6
votes
Your favourite karaoke songs?
What are your favourite go-to songs at karaoke? Trying to steal ideas from you guys before I go next time.
Any "tradition" or customs you and your friends came up with? Example, I like ending the night with Bohemian Rhapsody because it's super late and we're too tired to be shy, there's a lot of different (non repetitive) lyrical sections, and, tradition.
Modern karaoke places are pretty affordable these days , and have a good selection of songs. If you've never been or haven't in a long time, would love to encourage you to go try and report back your thoughts.
My friend belts out a great rendition of Radiohead's Creep. Always think of him when it pops up in my rotation.
Fantastic choice
For folks who haven't seen this in Albino Black Sheep days, I highly recommend the animated video by Laith Bahrani:
And now senior designers are no longer well paid, and instead we all know the faces of these lifeless, clueless tech bros! Progress!
I like Buddy Holly by Weezer
Adding that and Say It Ain't So, thanks! Island In The Sun is great too but a tiny bit too repetitively chill for karaoke.
I'm pretty shy when it comes to karaoke. I very much enjoy it, but I get really anxious about it. That said, I like to do it here and there. My first song I ever did and the one time I did it, my friends and family still talk about.
Carnivore - Carnivore
Karaoke version
It's a song about Cunnilingus and it's not subtle.
Some more serious songs I like:
Car Wash Blues - Jim Croce
Rocksteady - Aretha Franklin (Not really great for my voice)
Night - Devin Townsend
Circle the Wagons - Darkthrone
Links in case you're unfamiliar and I should say, most of my karaoke is on Youtube. I haven't been to too many establishments proper, but they often don't have the stuff I want.
Unfortunately a lot of karaoke places use kinda outdated catalogs that appeal to like gen x or boomers, if they don't have YouTube available for the background. But in that vein:
Georgia by Boz Scaggs is a great warmup song. Nice range.
The entire Queen and Steely Dan catalogs.
You Make My Dreams Come True and Rich Girl by Hall & Oates.
Faith by George Michael.
Bunch of David Bowie fits my range, but Heroes in particular.
Lot of songs from the musical Chess. Musicals in general, really.
A bunch of anime openings if you just have YouTube on a TV and a bunch of weebs. Totally not speaking from experience with an anime club here.
You need to slip some buttrock in to force people's worst Chad Kroger impressions in.
Ocean Man, take me by the hand.
Last two I went to had Welcome to the Black Parade and What's Going On? as the showstopping closers. Bunch of drunk nerds going HEYYYAAAYAAAAYYAYAY. Great choices for that.
I like Kiss From a Rose, it's very hard though and way longer than I think. Semi Charmed Life is a good bet too!
I would add for those who don't do karaoke out of self consciousness or whatever, to check out if you have any karaoke places that let you rent out a small room! I find these much more fun, you get to hang out with just your friends, you get multiple mics, and pretty much any song you can think of is available on YouTube. I've never been the type who's gonna get up in front of a crowd, but doing private karaoke for a friend's birthday is some of the most fun I've ever had.
Yes the small rooms are the best. Recently found a Korean place where they have two-person rooms: a literal maybe 4*4 booth with just a comfy bench and two screens (one to show lyrics and the other one to browse for songs). Their machine also has a skip intro / interlude / to next song feature which we utilized heavily.
And newer places where they connect to YouTube has been fantastic as well. One place has a QR code / app. Mic slip covers is new since COVID.
Kiss from a rose is a great ballad, adding to list. Semi charmed life is new to me I'll give it a listen
Me and Bobby McGee is a favorite that I can sing well.
Sweet Caroline!
I have a cool story for that one. A couple years ago, two of my friends and I went on a road trip for a week which culminated at a "sleep on the beach" spot. It's like a beach bar by the sea, super cool place.
The first night we arrive there, it's karaoke night. Everyone there (maybe 100 people) looked not hyped at all. Small talk, little noise.
We picked Sweet Caroline as the first song, drunk as fuck, sang on the tables screaming our hearts out. By the last verse, we had everyone singing with us. It was awesome, one of the funnest nights of my life.