Karaoke Forums

....between?
I like the beatles..grew up with them..great band great songs, but, I never sing the beatles and even though they have a huge number of karaoke songs avaialable at most KJ shows, I almost never ever hear anyone sing a beatles song.
After watching last nights Amer Idol I think I now know why...IMHO Beatles songs don't exactly send chills up your spine...if you wanna show off your voice, 99% of their songs won't give you that chance...What r your opinions?

You know how it is when you really love something but you have to just let it go because is isn't working? That's the way Beatles music is for me in clubs.

I am so thankful that Beatles songs are only done a few times a year in my bar. It's the same as on American Idol last night. They're beautiful songs. But they're boring when someone is performing them live, and the room just tunes out.

I can't remember the judges all saying "This is so boring" as much as they did last night. My room is a lot more polite than that, but that's what they're thinking too.

There are several Beatle's songs that I like.  When I'm 64 is great and I Like performing the beatles country and western song Rocky Racoon.  I have a huge Beatles set and it does get used.

The one artist that I've yet to have anyone perform is Elton John,  and I spent big bucks to buy him on sound choice.

IMHO, which I shared with my wife several years ago, the Beatles songs, for the most part are extraordinarilly hard to sing.  They can be quite challenging as to intonation and also as to range at times.

I asked my wife to explain to my daughter last night why few of the Idol performances were stirring, and my wife explained the Beatles are extremely difficult, as a generalization, to sing.

I do know one karoake singer that does a fabulous and enjoyable job with every beatle song he tackels  -  that's one singer.  Personally, I won't touch the Beatles

For my show:
Top five artists.

1. David Bowie
2. The Smiths
3. The Beatles
4. Sinatra
6. REM
7. Blondie

Usually have at least one beatles song per night sometimes up to 3-4.

I see Ob-La-Di, Eight Days A Week, I Saw Her Standing There, and Back In The USSR done pretty often. Not much here in our very country area, but I saw three of those in the last two weeks in Florida.

That is because EJ passes constantly between his head/chest voice and falsetto, and not many people can do that. I have seen one guy do him pretty well, including the very challenging "Tiny Dancer".

One song he *doesn't* do that on is "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", and I hear people do that one pretty often.

Beatles music is simple. It was also something SO new in its time. I know the words to almost every Beatles song that ever made it to an album - don't know why, never set out to learn them, and I never sing them. However, I think the whole "memory" thing comes alive for most people when they hear Beatles. It's nice that AI chose Beatles because I think a lot of young kids are listening with new ears to Beatles, as they should. They truly brought about a revolution in the music world when they blew onto the scene.

Hubby was saying what a miracle it is that Lennon and McCartney got together and wrote such amazingly great lyrics, and hit after hit after hit - only find that with EJ and Taupin comparatively...not many other song writing pairs (Oh, okay Rogers and Hammerstein, Loerner and Lowe) have written so many HUGE hits and had such an impact on a generation....

Few others that jar that memory thing in me: Hollies, Hermans Hermits, Stones, Monkees (groan), Dave Clark Five, Donovan (first concert in 1968), BeeGees. Just a great time in a lot of peoples' lives and Beatles were the beginning for many, I think.

K

(I DID watch AI last night, not a regular watcher, but I loved the Irish girl! She Rocks!)

husband sings beatles really quite well, but as its me that programs our sets, I refuse to include any...it does not get folks on the dance floor. it hasnt got a beat that people can or want to dance to.
If someone requests some beatles or we are doing a theme night then sure I will include it but for the rest of the time its a no no...for me, I am not doing things right unless the dance floor is full

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

I agree that the music is simple, but it is the 2 and 3 part harmonies and their vocal ranges and the ability to scream certain lyrics and still sound good that makes it hard for the songs to sound good doing them karaoke.  

Several of the upbeat songs mentioned above and " You Can't Do That " are actually quite popular if done at the right time of the night and for the right crowd, which is true of most songs.

There is a Beatles cover band called " 1964 The Tribute " that are considered to be the worlds best Beatles tribute band and they are incredible. I have seen them twice in San Antonio at the Majestic Theater and it really gives you an appreciation for how difficult it is to sound like the Beatles. If you are a Beatles fan you owe it to yourself to check them out, I promise you won't be dissapointed.

Yeah they're not for every night, but I think the Beatles will always have their place in karaoke. Rudy.

I sang come together last Saturday and got a good response. Other Beatles songs I sing are When I'm 64, Ob La Di Ob La Da, Elanor Rigby and a couple others I can't think of right now. I also sing Elton John, Levon, Mad Man Across The Water, Rocket Man and Candle In The Wind. A lot of these songs are pretty high and that's probably why some of them don't get sung that often. I also do Billy Joel Just The Way You Are, Vienna and Piano Man.

I can understand about the boring comment. I really like all of those songs, but it seems that everyone wants faster music and dance music. I love ballads.

Just this last Saturday I sang "Here Comes The Sun"  went over pretty well.

I would say that the reason the Beatles don't get much karaoke action is that although they are not hard to sing --they are HARD to sound GOOD when singing them ...heck there the Beatles.   A very Unique sound just like
Rod Stewart
Joe Cocker
Bob Dylan
and a host of other male and female unique sounding singers

Wow, I should go to your place  I love singing both the Beatles and of course my idol, Elton John  Elton songs are a natural for me, it's my own natural key.  I've been to karaoke places 3 times in my life and the 3 times I sang some Elton stuff from SC and the people seemed to enjoyed, they applauded during the music break on "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues"  it was a great feeling for sure

I'll sometimes break out Let It Be, Something, I  Feel Fine - only ones I can think of off hand.

Golden Slumbers (medley), Yer Blues, Revolution, Twist & Shout are pretty common at our shows - nothing nightly or anything.

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actually Jam I generally start a night with here comes the sun or croce's time in a bottle...but then I am not expecting to get folk up dancing with the first song, I am looking to let my voice settle in and listening for any eq issues that have developed between setting up and sound checking in an empty environment and commencement of gig

_________________
"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Yesterday
Let it be
Imagine
Long and winding Road
Those are quite popular around here.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

These are some of the thoughts posted uptil now by others about Beatle's songs:



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So, if the Beatles are so easy to sing and the only reason they get little play at karaoke shows it's that their music is just so boring, then how did they ever get to be so popular?  Also.... why is it that we hear "Elvis" and "Sinatra" sung so  freqently at karaoke?

It just amazes me how many people think they can sing "Sinatra". There is no shortage of those singing "Sinatra" and they range in age from the early 30's to the 80's.  IMHO, there are no more boring performaces to listen to than those "Frank Sinatra" songs being sung by someone other than Frank Sinatra.

And while there are plenty of Beatle's songs available on karaoke, maybe a dozen have been mentioned so far in this thread as being sung at anyone's show, including Twist And Shout and Rocky Racoon.  Of course Twist and Shout, is a cover of an Isley Brother's hit and will get anybody's moving.  I've only heard Rocky Racoon done once, and it was by a KJ.  He performed it after he had held trivia contest, which nobody won, to name who had sung that song.

As to the few other Beatle's songs mentioned so far. most are not among those I would consider difficult.  Ob-la-di, along with Yellow Submarine and Octopus' Garden I use for sing-a-longs at my show because they are so easy to do.  They remind me of the songs we would sing as kids back in school.  

EJ, on the other hand, I do sing from tme to time, particularly Crocodile Rock and Don't Let The Sun....  Mcky57's explanation of what makes much of EJ's material challengng is pretty right-on.

This earlier post is quite interesting in that the opinion of the poster is that while the music maybe "simple", the songs are hard to sing (at karaoke).  
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I wouldn't generalize that their music is simple, most isn't, but I do agree most Beatle songs are hard to sing (to make sound good during a karaoke performace) !!

Depends on the venue I suppose, I rarely get Elvis or Sinatra sung at our shows, but on an occasion.

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Yep, I conculed long ago that we KJ's are often like the parable of the Blind Men Touching an elephant and then describing it's characteristics. We each look at the world of karaoke through our own "glasses".

For me, I can't recall going to a karaoke show in the last 10 years where an Elvis or Sinatra song wasn't done.  And, except perhaps on the slowest of nights, I can't recall one of my shows where someone didn't sing either Sinatra or Elvis.  Usually, I have singers doing both.

I know of at least 3 singers who sing nothing but Elvis.  One carries the Velvet Elvis collection with him.  And I can't possibly count how many people sing nothing but Sinatra!

Hmm. Sounds llike a state I know. And I am guessing the third member of this little triumvirate is Neil Diamond......

Ericlater, I do consider their earlier music simple, very unique, but simple, however later on yes it became very complex. I don't know of too many bands that incorporate sitars into their music. So I should have been more clear on that. But as always the vocals and the lyrics were usually the heart of the songs especially the earlier stuff.

For me doing " Ticket to Ride " is kind of a guilty pleasure, for some reason it is just one of my favorite Beatles songs to do, that and " Nowhere Man " but they don't usually do much for the crowd. I still think they were the most incredible music act we'll ever see in our lifetime. Even as individuals they made some great music. As always, MHO. Rudy.