There has always been something rather exhilarating about a group of people spontaneously bursting into song together. At a concert, in a chain gang, at a football match, in the check-out queue at Waitrose, at an anti-Brexit demo or a sea shanty on a Tall Ship while hoisting the sails etc etc
But what are the modern songs that are most likely to get people bursting into song?
At this year’s Roskilde Festival there were two rather surprising examples. When Johnny Marr began to play There is a light that never goes out, the enormous audience in the Arena Tent sang along. It is a unique frisson to hear ten thousand people singing along to the chorus.
On the even larger Orange Stage, Robyn had 60,000 or so young Scandos joining in for that anthem for dumpees across the globe: Dancing on my own. Great, Danes! What a stupendous pop song it is. If Robyn is still touring when she is 80, the audience will doubtless expect to hear her sing about being dumped.
Over to you. What uplifting singalong experiences have you had or have you heard about?
I’ll confess I have some prejudices here about who is likely to sing along.
There is a lot of singing at football or rugby matches. But nothing at cricket or ice hockey.
Folk, reggae, soul and hip hop concerts: you can all join in. Jazz and prog audiences do not do singalong!
Agricultural workers in the UK are unlikely erupt into a medley of songs by the Wurzels. In the Tyrol, lonely goatherds will erupt into capella melody to praise the beauty of the Edelweiss. And as for the nuns…
Here is Robyn at Roskilde….. Feel free to join in. I know you want to!
“I’m in the corner, watching you kiss her.”
Funnily enough, I was watching the cricket last night, and and a familiar tune coming from the crowd caught my ear. But I couldn’t quite place it (refreshment had been taken). I was thinking: ‘this is a really famous Beatles number, and I can’t remember it.’ Dementia concerns were internally debated. The thing was, the crowd was just riffing on the verses, in a loose, appealing style that kept directing me to The Chiffons’ He’s So Fine. It took me a few minutes to mentally reverse and find my way back to The Isleys/Fabs Twist and Shout.
Saw Tim Finn at the Byron Bay Bluesfest 10 years ago. He did plenty of Crowded House classics, and the whole audience seemed to know every word of every song, and sang along lustily. That was fun.
There are plenty of good singalong choruses with Steely Dan’s repertoire, as tribute band Stanley Dee showed us on Saturday afternoon at The Farmer’s Boy in St. Albans. Do It Again, Reeling In The Years, The Boston Rag, My Old School etc. are all crowd-pleasers.
A barely-rehearsed covers band that I saw on Friday in a pub in Rickmansworth also came out with a few good ‘uns, namely Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man”, Midnight Oil’s “Beds Are Burning”, Wings’ “Band On the Run” and Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”.
Spanish and Italian-speaking audiences have a great fondness for singing along, particularly in Latin America where a whole gig can be one big community singing event.
I am sure some artists are waiting for us to join in on certain songs. Macka would doubtless be miffed if there was no audience participation for Let it Be or Hey Jude.
Not so good when all they do is polish their egos by getting the audience to sing every other song, the more deep cut the better. (Why, hello, Ian McNabb!)
“We’ll be as we are…”
Call me a fogey, but I do not go a gig to hear to hear an arena full of youngsters sing songs that I love.
They can sing along of course, but if, for example, I buy a ticket to see Dame Vera Lynn I expect her to do both the singing and the dancing.
I don’t care if she is 102 years old. I want some stage diving!!
Is Sweden the only country to have a TV programme where community singing is a major ingredient?
Allsång på Skansen here is a popular summer broadcasting event.
It used to be a programme mostly for pensioners
But then the hipsters at SVT got hold of it and it became extremely trendy and every up and coming artists wanted to appear.
Benny Andersson is also frequent visitor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFggFJ5SYgw
In the UK, back in the day, there used to the The Good Old Days on the Beeb but the emphasis there was on Music Hall. It ran from 1953 to 1983.
The Good Old Days was something thoroughly enjoyed by my parents.
Even to this day I will sing “ooh I’d like a nice cup,of teaaa” in the style of a 1920s/30s variety number. There seemed to be an endless supply of tune-free songs about anything. “Don’t overcook the gravy Mrs Harrison” etc etc etc
Linda Thompson curated/performed in a great series of concerts, “Strange How Potent”, at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith in 2005. Old music hall songs etc. performed by a sizeable cast including Martha Wainwright and her son and daughter Teddy and Kami plus a few thesp and folkie friends. Like a 21st century revival of The Good Old Days. Got a 4-star review in The Guardian at the time. I went with my North Carolina friend Jane (who I think came over specially for this) and really enjoyed it, hearing the likes of this belted out.
I eat at least one banana daily as part of my Crohn’s diet. Every time I pick one up, I start with “Let’s orl go dahn tha Straand…” and sometimes Mrs F joins in with “Ave a bu-nar-na!”
In “God Gave us Life” by Half Man Half Biscuit “‘ ave a Banana!” comes in at one point.
Singing along with the audience at many a Rutles gig is truly a magical experience (blatant plug moment)
Surely anything to the tune of Seven Nation Army qualifies nowadays? This seems to have been in some misty-eyed more innocent time, but in fact was only 2 years ago:
The Scouts were doing that the other day.
The Scouts!
Jeremymania! That is quite remarkable, Steve.
Now if only someone could come up with an equally catchy chant expressing our lack of enthusiasm about Boris!
Well, there’s this one about Jeremy C…Hunt:
“Bo-o-ris You Liar” to the tune of this one, perhaps
Brilliant Mike! That is just waiting to be written.
Just to get us started..
“Creeping, crawling up Tump’s arse hole
Creepy creepy crawly crawly
Creepy creepy crawly crawly”
Favourite bit on the live Clash album From Here To Eternity is when Joe breaks off during Straight to Hell to say to a specific audience member: “Sing in tune, you bastard!”
Big folk chorus songs are my bread and butter in the upcoming festival season – The Volunteer in Sidmouth and the Berwick Pavilion at Shrewsbury being my stage. It’s hardly spontaneous, but Meet on the Ledge at Cropredy is a major tearjerker.
But in more mainstream world’s, I remember Waterfall coming on in the bar at the Apollo in Ardwick and suddenly we were all Mancs.
Glad you turned up, Cheshire. I was thinking about you as someone who really knows how to get a singalong going. It certainly does not have to be spontaneous to be moving. Meet on the ledge was a great example of a song that is just waiting for the audience to join in on.
Singalonga Steely. The Good Old Days. The Rutles…..We are covering some interesting ground.
Here is a short piece about Woody G’s contribution to the genre.
https://daily.jstor.org/how-this-land-is-your-land-went-from-protest-song-to-singalong/
I feel I ought to mention trans of Singalonga films: musicals where the whole audience joins in.
The Sound of Music, Mama Mia, Frozen and slightly more eccentrc, The Wicker Man.
“Somer is icumen in. Loude singe cuckoo. ”
Oh yeah, I do that one.
https://exciting-stuff.co.uk/singalongawickerman/
a-ha
I was very curious to know more about those evenings at the Lyric with Linda Thompson.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/linda-thompson-lyric-hammersmith-london-221899.html
The Guardian was also impressed.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/may/16/popandrock
Music halls in the UK and vaudeville in the US were where a lot of community singing was to be found.
Linda T did an album of songs from that Lyric show>My mother doesn’t know I’m on stage.
Neil Bartlett was her collaborator and the musical director on the project:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/may/07/theatre3
The name, Strange how potent, is an Noel Cowerd quote about popular music.
What about an Aussie or indeed NZ singalong? Which are the favourite songs?
Mike mentioned how well the Finn Bros song book is known. Here are a few other suggestions.
https://www.communitynews.com.au/mandurah-coastal-times/news/top-20-australian-songs-for-australia-day/
I suspect there are pub troubadours from Darwin to Alice Springs, who have these in their repertoire.
Not every day you hear a Rickie Lee Jones cover that has become a major hit.
Some Australians like to be a bit more direct in their participation – the standard Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? by The Angels now has a compulsory addition courtesy of the punters – see if you can spot it.
That made me think of this popular addition to the Smokie song.
Audience add ons are a whole sub-culture. Sometimes local to a particular bar, town, college or suchlike.
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=457929
The ones you hear all the time caterwauled from NZ pub doorways are:
“I don’t know (oh oh oh) why does love do this to me?” – The Exponents
“Slice of Heaven” – Dave Dobbyn
“Everything’s gonna be all right now” – Babysitters Circus
“What’s the time Mr Wolf? – Southside of Bombay
The first and third ones are cracking songs and should be as well known worldwide as they are in NZ. Don’t really like Slice of Heaven…to my ears it sounds a bit clunky and the worst of 80s production sounds.
Let’s give a couple of them a listen
Was intrigued by the name of this one.
According to my daughter (8) while we were watching Miley Cyrus (and her Dad) the other week on the tv coverage of Glastonbury, “Old Town Road” is what all the boys sing at school. It’s not a bad tune, although I was disappointed Achy Breaky Heart didn’t get an airing.
My son who is 16 praised Old Town Road to me. It is a song just dying to be a sing along.
Just ask these school kids. https://youtu.be/w9lYQ-j_Trk
Hymns, national anthems, pop hits, worksongs, nursery rhymes and kids’ songs, sea shanties, supporters songs for sports teams, protest and political songs….. quite a variety of songs we sing together.
Thinking about hymns, with the Reformation did non-conformist hymn-writers write more tunes?
Work songs were probably written by Trad or Anon and something that people wanted to sing,
Well I never! The stuff that one discovers once one starts digging.
I had never heard of the Singing Revolution and the role community singing played in the liberation of the Baltic Republics from the USSR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Revolution
The country that sings together, wins together?
Here is the trailer for a documentary about the movement.
Here’s a rather lovely song about community singing.
(No, it isn’t a trick 😉
What a gorgeous song, @retropath2! Brilliant. It is almost as though the Chumbas had been asked to write a tune summing up some of the themes of this thread.
“Sometimes a melody is louder than a shout.”
A friend saw them when they played Malmö. By this time they were more of a folk band than a TubThumper, and my pal was impressed by how many youngsters in the audience knew the songs and were singing along.
I wanted to find out more about the band so here is an interview with Boof Whalley.
https://archive.is/20130204023223/http://www.thenewsignificance.com/2011/07/29/boff-whalley-chumbawamba-interview/
They have now gone their separate ways.
If ever there a song that was just waiting to turn into a sing along…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6HinOuUDe4
Even in Sweden and Denmark last year, gaggles of people would suddenly start singing it.
I’m sure that whole books have been written about the chants and anthems of the sports supporter songbook. For a nation of singers like the Welsh, it is nirvana.
Dame Edna would not forgive me if I did not mention the Last Night of the Poms, the great sing along day of the year in London.
What an un-classical concert that is. In a good way.
Is there any other occasion where a classical audience can sing along?
A whole website of rugby songs!
http://www.rugbysongs.net/
Dare I suggest that there is a greater musicality among rugby supporters than football fans? They take the singing more seriously. I suspect this is a snobbish viewpoint deriving from the Welsh ancestors.
Here are the anthems of the Six Nations with some background details.
https://rugby365.com/countries/england/the-songs-of-the-six-nations
KFD – you have been a little relaxed about security and have allowed me to jump in through the window with a Depeche Mode reference! This is a clip of football fans embracing an early eighties binky bonk synth anthem:
Lax security? This is disturbing to hear.
Next thing I know there will be streakers dashing around the thread.
This witty article from the Telegraph may help to restore order.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/12/02/bragging-rights-deep-analysis-every-standard-derogatory-football/
The composers of football chants are an articulate bunch.
Here’s a chorus song, extolling the virtues of chorus songs.
I know well the bloke who wrote the poem which is the base of this song, Keith Scowcroft. The sentiment is utterly heartfelt, I can testify. He lives and breathes for a rousing singalong in the pub and evokes that here.
Thanks a lot, Cheshire. Another song that could have been written with this thread in mind.
I googled to find the lyrics.
http://cityfolkclub.blogspot.com/2009/04/when-all-men-sing.html
”
Incidentally, I am really enjoying that Linda Thompson album of old music hall songs. Some very amusing lyrics!
Incidentally, isn’t it remarkable how many countries have got lumbered with an unsingable national anthem?
The Star Spangled Banner is heavy going. And it is not alone.
https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-2742,00.html
This would not be a real KFD thread without the discovery of something rather arcane.
Wikipedia is very good on the different forms of community singing.
Has anyone here heard of “lining out”? It is a call and response form of hymn singing where the precentor sings the line and then the congregation repeat it which dates back several centuries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lining_out
Here is an example from the Defeated Creek Church in Kentucky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQmfHLpCQcU
It is related to how they sing in certain Scottish congregations.
An unexpected link between Hibernian and Afro-American musical culture.
https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle-2-15039/black-america-s-musical-links-to-scotland-1-465474
A little more about Prof Willie Ruff and his discoveries.
http://www.willieruff.com/linesinging.html
Willie is an interesting chap!
This kind of communal singing is still done at the longer catholic masses around Easter and at Christmas, particularly on the continent.
Of course, call and response is the standard form for many folk traditions, particularly those francophone, including my beloved Breton dance songs. Unfortunately, so far I haven’t found anyone up for responding to me, so I tend to have to do both parts. However, this little beauty has found a home in the repertoire of our folk club committee and I have to say, it rocks!
Elsewhere, G&S operettas are liberally sprinkled with call and responses.
Prof Ruff talking about his discoveries of links between Scotland and Alabama.
Here is a short film by Willie Ruff.
Back to Roskilde. The first band I saw was Tears for Fears. My friend commented: “I haven’t see them live for 30 years.” I looked around the enormous Arena Tent and it struck me that most of the people in the audience had not even been born when T4F were in their heyday.
So it must have been quite an experience for Roland and Carl to hear how many people were singing along and knew all the lyrics to their songs. There was a lot of love in the air for the band that evening. The Danish lady standing next to me turned and said “Sorry, this is getting very emotional for me.”
I wouldn’t have called myself a fan before the gig. I certainly was by the end. Wonderfully tuneful songs performed with great gusto. Both of them sung very well.
A sing along that showed the band that, although they had been out of the limelight , they were far from forgotten.
One more from them.
Many US work songs were call and response like the lining out of hymns Professor Ruff is interested in. This article provide a lot of interesting background info.
http://www.themeister.co.uk/dixie/church_songs.htm
Call and response, of course, features in many pop and souls songs.
“Shake it up baby, Twist and Shout!
Twist and Shout!”
I was pondering about football chants and whether they are always sung in unison, when I stumbled across the interesting fact that football fanatic, Edward Elgar, wrote a chant for his team, Wolverhampton Wanderers back in 1898.
And he is not the only classical composer to be inspired by football.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2010/jun/11/football-inspired-music-world-cup
And at a slight tangent, I was intrigued to read that Scientist had done a soccer album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq51f2foapk&list=PLrSlkZKFFsZviArLOVzmbWP0fHyOF1PUP
The Chameleons. Manchester’s finest. A few fans on here. They do an annual Christmas show theses days which includes the celebratory sing-a-long of Second Skin, this clip gives a glimpse of the community singing which occurs once a year.
https://youtu.be/RD5rlZFiq0E
Thanks Freddy! I am really enjoying all these fascinating nuggets that this thread is throwing up.
That got me thinking about how sometimes bands make some quite sophisticated demands on their audience when it comes to singing along.
I must investigate that further,
Heard this played recently in a Sunday night pub scene after the cricket World Cup and it had everyone punching the air: