5 Songs From the 1970s That Sound Easy To Sing, but Are Actually the Opposite

Karaoke and road trip singers, beware: not every song that sounds easy to sing actually is. That includes these five songs from the 1970s that are deceptively difficult to pull off.

“Old Man” by Neil Young

Considering how famously divisive Neil Young’s voice is, we wouldn’t blame you for assuming hit songs from the 1970s like “Old Man” would be easy to sing. The beginning of the track sounds simple enough, and the melody itself isn’t tremendously complex. However, Young’s secret strength is in his vocal range. He has an incredibly powerful command of both his lower and higher registers. Consequently, you don’t realize just how impressive those octave leaps are until you try them yourself.

“Money” by Pink Floyd

Of all the Pink Floyd songs that would be hard to sing (looking at you, “Great Gig In The Sky”), another Dark Side Of The Moon track, “Money”, is arguably one of the most deceptive. In the right key, the vocal range can remain relatively comfortable for most singers. But singing along to lines like “but if you ask for a rise, it’s no surprise that they’re giving none away” is actually surprisingly complicated, both in terms of matching pitch and staying on beat in 7/4 time.

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John

Elton John is another singer whose vocal range is so self-assured that it can be easy to forget just how difficult it is to sing his songs. One of those deceptively difficult 1970s songs is “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, the title track to his magnum opus from 1973. The massive leap on the line “goodbye yellow brick roooooad” is quite the stunt for even seasoned vocalists. If you choose this song for karaoke because the verses feel comfy, we’d recommend rehearsing the chorus, too.

“Help Me” by Joni Mitchell

For those well-versed with Joni Mitchell’s musical catalog, this might seem like an obvious entry. But the way she floats over her songs, particularly the 1970s hit, “Help Me”, has a way of convincing us, ‘Hey, maybe we could do that, too.’ However, between the rubato rhythm and sky-high vocal runs, this track isn’t as loosey-goosey as it may seem to the listener. This is the kind of song that vocalists might assume they can pull off, just to be woefully disappointed when they can’t. Not that we’re speaking from experience or anything.

Photo by Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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