Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses

Subject: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Stringsinger
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 06:30 PM

Hi,

I am looking for songs that have easy singable choruses that audiences can pick up
without difficulty.

Could you please suggest some?

Songs like Sloop John B., This Land is Your Land, It Takes a Worried Man, Erie Canal etc.

If people can pick up the choruses, they might be motivated to learn the whole song
with the verses.

It seems better to me that folks can pick up the choruses without burying their noses
in songbooks.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 11:04 PM

Sea chanteys all work well for this purpose.

I happen to like GENERAL TAYLOR.

Someday I'd like to try out a work song with some people who are actually doing work.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Bert
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 11:57 PM

Tom Pearce.
A-Roving.
The Night Visiting Song.


Jim, I once saw Pete Seeger on TV make an utter fool of himself trying to swing a hammer and sing at the same time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Willa
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 04:17 AM

Reconciliation, John Ball, Constant Lovers, Galway Shawl. Rose of Allandale

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 08:38 AM

Bonny Woods of Ivy (ok, I know that it's actually in effect Old McDonald Had A Farm - but a change is as good as a rest!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 09:17 AM

Actually, I think the tune for General Tayor is a bit tricky.

Reuben James - jingoistic Americana, but a good tune and easy chorus words.

3 Score and 10.

Fathom the Bowl.

Boatie, boatie s(p)it in the cut.

Maui.

Or are you actually after Americana specifically?

If so:

Will the Circle be unbroken?

Love has no pride.

The Mighty Quinn.

Grandfather's clock.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Stu
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 09:18 AM

Dido Bendigo
Fathom The Bowl
The Fields of Athenry
The Black Velvet Band
Cold Blow the Rainy Night
The Rocky Roads To Dublin
Fiddler's Green
Farewell Nova Scotia
Hal-An-Tow
Bonny Ship The Diamond

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 09:21 AM

Drunken Sailor, Blood Red Roses, Haul on the Bowline, or any other chantey.
The Midnight Special.
We Shall Overcome.
Which Side Are You on, Boys.
Keep Your Eye on the Prize.
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
Down in the Valley to Pray.
Tom Dooley.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: GUEST,arran
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 01:08 PM

there's a song by Billy Connolly called the donkey and all you do is la la the tune.

tom

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Grab
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 04:19 PM

Rocky road to Dublin, easy?! Dude, you must be *way* too good a singer! ;-) OK, the chorus bit is fairly easy, but even there you have to be prepared for when it happens - a 9/8 slipjig with occasional drops into 6/8 ain't easy to follow.

Sixteen tons
Clementine
Molly Malone
Ready for the storm - Dougie Maclean
American Pie - Don Maclean
Vincent - Don Maclean

Graham.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: GUEST,lefthanded guitar
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 04:44 PM

How about

Happy Landings to You Amelia Earhart

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: PoppaGator
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 04:56 PM

"Reuben James" uses the same tune as "Wildwood Flower" ~ if you want to avoid the American WWII patriotic fervor, go for teh Carter Family version.

Also, speaking of Carter Family versions, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" is sung to the same tune as the older spiritual "Glory Glory Halleluiah (Since I Laid My Burden Down)."

In both cases (and others I'm sure), judge your audience as to which chorus lyric they're more likely to enjoy singing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 07:25 PM

Little Boy Billee - just repeat each line!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: SINSULL
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 07:28 PM

Roll the Old Chariot (Nelson's Blood) plus you can pull in audience members to contribute to the verses.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: freightdawg
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 08:30 PM

Ahem,

Anything by John Denver, the epitome of good song writing and singability.

sheesh, if it had been a snake it would have bit ya.

Freightdawg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Mar 24 - 07:22 PM

How I found this thread to refresh:

Stilly River Sage refreshed the thread about Studying Folk Music.
In that thread, Joe Offer referenced a thread about
Fifty Songs Everyone Should Know.

And THAT thread had a post by Stringsinger,
lamenting that he had started this thread here,
and had gotten few responses. So:


what about suggesting some songs with easy singable choruses?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: The Sandman
Date: 16 Mar 24 - 04:53 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7RlF5D2Kb0&lc=UgyZTPqfCMSw5YQgqg94AaABAg sally brown

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Mar 24 - 01:08 PM

This one which I used to perform many years ago.       Sammys' Bar' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzdBInO05Gg&list=PLF10246F865A19C34&index=21

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: r.padgett
Date: 16 Mar 24 - 01:12 PM

Looking at these songs I think that they all are not easy songs to learn and sing!

Takes time to learn songs that you are not familiar with

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Mar 24 - 01:14 PM

SAMMY'S BAR or THE LAST BOAT'S A'LEAVIN
(Cyril Tawney)

I went down to Sammy's Bar
Hey, the last boat's a'leavin
By the shore at Pieta
Haul away the daighsoe
And my real love, she was there
Hey, the last boat's a'leavin
There was sand all in her hair
Haul away the daighsoe

How did sand get in your hair
Hey, the last boat's a'leavin
Darling Johnny put it there
Haul away the daighsoe

He's a better man by far
Hey, the last boat's a'leavin
Because he drives a Yankee car
Haul away the daighsoe

Fourteen days I drank no wine
Hey, the last boat's a'leavin
Saving for that love of mine
Haul away the daighsoe

Then one day in Paula square
Hey, the last boat's a'leavin
At a paper I did stare
Haul away the daighsoe
Johnny tried a hairpin bend
Hey, the last boat's a'leavin
For my love, that was the end
Haul away the daighsoe

Going back to Sammy's Bar
Hey, the last boat's a'leavin
I don't need no Yankee car
Haul away the daighsoe

Daighsoe=watertaxi, Maltese term

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: Reinhard
Date: 16 Mar 24 - 03:37 PM

... except that the chorus line is "Call away..." not "Haul away..."; see Cyril Tawney's explanation quoted on my site at The Ballad of Sammy’s Bar.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 24 - 06:49 AM

We often have singing at our Bude Memory Café get-togethers, led by "acts" of multifarious genres. Last Friday the band we had did Van the Man's "Brown-eyed Girl," and it was heartening to hear fifty or sixty people of advanced "certain ages" belting out the chorus:

"Do you remember when we used to sing?
Sha-la-la, la-la, la-la, la-la, la-la tee-da
Sha-la-la, la-la, la-la, la-la, la-la tee-da" (repeated as much as you like!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 24 - 06:52 AM

...And no-one seemed to mind the seamy bit about making love in the green grass behind the stadium...   :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs with easy singable choruses
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 18 Mar 24 - 09:23 AM

chorus & parting(p) songs from the thread
Best UK Chorus Songs?
mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=156592
but 'easy' wasn't part of the criteria. ;)

All The Good Times
Auld Lang Syne (p)
The Auld Triangle
Barley Mow
Barnyards o' Delgaty
Barrett's Privateers
Black Velvet Band
Blaydon Races
Body of An American
Bold Grenadier
Bold Riley
Bonnie Glen Shee
Bonny Ship the Diamond
Bring us a Barrel(Keith Marsden)

Cadgwith Anthem
Cold Blow and the Rainy Night
Cornish Lads(Roger Bryant)
Coulter's Candy
Country Life

Daddy Fox
Diamond
Dido Bendigo
Doon in the Wee Room
Drinking(For I mean to get jolly well drunk, I do.)
Drink Old England Dry
Drovers' Song
Eddie Baker's Muckspreader

Farmer's Boy
Fathom the Bowl
The French shall never drink old England dry
Fiddler's Green

Gan Canny Brian
God Speed the Plough(Farmer's Toast\Jolly Farmer)
Good King Arthur's Days
The Good Old Way
Grandfather's Clock

Hard Times
Health To The Company
Holmfirth Anthem
Home Boys Home
Horkstow Grange

I'm a Rover
In Freenship's Name (?trad)(p)
I Thought I Had No Voice (Scott Murray)

The Jeely Piece Song
Jock Stewart
John Barleycorn
Jones's Ale
Jug of Punch

The Keeper
Kelty Clippie
Kind Friends and Companions (Sheila Stewart)(p)

Leaving of Liverpool
Let Union be in All Our Hearts
Loath to depart(p)
The Lorry Ride

Macpherson's Farewell
Manchester Rambler
Martin
Mary Ellen Carter
Maui
Mermaid
Miners Life
Mormond Braes
Moving-On Song

Nelson's Blood
New York Gals
Nightingales Sing
No-Man's Land
North Country Maid

Only Remembered

Paddy Lay Back
The Parting Glass (Irish version)(p)
Parting Song (Dave Webber) (p)
Pittenweem Jo
Pleasant and Delightful
Poverty Knock

Rolling Down to Old Maui
Rolling Home(John Tams)
Rolling Home to Caledonia
Rolling Home to dear old England
Rose of Allendale

Sae will we Yet (p)
Stanley Market
The Star O' the Bar
The Sweet Nightingale

Tailor's Breeches
Tak a dram afore ye go (Ian Sinclair)(p)
Tatties and Herring
Thousands or More
Three Score and Ten
Twankydillo

Waltzing Matilda
Wee Cooper of Fife
We're no awa' tae bide awa'(p)
When All Men Sing
When First We met (Alan Bell)(p)
Whisky in the Jar
The White Hare of Bowden
Widecombe Fair
Wild Mountain Thyme
Wild Rover
William Brown/Early in the Morning

Yellow on the Broom
Young Banker
Young Sailor Cut Down in his



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