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Hard rock songs for female singer?


stigmataguitar

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What hard rock songs would be good for a female singer in a cover band? Obviously the songs need to be recognizable but we are having a very difficult time coming up with some. We have male and female lead singers in our group with the female singer pretty much insisting that she sings half of the songs. I have no problem with the 50/50 deal but she sings a lot of "dude" songs which for the most part sounds really odd and frankly some of them sound like a**. Example...imagine old school Metallica performed by Pat Benatar!? She is an excellent singer and no one wants to hurt her feelings but no one in the band wants to say anything because she is also married to the drummer, who takes it upon himself to pretty much control the band and what the band does.

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We have tried Zep but her range does not go that high without her straining to reach it. She can do old school Heart (Barracuda) and Pat Benatar (Heartbreaker), which she kicks ass on! I think one of the problems is she wants to do some newer material and there are some awesome female fronted bands out there but alot of them are pretty obscure to the average bar patron.

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it would send me to the EXIT signs!

 

 

Nah, it's fun. We do it too. The singer walks around with a mic and let's people take a turn with the nah nah nah nah nah stuff at the end. I don't like it much either, but it's a good singalong song for the audience to get into.

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Depending on your existing set list or the direction she wants to go there is a lot of stuff that may work. What are you doing now and what kind of stuff is talking about adding?

 

An obscure but good song isn't a problem if you have your own crowd. People will get to know the song pretty quickly. If you're playing for whoever happens to be there, it can be an issue though.

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We're actually auditioning a female singer this weekend. I think it will really add to what we have already. Now, we're kind of a goofy band - We don't play songs "like the record" at all. We rearrange them and take different genres of music and change it to our rock/punky sound - So, some of the stuff I'm looking at doing includes:

 

Pink - So What

4 Non Blondes - What's Up

Tina Turner - Proud Mary

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Madonna - Like a Virgin

etc.

 

Personally I'd rather hear a rocked out version of an older song originally sung by a female as opposed to trying to shoehorn a female voice into an originally male-sung song.

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Nah, it's fun. We do it too. The singer walks around with a mic and let's people take a turn with the nah nah nah nah nah stuff at the end. I don't like it much either, but it's a good singalong song for the audience to get into.

Ya, I've played some. Most of it is fun or semi-fun to play. I used to like playing/singing LIGHTS DOWN. But on the listener side I'd do anything to not have to listen to anything Journey.:)

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The Devinyls-I touch myself

Anything by AC/DC

Joan Jett-I Love Rock N Roll

Vixen - edge of a broken heart

Pat Benatar - hit me with your best shot

Heart - baracuda

Lita Ford - kiss me deadly

 

Flyleaf, Paramore, and Evanescence are pretty popular.

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Sonic - It's just my opinion but those are over-covered songs. Try some different songs from the same artists:

 

Joan Jett-I Hate Myself for Loving You

Vixen - Never Say Never

Pat Benatar - Hell Is for Children, or Get Nervous, there's a lot to choose from

Heart - Dog and Butterfly, Straight on For You

Lita Ford - Lisa

 

Look into some newer music, some of those songs are over 30 years old.

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Ya, I've played some. Most of it is fun or semi-fun to play. I used to like playing/singing LIGHTS DOWN. But on the listener side I'd do anything to not have to listen to anything Journey.
:)

 

Not me, I love Journey. Want to add some asap. Only person in my band who didn't really like them is the lead guitarist, said he thought it was too slick sounding. But he's not opposed to learning some. As a listener I get off on it when I hear bands covering Journey. Except I'd rather not hear Lights or Wheel in the Sky.

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We have tried Zep but her range does not go that high without her straining to reach it. She can do old school Heart (Barracuda) and Pat Benatar (Heartbreaker), which she kicks ass on!

 

 

If she kicks ass on those (especially "Barracuda", which is basically a rewrite of "Achilles Last Stand"), she should be able to hand Led Zeppelin with no problem.

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The Devinyls-I touch myself

 

Done well, people will get into that big time.

Meredith Brooks - Bitch

99 red balloons, somewhere between the original and the goldfinger versions. It's a "chick song" but goldfinger shows how it can be rocked up.

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back in our early days we had a female vocalist & a male singer too. off the top o my head here's some suggestions:

 

anything by journey (sorry I think it sounds great!)

steve mcqueen, soak up the sun, sheryl crow

rock n roll-led zep

hella good, just a girl, spiderwebs- no doubt

like the way I do- melissa etheridge

you outta know- alanis morissette

trouble- pink

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I just love Sandra Nasic (Guano Apes), to me she is a great female singer.

Check her out, she has a very strong rock voice...

 

So anything by Guano Apes or Sandra Nasic, these are my favorites:

Guano Apes - Quietly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SAZrROyBWI

 

Guano Apes - Scratch The Pitch

 

 

 

Guano Apes - Open Your Eyes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFvCx6w_ptE

 

Another truly GREAT singer is Joan Osborne, check out some of her stuff too...

 

Joan Osborne - St. Teresa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqoA_yYKuOY

 

Joan Osborne - Man in the Long Black Coat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV53gSbFFr4

 

Joan Osborne - Pensacola

 

 

Joan Osborne - Spider Web

 

 

Anything by Heart, especially old Heart (late 70's)

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We do female-fronted rock, and, yes, we do the Benatar and Zeppelin staples, but we also aren't afraid of the more modern rockout chick songs. Sure, not everyone knows them, but if your band is good and your singer can "wow" them, they'll look forward to hearing "that one song" next time and eventually ask for it by name.

 

Paramore and Flyleaf are a good place to start.

 

Also, you can always throw some glam rock in there. Usually that stuff is too high for a male vocalist and if your girl can rock, she can really crank it out. We do Skid Row's "I Remember You" and it floors them every time.

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I guess I wasn't sure what you meant by 'hard rock,' but with some of the posted answers here, I'll throw these in:

 

Stop draggin' my heart around-Nicks/Petty always gets a killer response for us. It has the added bonus of a decent sized instrumental, too, for all you guitards. ;)

 

PJ Harvey--"This is love" would probably be her most recognized song. That's definitely some hard rock.

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