# Songs you can't sing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059 "2008-05-04T23:42:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/1 "2008-05-04T23:42:56Z")
That is, because they’re sentimental or sad, and you break down trying. “In the Garden” _He walks with me and he talks with me_ …or any other line. “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” I barely got to the second verse. “El Paso” (The last line) Other examples please? (with lyrics) ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/2 "2008-05-04T23:47:15Z")
**Da Do Ron Ron.** Specifically: Yes, she looked so fine Yes, I’ll make her mine And when I walked her home da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron Yeah, yeah, yeah da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron… (repeat & fade) ::sobs:: ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/3 "2008-05-04T23:48:44Z")
Mariah Carey, Whenever You Call. Chokes me up everytime. ---
**Author:** ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/4 "2008-05-05T01:34:00Z")
Well, I can’t sing much of anything so you’d recognize it, but when it comes to listening, many tracks on the Dixie Chicks’ _Home_ album choke me up. Lots of regret buttons. _Top of the World_ seems to be a fair portrait of clinical depression (as I understand it). Lyrics like: One night they called me for supper But I didn’t get up I stayed right there, in my chair Not much when you read it, but maybe you get it if you’ve been there. And that’s just a lyric I feel OK about typing. There’s a lot to the way they sing it, too. ---
**Author:** ![threnodyangelfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@threnodyangelfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threnodyangelfire)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/5 "2008-05-05T01:38:21Z")
WPA, For a short time > [@](#): > > Sometimes you can feel more > for someone you’ve barely kissed > You don’t see it at the time > or that moment that you’ve missed ---
**Author:** ![simply\_cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@simply\_cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simply_cats)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/6 "2008-05-05T01:41:41Z")
Country music is chock full of highly emotional (ok, sometimes a taaaad bit overly dramatic) lyrics. Two that come right to mind are “Skin” by Rascal Flatts, which I cannot sing all the way through; and “Allysa Lied” I think is what it is called. I still love my country music. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/7 "2008-05-05T01:55:51Z")
“In My Life” by Lennon/McCartney and many on Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” album. I try to sing em and then it’s crying time again. ---
**Author:** ![MadPansy64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@MadPansy64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPansy64)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/8 "2008-05-05T02:27:19Z")
“Ama” is the farthest I’ve ever gotten when trying to sing Amazing Grace, even though I’m a irritable atheist. It was at the funeral of a person I disliked intensely. At funerals for decent human beings, I can’t make it to the organs second note, or even halfway through the first note when played on bagpipes. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/9 "2008-05-05T04:54:48Z")
[QUOTE=MadPansy64] “Ama” is the farthest I’ve ever gotten when trying to sing Amazing Grace, even though I’m a irritable atheist. It was at the funeral of a person I disliked intensely. At funerals for decent human beings, I can’t make it to the organs second note, or even halfway through the first note when played on bagpipes. ☹ [/QUOTE] I’ve never heard it on bagpipes–well, I did on radio station KMPC in the early 1970s. In 1986 and 1997 I attended the funerals for the father and the mother of a girl from high school (graduated in 1967) I have had a crush on since the first time I saw her. Never mind that she has never been my girlfriend–I’ve been close to the family, driving the mother around in the early 1990s as her health faded. And the services were in a small community Episcopalian church and I am most certainly not Episcopalian. I picked up a hymnal too–I felt I owed this much to the family. And I cried hard afterward. Obviously some things transcend religious denomination, or even the absence thereof. ☹ On the other hand, my brother’s wife startled me once by singing “Rock of Ages” to their baby, when I assumed it was a “funeral song”; I’d never heard of it in any other setting. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/10 "2008-05-05T12:37:13Z")
“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” I was going to have it played at my father’s funeral, but I knew I couldn’t handle it. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/11 "2008-05-05T13:57:03Z")
“How Can I Help You To Say Goodbye” will get me every time. I can make it all the way to the line: “She said, ‘I have to go now, my time here is over,’ And with her final words she tried to help me understand.” Then it’s all over but the cryin’! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/12 "2008-05-05T14:45:42Z")
[Try to Remember](http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/thefantasticks/trytoremember.htm) Try to sing that song without thinking of 9/11 ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/13 "2008-05-05T19:48:50Z")
I get choked up listening to the song “You Must Love Me” on the Evita soundtrack. It’s my favorite song in the musical, and I get teary every time I hear it. If I try to sing along, I’ll have tears streaming down my face within minutes. I want it played at my wedding. ---
**Author:** ![MadPansy64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@MadPansy64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPansy64)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/14 "2008-06-10T01:25:46Z")
[QUOTE=dougie\_monty] I’ve never heard it on bagpipes–well, I did on radio station KMPC in the early 1970s. _\ --“it” is Amazing Grace\>_ On the other hand, my brother’s wife startled me once by singing “Rock of Ages” to their baby, when I assumed it was a “funeral song”; I’d never heard of it in any other setting. [/QUOTE] Rock of Ages is a good lullabye. The meaning of the words don’t matter to a baby, it’s all about rhythm and continuity, and the singer staying calm because he/she knows all the words to at least one verse. Although, the little ones I’ve sang to sleep didn’t mind “something soooomethingsomething” in the middle of Buffalo Springfield’s _For What It’s Worth_, probably because I didn’t. Rock of Ages wouldn’t have worked for me, because it is a funeral song to me, too. Or, for that matter, Freebird, since that’s an annoying funeral song in my world. 😉 Amazing Grace on bagpipes is especially moving. Something about the haunting, intensely mournful sound of the pipes works well for funerals and wars. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/15 "2008-06-10T06:34:54Z")
Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” _sniff_ ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/16 "2008-06-10T10:28:18Z")
I’m sentimental, so it’s a long list Tom Jones - _Green Green Grass of Home_ “cause there’s a guard and theres a sad old padre, arm in arm we’ll walk at daybreak and again I’ll touch the green, green grass of home” Rolf Harris - _Two Little Boys_ “Do ya think I would leave you dying…” Kenny Rogers - _The Gambler_ “and somewhere in the darkness, the gambler he broke even…” Si ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/17 "2008-06-10T18:38:05Z")
[QUOTE=dougie\_monty] “In the Garden” _He walks with me and he talks with me_ …or any other line. [/QUOTE] Yep. Also, “How Great Thou Art”. Apparently these were my grandfather’s favorite hymns. Although I don’t remember the guy being much of a churchgoer, whenever somebody sings one of these songs, my mom and grandma slowly well up and then lose it, so naturally that causes me to bawl along. For me it’s Coven’s One Tin Soldier. If I sing it straight, I sometimes can’t get out, “Peace on Earth/is all it said”. So I have to make some word changes to make it more comical. These are usually spur of the moment, along the lines of “Came an answer from the kingdom/ with our brothers we will share/ all the secrets of our mountain/ all the garbage buried there” or “Fooled you guys/ is all it said”. I do the same with Wildfire, during that beautiful piano at the end, “Dead horse, dead horse, dead horse…” Of course, by then the song was already sad, but singing “dead horse” cheers the kids right up. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/18 "2008-06-10T18:50:25Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] Yep. Also, “How Great Thou Art”. Apparently these were my grandfather’s favorite hymns. Although I don’t remember the guy being much of a churchgoer, whenever somebody sings one of these songs, my mom and grandma slowly well up and then lose it, so naturally that causes me to bawl along. [/QUOTE] I’m ok with that in english. Try it in maori, and I’m gone _Whakaaria mai Tōu rīpeka ki au Tiaho mai Ra roto i te pō Hei kona au Titiro atu ai. Ora, mate, Hei au koe noho ai_ I guess I always hear Sir Howard Morrison (one of NZs great entertainers) singing these words. Si ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/19 "2008-06-11T02:27:51Z")
Danny Boy ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059/20 "2008-06-11T03:24:40Z")
“We’ll Meet Again” “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when But I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day” Yeah. Right. Sniff. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-sing/448059.md?page=2)