Best songs to get people singing?

Subject: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Dani
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 10:51 PM

I feel like there must have been threads on this in the past, but now I can't find any of them!

Some friends and I are cooking up a singalong at what is basically a monthly street festival in our little town, though we'll be indoors with a piano. We've worked up a short list of songs (yes, we even used RUS) that might draw people in and get them going, but would love to have your thoughts on fun, easy-to-sing songs that most people know.

This is different from a living-room invitational, where people might come prepared. We'll bring lyrics to get started, but we have no idea who'll be there or what they'll know.... Scary!

And yours truly and our own Janie will be the ones to get things going: can you believe it? And I was the one who almost threw up having to sing in front of people at my first FSGW Getaway!

A funny thing is that as we worked on this we found some wonderfully funny bawdy songs and started making a "B list" for another night when kids won't be around, and what do you think happened when I searched for some lyrics to fill in a song? I landed at John Mehlberg's site, and guess who I ran into there? Many of our own fine upstanding (bawdy) musicians! I'm so proud of the company I keep ; ) I'll come back later and ask for help on this list...

... any of you guys sing the Virgin Sturgeon?

Dani

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 05 - 11:08 PM

La Cucarocha - chasing Minny Mouse

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 12:30 AM

Check out "The Goldfish". Dreadful song, but it sure gets everyone singing.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 02:11 AM

Minnie The Moocha.

eric

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 03:54 AM

Whiskey in the Jar.
You want chorus songs basically.
Try stuff from the repetoire of groups like the Clancys, the Dubliners and the Corries.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Lanfranc
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 05:29 AM

Lest the Hibernians get it all their own way:

Bob Dylan's "Mighty Quinn" and "Mr Tambourine Man"
Tom Paxton's "Last thing on my mind"
Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene"
"Poverty Knock" (allows for extempore percussion)
Any well-known shanty.

Just for starters - how long have you got?

Alan

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 06:18 AM

Hey Baby

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: GUEST,Fullerton
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 06:29 AM

I have known a non folkie audience sing Dirty Old Town, all the way through. They knew the words better than I did!

Agreed Eric, Minnie the Moocher. Even if your audience have never heard it before. They'll sing it - without being told to!!!

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: GUEST,Fullerton
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 06:31 AM

The goldfish?????
Where / what is that?
It's not in DT.
I'm curious

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 08:28 AM

Fullerton
It's in the DT, titled "Round and Round"

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 10:44 AM

Hard Times Come Again No More (one of those songs everyone just seems to know)
Ain't Gonna Study War No More (aka "Down by the Riverside"), I Went Down to the Valley to Pray, (and other "zipper" songs)
A lot of people know John Denver songs (the choruses, anyway) without having consciously learned them: Country Roads, Annie's Song
Then there are the call & repeat songs like Sippin' Cider and The Other Day I Met a Bear
And songs with a refrain rather than (or in addition to) a chorus, like Gone, Gonna Rise Again, or Shut De Door, Keep Out De Devil
More Paxton: Ramblin' Boy, Home to Me is Anywhere You Are
Steve Goodman's City of New Orleans
If I Had a Hammer
Today (While the Blossoms Still Cling to the Vine)
Sweet Violets
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head
Songs from Musicals (again, songs people don't necessarily know they know): Matchmaker, Hello Dolly, New York New York, Edelweiss, Lonely Goatherd; So Long, Farewell; Do-a Deer, Climb Every Mountain, I Feel Pretty, Maria, Tonight, There's a Place for Us, Clang Clang Clang Went the Trolley, Oklahoma, People will Say We're in Love, Oh What a Beautiful Mornin', I'm as Corny as Kansas in August, There is Nothing Like a Dame, Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair, 76 Trombones, I Love You a Bushel and a Peck, Luck Be a Lady Tonight, Only Doin' it for Some Doll, The Age of Aquarius, Hey Big Spender, When You Walk Through a Storm, etc...
WWI & WWII songs: Long Way to Tipperary, Pack Up Your Troubles, There'll be Blue Birds Over, Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree, Long Long Trail a Winding (here's a great WWI website to find (among other things) words to WWI songs that everyone knows the chorus to, but not many of the other words)
Also: Motown Songs, Beatles songs, Gospel songs, rounds, TV themes can be fun, too

Have fun!

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 02:17 PM

If there are lots of kid's maybe something like Froggie Went a-Courting.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 02:33 PM

It always amazes me how well songs like Molly Malone (The Tart With The Cart) and My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean get the Non Folkies joining in - AND if you arent too precious about the Bang Bang Bang Bang bit , the good old Wild rover !!

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Joybell
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 07:34 PM

Banana Boat Song never fails. Everyone likes the "Day-O" bit.
Rock my Soul (in the Bosum of Abraham) is good for easy part singing. Done the way Pete Seeger did it. ie. One group sings "Rock my Soul" and another sings "So High I can't get over it".
Also some of the well-known rounds work even with non-singers.
"Sweetly Sings the Donkey". "Frere Jacques". "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 09:32 PM

Non religious adult singalongs aren't a part of my culture {African American}. I attended Seamus Kennedy's concert at the Harp & Fiddle in Pittsburgh a couple of months ago and think that it was the closest that I have ever been to a singalong. Probably you might not count it as one, but I really enjoyed that experience. Though it was quite foreign to me...men and women in a bar drinking bear singing folk songs beating on the tables in time to the songs, and making ccompanying motions to the songs {like those done for some pre-school children's folk songs like "The wheels on the bus go round". I mean no disrespect, I really thought it was a great experience.
And I wish that they we had such singalongs.

But I'm wondering if the African American call & response format would hinder group singing...Are the songs sung at singalongs usually sung in unison?

And I think that we {African Americans} are so used to mixing dancing and other movements with singing that I bet that the sit down singing group experince would quickly change up into the talent show we are used to, with sub-sets of people ending up performing stylized Temptations and Supreme like songs & coordinated movements...

Maybe I'm wrong.

****

Also YorkshireYankee, you mentioned "zipper songs" in your post upthread. What are "zipper songs"?

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Jun 05 - 09:40 PM

Hmmm-correction- "men and women in a bar drinking beer"

Though this is off topic, since I'm here {smile} let me say that even being in a bar where everybody drank beer was foreign to me.
I don't drink at all, and am far from any expert on Black bars.
But it seems to me that African Americans are less likely to drink beer at bars than they are to drink hard alcohol.

And I first heard about 'beer blasts' [parties] when I went to a predominately White college...Our paties were decidedly different than that....

IMO, these are additional examples of United States cultural diversity..

Minor, but still perhaps worth noting...

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 01:12 AM

Hardly an example, but the Ethiopians I know are just as likely to down the cheapest vodkas as beer, but they tell me that what is traditionaly brewed is much more potent.
This, however, is unfortunate thread drift and shall stop now.

Maybe some classics like Wild Thing, Satisfaction, Feeling Groovy, any number of Beatles, Sweet Home Alabama, Soul Man, Layla, Smoke on the Water, No Woman No Cry, First Cut is the Deepest, Wild World, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Brown Eyed Girl, California Dreamin', Daydream Believer, Homeward Bound, He Ain't Heavy, Imagine, Leaving On a Jet Plane, Light My Fire, Wish You Were Here, Under the Bridge, The Boys Are Back in Town, One More Cup of Coffee, House of the Rising Sun.
Wind of Change goes down tremendously with Russians and Eastern Europeans.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 02:36 AM

DECIDEDLY OFF TOPIC

Le Scaramouche, you said:

With regard to your comment:

"Hardly an example, but the Ethiopians I know are just as likely to down the cheapest vodkas as beer, but they tell me that what is traditionaly brewed is much more potent.
This, however, is unfortunate thread drift and shall stop now"

-snip-

I'm not sure what you meant by "Ethiopians I know"...At one time-in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries "Ethiopian" was a generic referent for Black people. After that time "Ethiopian' was usually reserved for people from the African nation of Ethiopia, and "African" was used as the larger group referent {since "Ethiopian" as the larger group referent had remnants of the patronizing racism of those earlier unenlightened times}...

I'm curious which way you meant that "Ethiopians I know" phrase...

Also, Le Scaramouche,you said

"This, however, is unfortunate thread drift and shall stop now."

-snip-

I'm also not sure whether you meant that your comment about the drinking habits of the "Ethiopians [you] know" is unfortunate thread drift, or my comments [whole or in part]were unfortunate thread drift.

If you meant my comments, let me say that I acknowledge that they were thread drift, but that I don't consider that drift unforunate.

I am of the school of thought that some off topic posts add to a thread interests. In the almost one year that I have been posting on Mudcat's BS threads, depending on the subject of a particular thread, I have found 'Catters and Guests may accept, invite, welcome, and even encourage & enjoy posts that temporarily go off subject.

Of course some posters go off on conversational tangents in an attempt to hijack the thread {permanently change the subject}, but that is never my intent.

I write on this forum as I talk in 'real life', meaning while I have been known to go off on tangents when I'm having a conversation [LOL!!], I eventually [smile] return to the main topic or I will [usually graciously] accept someone else's returning me to that main subject.

So having written this, Le Scaramouche, I will stop because I have a mind to {and not because you said to}.

Peace,


Azizi

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 02:40 AM

CORRECTION OF MY PREVIOUS DECIDEDLY OFF TOPIC POST


Le Scaramouche, you did not say:

"With regard to your comment".

I wrote that in a draft of my post but didn't delete it when
I re-wrote that post.

Sorry for any confusion.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 03:42 AM

Ethiopians, as in people from Ethiopia.
As to thread drift, I ment my own comments. Wouldn't presume to be responsible for anyone else. Please, give me a little credit.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 06:11 AM

The only one I know for sure that works for all ages and groups is "Yellow Submarine".

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 08:35 AM

Le Scaramouche,

Thanks for your response to my comments. IMO, in discussion forums, as elsewhere, credit is earned and not given...

****

Here are other songs that might work at a singalong:

She'll be coming round the mountain {with the added responses such as "Yee Haw!"}

The Crawdad Song

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

This Old Man {Nick Nack Paddy Wack}

There's A Hole In The Bucket

Tingalayo

This Land Is Your Land

He's Got The Whole World In His Hands

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 08:44 AM

For anyone else who didn't know the meaning of the phrase 'sipper songs', see this excerpt from Peter Berryman's "Whither Zither' blog:

"I'm referring to zipper songs which are known as such because their lyrics for the most part don't vary from verse to verse except for a spot where replacable words or phrases can be "zipped" into and out of the song, like the animals in Old MacDonald. Or like the activities in the song Ain't It a Shame which I learned years ago, along with many other wonderful zipper songs, from a Leadbelly's Last Sessions LP:

Ain't it a shame to [go fishin'] on a Sunday, ain't it a shame. (repeat) /Ain't it a shame to [go fishin'] on a Sunday, When you got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday/ Oh, Thursday Friday Saturday, ain't it a shame.

In following verses, instead of "go fishin,'" Leadbelly sang "kiss your wife," "take a drink," and so forth. This is a late night road-song for me, and I take it down all sorts of provocative avenues of debauchery before I'm through.

Zipper songs are great for driving because they are easy to remember but also because they ask of you to do a bit of creative thinking, which helps keep your nose-bridge from nuzzling the steering wheel. In Down By The Riverside, you can lay down all sorts of miscellaneous things by the river, along with swords and shields. I Got Shoes (...you got shoes, all God's children got shoes) is also limitless. He's Got the Whole World In His Hands is a truly minimal zipper song. It's nothing but the title, repeated and repeated, with the phrase "whole world" as the zippable phrase, which returns in each verse for the last line:

He's got [the little bitty baby] in his hands (repeat three times) / He's got the whole world in his hands.

That's all there is to it. My friend John Carnes, Ohio songwriter, singer and banjo player, turned this song into the version I sing: He's Got the Whole World In His Car. (He's got cardboard boxes, in his car... or empty bottles, or his girl friend pregnant, or Maple Nut Goodies, or WD-40...)

We Shall Overcome and many more civil rights and general rally and union songs are good zippers. She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain is another one I bellow at the overpass pigeons.

So next time you're on a long drive, in there with the No-Doz, the sludge thermos, the energy bars, and the slapping hat, be sure and pack a list of zipper songs. But only if you're alone like I was, with someone who loves you unconditionally, or with someone who hates you already."

-snip-

Whither Zither

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 08:51 AM

Note: Wither Zither is "a monthly column written by Peter Berryman for Mad Folk News, the newsletter of Wisconsin's Madison Folk Music Society."

That Wither Zither excerpt posted above has some additional suggestions for songs that may work well at singalongs.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 09:07 AM

Sheesh. No need to be so literal about everything.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 09:09 AM

A suggestion: don't make the songs too high. Where I live (Midwest U.S.) the public gets discouraged when the melody hits the D above middle C.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 09:35 AM

Melody shouldn't be too complicated either.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 10:51 AM

Happy Birthday To You------------unless you are a Jehovah's Witness, of course!-------- ;-)

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Tracey Dragonsfriend
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 11:03 AM

Whare are you, Dani? I'd guess the song that people know best will vary a bit by country...

Maybe stuff you'd think of a guides/scouts/camp songs? Like "You'll never get to heaven", and so on?

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 11:12 AM

Le Scaramouche,

I want to publicly apologize for my prickliness with you.

Sorry,

Azizi

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 01:30 PM

It's so trivial, not the sort of thing that needs to be public, but thank you.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: akenaton
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 03:30 PM

Any Scottish song.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: M.Ted
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 06:02 PM

I think Le Scaramouche hit something with his list--truth be told, not so many people know the old folksongs as know the hits from the 70's. A number of years ago, I went to see a David Bowie in Concert and then, a couple days later, Joan Baez in concert--to my surprise, the Bowie fans sang along with every songs, while the Baez fans did not sing a long at all. My suggestions:

My Sharona
YMCA
We Are Family
One Toke Over The Line
Miss American Pie
Proud Mary
Mama Mia
Rose Garden
Song Sung Blue
Your So Vain
Please, Mr. Postman

Oh, and Scaramouche--I know what you mean--I lived in a neighborhood with both Eritreans and Eithiopians--they had great food, great music, and evil, evil liquor--

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 06:34 PM

My Sharona is so corny, but catchy too.
Good list.
These are just songs I know people start singing together for no reason.
One by U2, Cash's Ring of Fire, Mettalica Nothing Else Matters, anything by the Police, possibilities endless.
Here's an idea, get them all fired up then change the pace with something like Scarborough Fair or Rod Stewart's Sailing.
Bob Marley is really good to get everyone moving.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 07:08 PM

Hi Azizi -- Sorry I didn't see your question in time to answer you, but I see you found a much more complete (and entertaining) answer than I would have provided, so well done you! The great thing about zipper songs is they're so repetitive, people can pick them up extremely quickly -- even if they've never heard 'em before. Which reminds me, a swell zipper song that (surprisingly) hasn't been mentioned here yet is "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

Another real doozie of a singalong is "The Mary Ellen Carter". OK, it's not one that non-folkies will be familiar with, but the chorus is fairly easy to catch on to and it's the kind of song that really inspires people and gets them going -- so if most of the songs you're doing are the kind that folks can join in on straight away, you can (once you get 'em going) prolly get away with slipping in a song or two that they don't already know and/or is slightly more challenging.

I'm assuming Dani is in the US, 'cos she mentioned the "Rise Up Singing" book, which I don't think has made it to other countries yet (at least, not in any great numbers).

Another fun thing to do (& that people enjoy joining in on) is to sing one well-known song to the tune of another (also well-known). A few that I know work: Amazing Grace, House of the Rising Sun and Gilligan's Island can all be sung to each other's tunes.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 07:13 PM

You might also want to check out the "Songs We're Too Cool To Sing" thread... it has a whole bunch of songs that everybody knows.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 08:07 PM

YorkshireYankee,

It wasn't that you took too long to answer my question. I could have waited, but I was in my 'I-wonder-what-I'll-find-through-googling' mode.

As a result of that search, I'm glad I found that 'Wither Zither' site.

But I also want to thank you for your response.


Azizi

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: phinque
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 08:28 PM

Try sea chanties. Just give them the fill in lines.
Puff, Sloop John B, MTA

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: M.Ted
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 09:29 PM

I would love to know what songs the twentysomethings sing when those scragglyhaired noveau hippie types that I see wandering around with guitars break into song(assuming that they do break in to song)--

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 10:11 PM

Here's a parody that seems like it would be alot of fun for a singalong:

RAVIOLI
(Tune-Alouette)
Ravioli, I like ravioli; ravioli, it's so good for me.
Do I have it in my hair?
Yes you have it in your hair.
In my hair? OHHH...
Ravioli, I like ravioli; ravioli, it's so good for me.
Continue: Chin, tie, shirt, skirt (pants), shoes, floor *
http://www.gsleaders.org/files/sillysong2.htm

This source is found on the Song pages that are provided as a link to Scouting Songs

[Thanks to another Mudcat thread "Scouting Web Songs" for this link].

* I suppose this means to substitute another word for "chin", for
example, "Do I have it on my chin?"


Enjoy!

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Janie
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 10:54 PM

Awww, Dani, you've gone and done it now!!! How are we ever gonna cull all these and decide which lyrics to print?

Janie

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Dani
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 11:49 PM

Well, let's start with what we got: 'specially since that's what's printed already! Now we have a big 'ol pile for next time, thanks to everyone.

Janie and I and another friend started a list, and the criteria was: do Janie and I BOTH know it well enough to belt it out loud enough that others could join if we didn't scare 'em off...

I think we discovered that A) damn, she knows SO many songs, and B) how come she doesn't know all the songs I know, and C) how the hell do we know these songs?!?

This will be interesting. There certainly is no singing tradition here as there seems to be on on the other side of the Atlantic: the only time most people here sing together is in church. I'm so jealous... and not ready to give up on the idea. I know there are subversive others out there who feel as I do (Dan Zanes? You out there?).

Janie and others have tried to keep the fans flamed of a song circle, but it's hard.

So, at the behest of a friend who just loves to play piano and can play damn near anything, we're all trying this crackpot scheme to just sing loud in public, hand out song books, and hope that folks who think it's fun to sing with a group will join in. Kind of like you can get away with re: Christmas caroling, but with songs in general.

Well, I'm peering down into the void anyway, might as well sing....

Dani

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 01:46 AM

Where is this going to happen? It seems like a great idea--even better than great--whatever songs you manage to get people singing. Outside of church, people don't sing much--and that is sad--so teach the world to sing again!(which reminds me of another song;-)

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 05:44 AM

Well I'm 20something, those are about the kind of songs when someone brings a guitar along.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Dani
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 08:50 AM

Well, it's basically a street festival, with lots of people milling around our little historic downtown. All kinds of people come out, young, old, hip and cool, not, rural, townies, families, you name it. That's half the fun. And right on the edge of this is a lovely old Masonic lodge, which hosts some events, including a film screening later in the evening. They have a piano, so we're planning just to fling open the doors and play and sing away!

Dani

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 08:55 AM

So mix and match.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 11:32 AM

and the name of this historic downtown would be?

Le Scaramouche--so no REM, no "Zombie", no "Smells Like Teen Spirit?"

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Janie
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 11:51 AM

Hillsborough, North Carolina

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 12:04 PM

OOOPS, I knew I was forgetting something, but then again she's not there.....
Teen Spirit, no, you need guitars for that.

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 07:05 PM

A little ways further than I'd drive for the day--too, bad--this sounds really fun--

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Janie
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 08:43 PM

Well, assuming she hasn't changed her mind since we talked earlier today, we are ready for the "FIRST EVER LAST FRIDAYS TOWN SING." Dani has printed booklets with lyrics for 20 or 25 commonly known songs. "Last Fridays" is a monthly event with a band on the courthouse square, street venders, shops and galleries open late, and the occasional busker. We are small but diverse community, and that diversity is apparent at this neat event.

I've been catching up on the "Why People Don't Sing" thread (also the too cool to sing thread) Looks like many of the songs that a performer may abhor happen to be great choices to get a crowd singing.

The key to this becoming what we hope will be a sucessful, monthly sing may be to create an atmosphere where "cool" is just not a factor.

Wish us luck! (Especially Dani--I'm just along as a duflous sidekick.)

Janie

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 11:32 AM

For kid audiences, I find that Hole In The Bottom of the Sea and its fraternal twin, The Green Grass Grew All Around are wildly popular.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 24 Jun 05 - 09:08 PM

Hey Dani & Janie, how'd it go? Please report back to us. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to know what songs you did & how it went. I'm particularly interested in which songs you felt did/didn't work.

And for "next time", here are a few more that have occurred to me: Aragon Mill, Waltzing with Bears (a real crowd-pleaser, I believe), You are my Sunshine, Crawdad Hole, and Marvelous Toy.

Cheers!

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: Dani
Date: 24 Jun 05 - 10:49 PM

Hmmm... the post-mortem...

- I think we were a little too far off the beaten path. Large crowds, but not down the street where we were, despite having been announced at the 'main stage' - next time it will be closer to the action, I hope.

- poor Janie has been sick, and though she showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, it only took 4 or 5 songs to shut her voice down.

- The building with the piano was locked up tight. That left our piano player having to sing with us as we gathered round the steps, but he was a trouper ; ) By the time the building was unlocked, the piano player had been dragged down the street to do sound for the jazz band that drew a tremendous crowd.

- The few who were there had a lovely time, and I think the songbook is a very good start. We brought in a singer or two who were ripe for the picking!

I will be out of town for the next, but will definitely be helping to get this ball rolling somehow in the future! That many people in one place have GOT to have a song or two in 'em.

Thanks for all the suggestions: they'll definitely go on future song lists and I'll be checking back here.

We sang: Sweet Violets (several times!), My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean, Oh Mary, One Bottle of Pop, Keep on the Sunny Side, Jamaican Farewell, Downtown (our opener). A few others: I can't remember the rest.

Dani

Subject: RE: Best songs to get people singing?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 24 Jun 05 - 11:27 PM

Thanks for the "post-mortem" Dani. Sounds like you had some real good ones (meant to suggest Sweet Violets & forgot -- good for you for coming up with it yourselves).

It does sound like a bit of a rough start -- but not because of anything you did "wrong". Here's hoping that next time the organisers will arrange things so the deck ain't stacked against ya.

Meanwhile... well done!