Depends on the setting.
Nobody seems into it? Kiss from a rose- seal.
Need to set the bar? The Widow- Mars Volta
Classic crowd? Plush- Stone temple pilots
Easiest for my voice: There’s a reason these tables are numbered- Panic at the Disco
People are worried to be embarassed? Brand new key- Melanie
And on the occasion I want to make everyone laugh and impress them: It’s all coming back to me- Celine Dion.
I’m a large, traditionally masculine guy. It’s a lot more fun to subvert expectations.
Edit: forgot one. If I’m attempting to impress girls: Mon amant de saint-jean- Patrick Bruel
This is a phenomenal list.
If you or the host use Karafun, you can drop the key an octave when selecting. In which case Let It Go from Frozen is a solid crowd pleaser and might be in your range.
Good to know, although my range is unreasonably high for the way I look. While on the topic of tips to help with karaoke, if you have the option on your setup, or can ask the DJ to do so, add about 10-15% reverb to the microphone. It allows the singer to hear themselves and pitch correct on the fly.
The Widow- Mars Volta
Surprised to see Mars Volta! It’s a little too high for my range to try it in public, but I could get down with Televators.
I fell in love with them while I was finding my singing voice, so that’s where my range ended up
I used to love singing One Armed Scissor on Rock Band but I’ve never had the guts to try ATDI or Mars Volta in public.
I wanna try arcarsenal but i don’t think I’d be able to speak afterward
This is a proper answer.
Tequila.
I don’t like singing in public.
You should try … ‘Oh Yeah’ by Yello
Poor Unfortunate Souls from the Little Mermaid. Pat Carroll’s key is perfect for dudes and this song is great to ham up. I also go with Let’s Dance by David Bowie and Rock Lobster by the B52s when my wife is there to duet
For a large bearded man, I do a mean Part of Your World.
Bohemian rhapsody - Queen
Don’t Stop Me Now is great too
Somebody to Love is my Queen go-to.
“I’m having a ball” / Freddie Mercury
Doesn’t matter if it sounds awful, EVERYONE sings along :)
Tenacious D - Kickapoo
I love rocking tebacious D at karaoke, the right crowd gets into it and ends up yelling along and everyone seems to appreciate attacking with more gusto than skill.
Part of why I generally go with Double Team, many fun stage effects etc.
The Distance by Cake. I can’t sing so this works every time.
Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. Idc if I’m a man in his late 20’s I’m putting my heart and soul into it
Use Me by Bill Withers
Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
Finally…
Never been to “actual” karaoke. However, I played Rockband games for about ten years, off and on. That’s karaoke with a score system. And you can also play guitar or drums, but I suck at that? Singing though? That, I can do.
The Final Countdown (Europe). This one’s so fun to sing. It feels like it goes to some 80s movie, but I don’t recall one that features it.
What’s My Age Again? (blink-182). I went into these games not caring for pop punk and emo, but hands down, they’re the most fun to sing by far!
Headphones On (Miranda Cosgrove/iCarly). See above, but pop rock. According to You (Orianthi) is even more fun to sing, but unless the guitarist is warmed up, he’ll have it in for you for the rest of the night if you pick this one early! Headphones On is a great warmup though.
Enter Sandman (Metallica). This one’s upper mid tier for everyone, but everyone loves to play it. Easily the most fun Metallica song to sing. The Black Album was basically their pop record. It’s a legit hard rock/radio metal album (and, not for nothing, but Nothing Else Matters was highly rated by Sir Elton John of all people) but it’s a pop record. It was engineered to go viral and it did. And most of the songs are a blast to sing.
I wish Rockband was still around so we’d get the KPop Demon Hunter songs. I’d sing the shit outta What it Sounds Like or How it’s Done. I wouldn’t object to any song from that soundtrack being picked. You can fake it through the few Korean lines (and hope they’re written out phonetically rather than the symbols). I stood and sang for all the songs in the Sing-Along version in theaters (twice!) and I feel like though I said the Korean words as written, they didn’t come out right.
Look into YARG if you want a modern rock band experience with custom songs that a huge community still make very regularly.
Aware of it, might even have it installed. Nice thing about YARG is, it doesn’t require Windows. I have Macs, and I ran it on my Mac. So I think it’s on Linux as well, but I’m not sure.
I’ve only played it on Linux so I can attest to it working on there. There’s even an app you can get that can browse and download custom charts too (forgot what it’s called though).
Tried it again, it works great. It plays a lot of the Rockband customs I’ve collected over the years. Ran it with bots. Seems to work.
Would be cool if there were a solid place to get tracks for it. Even if you gotta source the actual audio yourself. Everyone being afraid to share that information is what’s gonna keep this thing from getting big… whether that’s a good thing or not, I’m not sure.
I found the app I use currently: https://github.com/Geomitron/Bridge
Those KPop Demon Hunter songs are really tricky to sing alone, even the English parts, because they’re intended for multiple people and some of the lyrics almost overlap. I have trouble keeping up.
Edit: maybe it’s just “Soda Pop” that does that.
Ah — I’m a bit used to that. While Rockband 3 added vocal harmonies, the first two would just pick which vocals you sang. You were never singing more than one part at a time. There were some, though, that gave more attention to a backing vocalist than the primary one. It’s fine if you recognise the pitch/tone change. One that was notorious for that was Spoonman by Soundgarden. I know that Chris Cornell was the singer of Soundgarden, but at some points in the song, it follows a backing vocalist and you have to completely change your pitch and tone, though the voice you hear does not sound like it is. It’s a very tricky song to sing and it’s generally disliked except by Soundgarden fans, most of whom would rather play it on guitar. There are others — and I’m struggling to think of an example, and threw Spoonman under the bus to try to give myself more time to think, but I’m drawing a blank on names — where it straight up turns you over to backing vocals. Like I didn’t know those lines were in the song. The main singer is singing one thing and the backing vocalists are singing something else.
Not seeing any of the following:
Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
Country Roads - John Denver
Forever and Ever - Randy Travis
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
Napoleon XIV — “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”
Green Onions.
El Sonidito also a solid choice.
Enjoy the silence by Depeche Mode
The Middle - Jimmy Eat World
Fits my range almost perfectly. It’s my dad’s favourite of mine that I do too.
Other common go-tos for me are:
Give a Little Respect - Erasure
Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran
Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus
Fake Blood - Heart Attack Man
Lithonia - Childish Gambino
