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Odd Song Choices that go over well

Apr 17, 2009
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My band members sometimes pick odd song choices that I don't think will go over but for some weird reason the people end up liking them even if they never heard them before. Here are a few.

Mr. Spaceman by The Byrds
Miserlou - the Dick Del & The Deltones version
Surf Rider - The Ventures
 
My original metal band sometimes plays a cover of ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man." We first thought we'd only play it at gigs with an older, more rock-oriented crowd -- thinking the more extreme metalheads would be "too cool" for something so pop -- but it kills every time, no matter the crowd.

Speaking of Sharp Dressed Man, Nickelback did a cover of that song.

 
We have been doing this tune for a long time but we closed out a big festival concert with it a couple weeks ago and the crowd went wild over it.

Bumblebee Rock (a surf version of Flight Of The Bumblebee). Nothing like a song that was written in 1899–1900 to get a standing ovation.
 
I play in an original hard rock/metal band and thus far these have gone over really well... like, astonishingly well, everyone freaks out:

Quincy Jones - Soul Bossa Nova
Afro Man - Crazy Rap (Colt 45 and two zig-zags)
Toni Basil - Mickey
The Terminator 2 theme (over-done these days so we don't really do it anymore)
 
Got a great response the other night playing Wipe Out. LOL, I couldn't believe we played it. And there were all these young folks out there dancing like the early '60s (how'd they know how to do that?). Heh, I wanted to go into Pipeline, but we didn't.
 
Got a great response the other night playing Wipe Out. LOL, I couldn't believe we played it. And there were all these young folks out there dancing like the early '60s (how'd they know how to do that?). Heh, I wanted to go into Pipeline, but we didn't.

Oh, yeah! We play quite a few of those instrumentals and they go over so well for us that we are known for that niche in the region and people request them often. We do not play all of them every gig; just a few. We play.

Wipe Out
Pipeline
Walk, Don't Run
Miserlou
Bumblebee Rock (Flight Of The Bumblebee)
Surf Rider
Time Is Tight
Blues Theme
Rumble
 
Got a great response the other night playing Wipe Out. LOL, I couldn't believe we played it. And there were all these young folks out there dancing like the early '60s (how'd they know how to do that?). Heh, I wanted to go into Pipeline, but we didn't.

+1

My band's core style is surf rock, and Wipeout is a standard encore song (if our drummer can still raise his sticks by that point).

Related to the topic, "Can't Explain" by the Who always gets people on their feet, still not sure why personally.