songs that should be banned from karaoke nights -- a list thread

1. Journey -- don't stop believin'
2. Gloria Gaynor -- I will Survive
3. Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow -- Picture

As much as they're overplayed I think those songs are good for karaoke nights as they're quite demanding and it takes effort to nail them. I'd much rather have deadpan delivery songs banned as they're boring to listen to and to perform on karaoke night.

moka otm

I could use without many of the classic ballads... specially the long, histrionic Celine Dion-esque ballads. Nobody ever nails those and they're usually over the 5 minute mark. It's painful for everyone involved.

Picture takes effort to sing?

I actually like Don't Stop Believin as a song, but it's overdone at karaoke nights and you can't hear the person singing it cuz everybody in the crowd sings along loudly, even singing the guitar solo....tired of it FIND ANOTHER SONG.

and yes, Moka, there are some songs that are considered karaoke fouls like the ones you've mentioned.

4. Paradise by the Dashboard Light
5. I Will Always Love You (whitney houston version) -- don't even bother trying this!

6. Bohemian Rhapsody

7. Summer Nights (from "Grease")

I don't think I've even heard the 'picture' song, I thought it was along the lines of the other two. Whitney Houston fits inside the Celine Dion-esque ballad thing... I need another description... vh1 divas ballads?

7. Summer Nights (from "Grease")

OTFM

8. Before he Cheats

And the thing about a song like 'dont stop believing' where you mention everybody sings along is actually good I think... they are useful as warmup songs for shy people.

i dunno if I were doing karaoke for the first time I wouldn't go anywhere near that song, most of my first timers do something they can sing quietly without being noticed too much

yeah, i don't really mind songs where everyone sings along. also have a soft spot for picture but it's so damn midtempo and easy i can see how it would get annoying if you heard it a lot. here in cali at least that doesn't seem to be a problem.

afaik i've never heard anyone do "picture"

afaik i've never heard "picture" tbh

i knew someone once who said she did the BEST version of "don't stop believin'", which is str8 bullshit - the entire bar always sings so loud when anyone does this that it drowns out whoever's got the mic anyway

...which was already said upthread, so don't mind me

That song should be banned, karaoke or no.

corey when did u stop believin'

Rev, at my local places here it used to be done once, sometimes twice a night. the karaoke host actually banned it eventually.

9. Baby Got Back

10. "Jack and Diane"

I feel like there needs to be two completely different karaoke circuits out there, one for serious karaoke people and one for people just out having fun. Because I've been to events with both types of people and nothing pisses either of them off like being invaded by the other.

xpost strangely that's one I almost never hear get done at the places I go to.

11. "out Tonight" from Rent. the chicks who sing it often act like they're auditioning in the bar, and they are, but it's for someone's bed.

jon that's pretty OTM, the places I go often have the 'serious karaoke' crowd at them, and i've gone a few times recently to the other type and been like "the fuck is this?"

i haven't been to karaoke for quite some time but anyone doing 'my way' was always a stomach turner.

1. Journey -- don't stop believin'

would settle for just this being permabanned

i'm gonna do "picture" when i do karaoke on my bday, thx for the tip

hopefully they will also have "all the things she said"

shd be more national anthems in Karaoke imo

12 "Hotel California"

Loooong and boring.

13: "All Right Now" longer, boringer

"Summer Nights" is the best suggestion on this thread, but:
- I have only ever heard people do half-assed versions of this
- I really hate this song in the first place
so that's why I say that.

I can't think of a song that fits this description right now but I hate the songs that ppl sing thinking OMG I LOVE THIS SONG but they only know the first verse and the chorus and then they just stand around looking amazed that there's 3 more verses or whatver.

I dunno, like American Pie or something like that.

fuck could I be more vague

For a while my friend and I electively put a self-moratorium on "Eyes Without A Face," which we both got obsessed with trying to sing after watching the Polish Brothers' "Jackpot." We both sang it and then failed, failed, failed, every time. You imagine the movie scene happening and it just doesn't. I think maybe it's not the best song for a woman to sing. Not for either of us, anyway.

I discovered another night that zero people like when someone (me) performs Yes's "Roundabout." Probably anything that is over half instrumental parts is a bad idea, even if you share all your favorite Yes trivia through the mic over those parts.

I would happily see that!

i'm still amazed that they haven't perfected rap karaoke to where the words come out significantly early enough to where you can see them in time. other than "Dead and Gone", the others I pretty much have to practice in advance (yes, really nerdy, I know) so taht I have it somewhat memorized!

at karaoke, i always do:
- "Touch Me" by the Doors
- "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak
- "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk <----pretty much exclusive to this one traveling hipster karaoke thing. best to do when everyone's good and wasted because it just turns into a fun dance party.

I like doing "Too Hot" by Kool and the Gang and "Father Figure" by George Michael.

the last one might draw eyerolls, but for a six minute song, other than the opening, there's not a lot of vocal downtime, so it's filled with singing. it's a fun one to do and goes over well.

fucking Angels

14. that "she fucking hates me" song, not becuz it's overdone, but because it's an awful song

Now I wish there was more Progaoke. You could do silly dances during the long Wakeman/Banks/whoever kbd solos.

yea it'd be pretty awesome if they had "Cirkus" from King Crimson's Lizard

doing Cirkus would be some serious "wyatting"

15. Redneck Woman

I remember I heard a girl completely devoid of anything even close to a singing voice chose to go through "Babooshka" once. That was pretty painful....

I feel like I hear "Ain't No Sunshine" every time. Not that it's especially painful, just tiresome.

Lately I've been going to this thing called Frances Farmer Organ Karaoke, and the organ player refuses to play Journey. Last time I went I performed "O Superman."

Wicked Game is like the perfect Karaoke song.

Table do you sing Fahr'n or Fun? :)

Fucking McArthur Park. I sat thru it once with this woman MURDERING it. Horrible.

oh yeah father figure and wicked game are great suggestions

Sexual Healing. Tried it once meself after several (oh ok, a dozen) beers. that one's a bitch.

I actually like Don't Stop Believin as a song, but it's overdone at karaoke nights and you can't hear the person singing it cuz everybody in the crowd sings along loudly, even singing the guitar solo....tired of it FIND ANOTHER SONG.

otm otm otm otm, although in my experience it's not really "everybody in the crowd" but more like "their one group of friends who never go to karaoke and therefore don't know that this shit is seriously done like every fucking week." Which, y'know, they're entitled to their fun but goddddd do I not ever need to hear "Don't Stop Believing" again, in any form.

Most of the other stuff on this thread is just stuff that turns out to be tough to sing, but, at least where I go, "Wicked Game" is something you hear once every couple months, not every week, so I give it a pass.

There might be a separate list of things where when you sign up for it, you should have to get special counseling from the karaoke DJ, eg, "Message In A Bottle": "You do realize that the verse part of this is like two octaves higher than the chorus, right? Can you actually sing it? Now, how do you feel about singing 32 'sending out an ess oh ess!'es at the end?"

(I speak from experience, as I was blindsided by this song once and now I just feel pity for everyone who gets up there and struggles to get through the thing.)

have only ever done indie rock karaoke
which neutral milk hotel should probably be banned from.

Wicked Game is like the perfect Karaoke song.

I did it pissed off my face in some gnarly old school pub on Caledonian Road and got a standing ovation from a table of Polish labourers. Proudest moment of my life.

(I speak from experience, as I was blindsided by this song once and now I just feel pity for everyone who gets up there and struggles to get through the thing.)

all karaoke versions of everything should have repeated choruses at the end edited out

I quite like that idea of DJ-as-counsellor.

- "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk <----pretty much exclusive to this one traveling hipster karaoke thing. best to do when everyone's good and wasted because it just turns into a fun dance party.

please be the 17-minute LP version

(yes I know there was a 7" edit - hoping it isn't the Mix version though)

sw8 home alabama is, a song that should be banned from karaoke

sw8 home alabama is, a song that should be banned from karaoke

man this was p much obligatory for bands from my hometown to cover, you could go to the open mic and hear it 4 times a night - do I come from Alabama? do I even come from the US? no I do not, I am a pasty crooked-toothed Britisher, as was each and every one of them bellowing "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Take Me Home Country Roads" like it might fucking mean something to them

(shudders)

People do these songs from musicals and I have no idea what the fuck they are

"living on a prayer" -- solely for being the worst song in history

But... but...

cheeseburger in paradise
TOO DAMN LONG

wait is that the song i mean? i am talking about the horrible meatloaf song that goes on and on

maybe that is not cheeseburger in paradise -- that's jimmy buffet
oops
either way
ban all songs named after meat

I was on a train a couple weeks ago where this guy (drunk?) was trying to get people to sing "Livin' on a Prayer", "Don't Stop Believing" and "Sweet Caroline" with him. Dude was like a walking entry from "Stuff White People Like".

yknow whats a dope karaoke song is piano man

dont really care what songs other ppl sing cuz im too tanked to really notice

unless u work in a bar or s.thing probably shouldnt have strong opinions on this shit anyway

I sang When Doves Cry once and as I walked up to the mike this hipster dude hissed at me, "You'd better not fuck this up." I totally fucked it up but I was p wasted so eat me, hipster dude.

you should've said "maybe you're just like my mother, she's never satisfied"

yknow whats a dope karaoke song is piano man

One of my roomies was a bartender and his #1 karaoke-related beef was this song. Reason: people would sub in his name in the lyrics: "Now Tom at the bar is a friend of mine/he gets me my drinks for free" and the singer would point and wink at Tom and Tom would have to interrupt what he was doing to acknowledge the lyric change. And then I guess singers would sometimes come up after and say, "So how baout that free drink?" And then I'd have to hear about it the next day. SO I guess if you do "Piano Man," the bartender might hate if you put his or her name in there.

haha lol but tbh one of my bff's is a bartender atta joint that does karaoke one night a week and she has unvarnished loathing for all the songs ppl sing on the reg - her biggest beef is w/ the 'cuz i got high' song & ppl sub stupid shit into that too apparently - i guess most of the standards dont really hold up to weekly play from amz

but i wouldnt want to deny that heartbroken chick her shot @ 'jolene' even if she is butchering it yknow

sing yr heartbreak out girl itll be ok

the Humpty Dance should be banned cuz it's always done ironically by white dudes as a way of going "hey look I'm urban"

01:55

http://www.iviewtube.com/videos/169225/a-history-of-rap-jimmy-fallon-justin-timberlake-

I used to work at a redneck bar in NC and karaoke night was sheer hell. It was the Very Serious style of karaoke and people would wear special outfits and sing the same songs every week. That song Breathe was super popular as was This Kiss and it made me want to die.

ugh 'This Kiss'

i did Adam Sandler's "At a Medium Pace" once and got nothing but stares. and wtf kinda karaoke host has that in thier book?

theres a p sick hex hector club remix of this kiss but i doubt bros doin it @ karaoke

did l'trimm's 'cars that go boom' last time out & no1 really seemed to 'get it'