I’m not a big fan of sing alongs, but I’ve run into a couple at NHs and have had a couple requests too. What are your go to sing along songs?

Cass ... There are a bunch of really old ones such as Let Me Call You Sweetheart; Peg of My Heart, Bye, Bye Blackbird etc. and I also do You are my Sunshine/When You're Smiling; Down by the Riverside; He's got the Whole World; Johnny B. Good (go Johnny go)
I will also do songs where they can sing a 'lead line' such as Goody,Goody; King of the Road; (keep away from)Runaround Sue; Teenager in Love; even Elvis' Wonder of You ...
Hope this helps ...

Oldies and appropriate sing alongs are relative to the audience. The ones Tony mentions are certainly appropriate for a lot of today's NH gigs. I have an A/L where they lean more to 50s- 60s and country songs (like DonM does). Two unexpected requests that have become favorites at one facility are Eric Clapton's "Layla" and John Michael Montgomery's "Be my baby tonight". They seem to like the tongue twisting challenge of the lyrics. Just different strokes for different folks.

You Are My Sunshine, Good Night Irene, Tennessee Waltz, When You're Smiling, All of Me, Laid Around and Played Around, Are You Lonesome Tonight were some of the ones I did and seemed to go over well.

Che Sera Sera; That's Amore; Delilah ...

Cass,
I started doing sing-a-longs two years ago with great success i might add. I filled 30 binders with the printed, in large print, lyrics to songs. It has become very popular. Give me a day and I will email you my song list complete with styles and PDFs I use.

Cass , check your email. I just sent you PDF lead sheets for a sing-a-long.
Cass, Check again - I just sent you 28 pages of lyrics with about 4-5 songs per page.


Deane

Thanks everyone for your very useful suggestions. Deane has sent me his folders and I have enough songs for days of sing alongs.

Sing-a-longs are not limited to the very old songs. Any time you get them to sing along with you have a Sing-a-long. It depends on what they like and understand. Now you are back to reading your people.

John C.