One if you care, Kim if by sea...

My BFF Lu. and I have often discussed some of the best/ideal songs to sing for karaoke**. I always go back and fourth and have a few rules: 

• length of song
• vocal pitch of the artist 
• crowd familiarity of material 
• something fun 

Here’s a list of songs(/epic fails) that made me impliment the aforementioned list of rules: 

• “The Joker” by Steve Miller Band (while familiar to most, terribly slow & boring)
• “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler (epically long which leaves you feeling awkward & everyone else bored)
• “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi (besides the chorus, who cares?)
• “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield (again besides the chorus, a totally lacking song. And the word “moot” is used not “mute” like I had previously thought, which caused me to stop and question the idea out loud mid-note)
• “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood (the vocal range is really not for novices and seriously, who cares about Carrie Underwood? We all make bad life choices….)

After completely ruling out the above songs and lots of other songs that besides my group of friends, no one would know. There’s really nothing worse than someone singing some obscure song from the 1980’s. I think I’ve finally come up with a song that is perfect for me:

“I Feel the Earth Move” by Carol King

…. microphone please! 

** I am not an avid karaoke singer, despite how this might look. I’ve done it like 3 times and one night I did like 4 of the above songs in one night, thanks Atlantic City, you sure know how to booze a broad up! 

I always get really upset when I listen to days and miles of classic rock. Mainly because I know for a fact I will never see Freddie Mercury sing an epic rock opera hit or have Joe Strummer tell me about the Comma Girl. It’s just so weird to think about how music is different or changed.

Will people years from now be listening to Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and think the same. I hope not? Hopefully people will still be talking about Johnny Cash and Led Zeppelin. Otherwise what a shame…

I think the closest I’ve ever been to the dream of seeing classic rock I grew up listening to was in 2009. I was working for a music agency in NYC and had the chance to see Billy Joel perform at Shea Stadium (“The last play at Shea”, before they tore it down). The highlight though, was not Billy Joel himself (although I was super stoked to have the chance to see him for the second time). At the end of the set Paul McCartney came out and sang a few songs. I will never forget this monument for as long as I live. I was luckily enough to be standing almost on home plate at Shea, and watched Paul McCartney sing “Let it be”. To be fair, it was so stellar it brought me to tears.

While I have that great moment that will live in my mind forever, I still wish that as I listen to “oldies” on my iPod that I could still see most of it happen live. A girl can dream… but for now I’ll just hope, when the time comes, I get front row seats in rock n’ roll heaven. \m/