Karaoke Songs For The Tone-Deaf

Karaoke for the vocally-challenged is like salsa dancing for those with two left feet: a humilating and often painful experience. But it doesn't have to be.

Karaoke can be fun, too, so long as you stick with fast, upbeat and popular songs that encourage audience-participation.  Chose songs that focus less on your vocal-range and more on other aspects of your performace (your dancing or theatrical flair, for example). And then ham it up! Because as Sanjaya fans have shown, give people a dramatic, entertaining performance and they'll be willing to overlook a flat note or two (or 10).

1.  "I Love Rock N' Roll"  by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Any song that made for a successful Britany “I lip-sync all my concerts for a reason” Spears cover song, is an excellent choice for a tone-deaf karaoke-er. The melody doesn't vary much during the versus and you can practically get away with just speaking the words, so long as you throw in a little attitude into your voice now and then. When it comes time for the chorus, just point your microphone at the audience and that'll be all the encouragement they'll need to shout out the lyrics with you.

2.  "What I Got"  by Sublime

While Sublime lead-singer Bradley Nowell had a beautiful singing-voice, this song's simple melody and spoken versus make it easy to sing for those that don't.

3.  "Man! I feel like a Woman!"  by Shania Twain

If you're a brave man (or group of men), this makes for a hilarious song choice if performed right (bonus points if you dress in drag). The majorety of the song is made up of versus which are mostly spoken, including the catch line "Man, I Feel like a woman." And although the chorus gets a little high in places, you can just let the the track's recorded backup singer's do most of the work for you.

4.  "Twist and Shout" by the Beatles

If you've got an entire group of bad singers, "Twist and Shout" is a good pick because at two minutes and 38 seconds, it's short but sweet. And if you lose track of the melody, you can always do the twist until you get back on track.

5.  "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by The Clash

A good choice for the male singer. A song made up of moslty questions and five-word lines, you can get away with just reading the lyrics off of the prompter as long as you're able to keep a good beat.

6.  "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks

What better way to make the statement "Yes, I know I'm not the greatest singer but I don't give a damn" with a 90's self-empowerment song? With lyrics like "take me as I am", "I do not feel ashamed" and "you know you wouldn't want it any other way" it makes for the perfect tone-deaf karaoke theme song.

7.  “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by The Eurythmics

It's slower than the other songs on this list. And for a song that's supposedly about masochistic sex, it's not very interesting, lyrically.  But if you're semi-decent at singing in lower registers, than this would be a good choice.  The versus and chorus don't waver much from the same, two notes and  Britney's lipsync pal, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, sung a version of this song live and wasn't half-bad.

8.  "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third-Eye Blind

The versus of this song are sung very quickly (parts of it resemble rap) so it's not a wise idea to chose this song unless you are very, very familiar with it. But it's a crowd-pleaser for the nostalgic factor (when's the last time you heard this song?) and a good choice for someone who's not the best singer, because (with the exception of the end) very little of it is sung.

9.  "One Way or Another" by Blondie

One way or another, you're going to eventually have to take the take the stage so you might as well pick something short (it's just three and a half minutes long) and with little melodic variance. Even if you're only able to successfully sing the line “I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha”, that'll be enough to get you through a quarter of the tune (that line repeats itself 12 times throughout the song).

10.  "These Boots Were Made for Walking" by Nancy Sinatra

Grab some knee-high boots, a short skirt and a whole lotta attitude and people will be too busy admiring your um, performance to notice that you're slightly off-key.   Hey, it worked for Jessica Simpson (who covered this song for The Duke's of Hazzard), so it can work for you.