#471 The moment at the bar when everyone starts singing together

Neil Pasricha

Let’s go out.

Let’s grab friends, let’s grab drinks, let’s make it happen.

Now, if you’re like me then even though you love hitting a busy scene, you sorta end up sticking to your own corner booth or tipsy table with your own group of friends. Sure, sure, rogue eyeballs drift and linger, small-talk could be swapped at the bar, and elbows might accidentally disrespect the buffer, but for the most part most of us stick to our own teams.

That’s what makes it special when everyone at the bar suddenly starts singing together. It’s a rare moment of unity that usually goes down one of three ways:

1. Sports cheer. Everyone’s watching the home team on the big screen. When a goal is scored as the clock clicks down and it’s time to grab each other’s shoulders, sway side to side, and let the tears stream down those painted faces.

2. Birthday brotherhood. Have you ever been at a family restaurant when the staff started singing happy birthday and everyone chimed in? Yes, this is when the magic of the ten-year-old’s flaming cake infects everybody with birthday love. The best part is when you get to the part where you’re supposed to sing the person’s name. Usually it comes out like “Happy BIRTH-day dear girl-at-the-barrrrrrrrr….  happy birthday to youuuuuuuu.”

3. Late night sing-a-long. Everyone’s chit-chatting into the early morning when suddenly the DJ drops a fan favorite and cranks it up. Fists pump the sky and drinks slosh around as Bon Jovi or Guns N’ Roses gets everyone jumping.

Yes, there sure is something sweet and something special about that magic moment when everyone starts singing together. It’s like the loud chords shake us up, the screaming vocals sweep us in, and our whole sweaty, sloshy crowd comes together in a big beautiful moment of

AWESOME!

— Email message —

“Greetings from Hungary! Behind me there’s the Buda Castle with the Matthias Church and I’m standing on Elizabeth Bridge over the Danube. There was a strong wind, I had to hold the book tightly :) And here’s my story: My boyfriend travels a lot because of his work. Now he’s working in Kazakhstan for a month. It’s the longest period of time we’ve been separated so far. It’s really hard to handle as we’re always spending all of our time together when he’s at home. But the arriving of The Book of Awesome and his departure to Kazakhstan happened on the same day :) And it helps a lot. Now every day I text him an awesome thing when I wake up to make his day better. And it works :)” – Eszti

Photos from:  here

73 thoughts to “#471 The moment at the bar when everyone starts singing together”

  3. i love when this happens at concerts. the artist stops singing and holds out the microphone as everyone in the crowd belts out the song.

  4. Don’t stop believing instantly came to mind when I read this title…I’m glad you posted a video to it =]

    1. Same! I instantly thought of Journey. Such great mass singalong moments with that song. Road trips, pubs, competitions. Awesome.

      1. Me too!! haha glad I’m not the only one :)
        I thought of that and Sweet Caroline when everybody goes “BA BA BAAA” haha

    2. this totally happened to me once with ‘don’t stop believing’ at a karaoke bar. journey wasn’t even on the song list; i think they took it off because the dj got sick of it. but somebody must have called in a favor, because suddenly there it was. i don’t know who started it, but soon everyone in the place was up front singing and dancing. it was total madness, and totally awesome.

  5. I had the birthday brotherhood happen to me on my 18th birthday- I was out for a big family meal and a football (soccer, I’m in England) team were there too- as soon as they heard the first few notes of that fateful tune they were on their feet singing away to me! As soon as they did that, everyone else felt like they had to sing too. I felt pretty special… it was awesome!

  6. Oohhh, #3, I love you so.

    Bohemian Rhapsody
    Sweet Caroline
    Come on Eileen
    Anything Michael Jackson

    Fan faves, gotta love ’em. Thanks, Mr. DJ! Cue the group lovin’.

    Also … Hungary?! SO awesome! Eszti, I hope the month apart flies by for you both!

    2. haha Come On Eileen came on the radio the other day while i was stopped at a traffic light. TOTALLY turned up the volume.

  7. I was in a girls chorus in highschool, and we would go on tours around the country. We were staying in Utah eating dinner at Hard Rock Cafe when someone’s family started singing them Happy Birthday. Needless to say we ended up serenading them with a full on 4 part harmony version :)

  8. The feeling when the whole arena knows every single word by heart and sings their lungs out can’t be described by words. It’s probably the most beautiful thing I know.

  9. One bar I frequent played”In the Air Tonight,” and everyone, EVERYONE, did the air drums. It was truly an awesome feeling of togetherness.

  10. Yes, yes, yes. Love this. You are on a roll this week — all very, very awesome things!!

  11. Very awesome indeed ^^ Great song , nice taste for music you got there.
    Btw, very romantic letter this time

  12. It’s the boyfriend here,

    It really works, here in the middle of the desert getting every day an awesome thing… really makes it better, by the way, today I passed through a door as it was shutting without touching it. It was AWESOME!

    Thank you!

  14. I love it when the singer loses his/her breath, puts the microphone to the crowd, and everyone knows the words and sings. :)

  15. For some reason this one actually made me well up. It just have so many memories of this, mainly my friends and I singing along to things really badly, but the best is when EVERYONE starts to sing. It really is the best moment.

  16. This totally happened at a bar I was in not too long ago! Someone put “Sweet Caroline” on the jukebox and everyone came in at the chorus at the same time. Hysterical and awesome! :)

  17. This is awesome. A while back I was in a small town bar, watching the hockey game, when on the radio came “American Pie” by Don McLean. Absolutely everyone stopped whatever they were doing and sang along till the very end. It was amazing!

  18. I had this happen in a Chicago El tunnel one time. A busker playing his guitar busted out “My Girl” and all the people waiting for the train started singing along. One of the coolest moments of my life.

  19. i love this!
    there was this bar/club i used to go to where there was a street musician would always be outside playing songs for people. one song that got all the drunks to sing along: brown eye girl :)

  20. The best of these moments I’ve ever seen happened while I was hanging out at a hole in the wall bar. There was a group of family and friends gathered together to remember their fallen soldier after his funeral. The place had a little karaoke getup and the group got up and sang “Proud to be an American”. From the beginning, the bar, usually filled with an odd assortment of characters, was filled with what seemed to be one hundred people doing so much more than just singing along.

  21. This one is only surpassed by the times that everyone on the STREETCAR starts singing at the same time. I’m in Toronto and have had it happen a few times. Awesome!

  22. This is actually so weird to read! Last night I went to a karaoke bar for the first time and my song of choice was Journey’s hit! The whole bar was drunkenly singing along and it was great. I was so stunned when I read this and it matched my night exactly!

  23. I heard about this site/book on CBC radio.

    I experienced a group of people singing at a English pub in England on Boxing day. We were all singing Christmas carols. One of the cooler experiences of my life.

  24. Love the Journey clip!! Reminds me of late night b-school parties…. but in a bar, I agree Sweet Caroline takes the cake

  25. Oh c’mon!

    am i the oldest person commenting here?

    Who DIDN”T think of this as soon as they read the title to this post??

  26. My ex-housemates (our lease is up) threw a huge party with a few dozen people crammed into our not-so-big living room, hallway and kitchen. It was fun but once ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ came on, everyone started singing and swaying together and it became amazing. The housemates even started a pseudo-choreographed dance at the ‘Galileo’ break. The next morning, we even got to see how the floor separated from the wall from the mega-mosh at the guitar solo. We broke our house in this awesome moment.

  27. Pingback: This is a place for friends to share media and shit | Blog | #471 « 1000 Awesome Things

  29. The best scene from Top Gun

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTbASqoqH3Q&fs=1&hl=en_GB]

    1. Just remembered starting a sing-a-long in a biology test when I was at school. It was a real musical moment. everyone looking up singing (in tune) before going back to their work. best song for a rainy afternoon.

      [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQiwqiPeLGk&fs=1&hl=en_GB]

  30. I totally had this happen to me in the lunch room of an elementary school. I was working as a lunch monitor…there was going to be a magic show after lunch so he was setting up and playing music. Some techno song came one that EVERYONE KNOWS (but know one knows the name of)…suddenly the whole lunch room was in a dance party! it was AWESOME.

  31. I was once in a parade that passed by a little girl’s seventh birthday party. The entire parade stopped, and all these people who didn’t even know each other sang happy birthday to her. It was a beautiful moment.

  32. I was in a cafe once having a Sunday morning hungover breakfast with a bunch of friends when Bohemian Rhapsody came on the speakers. Every single person in the cafe spontaneously starting headbanging at the same time a la Waynes World-style. It was awesome!

  35. We were a close knit team who worked for a Regal Resorts. One night a week we’d go to the one pub in town, and “become the Regal Roses and Regal Rose Buds”; pretending we were really something else when we took to the stage. And it was totally awesome when everyone would join in to songs like, “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Dream On” and “Let the Good times Roll”:)

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