Top 15 Difficult Popular Songs to Sing

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We sing some of our favorite songs in our car, in the shower or while exercising without thinking about getting the tone or timing right. It takes many hours of breathing exercises to hold notes that are on par with the great voices in the world. Sometimes, difficult training is not enough, you must be born with strong lungs and talent to be one of the greatest. If you like to sing karaoke test your skills with one of these songs.

15. Great Gig in the Sky

The song began life as a Richard Wright chord progression, known variously as “The Mortality Sequence” or “The Religion Song”. During 1972 performances of the Dark Side of the Moon song cycle (prior to the album being recorded), it was simply an organ instrumental accompanied by spoken word samples from the Bible and snippets of speeches by Malcolm Muggeridge, a British writer known for his conservative religious views.

14. I Believe I Can Fly

“I Believe I Can Fly” is a 1996 song by R&B singer R. Kelly. The song was written, produced and performed by Kelly and was featured as the soundtrack to the 1996 motion picture Space Jam.

13. Somewhere over the rainbow

Somewhere over the rainbow song is number one of the “Songs of the Century” list compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The American Film Institute also ranked “Over the Rainbow” the greatest movie song of all time on the list of “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs”. It was adopted (along with Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”) by American troops in Europe in World War II as a symbol of the United States.

12. Holding Back The Years

“Holding Back the Years” is the 7th track of Simply Red’s debut studio album Picture Book. The song was a smash success for the group and quickly rose to the top of charts across the world. It remains their most successful single, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending July 12, 1986. It is one of two Simply Red songs (the other being their cover of “If You Don’t Know Me by Now”) to reach number one. “Holding Back the Years” reached #2 in the UK and was a worldwide hit. It had initially been released in the UK the year before, reaching #51.

11. Unchained Melody

“Unchained Melody” is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. It has become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, by some counts having spawned over 500 versions in hundreds of different languages.

10. Wishing on a star

“Wishing on a Star” is a slow ballad written by Billie Rae Calvin and produced by Norman Whitfield. The lyrics concern a woman longing for the return of an ex-lover so that they can resume their relationship. The original version of “Wishing on a Star” was not a big hit, peaking at number fifty-two on the Billboard R&B charts in the United States. However, the song was a big chart hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number three in March 1978. The album, In Full Bloom was also successful as a whole.

9. Loving you

“Lovin’ You” is a 1975 hit single by Minnie Riperton. The song became the 400th #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 5, 1975. Additionally, the song reached #2 in the UK, and #3 on the R&B charts in the US. The song is especially noteworthy due to the unusually high pitches that Riperton reaches during the song. It’s also noteworthy for the sound of the chirping songbirds that are heard throughout the song, which Riperton phonates by use of the Whistle Register.

8. Yesterday

“Yesterday” is a song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. According to Guinness World Records, “Yesterday” has the most cover versions of any song ever written. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 recorded cover versions, the first hitting the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!

7. Amazing Grace

“Amazing Grace” is a Christian hymn written by English poet and clergyman John Newton (1725–1807), published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, “Amazing Grace” is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world.

6. We Didn’t Start The Fire

“We Didn’t Start the Fire” is a song by Billy Joel that alludes to headline events from March 1949 (Joel was born on May 9 of that year) to 1989, when the song was released on his album Storm Front. The song was a number-one hit in the US.

5. Ave Maria

The Angelic Salutation, Hail Mary, or Ave Maria (Latin) is a traditional biblical catholic prayer asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Hail Mary is used within Roman Catholicism, and it forms the basis of the Rosary.

4. Star Spangled banner

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

3. Wuthering Heights

“Wuthering Heights” is a song by Kate Bush and released as her debut single in January 1978. It became a No.1 hit in the UK singles chart and remains her biggest-selling single. The song appears on her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside, and was also re-recorded in 1986 for her greatest-hits album The Whole Story; this version also appeared as the B-side to Bush’s 1986 hit “Experiment IV”. The B-side of the original 1978 single was another song by Bush named “Kite” – hence the kite imagery on the record sleeve. “Wuthering Heights” came 32nd in Q magazine’s Top 100 Singles of All Time

2. I Will Always Love You

Dolly Parton wrote the song in 1973 and it was released a year later, having been produced by Bob Ferguson. She has told numerous interviewers over the years that she wrote it for her one-time partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, with whom she was having a business splitting at the time. Recorded on June 17, 1973, in RCA’s Studio “B” in Nashville, the song was included on Parton’s album Jolene, and was released as a follow-up single, after the country chart-topping success of the title track, in April 1974. The single reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs a month later, but had just modest success on the pop charts. The lyrics express a bittersweet and poignant ode to an ex-lover, and are delivered with Parton’s distinctive twang.

1. O Holy Night

“O Holy Night” (“Cantique de Noël”) is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem “Minuit, chrétiens” (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877), a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem. Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight’s Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau’s French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind’s redemption.

Bonus: No One

This little girl has an amazing voice and mastered controlling her voice at a very young age. Singing No One by Alicia Keys has proven this.