singer/song you would not dare sing at a karaoke joint

even if the catalog lists a thousand diff. kinds of songs from God knows how many categories, songs in these three categories are going to dominate - you can bet the farm on that one

I like "No Matter What" by Badfinger, myself. I ROCK that one.

Black Velvet - Sung by some drunk bird who honestly honestly thinks she's the best thing since sliced bread and even tries to do a sexy leg-split during the breakdown.

Man On The Moon - Six blokes singing the "Eh-uh Eh-uh Eeeeeh-Uuuuuh!" backing vocal bit at the same time, practically all the way through the song.

Hey Jude - See "Man On The Moon" except this time with "Ju-Ju-Jude-eh Jude-eh Jude-eh!"

Bohemian Rhapsody - Always appauling.

Mustang Sally - I BEG FOR DEATH!

However, were I to do so, I would probably not risk singing any of Gary Glitter's hits.

I apologize to anyone who has had to endure my caterwauling...

I have a pretty good singing voice, however, so naturally I'm biased.

HI DERE

(I'll see if I can find it)

It was a pro/am Karaoke evening at "Up the creek". Myself and a girl friend (but not...) as contestants amongst various other. I did "Daydream believer" right at the start of the evening. Kirk Brandon was one of the judges. My backing track was too high so I tried to sing it in the bass register and it sounded worse than metallica. Kirk's reasoned response was "Mark Grout... Diamond Geezer... What went wrong?"

The girl I'd gone with had ambitions to be a singer, but the song she chose proved to be one with the same title as a country/western song she'd never heard before. Instead, they had her back on again, right at the end. They chose "Pearl's a singer" for her, but she 'didn't know the song' so read the lyrics out in the style of John Cooper Clarke instead. During this, she was riding a kiddies ride type horse that the compere was feeding 10ps into for the duration.

The eventual winner was Wattie out of the Exploited (in civvies) doing "I'm doing it all for my baby" (Huey Lewis song (his baby is 3 years old etc...)
Umm, is that a strange acid flashback hallucination? Actually, no that all happened for real...

-- mark grout (mark.grou...) (webmail), March 5th, 2004 2:59 PM. (link)

* power ballads, Journey, and other populist "anthem" type things. These are, as other posters have suggested, already ubiquitous at karaoke and already bad. I can undertand the appeal, I guess - "omg how hilarious i'm singing journey," and there's always going to be some contingent of non-regulars in the crowd that find it novel, hilarious, or genuinely stirring, and they'll cheer you on etc.

* dance music with almost no vocals or just endless repetition of the same thing. Karaoke books are overstuffed with things that are on karaoke CDs because they were hits, not because they are actually fun to sing. Disco is a huge problem for this, see also things like the Chumbawamba song. Every so often a song will blindside you - who knew "Message In A Bottle" had that many choruses on the end? Blount and Jena_P's "Where's Your Head At?" just managed to skirt the edge of this, but you're definitely getting into rough waters with this type of thing.

* things that are fundamentally out of my range. Unfortunately, I tend not to realize this until I'm there. As above, things will blindside you - "oh, I love Paul McCartney," too bad it turns out he has one of the broadest ranges in rock singing, so even if you test yourself out on the beginning part there's no hope of nailing that cry of "JET!" or whatever.

In closing, dear reader: you never know when a song you love will turn out to be totally listless and aimless as a performance, but I tend to play it safe and avoid ballads completely for this reason. Exceptions abound, of course. I've done "Satellite of Love" more than once, and emily_s does an amazing "Babushka." All of which is to say: sing what you want. Set no limits. Dare to dream. But if your dreams include Night Ranger, please find something else to do with your drunk ass. People who love to sing and dance are having to wait on you. I like pinball too; go play that.

Well I blacked out singing Ground Control to Major Tom (probably best I do not remember).

My sister and I recently won a karaoke competition for singing "Don't You Want Me Baby" by the Human League. It was in a dodgy English themed pub in downtown Boston. It is run by a peculiar man in his 60's who wears tight black tops and has a stencil moustache.

Len, Steal my sunshine.

(Kind of a redundant reply, this, considering that abundant yes-to-alcohol/no-to-falsetto replies so far.)

Mother - John Lennon

oh I would actually pay someone to do that, just for the wails at the end alone.

Anti Nowhere League's "So What"

(though I don't think that's a karaoke track)

As mentioned on another thread, I give a wide berth to most of the long-winded karaoke staples such as “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Hey Jude.”

As mentioned on another thread, I give a wide berth to most of the long-winded karaoke staples such as “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Hey Jude.”

Ha, double post to undermine my point!/zingproblens

Anti Nowhere League's "So What"

this is the only song I've ever sung on stage (not counting school), my friend's band used to cover it occasionally and made me get up and sing it with them once

I did see Elton John's "Song for Guy" on a karaoke menu one time.
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 22 January 2007 10:56

This is still on the books at Lucky Voice (while loads of Elton stuff you'd expect to see is not on their website database).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1RK2XioUHA

A Magmaoke Night would be hilarious though.

Jade chante Magma

https://dai.ly/x3gt7f

Lol Colonel Poo that's awesome!