Afternoon Delight: Finding love and healing in karaoke

Music journalist Rob Sheffield wrote the book “Turn Around Bright Eyes” about the sensation that is singing badly (or in some cases, well) in front of imbibing friends.

“I feel like I’ve had some of the most emotionally intimate moments of my life in a room full of strangers, where we’re all doing terrible things to a Hall and Oates song at two in the morning,” Sheffield told KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis.

Rob Sheffield’s top 3 favorite karaoke songs:

#3: Neil Diamond – “Forever in Blue Jeans”

“Honey’s sweet / But it ain’t nothing next to baby’s treat.

I love that because that is some of the most ridiculous lyrics anyone has ever attempted, and yet Neil Diamond makes them sound cool. And when you’re blasting them out like Neil, you can sound cool too, which is no small achievement.”

#2: Jim Croce – “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song”

“It’s funny how you can see a room full of strangers with their arms around each other, hugging, high-fiving, and everyone’s singing:

Every time I tried to tell you, the words just came out wrong / So I’ll have to say ‘I love you’ in a song.”

#1: Prince – “Little Red Corvette”

“People think that they remember that song, but it takes on a whole new life when it’s a room of extremely drunk people singing along:

Little red corvette / baby you’re much too fast

That’s a song that unites a crowd of strangers. Prince just heals us. There’s some purple majesty in that song that colors us all.”