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Top 10 Songs To Sing In The Shower
May 13, 2015
A Music Buff’s Guide to Singing In the Buff
Not only does everybody sing in the shower, everybody also thinks they sound better in the shower. The reason why we sound better is fairly simple, it’s due to your voice bouncing off the smooth hard tiles and glass surfaces, giving it more power. This makes a regular Joe or Joanne sound as powerful as the late Roy Orbison or as soulful as Adele.
Research into shower singing has provided even more reasons to belt it out first thing in the morning. A Swiss study found singing to have a huge effect on your heart rate, so much so that it can even reduce the risk of heart disease. Swedish neurologist Bjorn Vickhoff said that singing “gives you pretty much the same effect as yoga breathing”.
So what other reasons do you need to realize the beauty of shower singing first thing in the morning? Maybe you’re just stuck for ideas on what to sing next? If that’s so, enjoy 10 songs selected to belt out in a hot shower on a cold morning.
10: Tiny Dancer – Elton John
The song is short and sweet. Sweet because it recounts the day Elton’s long time writing partner, Bernie Taupin, first met the woman he would soon make his wife. The hook erupts after three verses and is easily one of the catchiest and most recognizable in Elton’s amazing catalogue. “Only you can hear me/ when I say softly slowly/Hold me closer tiny dancer/count the headlights on the highway”.
9: Sweet Child ‘O Mine – Guns N’ Roses
Wake up with a bang and pull out your best shower air guitar moves. “She’s got a smile that it seems to me/reminds me of childhood memories/where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky” is one of the catchiest opening lines in modern rock. The song is about lead singer Axel Rose’s future ex-wife in happier times, but let’s remember it for why it was created and not what happened after. Fans of the comedy Step Brothers will understand how the song lends itself to some ‘beautiful’ harmonies and is just as affective a capella.
8: Hey Jude – The Beatles
Paul McCartney was inspired to write the song after consoling Julian Lennon, who had felt neglected by his father John, once he began dating Yoko Ono. That coming from the man who wrote the ultimate song of love and peace, Imagine, shows how greatly complex people are. Yet McCartney stepped up in the role of surrogate uncle and delivered one of the greatest songs of re-assurance, love, and support ever written.
7: Fake Empire – The National
The National, while unknown to many, are the modern masters of understated, ambiguous, and simple lyrics. With three simple verses Fake Empire is perfect song to belt out in a hot shower. The song can be interpreted a number of different ways. The first can be an ode to imagination and reminiscing. The second is a dissection of the United States under the presidency of George W. Bush. And the third is simply forgetting your troubles, and that of the world, it’s time to: “Turn out the light, say goodnight. No thinking for a little while”.
6: You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Rolling Stones
Wants versus needs is a classic theme of the arts. Its most often found in film and literary characters that often start of a story trying to achieve their need, but walk away more enriched discovering what they truly want. Of course sometimes the opposite occurs. The song is about life not always going the way you think it should, yet somehow at the end of the day more often or not we get by with what we have. You can’t always get what you want/ but if you try sometime/you just might find/you get what you need.
5: Shake It Off – Taylor Swift
A song about being you and not letting what people say get in the way! This is a feel good, high energy, sass-filled tune that can help you launch into the day. The song is fun, filled with attitude and is all about being the person you are meant to be. It deals with perception versus reality in a fun light hearted way, and is just as catchy for men as it is women, just try and shake, shake, shake it off!
4: Rolling In The Deep – Adele
They say “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”, and whoever broke Adele’s heart found out how true that sentiment really can be. Combining her powerful voice with beautiful lyrics, the song is about proving to someone who was meant to have your back what the cost of their betrayal is. Adele proved her point by going on to win the 2012 Grammy for song and record of the year.
3: Wild World – Cat Stevens
This song, about saying goodbye to an ex-lover can be interpreted as goodbye and good luck or goodbye now don’t stuff up. The subtle lyrics beautifully encapsulate the contradictory feelings of a break up, while remaining peaceful, controlled, and quiet.
2: Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
“Once upon a time you dressed so fine/threw the bums a dime/in your prime/didn’t you?” After the thunderous kick of a snare drum Dylan fires out the first line of the song with an energy that never lets up. The song tells the story of an affluent girl’s lack of concern for the dangerous path she’s walking. It’s a song about high society, wasted opportunity, and karma that contains some of the greatest lyrics ever written.
1: Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac
A song to be belted out any time you’re starting something new, feeling confused, or taking a risk. The song is written by the male lead of the great Fleetwood Mac Lindsay Buckingham and is about the end of his relationship with female lead singer Stevie Nicks. This song is filled with a lot of hope and a wonderful sense of ease, knowing that what has happened did happen and it’s time to move on.
What’s your favourite song to sing in the shower? Let us know what you can’t sing enough when you’re in the buff!