Why: In NME’s greatest 50 Indie Anthems Ever. I have used this song to teach my friends guitar, who have never touched one before. When learning songs just using chords, you have to use your voice and imagination to fill in the blanks and as a result it can be frustrating for beginners. This lead section is easy to learn and actually sounds like the song.

Lyrics/Tab: here

Youtube: here (embedding disabled)

Converstation Starter: Ironic airplay favorite in the UK when Maggie Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990. Gained a reputation for being about the use of heroin.

Covered By: Sixpence None the Richer, Robbie Williams

Soundtrack: The Parent Trap, Fever Pitch, Girl Interrupted and So I Married an Axe Murderer

Comic Relief:
Some misheard lyrics include :

I created a list songs by trawling through a number of sites that are listed in the references at the bottom. The sites matched the phrase “Top acoustic guitar songs“, and variations on this theme. The sites included big websites, small blogs and forums posts. I crawled these sites looking at the lists themselves and the comments below them suggesting additions to the list.

The 15 songs below were the songs that were repeatedly(4+ times) included in the Top 10s etc…

and the following came up 3 times in my search.

I think it might also be worth mentioning that when I sorted the list by artist (not song), the Beatles ranked very highly (even though they don’t appear in either of the lists above!). Their most popular songs were:

All in all, it think the list is fairly indicative of general opinion, but I would imagine personal opinion differs greatly. While I would like to think this would be an end to it, the sample size of the research could probably be expanded. As I find more sites I will continue to add to my stats, but in the meantime this will have to do! This is a link to my spreadsheet research if anyone else wants to use it. It contains more songs, if you know all the ones above!

I might go on and break down the guitar songs by theme; campfire, impressing girls, parties etc. If anyone would be interested such things, just comment below or email. Please feel free to comment below anyway!

thelifeandsoul will probably go on as usual, which is mostly me picking songs at random from personal preference, but I think I’ll be pulling from this list every few weeks!

Otherwise, here are the links that I pulled all the info from:

Ultimate Guitar Forum links:

Thanks to detritus for the pic.

Why: A classic 60’s (1967) party song. I loved the Monkees growing up and I heard this being played by a one man band at the local pub last week and it really got the crowd going.

Lyrics/Tab: here

Youtube:

Converstation Starter: This song was written by Neil Diamond and spent seven-weeks at number 1 in the Billboard Top 100. The Monkees are considered to be the first manufactured “boyband”.

Covered By: Smashmouth and Donkey from Shrek, The Four Tops and Neil Diamond.

Soundtrack: Shrek, Blood Simple, Austin Powers

Comic Relief: The comedy duo of Reeve’s and Mortimer covered the song with the band EMP and introduced “Oi!” into the lyrics which I’ve added into the original when I play.

Why: Another great tune; I had a friend who would play this at every party he was at and it never got old.

Lyrics/Tab: here

Youtube: here (embedding disabled)

Converstation Starter: This was Counting Crows first radio hit. Came in at number 27 in the VH1 Top 100 songs of the 90’s.

The band members, when playing the songs live, change some of the lyrics. “We all wanna be big, big stars, but we got different reasons for that” becomes “We all wanna be big, big stars, but then we get second thoughts about that,” and “when everybody loves you, sometimes that’s just about as funky as you can be” became “when everybody loves you, sometimes that’s just about as fucked up as you can be.”

Covered By: Hidden In Plain View.
Soundtracked: a few tv shows, but no major movies (which surprises me!).

Comic Relief : An absolutely genius crossover of mr jones and indiana jones by these guys.

Why: A bit of a change of pace from the previous selections, but this song simply a great twist on an infectious tune made famous by Outkast. If you haven’t heard it, check the youtube video below. You may want to speed it up a bit when play for friends, or play it as is to slow the mood.

Lyrics/Tab: here

Converstation Starter: 4.5 million Youtube hits at the time of writing. Mat Weddle, the singer of Obadiah Parker, claims that when the video was recorded, it was at an near-empty open mic night at a coffee shop.

Covered By: these guys and The Blanks.
Soundtrack: Ted’s band, The Blanks, used it in the Scrubs episode My Soul on Fire, Part 2.

Why: I’ve fallen in and out of love with this song since it was released in 1997, but these days I remember it fondly. Catchy lyrics with a contagious (if repetitive) chord progression.

Lyrics/Tab: here

Youtube: here (embedding disabled)

Conversation Starter: The B-Side to this track is called “Conversation” . Adheres to the Sensitive Female Chord Progression. Cherry was christened Eagle-Eye because “the first time he looked at his father, he did so with only one eye open”.

Covered By: Nobody in particular, but remixed on the single.

Soundtracked: A Lot Like Love, Karaoke Revolution (video game).

I can’t believe it’s not: Any from the SFCP list.. noticeably missing is Falling in Love Again by Eagle Eye Cherry.

Comic Relief : Obama “sings” Save Tonight.

Why: Probably the most cliched “party-song” that I can think of, and where better to start. I’ve seen people sing this in their sleep!

Tab/Lyrics: here (ultimate-guitar.com)

Conversation Starter: Liam Gallagher confesses he feels sick every time he has to sing the band’s smash hit. “I can’t fucking stand that fucking song! Every time I have to sing it I want to gag.”

Covered By : Ryan Adams
Soundtracked in : The Jackal, Kevin and Perry go Large.

I can’t believe it’s not: Travis – Writing to Reach You, Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

Comedy Relief: The guys over at CollegeHumor taking a swing at the song in Learning the Guitar to get Laid.

If you’ve ever used this particular song before, and tell us how it went in the comments below!

“Hey, you can play guitar”
“Yup, 15 years”
“Play a song!”
“Can’t, don’t know any”

An exaggeration sure; I knew bits of songs, the hooks and riffs I was interested in. I knew some of the words, the choruses mostly. I can hold a note, but my voice is weak. When it boiled down to actually playing the song in front of people, I would choke. It was my excuse for not having to perform.

It wasn’t until I practiced songs over and over, and learned the words by rote that I gained the confidence to sing, play and enjoy performing in front of people.

This is my attempt to create a definitive list of songs to play at house parties, campfires and where ever else may take your fancy. I have come across lists like this one and others through forum discussions at guitar.com and ultimate-guitar.com, but i couldn’t find any site dedicated to “party songs”.

What should a “party song” be?
The best example of a party song is one that almost everyone at the party knows the words to, without even realising it! Earworms so entrenched in peoples’ minds, that they will chime in, before they know what they’re doing. Cheesy songs that people may groan at when they hear the first bar, then laugh at themselves by the end for enjoying them so much, everyone likes a bit of cheese!

Leave your personal preferences at the door. I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend of mine…
Friend : “It’s your birthday today, we should go celebrate!”
Me : “I don’t really like to celebrate my birthday”.
F : “It’s not about you, its just an excuse for everyone else to have a party!!”

It’s not about you. The more everyone enjoys the songs, the more you’ll enjoy it.

Why “the life and soul”?
The aim of the game is to that person who helps everyone at a party enjoy themselves, no small feat for the soon to be life and soul of the party!