Karaoke Forums

That's an excellent idea, SD. I like it. And things I like I steal shamelessly. As a friend of mine says, "you give credit three times -- then it's yours."8-)

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I get requests for Piano Man once a week, American Pie and PBTDL once every couple of weeks and have been getting a lot of requests lately for these classic rock songs that go up to 8 minutes...not ALWAYS with bad results, but i DO notice that my regulars get a bewildered and glazed-over look and eyeball me whenever a song/singer isn't sung nearly on key, they don't know the song, or the singer is lagging on the lyrics.

I suppose in a way i feel a little guilty when the next 2 songs of the same singer go past the 5 minute mark... a few of my regulars tend to go out for smoke breaks and some might not come back.

It's becoming more of an issue lately since a popular joint down the street closed and i'm getting their country/classic rocker overflow. Never had a problem for years before. -just wanna TRY to nip it in the bud before it gets outta hand.

I agree it wouldn't be fair to ban certain long songs but keep others that are more popular. There are some good points made here...i'll keep listening before i do anything radical...

p.s. nobody ever minds Rappers Delight when it's done...

Well, if there were any song I would ban based upon length it would be "Rapper's
Delight". Why, 'cause I hate it. Fortunately for me I don't have it!

John, with your current circumstances you may just become THE laboratory where some of the ideas presented here can be tried out and the results evaluated. Definitely keep us up to date

Oh my . . . something to explore! That Inul Daratista is certainly a limber young lady, isn't she? (woohoo!)

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Dave's not here.

TOVMOD SAID "Well, if there were any song I would ban based upon length it would be "Rapper's
Delight". Why, 'cause I hate it. Fortunately for me I don't have it!

John, with your current circumstances you may just become THE laboratory where some of the ideas presented here can be tried out and the results evaluated. Definitely keep us up to date."

I must admit that my regular that performs Rappers Delight puts a definite SPIN on it and makes it more hip hop with real attitude, and includes the crowd in it... NOT like the original BORING song that was monotonous. It goes over REAL WELL here everytime!

Not here, but we are about as urban as The Andy Griffith Show....

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Not the only ones they do, but they do sing them regularly & get requests from the crowd for them to sing them believe it or not.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

It's a favorite here as well.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I sort of figured that.

Actually, I have songs that aren't in my book done all the time. My wife does Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad and one fellow does Taxi. Quite a few do Piano Man, one guy really well.

Taking them out of the book mostly discourages the first-time karaoke singer and kids from doing them. I have suffered through too many 8-year-olds attempting American Pie to offer it up.....

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

If it's in the book, it's fair game.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Now, that being said, I still say WHEN you can sing it.

The length of the song does not bother me as much as the "tone" or "feel" of the song. I NEVER put more than two broadway songs back to back unless one is pretty upbeat. I try to balance the mood and bring it up and then down, like when you DJ.

"Piano Man" never bothers anyone, even if the singer sucks, the crowd will sing on the chorus and make up for it.
"War Pigs" is a song that I sing every other week. People cheer when the first vocals come in. It doesn't matter who sings it, people like it.
"ParadiseBTDBL" is another song that I sing. I sing it with Jim Dandy's ( of Black Oak Arkansas) daughter, and the length of the song doesn't seem to bother folks. I could be wrong. Then again, I think we do a good job of it and that makes a big difference in people tolerating a long song.
"Taxi" is never picked to be sung, except by me, on a dead night, as the last song or so. I like the song a lot. I wish someone could do a good job of "30,000 pounds of Bananas", though.
"American Pie" is sung by one of our regulars every week. Nobody seems to care about it's length either.

I guess if I ran a show that was high volume, and where there were many different people every week, then I might decide to "leave out" some selected songs due to the length of the song.

It isn't usually a problem when a few long songs are done in a night or it's slow and than of course it doesn't matter. But on a screaming busy night the crowd can get hostile about a long song.

There are many ways I deal with long songs on a busy night. I'll only make these suggestions if I know the audience will not receive the song well. I do it not for myself, but for the singer and listeners. The bottom line though is it is the singers decision to do the song or not.

I may politely ask them if they would choose another song because the audience would not receive it well because of the length, but it is their decision.

Give them the option to sing it and let me fade it out at a certain point before it ends. I usually say this when they say they don't want to do the song now because they didn't realize how long it was.

Some regulars have me speed up the long music only portions or simply fade out the song when the singing is done.

It is rare I'll try to detour someone from a song, but when I do the person usually is appreciative. Some people actually don't realize how long a song is when they request it.



I also believe that if it's in the book you should be allowed to sing it that's why I only make suggestions. Most of my crowd are regulars and are aware singing a lot of long songs on your every turn on a busy night is bad karaoke etiquette.

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