Your strangest crowd pleasers

[COBRARI]

A bunch really but as one earlier poster mentioned.... "You Can Leave Your Hat On."
I think Randy Newman made it popular at one time.
I can honestly say that every time the former band I was in played it...
The women loved it.
Current band haven't added it (yet). I am working on it.

We will start a set with James Brown's "I got you/I feel good" and all the patrons perk up.
They love it. The initial yelling "Wow!...I Feel Good!".... wakes up even the zombies hanging out.

I believe JB's song is a strange crowd pleaser because not a whole lot of gigging bands have it in the set list.

 

[bassbully]

My old originals band covered Billy Jean semi acoustic with fiddle. It killed!

 

[troyofyort]

My old originals band covered Billy Jean semi acoustic with fiddle. It killed!

That sounds friggin killer

 

[buldog5151bass]

Always interesting to take a popular tune and change it around - just leave enough to make it recognizable. Weird Al made a career of it.

 

[Texan]

"Purple Rain", we are a Classic/Texas/Red Dirt Country band, but everyone loves it. Kinda funny.

 

[Shovel]

Rawhide. EVERY TIME.

 

[trailer]

Psycho Killer has always been surprisingly popular for us.

 

[marmadaddy]

A bunch really but as one earlier poster mentioned.... "You Can Leave Your Hat On."

My current band does it, our singer sounds pretty much exactly like Joe Cocker in that register. It goes over huge.

 

[xUptheIronsx]

For my metal band, it is: (I play bass)

1. Beef Bologna - Fear
2. Pre-Menstrual Princess Blues - SOD
3. medley of: Am I Evil (Metallica) into Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun (Beastie Boys)
4. Six Pack - Black Flag

my surf punk band: (I play drums)
1. Mary Tyler Moore theme song
2. Wave Of Mutilation - The Pixies (I think)
3. Fox On The Run - Sweet
4. Show Me - The Cure
5, Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show

- in the surf punk band, we will also sometimes take requests from the audience to see if we can make the request happen in our style on the spot. There have been some interesting versions of songs that are successful, or failures. That usually happens as the night wears on...some memorable ones have been:
Sister Christian - Night Ranger
many AC/DC songs
many Cars songs
Elvis covers
current pop songs that I do not know

 

[two fingers]

Cowboy Song - Thin Lizzy
We played it for ourselves. Totally indulgent. But it caught fire and became our most requested song.