Funniest song request at a gig.

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 26 Sep 2006 5:31 pm

"Zippity doo dah" for the brides dance. Go Figure! JP

Billy Wilson · Post by **Billy Wilson** » 26 Sep 2006 5:35 pm

One time a guy arranged ahead of time for us to play Don't Fence Me In at his wedding!!

Ken Williams · Post by **Ken Williams** » 26 Sep 2006 5:40 pm

It always gets me when just after you've played a great arrangement of the best song on the planet, some drunk comes to the stage and says "Ya'll play something good".

Ken

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 26 Sep 2006 6:13 pm

Still get requests for Louie Louie and Mustang Sally........but it's not as funny as Yellow Submarine. It's actually annoying! Guess it's part of the job.

DZ

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 26 Sep 2006 7:04 pm

This isn't actually a song request, but one night at at the Palomino we had a woman come up and ask us if we could turn it down about an octave.

Rick McDuffie · Post by **Rick McDuffie** » 26 Sep 2006 7:15 pm

"Pistol Packin' Mama"... used to get that one all the time.

Pat Irvin · Post by **Pat Irvin** » 26 Sep 2006 7:58 pm

Billy I also sang "Don't Fence Me In" at a wedding. It was my brothers and I was the best man. I followed it up by starting off the toast with "Of All the girls my brother has dated, you're one of them". It didn't go over well but I sure thought it was funny.

I play the old stuff weekly at a somewhat "hip" bar and barely a week goes by that I don't finish a Webb or Wynn tune and some drunk sorority girl doesn't come up and request Dave Mathews or Jack Johnson. I normally just smile and kick into a Johnny Horton tune.

Dayna Wills · Post by **Dayna Wills** » 26 Sep 2006 8:22 pm

1988 Long Beach, CA. (Signal Hill, the Hillside Club) the drummer and I were on the outs when a drunk comes up and (I thought) he said, "Do you know a dickhead to love"? I looked at the drummer and said, "Yes". I know now that he meant "Addicted to Love".

I knew that too.

------------------

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 26 Sep 2006 8:35 pm

Do you mean funny-ha-ha or funny-weird?

We get bizarre requests from college students all the time. Blues band, old school, a guy staggers up and blurts out - "Hey youze guys do any any Air Supply? Or how about some Van Halen? Eruption, man." Alt-country band - "Hey, my girlfriend wants to hear this Kenny G song - you know the one I'm talking about, right?" Old-school rockabilly band, greased up and ready to kick a$$, after a set full of early Elvis, Gene Vincent, Billy Lee Riley, Link Wray, and Eddie Cochran type stuff - "Hey, man - how about some Bob Marley - Stir It Up?" After the fifth or sixth persistent request, we're going "Look, you're in the wrong place - go see the Earthtones down the street - pleeeeze." Straight ahead jazz trio after something like Blue Monk or West Coast Blues - "Hey, blues, man - can you play The Doors 'Roadhouse Blues'"? Yeah, my favorite for sure, but at least he recognized we were playing a blues. We routinely get requests for some Emo, grunge, death metal, 80s hair-band, or something else completely off the wall for what we're doing, and would send the people who came to see us scurrying out of the joint. But most of the time, the effect is pretty comical - I couldn't make this up if I tried. I sorta wish I had videotapes of some of this. We could do a "Spinal Tap" type parody of the college music scene.

My favorite, which we get periodically: "Man, do you guys do any rap?" Yeah, sure - you hip to William McKinley or Grover Cleveland? Bring one of those and we'll make one up special for you. Nobody has taken us up on that yet.

Of course, this all causes some serious trouble occasionally. Some years ago, an agent booked the rockabilly unit at a roadhouse in the wilds of rural Central PA, only they didn't know what rockabilly was, and he didn't set them straight. They were seriously expecting Judas Priest, Nazareth, AC/DC, Motorhead, and so on. They also expected a semi-trailer with enough PA juice to blow them into the next room. Lemme tell you, they were real unhappy - gimme Bob's Country Bunker any day. We played one set, miraculously got paid (to his credit, the agent showed up to take care of bizness), and split toutes suite.

Actually, our old bluegrass band used to do Sabbath's "Paranoid" just for hoots. But it still sounded like bluegrass. It's really a bluegrass tradition to grassify songs from other genres.

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 27 Sep 2006 9:06 am

Mid-60's, we played a frat party at U-Mass after two of the fraternities had just competed in a 'cherry relay race', which I won't describe here. The #1 hit, on the radio was Gloria, Gloria, G-L-O-R-I-A, and that was what they wanted to hear. We did 3 sets of Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 28 Sep 2006 2:02 pm

"Put Your Sweet Lips, A Little Closer To The Bone"

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 28 Sep 2006 5:25 pm

"Play that one. You know, the one I like. Play that one."

"Are you gonna play my song for me?"

"Play the other song you know."

"Play something good this time."

------------------
My best,
Ernie

www.BuddyEmmons.com

Billy Wilson · Post by **Billy Wilson** » 28 Sep 2006 7:22 pm

Play something you know!!!

Bob Watson · Post by **Bob Watson** » 28 Sep 2006 7:32 pm

A Bass playing friend of mine was playing a club in Clinton Illinois in the 1970's and a guy walks up to the stage, pulls out a gun, and says, " I wanna hear Branded Man, and I wanna hear it now". My friend looked at the guy and said, "what key do you want it in?".

Jason Stillwell · Post by **Jason Stillwell** » 29 Sep 2006 6:06 am

Back about 13-14 years ago, we used to have one old drunk guy that always wanted us to play "You ain't woman enough to take my man." We had no famale vocalist.

I was playing bass, and we were in the middle of some Brooks & Dung song, and this same little drunk came up to me. (BTW, my dad, Joe, was playing fiddle in another band that played in this place on weekends we didn't.) The old guy came up to me and motioned me to lean over. He started singing his song request. I know I must have missed 3 chord changes while he said, "Joe, 'Put your sweet wips a wittwe cwoser to the phone.' Play that."

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 29 Sep 2006 7:13 am

Elmer Fudd??

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 29 Sep 2006 11:42 am

lol!

Chuck Cusimano · Post by **Chuck Cusimano** » 29 Sep 2006 11:59 am

In New Mexico a few years ago, a drunk Hispanic feller came up and asked for "Blue Eyes Crying On The Range" and another time (Same Bar) another "Vato" came and wanted to hear "Jupeekah" When we said we didn't know that one, he said, "Ju know, Ju Peek a find time to leave me Lucile". I love New Mexico!

Tracy Sheehan · Post by **Tracy Sheehan** » 29 Sep 2006 2:23 pm

My favorite was always,no one in the band has ever heard that song.
Play it any way.

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 29 Sep 2006 2:54 pm

We've been asked to play "Dixie Chicks" tunes... No females in the band!

"Play some Rock"...

------------------

Steve Stallings
The Songs

Larry Garrett · Post by **Larry Garrett** » 1 Oct 2006 9:47 am

This was not a request but funny. (Please don't anyone mistake this as being racial. It was just amusing to me.) When I was in the service in 1970 overseas an Asian "go-go girl" band was entertaining the troops. I enjoyed the show but I only remember one song that they sang. "Prease rerease me ret me go".

Kenny Dail · Post by **Kenny Dail** » 1 Oct 2006 12:29 pm

We did actually get a request for Elmer Fudds "awwangment" of "Bwue Qwismas" during the Christms Season a few years ago.

------------------
kd...and the beat goes on...

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 1 Oct 2006 1:08 pm

I was getting really PO'd at a lady who kept yelling "Play something good!", untill she caught me at break and said she wanted to hear "Something Good" by Hermans Hermits.
Live and learn.
The guitar player knew it, so we did it!

Billy Wilson · Post by **Billy Wilson** » 1 Oct 2006 8:54 pm

Something Good is something good.

Loni Specter · Post by **Loni Specter** » 4 Oct 2006 11:54 pm

I was at a wedding and they had a harp player performing during the pre cerimony. Someone yelled out "Stairway to Heaven" and without missing a beat she broke right into it.
No she quit befor the solo!