That one random song your cover band does that nobody else does.

[Pirate Captain]

back in the day we covered this...it was so obscure, people thought it was one of our own

EDIT: I just noticed that it's so obscure that they got the title wrong on the clip

 

[bassbrad]

I was working with a guitar player building up a couple of sets of all songs nobody plays for the most part, until he moved away, damn.

 

[Sid Fang]

My band used to have a singer who had done opera and musical theatre, and enjoyed singing in foreign languages. I spent a good chunk of my life in France, and was familiar enough with this obscure piece of French hard rock to be able to sell it to the band. On those rare occasions where there were French folks in the bar, they were amazed, but for most folks, it’s just a hard rockin’ song. The lyrics are essentially about being sick and tired of being nice.

 

[emblymouse]

Summer in the City-Lovin’ Spoonful

 

[MikeBass]

Grand Illusion by Styx in my one band.

I also have Queensryche cover band, so, we have like an hour of stuff no one does.

 

[porterbass]

OK, this is for standard issue bar bands, not tributes or niche bands. Most of us play hits, or songs that are charting now that might not stand the test of time.

But every now and then you just have to whip out one self-indulgent, random, B-side, relatively-unknown, never-saw-it-coming song and rip it because the band wants to do it.

Sometimes they wind up catching on locally and become a favorite. Such was the case in the late 80s and early 90s when a regionally-popular band I played in (I was a kid and the rest of the band members were in their thirties) played Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy. (The intro is kind of a downer. Listen at least a minute or so. Skip to 45s if you have no patients.... like me.)

Thin Lizzy Cowboy Song - YouTube

It became one of our most requested songs. I'm not saying the song is "obscure", per say. But your average bar goer, even back then, had no idea who did the song if they had even heard it. So that one worked out well.

Fast forward to last night. Our drummer (who has very eclectic musical tastes) brings up this song. I had never heard it. I was only vaguely familiar with the band in general, and couldn't have told you what any of their songs were until last night. It fits us like a glove. It kind of rocks (in a laid back 70s kinda way), and has a little bit of funk to it. The harmonies are right up our alley. It's as if the musicians in Mother's Finest were suddenly the backing band for Crosby Stills and Nash.

No Way Out - YouTube

I think we're actually going to do a version of it. We may tailor it a little to meet our band's needs. It's totally out of character for us to pull out a song that isn't a smash. But I think we're gonna give it a try.

How bout you? Does your regular bar band play one or two "out there" songs?

Crazy, I haven't listened to Firefly in forever! We actually used to play "No Way Out" in my band back in the 80's. Great song.

 

[Lesfunk]

“Mary Moon” aka “new age girl” from the dumb and dumber soundtrack
(She don’t eat meat but she sure likes the bone) …that one.
Also sometimes “never been any reason” by Head east

 

[Michedelic]

back in the day we covered this...it was so obscure, people thought it was one of our own

That’s a good reason to do killer obscure tunes

 

[WillyW]

Moondance

 

[bmac314]

Blackberry Smoke- Sleeping Dogs

 

[Lo-E]

We also do the Donnas "take it off.”

Yes!! We covered that, too!
Usually the oddball tunes were suggested by me but this one came from our singer and it was always a crowd pleaser.

Both our guitarists were from the ’classic rock top 40’ camp and they were skeptical at first but once we started working these obscure numbers into our set they both ended up admitting they were having a lot of fun with them.

 

[Richland123]

My current band does a version of Crazy Love by Van Morrison.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Pull this out once in a while, gets a good reaction

 

[Michedelic]

I hadn't heard of the band or the song, but we end each show with:

Looking for Lewis & Clark: The Long Ryders

Great overlooked band, they were part of the “paisley underground” scene of LA in the early 80’s(the Bangles and Dream Syndicate emerged from all that). They delved into the Gram Parsons/Byrds/Dylan realm of country rock bands; leader Sid Griffin is still very active…
Sid Griffin – The Official Website – Singer, Songwriter, Author, Broadcaster, Ex-Coal Porters and Long Ryder: Sid Griffin

 

[InhumanResource]

Living on a prayer with the modulation up to G

 

[LBS-bass]

Not so unknown and IIRC it wasn't a b-side either, but i haven't heard another cover band around here doing Life on Mars by Bowie. We play it almost every gig. A great song by a genius songwriter if you ask me

A band I used to be in pre-Covid did this one. We also did the whole Abbey Road Golden Slumbers medley. Need a good keyboard player to really pull those off and, sadly, we lost that guy and couldn't find a suitable replacement. Fun to do those, though.

 

[Michedelic]

Pull this out once in a while, gets a good reaction

A heavy, crunchy version of “Just Like Me”, with the dual lead guitars would work too.

 

[newwavefrank]

Living on a prayer with the modulation up to G

We do this....but I hand over lead vocal duties to the girl singer at that point....

 

[MasterG]

 

[js1]

Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc always goes over a treat.

We also do a bluesy version of Hit Me Baby One More Time that kills. The look on people's face when they realize what song it is is a real hoot. I wish I could take credit for the idea, but we adapted the cover that Fountains of Wayne did. But here's the other thing - it's actually a really good song.