Song suggestions for band with female singer.

[ysand]

Hello my fellow TBers.
Recently i've decided with a couple of friends (a drummer and a guitarist) to form a new band, so we've come along a good female singer and we're in the "which cover songs shall we choose for start" process.
So far we're going in pop/rock areas with Torn (natalie imbruglia), Like the way i do (melissa Etheridge) and Ironic (Alanis Morissette).

So, i'm asking for suggestions of songs in that style, or maybe a bit funkier (cos as a bass player, only "like the way i do" brings a smile on my face hehe)
Bring 'em on

[DeluxeRed]

Actually, I've never heard of any of those songs, so as a customer, I'd be left cold.

And as a member of a girl-fronted cover band, may I suggest that you don't worry about "chick" songs? Almost any song will do, if your vocalist is able to make it hers. Out of our 57-song set that we used last night, 14 of them were originally released by female vocalists. And people don't care about the context of lyrics written from a male perspective; the only change we make is we do a version of "Smokin' in the Girls Room" just because it's funny.

The most important things are that you do them well, the crowd recognizes them, and can have a good time with them. No one will pay money to be bored or preached to by a cover band.

[tycobb73]

Cowboy Cassanova Carrie Underwood
Just A Girl No Doubt
CrushCrushCrush Paramore
Life In The Fast Lane Underwood - Rascal Flats
Hit Me With Your Best Shot Pat Benetar
Your Love The Outfield
Walk This Way Aerosmith
You + Ur Hand Pink
Nothing Better To Do LeAnne Rhymes
Stay Sugarland
I'm Only Happy When It Rains Garbage
Hot N Cold Katie Perry
Gunpowder N Lead Miranda Lambert
Love Shack B-52's
Sweet Child O Mine GNR
Mickey - Toni Bazil
Anti Gravity Incubus

[Hounddog]

Here are some of the ones that go over when we play.

So What-Pink .... Just a girl or Spiderwebs-NoDoubt.... Joey-Concrete Blonde.... You outta Know-Alanis Morissette.... Here for the Party-Gretchen Wilson .... Gunpowder and Lead or Kerosene-Miranda Lambert.... Heart Breaker-Pat Benetar .... PokerFace-Lady GaGa.... Call me-Blondie..... We also do several fleetwood Mac songs. ... my last name or Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood.... All I wanna do-Sugarland.... Black Horse and cherry tree-K.T. Tunstel (i think)..... Billie Jean-MJ .... Bring me to life-Evanescence..... A few Katy Perry songs..... Dont stop Believing-Journey.... Sweet Child-GNR.... Do you have a keyboeard/Piano player? That makes a huge difference. The girl that is one of our lead singers also plays Keys. Everyone in our band sings. No one wants to listen to the same singer for 4 hrs. We all sing some lead and we all sing harmony. Makes for a much better cover band.

[ysand]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions guys!
Yes, we will have a keyboard player too, but im afraid that the rest
of us can only sing backing vocals, not lead.

[tycobb73]

asking 1 person to carry 40 songs / night is going to be difficult

[Guz2]

Arch Enemy
Thorr's Hammer

[gkbass13]

im doing some obscure ones with a female singer recently...

"stillness is the move"-the solange knowles version
"killing me softly"-lauryn hill and the fugees version
"glory box"-portishead
and "queen bee" by taj mahal

should be fun

[ysand]

@tycobb73 we're thinking of playing as support band at first so it definately won't be 40 songs per night. If it goes well we'll consider searching for a male singer too, but for the time being, it's just her

(btw, as much as i love the metal genre, i'm asking for non-metal songs here)

[Richland123]

Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
Fleetwod Mac had 2 females singers for a while
Harden My Heart or Find Another Fool - Quarterflash
Only The Lonley - The Motels
The Warrior pr Goodbye To You - Scandal
I Love Rock & Roll - The Joan Jett version

[foq1978]

80s
The Pretenders - Middle of The Road / Don't Get Me Wrong
B-52's - My Own Private Idaho
The Go Go's - Head Over Heels

90s
Elastica - Connection
Aimee Mann - Save Me <- (not as mainstream as the other songs in the list)


200s
What You Waiting For - Gwen Stefani (but i would consider the Franz Ferdinand version)

[foq1978]

oh, and also from the 90s
The Cardigans - Lovefool / My Favourite Game
The Cranberries - Zombie / 21

[Schlyder]

Heart - Barracuda
Pink
Biff Naked

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by tycobb73

asking 1 person to carry 40 songs / night is going to be difficult

If that's the case, I wouldn't bother to be in a cover band.

OTOH a cover band with only one singer is a disaster in a long run.


I have about 50 songs that I can sing in a pinch and our female singer has about 35. That's only about 5 sets worth of material. We have done that several times.


Here's a few You may recognize that she sings:

I Love Rock'n Roll-Joan Jett
Don't You Ever Leave Me-Hanoi Rocks
Born To Be Wild-Steppenwolf
Up Around The Bend-Hanoi Rocks version
Cadillac-The Renegades
Dirty Deeds-Joan Jett version
Whiskey In The Jar-Metallica version
Blizgrieg Bop-The Ramones
I Only Wanna Be With You-Volbeat version

About 80% of the other (Finnish) material she sings is originally recorded/performed by males.

As You can see, there's a lot of songs that are originally sung by blokes, majority in fact. Restricting Yourselves with just songs that are performed by women will be counterproductive IMHO. Transpose them if You have to, that's what we've done.

Good luck

Regards
Sam

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by DeluxeRed

And people don't care about the context of lyrics written from a male perspective

This.

(and if they do care, those are precisely the folks I aim to provoke.)

[Richland123]

The Sign - Ace Of Base
ABBA songs
Taylor Dayne songs
Walking On Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves
Love Shack - The B52s
My City Was Gone (great bass riff), Brass In Pocket, Night In My Veins, I'll Stand By You - The Pretenders
Bonnie Raitt songs
Anyway You Want It - Journey
We Got The Beat, Vacation, Our Lips Are Sealed - The Go Gos
Your Daddy Don't Know - Toronto (this song was covered by The New Pornographers in 2003)

Toronto's original version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60eWpTbIN5I

The New Pornographers version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MfESZHY9Z4

[ga_edwards]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

As You can see, there's a lot of songs that are originally sung by blokes, majority in fact. Restricting Yourselves with just songs that are performed by women will be counterproductive IMHO. Transpose them if You have to, that's what we've done.

Absolutely. My band has a female lead singer, yet most of our set is songs that originally had a male lead. A lot of the 70s and 80s male rock singers had quite high voices that most normal blokes struggle to sing. Women can hit those notes without breaking a sweat.

OP - We used to play 'Torn' and it always flopped. Great song on the radio, but boring as heck to listen to live.

Alanis tunes are always a safe bet though, esp Ironic or Oughta Know.

If you're def after well known female leads, here's some of our:

Ballroom Blitz (Tia Carrera in Wayne's World)
Bitch - Meredith Brooks
Black Velvet - Alana Myles
Ready To Go & Drop Dead Gorgeous - Republica
Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
Hedonizm - Skunk Anansie
I Want You To Want Me - Letters From Cleo version
It's My Life & Just A Girl- No Doubt
Love Shack - B52s
Mama Mia - Abba
Mercy - Duffy
Nutbush City Limts - Tina Turner
One Way Or Another - Blondie
Standing In The Way Of Control - Gossip
Valerie - Amy Winehouse version
Walking On Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves
What You Waiting For - Gwen Stefani
Zombie - Cranberries

There a bunch of other tunes that were orig male leads which she sings too, not to mention the disco stuff that has female lines intertwined with the male lines.

[ysand]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions and the additional comments people!
Lots of material to listen to.

[dougjwray]

How about "You Got the Love" (Rufus with Chaka Khan)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ9bP3DlA6o

And Joss Stone did a nice version of "Some Kind of Wonderful" a few years back.
And I'm not sure how mainstream you want to get, but Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools" and "Respect" are possibly the most-covered female vocalist songs of all time.

[tycobb73]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

I have about 50 songs that I can sing in a pinch and our female singer has about 35. That's only about 5 sets worth of material. We have done that several times.

Yes but have you sang 50 straight? I have 4 singers in my band, 3 of which do lead. Variety is the spice of life.