Songs that are hard to sing that you wish you could sing?

I love 'We Didn't Start The Fire' for the fast lyrics. Modern Major General is a great one, too, though I can never remember the whole thing.

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

Wait.

"We didn't start the Fire" is considered a fast song?

I did not know this

I'm having to learn to pay the price

@JHM and Inverurie Jones: "I Am The Very Model Of a Modern Major-General" is actually on a Most Challenging Opera Arias List, for the reasons you mentioned.

edited 18th Jul '12 6:01:44 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's really fast at all. If anything, it's only a tad faster than mid-tempo.

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Damn, I'm feeling lucky in this thread. I can even get freaking 'Lilium' right as long as I can work enough air in my lungs and have a lyrics sheet in front of me. (Didn't watch that anime, BTW, only heard the opening and loved it.) So the "Down, Down to Goblin Town" and "Rain when I Die" remained the two that I really want to sing and have problems with — incredible low range in one song and air in the other.

But right now, I'm failing miserably at a seemingly much simpler song: "Ghost Riders in the Sky". The Johnny Cash version is the one I'm following and hoooooooly shit I have so much respect for him now. Enunciation is a bitch in this song. "Their faces gaunt, their eyes are blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat" is the line that keeps tripping me up horribly. When Cash sings it, everything just sounds so... effortless.

edited 18th Jul '12 2:27:39 PM by Muzozavr

ERROR: Signature not loaded

This song:

On another note, I'd love to be better at higher register rock, but I usually struggle to get through even the more simple hair/glam songs songs.

The biggest problem for me in popular music is the prevalence of high-voiced male singers. Songs like "Come Sail Away" and "Through the Fire and Flames" are just too high for me to sing comfortably without transposing them down a ways. And I won't even try to sing anything by Queen. But songs like "The Major General's Song" and "Take on Me" are fine for me.

You say tomater, I zader madermorts.

BUMP!

Some really hard songs to sing:

Most everything by Rush from the debut through Hemispheres, particularly "Anthem", "Finding My Way", "Bastille Day", "2112", "Something For Nothing", "A Farewell To Kings", "Cygnus X-1", and "Hemispheres".

Many early Zep songs through HOTH, particularly "Since I've Been Loving You" (Drag, drag, drag, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH BABY IT'S A DRAG!) "Over The Hills And Far Away", "Black Dog", "Rock And Roll", the end of "Stairway To Heaven", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", and "Immigrant Song".

"Skyscraper" by Demi Lovato (Go on and TRY to tear me down)

"Problem" by Ariana Grande (Those choruses)

"Barracuda" by Heart

Just another day in the life of Jimmy Nutrin

It's kinda weird, after tons and tons of practice (as well as years of working to expand my vocal range and to have better breath control), I've very nearly got Queen's "Somebody to Love" down pat. There's just one or two bits of melody in it that I still struggle with (and, oddly, it's not the long note at the climax of the song—did the song at karaoke a few weeks back and managed to legitimately impress people with that).

Honestly, my major issues are going super low (I have basically concluded that I could never be a bass singer, as my voice is just too naturally high for that no matter how low I try to dip) and going super high for a melody that needs to be belted or sung rather loudly (as opposed to just hitting the notes with a falsetto or singing it more quietly).

Aside from that, though, it'd be nice to be able to sing some Michael Jackson without popping out my Adam's apple.

edited 16th May '16 4:08:34 AM by Odd1

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

Lots of Vocaloid songs are really hard for me to sing because of the lack of pauses for breathing in the songs, but this one takes the cake:

edited 10th Jun '16 5:44:27 AM by SilvieSkydancer

I mean, let's be real here, they're not real people, so they can do incredibly unrealistic things with their voices.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

“Surf’s Up” by the Beach Boys.

Anything by Roy Orbison.

I once tried to sing both the Greg Rolie and Steve Perry parts to Journey’s “Anytime.” A grave error in judgment, as it turned out. On the other side of the coin, when I tried “Holdin’ On to Yesterday” by Ambrosia, I wimped out and tried it an octave too low. It killed the emotion and impact of the song. I should have just went for it and sang it in the right octave.

At least I never attempted Boston’s “More Than a Feeling.” That is a song no sober person should attempt unless you have absolute confidence in your ability to hit the high notes.

edited 10th Jun '16 7:33:41 PM by Bananaquit

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

Boston is fucking impossible. Like, how does Brad Delp manage to sing that high?

Myself, I can't sing a lot of later Neutral Milk Hotel easily. No idea how Jeff Mangum's voice could reach higher as his career went on.

edited 12th Jun '16 10:04:13 AM by golgothasArisen

"If you spend all your heart / On something that has died / You are not alive and that can't be a life"

Good breath control and well-disguised falsettos.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

For me, just that one note in "Emotions" by Mariah Carey.

Insiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!

Please help out our The History Of Video Games page.

Mariah can sing in the "whistle register" which is AFAIK is a pretty rare ability and not something you should beat yourself up over not being about to do. The only other famous example of this I know of "Lovin' You" by Minnie Ripperton. And honestly, since it sounds, well, like a whistle, it's not the most pleasant of noises.

Not to be predantic, but Brad Delp is the singer of Boston, Tom Shultz is the guitarist.

edited 12th Jun '16 8:18:51 AM by djbj

I know about Mariah, and I don't beat myself up over it. Besides, I'm male, which almost completely kills any chances of me even training to sing in the whistle register.

That doesn't stop me from trying, though.

Please help out our The History Of Video Games page.

It is possible, just need to work suuuuuper hard on expanding your range.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

Any of Blind Guardian's "hard" tracks, so most of them.

I'd kill myself trying to sing Battlefield seriously.

"Curry killed the pussy hoping that I could kill the hate in you" - Curry, D. "TABOO | TA13OO." TA13OO, PH, 2018

Any song with a very high part. My average male vocal chords just don't cut it.

Otherwise, I can sing damn near anything.

I mean, you are Stewart Copeland, so I'm not surprised.

edited 31st Jul '16 7:44:17 AM by Odd1

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

Are you high?

Not at the moment I posted that, no.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

One line I can't wrap my tongue around is "Lately I've been prayin' plenty, throwin' pennies down a wishing well" from "A Matter of Time" by Jason Sellers.

...and I just nailed it now singing along to the song. Weird.

Kinda bothers me that I can do most of Dreamer Deceiver by Judas Priest, but I just simply can't hit the last few lines (and other songs with high Metal Screams in general).