The 30 Day Song Challenge: Day 8

Today’s category is…

A Song That You Know All the Words To.

Staff Picks:

Kevin Coyne: “My Way” – Frank Sinatra

There’s gotta be a thousand songs I know all of the words to, but I’ll pick this one because it took me a while to anticipate all of the odd rhymes with “my way”, most especially the line about “each careful step along the byway.”  Plus I’m just going through a big Sinatra phase these days.

Leeann Ward: No Selection

When I was a kid, I was great at memorizing words, because I’d sing along with songs all the time. Somewhere in my early adulthood, however, I stopped singing around people, therefore, stopped singing along with songs as much. I don’t have a dramatic reason that I can pinpoint for not singing in front of people anymore (I can carry a tune pretty well, actually.), but I do know that not doing so has limited my ability for memorizing words to songs. This is the long way of admitting that I no longer know all the words to a song without having the song playing. Sad, isn’t it?

Dan Milliken: “Natalie’s Rap” – The Lonely Island featuring Natalie Portman

This 2006 SNL classic casts recent Oscar winner Portman as a staggeringly foul-mouthed gangsta rapper. A Dan’s-car staple.

Tara Seetharam: “Any Man of Mine” – Shania Twain

…right down to the shimmying, shaking and earthquake-making.

 

24 Comments

  1. There are hundreds for me, but the first song I remember learning all the words to was Tanya Tuckers “Some Kind of Trouble”. I was seven when that song came out and for years it was my favorite song!!!

  2. “Bubblewrap” by McFly. I can’t help but sing when it’s on, and as Leeann pointed out, the more you sing it, the better it gets stuck in your head.

  3. For how much I love Shania Twain and other 90’s female artists and know large junks of the songs by heart the one song I do know from beginning to end without hesitating is Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”

  4. I know a few hundred songs but by far two easiest songs for me to memorize were “Love Takes Care of Me” by Jack Greene and “Love Me, Love Me” by Bobby Barnett both of which I had down after hearing once

  5. It’s probably the Asperger’s in me coming out, but I memorize song lyrics without even trying. If I find myself really liking a song, the words just stick with me after a while. There are a million songs I know all the words to, and some of them are a bit wordy. “I Try to Think About Elvis,” “The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia”… many others.

    And yes, I also know all the words to “Any Man of Mine.” Kick turn stomp stomp!

  6. There certainly are a lot of songs I know all the words to, some of which I don’t even like!

    Although I don’t listen to it often from my iPod, Alan Jackson’s “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” is a song I know the words to well because I basically grew up listening to Alan Jackson thanks to my parents :)

  7. My pick is Faith Hill’s “Breathe.” I don’t know why, but I was obessed with that song when it came out in 1999. I’ve always loved her vocal on it, and it’s just something different from her.

  8. The two that stand out for me, in terms of knowing the lyrics:

    YOU’RE NO GOOD–Linda Ronstadt
    SUSPICIOUS MINDS–Elvis Presley

  9. There are hundreds I can recall upon hearing the first note, but a guilty pleasure is ‘The Unicorn’ by the Irish Rovers.

  10. at bll: You’re not alone liking “The Unicorn”. I have it on a Decca 45 rpm record and just played it for the first time in a few years. I didn’t remember that it’s a Shel Silverstein song and a single in 1968 according to wiki. The flip side is “Black Velvet Band”.

  11. John Michael Montgomery’s “Be My Baby Tonight”. That song was quite a mouthful to sing, let alone remember when I was a kid, but once I learned the words, they always stuck.

  12. Speaking of “Be My Baby Tonight”, I remember, as a kid, making an effort to memorize “Blame it on Your Heart” because I wanted to conquer the challenge of remembering all the words.

  13. “Good Directions” by Billy Curringoton. I’ve always identified with the song and i love its simplicity.

  14. I know the words to too many songs. I will go with “Maggie Creek Road” by Reba because I just very recently got that one memorized.

  15. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but (I think) I know all the words to Reba’s and Trisha Yearwood’s discography. A few more songs I know forward and backwards include:

    “The Hard Way” – Mary Chapin Carpenter
    “Shameless” – Garth Brooks

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