Most lucrative songs for busking?

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 May 03 - 07:24 AM

PS Unfortunately, on other occasions I have sung Hesitating Blues and got nothing at all, but there you go.

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 May 03 - 07:23 AM

Well I can make a precise judgement on this. I'll leave aside those rare moments when someone slips a fiver or a tenner in, they are statistical flukes. The most money in coins I've ever made busking during a single song was when we were playing "Hesitating Blues", in Lancaster England. We were three strong, one guitar and two fiddles, so I cant shed any light on the advantages of guitar versus fiddles. I would like to think it was my brilliant guitar playing and singing, but the fiddlers might have a different opinion.

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: alanabit
Date: 15 May 03 - 02:07 AM

You should know what the younger folks like, because you are one of them. It is not exactly new, but Oasis's "Wonderwall" seems to be a very important song for many twenty somethings. I know it's not a great song, but it is not actually horrible and it can earn you money. "Weather With You" and "Losing My Religion" can also bring in a few bob.
For the older folks, Dylan does not make much money - unless it's "Blowing in the Wind". "Ballad of a Thin Man" or "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" may be more interesting, but they mainly draw looks of blank incomprehension. "We Shall Overcome", "Blowing in the Wind", "Streets of London", "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Take Me Home Country Roads", "Annie's Song", "Tom Dooley" are all frequently requested. If you do Beatles songs choose the most cliched - ie "Yesterday" and "Let It Be". Try and imagine what the auntie who works part time at the baker's shop would call folk songs. I should add that I do not do this suff at all - but it is one road to go down to make money. I should also advise you to take your fiddle anyway. If your voice gets tired - don't drag it through the mud. You sing well Marion - and it would be a shame to damage the equipment.
Good luck - I hope you make a fortune. Alan.

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 14 May 03 - 06:04 PM

I used to busk with my small pipes and would play all sorts of tunes, songs, fast, slow, mainly traditional. I was ignored most of the time.
But if I played Amazing Grace (NOT a pipe tune!) I got a great response.
Yes, if people know the song, they'll stop and listen, if they don't, often they don't even hear you!
Good luck.

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: Cluin
Date: 14 May 03 - 04:37 PM

Depends on your crowd. Old folks like oldies or old country songs a lot. Youngsters want contemporary stuff (Learn some Smashmouth or Uncle Kracker). Yuppies like James Taylor, John Denver, Me & Bobbie McGee, etc. stuff like that.

Everybody likes "Jambalaya" though.

But mainly, if you like playing it, folks will like hearing it, so please yourself. (Don't get too dreary though...)

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 14 May 03 - 04:27 PM

"Put another nickel in / in the nickelodeon.."

Just kidding. It's been years since I plied the trade myself, so any observations I could make might at this late date might well be outdated. Actually, I remember trying songs specifically about money, asking for money, etc., and was *not* successful. However, I observed another player who did very well as "The Human Jukebox," dressing himself in an elaborate cardboard box decorated like a big shiny Wurlitzer. Maybe I didn't go far enough.

I did most of my streetsinging in two cities (New Orleans in winter, San Franciso in summer), and got entirely different reponses to a given tune in each venue. Whatever my biggest money-maker might have been in one town, wasn't necessarily the same in the other.

I did try to build up a varied-enough repertoire so that I could repond to any request -- not necessarily with the same tune they named, but something of the same genre, from the same or similar artist. This may be the only real money-making tip I can offer.

For example, I was never a big country-music enthusiast, but made sure to have one or two Hank Williams tunes, two Jimmie Rodgers blue yodels, and Jim Reeves' "He'll Have To Go" (a personal favorite). Also, representative tunes by the Beatles, the Stones, Otis Redding, etc. As an acoustic player, my tunes by rock artists tended to be either ballads or traditional blues that were covered by the band in question.

Anyone making a request is already listening and paying attention, so anything you can do to comply will usually be rewarded, even if it's not exactly what they specified.

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: breezy
Date: 14 May 03 - 04:14 PM

so you took the hintPhil?
Marion, you obviously dont care what you sing 'as long as its for money' then you have no scruples.
follow ed's advice.
mercenary, musical prostitute.
cant be that good on the fiddle if you're thinking of going guitar.
the fiddle is a better instrument than a guitar, unless you're a crap fiddler.
you can sing with a fiddle too
if you have no standard then any popular, recognisable number should work.
as for me, well i've got an uncompromising attitude and i perform what i want 'them 'to hear and i dont lower myself to the standard of dross,but then i'm into it for more than dosh.
thats how i meet like minded individuals.
good luck,and keep off of my patch


ps let me know what songs work best for you please
where will you be?

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 14 May 03 - 04:13 PM

Well, according to a recent TV show starring the woman who used to be on the "Seinfeld" show, (Julia ???) - John Denver songs go over big in the subway. They had a fairly well-done, tongue-in-cheek, sequence about jazz versus pop country.

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 May 03 - 04:10 PM

"Over the Hills to the Poorhouse"
"A Dollar's Not a Dollar, Anymore"
"Banks of Marble"
...etc...*sly grin*

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 14 May 03 - 03:53 PM

My singing partner, Margaret Nelson, used to busk in Chicago and found that "The Water is Wide" was always a good money-making song for her. She also did better busking by herself than when I went with.

Subject: RE: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: Ed.
Date: 14 May 03 - 02:49 PM

I've not busked for many years, but I think the best rule is 'songs that people know and like and make them feel happy'

ie: well known Beatles, Elton John etc.

Of course it depends on which part of the world you are in.

Subject: Most lucrative songs for busking?
From: Marion
Date: 14 May 03 - 02:41 PM

Hi gang. I've always stuck to busking with my fiddle, for a number of reasons, but I'm thinking it's time to try singing with my guitar and see if it pays as well.

I'm looking for suggestions as to what songs - or what kinds of songs - would be most lucrative. And don't censor your answers in the name of musical taste; assume I'll sing anything for money.

(I do in fact have my limits, but they're probably not identical to yours.)

Thanks, Marion