Showing My Influences Again

 

Weekend Assignment #45: It's karaoke time. Pick a song to sing and explain why you chose it. Note that not everyone sings the song you expect them to sing: I remember being at a karaoke bar one time and watching a six-foot bald guy with a gravelly voice and a tattoo on his neck sing Olivia Newton John's "Have You Never Been Mellow?" And it was brilliant. So by all means, reach for the stars here. This isn't American Idol.

Extra Credit: Recall the worst karaoke performance you ever heard (or, if you're brave, ever performed). You can change the names to protect the guilty if you like.

This is another one of those nothing-to-do-with-my-life assignments, but I'll give it a shot. Listen, I don't drink, and John is antisocial. What are the chances that we'd go to a karaoke bar--ever?  Not gonna happen.  Well, I might, but I don't usually go to restaurants without John (except at lunch), much less to a bar, and John would just about rather have a spike driven though his head than be around karaoke. So.  No karaoke bar.

However, Cool FM's Alan Michaels hosted a karaoke booth at a charity tennis tournament one year.  He's sort of an old buddy of mine, and a mucky-muck with that particular charity event.  So anyway, I did Great Balls of Fire, because I like both the Jerry Lee Lewis version and the Sam Beckett version from the "Miss Deep South" episode of Quantum Leap. It's just fun, and doesn't require the world's most fabulous voice.  I would probably choose it again for the same reasons. There are lots of songs I like better, most of them by the Beatles, but by and large they're harder to sing well.

Of course, there was also that time at Gallifrey One when Teresa and Tracy and I sang Wouldn't It Be Loverly, not karaoke but a capella, within earshot of a female dealer from the UK. That was fun.

For the extra credit, I can't say I noticed anyone else's performance at that karaoke booth a decade ago (put it this way: it was the year Ray Charles was plugging Diet Pepsi).  Does watching Angel sing at Caritas count?

Karen

One class left!