Karaoke Forums

Ok, the thread about what songs you've sang brought this to mind.


Tell me about your first time in public. I'll share mine later, nothing mysterious about it.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

As I posted earlier, I/we used to sing along with the bouncing ball at the Saturday morning matinee..

Fast forward to the 1990s, after work, I would stop by the local club for a cold one and listen to the singers..

After about 12 or so, one of my students grabbed my arm and dragged me up on mic.

Turns out, she had put in a slip for me..

I sang, they clapped, the rest is as they say, History..

Later on this week, I'll be signing autographs over at Ace Karaoke..

first time was in 95 at a Lobster party. The song was Blaze of Glory By Bon Jovi The Mics were Radio shack or something close to it.

I think it was 1992 - I sang "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak. I sang that song and only that song for the next 3 years before ever trying another song.

Yeah...I was THAT guy....

-Chris

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-Chris

Have posted this before but:

Used to accompany a friend who sang. I hadn't so much as sang "Happy Birthday" out loud in 50 years. But after a year or so I decided I wanted to attempt to do a song just so I could say I did it--sort of like trying a bungee jump or something.

Knowing I couldn't sing, I tried to make up for it in production values. But I did practice and practice and actually thought I had a chance of nailing the song. When my turn was called, I threw off my coat to reveal that I was wearing basic Jimmy Buffett concert attire--a sarong and a bra made of crabs instead of coconuts. Also had a wreath of flowers around my head with a parrot at the front and a battery pack powered string of LEDs. The host looked more concerned than amused.

"Volcano" commenced and I started in but there was this terrible noise coming back at me through the monitor and thowing me off. I kept singing louder and louder to overcome it until it was an atomic eruption of bad karaoke and I realized the terrible noise I was hearing was me. That was my introduction to singing along with the radio doesn't mean you won't need a key change at the actual show plus you have to get used to hearing your own voice--really I needed Volcano up 4 to do it. So at that point I gave up and just started shouting and sing-saying and making jokes and it became a comedy routine. Got thunderous applause and a strange look from the host.

The next day I was picking up food from a restaurant and it turned out the cook had been there. I got my first review. "We enjoyed WATCHING you. Maybe you should stick to instrumentals."

Later I started writing parodies as an excuse to get an applause fix and would do a comedy routine karaoke attempt about once every 6 months. When we moved, an overly nice hostess would insist once you sang, you had to sing every round and it seemed to be more of a scene to try to refuse rather than just get up there and get it over with. In order to have songs to last the night I started practicing and eventually got to where I could fool people into thinking I was singing. But it took having a mic at home and experimenting to figure it out.

Turned 21 in 89. My parents loved singing and invited me out to some of their karaoke haunts. I thought it was a complete joke (running sound and playing in bands) but went because alcohol was there & liked to hang/party with my parents. By 90 I was taking my friends to a few places on my own - still not singing but found a place that actually had a good PRO sound system over plugging a mic into a player & connecting to a home stereo. One night after some 10 Tequila poppers and a couple beers and a last call for slips (1:35 AM) I got up and sang Nights In White Satin, and the rest as they say is history.

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

@ lonman - Tequila - duly noted

-Chris

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-Chris

When I first saw karaoke in a bar, I hated it.

I had a job that involved alot of travel and many nights of boredom in hotel rooms in a strange towns with little to do.
I walked into a bar one night to find a birthday group torturing the rest of the bar with outrageously bad renditions of Journey songs. I left the bar with no intention of ever stepping into another karaoke venue.

It wasn't until a couple of years later, when I was with a coworker/friend on a project in a small town that I discovered it's magic.

We had finished our work for the day, and went to the only place in town with entertainment for a beer. The entertainment turned out to be karaoke. I was dissapointed and expecting to make an early night of it. While I was sitting there complaining about it my friend was filling out a slip to sing. A few songs passed and he was called up to the stage.

I was amazed by his skill and how good he sounded, but I was more amazed when two very interested women came over and sat at our table before he had even finished his song!

We met up to work on another project two weeks later and went to a karaoke bar that night. We sat at a table virtually unnoticed while we drank our beer and browsed through the book. My friend coaxed me into putting in my first ever karaoke song. I got up on stage and sang "It's Not Unusual". By the second verse I had four beautiful women dancing on stage with me and against me while I sang. I was hooked and never had another lonely night in a strange town again.

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KNOW THYSELF

OOOHHHHH!!!!! NNOOO NOO NOO!!!! not anymore my friend!!!!
Those days are quite behind me!

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

I don't drink, so I don't (well, didn't) go to bars. But I was with my cousins one night at the only restaurant in a small town. This guy started setting some stuff up, and I asked what it was. Someone said, "it's karaoke." I had never heard of it before (this was 2005). I watched my cousins get up and do well -- one is a professional singer. My wife and I started looking through the book and "These Boots Were Made For Walking" jumped right off of the page and onto our slip. We go up together to a VCD version featuring Nancy Sinatra in white go-go boots on the screen behind the lyrics and that was my first experience. I mangled "What A Wonderful World" and "Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town" as a solo act, and I guess the seeds of an addiction were planted...

When I quit smoking a few months after that, I remembered karaoke and decided I would take it up as a hobby to give me an incentive not to smoke any more. Here we are, 6-1/2 years later...I've sung karaoke in 178 cities in 30 states and provinces, and met 18 people from this forum. I'm on my third major karaoke rig, and have been in and now out of the hosting business. Even though it is more expensive than smoking, I consider it to be well worth it...

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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 think it was '95, was only 19 but talked my way into a bar with a co-worker.
after he did a few and i had a few i decided i could do that.
in my infinite wisdom i knew the chorus to aint goin down, so the verses had to be easy. 4 minutes and numerous audio casualties later..........here i am.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

There was a similar topic about 2 years ago where I posted my first time public singing experience.

In the late 80’s there was a store called Federated Electronics Group (similar to Best Buy) in Anaheim, CA. Karaoke was not as popular back then. A big screen tv in one corner playing Pioneer laser disc.

I picked up the microphone & started singing Strangers In The Night; to my wife’s amazement & embarrassment she went to the next isle. The customers started gathering & joined me for a sing-along of Del Shannon’s Runaway & Neil Sedaka’s Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. It was so much fun I was convinced this was my calling…..and the rest is history.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

My story is lame, boring, unexciting.

Bought a little bitty player, picked up some AH cdgs, played around on that a bit, went to St. Louis with 3 guys for Party Gras in 07 and sang in the hotel bar to a bunch of strangers, half crocked and found out a couple buddies were in the room (I thought they had gone to bed) and one told me it was pretty good. The song was Still Rock N Roll to Me by Billy Joel. I was nervous as a cat but the alcohol got me thru that first one. Glad I don't need that to sing anymore!

Came back home and started showing up on Thursday nights at a pirate show. Decided I'd like to be more involved in karaoke and started my biz.



178 cities! Very impressive 7 year run mcky!


For me, I can recall 12 towns, hopefully 13 after next week!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

First time I sang karaoke, I was actually stood up on a date. I ate dinner by myself and wandered into the closest bar to have a few beers.

The bar had karaoke and THREE total patrons. The first song I ever sang was "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straights in front of the other three patrons - a very flamboyant gay man and a german couple that didn't speak a lick of English. It was easy to set my inhibitions about singing in public aside because it was such a comical setting. I had a GREAT time.....

5,347,905 songs later.....

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C Mc
KJ, FL

For the life of me I can't remember the exact song I sang my first time. But most likely it was one of the overdone top 20 like "Brown Eyed Girl" or "Mustang Sally".

I used to do singing telegrams (yep...costumes and all). I worked with a gal that was also singing in a band, so I got pretty friendly with her band mates. The guy who lead her band was the first in the area to get into the Karaoke biz. He had a Sony jukebox that held 60 disks and he had the first 65 DK's, which were all that were available at the time. I was invited to a party the guy threw to test out his new jukebox. I remember singing Queen of Hearts and Looking for a New Love and I was hooked. I started working for him a couple years later, but I was a regular singer from the beginning.

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Birdofsong

i have posted this numerous times, but my first song ever was "higher and higher" by jackie wilson. HUGE mistake as far as choice goes, because as I have also stated I am a bass, and jackie wilson is a high tenor.

Despite the fact that I completely butchered the song, I still got a standing ovation because everyone who was there that knew me was completely astounded that I had gotten up to sing AT ALL consdering how introverted and shy i was back then.

I still am, but not to the degree that i was.


-james

19 years ago I lost a bet and had to either sing a song or streak the bar.....needless to say I sang. The song was send in the clowns ( off Pioneer LD's)and my knees were knocking so loud you heard them over my singing. They convinced me to sing 2 other songs that night, Those were the days (Mary Hopkins) and These boots were made for walking...I was hooked from then on.

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

My first experience with a karaoke machine was when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Back then, the local malls had a store called Mr. Entertainment, and aside from selling little Casio keyboards and the like, they also had karaoke machines. Well, one day I was wandering by, and a sales rep asked if I'd like to sing a song and record it to cassette. I ended up singing Ghostbusters (and the scary thing is, I might still have the tape!)

As for karaoke in bars, my first taste of that came in 2003. After I had tried out for a singing competition reality show (and didn't make it past the producers), a co-worker suggested I try karaoke to hone my skills. He took me to a bar, and not knowing a ton of songs, I did a tune I've always sang as a kid... Bett Mitdler's "The Rose." I did OK, but it obviously wasn't the right type of song for the bar I was at. To make it worse, I followed it up with Bob Carlisle's "Butterfly Kisses" Yeah, I sure got some weird looks from the host and bar patrons, and I didn't go back for a few more weeks.

After I got over my embarrassment, I did convince myself to go again because I love to sing. I started with (I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles, by the Proclaimers, and that is where things really took off. Finally the host discovered I really could sing, and helped find songs that more suited my voice. From there, I was hooked!

My first time ever to sing at a karaoke bar was christmas time in 1989. The song was Unchained Melody. nailed it.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.