in the LR so I could see who it was.The caption told me he was from one of the boy bands (NSync-backstreet Boys?) apparently a Boston product.
He needs to stick with the group and their acoustical enhancements.He’s apparently tone deaf.
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### Author:  [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2002, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/18 "2002-09-13T16:21:22Z")
Elaine from Seinfeld. Gwneth Paltrow. What’s her face on 5 over turned tables my so called show i don’t know.l
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2002, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/19 "2002-09-13T16:54:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Biggirl \*
> \*\*Let’s (not) hear it for the Davids. Hasselhoff and Soul. Does anyone remember David Soul’s top 10 hit?
>
> _Don’t give up on us, baby
> Don’t make the wrong seem right. . ._ \*\*
David Hasselhoff had a very successful run as the main character in the Broadway musical \*\* Jeckyll & Hyde \*\*. So successful he did the video.
Patty Duke admits in her autobio that she was a horrible singer, and they made her do an album anyway during the run of The Patty Duke Show. One of the songs went to the top 5! She says she’s always amazed when people bring the LP over to her for an autograph.
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### Author:  [@Xploder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xploder)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-they-can-sing/127891/20 "2002-09-13T16:59:01Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by PunditLisa \*
> \*\*And who told poor **Cybill Shepherd** that she is a torch singer? \*\*
Probably the same people that told **Bruce Willis** he was a great blues singer…
Then again, at least Cybil hangs out with Robert Martin (formerly Bobby Martin, also formerly of Frank Zappa’s band), so she isn’t ALL bad…
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