Obviously, you don’t need a great voice to enjoy karaoke. In fact, traditionally many of the karaoke singers — namely your friends- are more likely to be tone-deaf, or at least singers who are not that advanced. But even when you have a reasonably nice voice, you may not be able to pull some songs off. Here are some of those songs and why:
Billy Joel — We Didn’t Start the Fire
We Didn’t Start the Fire is a number 1 hit from 1989. Billy Joel was 40 at the time, and the song lists some of the most important events happened in those four decades. It is sung in a lively, conversational and fast mode. It is doubtful that you might be able to finish it without running out of breath.
The chorus is the easy part. It is the main part that might challenge you a little. Here is a reminder of how the lyrics go:
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy hn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, “Rock Around the Clock
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, “Peyton Place”, trouble in the Suez
Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody
Freddie Mercury was no doubt one of the most talented singers and musicians of all times. His vocals had an impressive amount of range and with the necessary back-up vocals with his fellow band members, they created a unique classic. Bohemian Rhapsody is from 1975. Also remember the changing genres within the song, as it features a ballad, rock opera and rock. Try Bohemian Rhapsody at your own peril.
REM- It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I feel fine)
REM is known for its quality contributions to slow and alternative rock. It’s the end of the world, (as we know it) is one of their fastest songs and the pace of the lyrics matches We didn’t Start the Fire.
Practice the lyrics below. Let’s see if your breath can handle it:
That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and
snakes, an aeroplane and Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn – world
serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs. Feed
it off an aux speak, grunt, no, strength, the Ladder
start to clatter with fear fight down height. Wire
in a fire, representing seven games, and a government
for hire at a combat site. Left of west and coming in
a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck. Team
by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing. Fine, then. Uh oh,
overflow, population, common food, but it’ll do to Save
yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs,
listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and
the revered and the right, right. You vitriolic,
patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty
psyched
Elvis Presley- Love Me Tender
Elvis is the King of rock’ n roll and one of the reasons is his uniquely velvet voice. It’d be very hard to capture the mood of his slower songs. Love Me Tender is an Elvis song from 1956.
The Bee Gees — Staying Alive
English pop/soft-rock band The Bee Gees had a massive hit in the late 70s with their song Stayin’ Alive, the signature song of the film Saturday Night Live starring John Travolta. The problem with singing this song is that you need to hit some very high notes and stay high for a while.
