You’re at karaoke—what’s your go-to song?

Question

Mine Journey’s Don't stop Believin

Cinematic Lily · Accepted Answer

Don’t Stop Believin’ is such a classic crowd-pleaser 😍
My go-to is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. It’s dramatic, theatrical, and everyone ends up screaming the lyrics together, which I love. If I’m in a more chill mood, I switch to “Someone Like You” by Adele or “Creep” by Radiohead for full emotional main-character energy 🎤✨

WhiteSteve · Answer

Oh man, I wish I could do Don’t Stop Believin’, but I’m not a power singer. I’m more of a baritone too, so I’m kind of limited in my song selection. I can hit some tenor, I guess, but I get exposed at the higher end.

I recently went for one last visit to an iconic local Chinese restaurant that’s closing soon, and it happened to be a karaoke night. I was solo with built-in fan support, but I did it for the memory, haha. I sang Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett. That’s in my range and not overly challenging. I’m not a great singer, but I also say I’m somewhere between a good bad singer and a bad good singer; I can carry a tune, but I have to be careful what I sing.

Right before it, I got to talking to the guy next to me at the bar, who had just sung, and pretty well. He was telling me some of the secrets, a couple of which were ones I had discovered on my own, so that kind of validated them for me. He said he taught a few friends his tricks, and he’s embarrassed at how much better than him that it made them. One is even moving to LA to try her hand at singing professionally now.

Point is, I had told this kid the same thing about myself as I just wrote, and undersold myself so as not to look foolish and delusional, lmao. I got called up, I didn’t love the acoustics, and couldn’t really hear myself, but like I said, Margaritaville isn’t that challenging for me, so I was able to feel my way through. Got my obligatory applause, went back to my seat, and the guy gave me this facetious “oh, yeah, I can’t sing, I don’t know what I’m doing”, implying that I performed pretty well, and better than I apparently would rate myself. So that was reassuring, on what I didn’t feel like was my strongest effort.

So my go-tos…. A lot of it has to do with the crowd. Read the room, pick something that will be a crowd-pleaser in that venue. If I want to impress people and be in a comfortable lower range, I’d say Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley. I’m a pretty solid crooner (although I can’t hit Unchained Melody all the way through and it kills me), lmao, I missed the era…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vGJTaP6anOU

Or I can go with Let Her Cry, Hootie And The Blowfish. I can’t do the vibrato, but I can do a reasonable facsimile of Darius Rucker…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1aVHLL5egRY

For something more fun that’s challenging, I like to do Poison by Bell Biv Devoe. I just have to be a little careful and can’t quite go all out on the hook, but I think I sell it. Jesus, I hope this one made it to the younger generation and they can feel it. CLASSIC. But yeah, I did this one once and my girlfriend’s sister had never seen me do karaoke before, and she was like “Who ARE you?😮”, so I appreciated that…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hgnhVcyLy1I

Nice N Slow by Usher is another good one I can do. That’s about the height of my range, without going into falsetto.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/DIpQ4AZSAf8

You know what I’ve found people really respond well to, though? When I do women’s songs, lmao. I actually do a really good “Nonsense” by Sabrina Carpenter. I just switch the gender specific lyrics to apply to me. “Think I got an ex but I forgot him” gets changed to “Think I got an ex but I’ve forgotten”, and it all works. Some dudes might look at me sideways, but fuck ‘em, the ladies love it😝

https://www.youtube.com/embed/YcSP1ZUf1eQ

Or a BANGER for me (gotta have a crew for initial crowd support though😂) is Keri Hilson’s “Pretty Girl Rock”, modified to “Pretty Boy Rock”…. there’s just something inherently ridiculous about a dude up on stage singing about “don’t hate me ‘cause I’m beautiful, and I am absolutely here to be that ridiculous guy😂

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HtXOVKNazYU

Oh, and my aforementioned falsetto…I’ll be honest, I need a mostly Black crowd for these, lmao; anyone else is just gonna be staring at me like I’m crazy because they likely wouldn’t know the songs, or at least have a strong enough connection to them, plus me being white as hell just makes it all extra funny😝 But Earth, Wind, & Fire’s “Reasons”, and “Hey There, Lonely Girl” by Eddie Holman, somehow, I can rip these, or at least I could last try maybe 10-15 years ago…

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0Qz_b1di3i8 https://www.youtube.com/embed/0tSpZnVnSLQ

I have in more go-to songs, but that’s more than my share, haha, so I’ll leave it there. LOVE karaoke though😎

NathanDavis · Answer

2am at Denny's

BonzoInBitburg · Answer

Pretty Fly for a White Guy by The Offspring. I only have one karaoke song then I'm done.

queenofcardio · Answer

If I'm with the girls it's usually this one

BCRanger10 · Answer

George Thorogood & The Destroyers - I Drink Alone...

Nikki1989 · Answer

Yes!

bowenw · Answer

Something very short like happy birthday because I suck.

DryGermanGuy · Answer

The Manchester United song! ✊

rgb008 · Answer

Kashmir by Led Zeppelin

Paige2006 · Answer

What a Feeling

Laulenke · Answer

Me it would be Tequila or Rock and Roll Part 2 lol

You’re at karaoke—what’s your go-to song?

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2am at Denny's

What's your go to karaoke song?

You’re at karaoke—what’s your go-to song?

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What Girls & Guys Said

2am at Denny's

What's your go to karaoke song?

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