How to Choose a Song?
Wendy circa 1988
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=713kC0HMUnw&feature=youtu.be
When moving to the city as a teenage artist, I was an R&B (ish) singer. I performed in showcases around LA, and played Jazz standards three times a week at a club. I frequented the Mondrian Hotel monday night showcase-- even though the rules only allotted everyone one song, the owner always had me come up and sing at least three times! I had a lot of live performance experience. This was when I just started out as a songwriter, so I sang mostly covers of the likes of Whitney Houston and Chaka Khan with a live band to back me.
This was before iPhones! Before YouTube, or any Internet music activity. Everything was live. Recording a demo meant making a record with live players; the concept of the “home studio” was yet to be a reality.
So, here I am 17 years old, heading to Harlem to audition for Showtime at the Apollo TV show. I picked a song that I love, and knew really well: “If I Were Your Woman” by Stephanie Mills. I auditioned and made the cut! The woman in charge suggested other songs for me. One of them was “Tracks of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson. I thought that because I knew my song, and I’d rehearsed it over and over again, that it would be better for me than any of the other songs she suggested, so I stayed with my Stephanie Mills.
Well, let me tell you, Showtime at the Apollo was the longest 90 seconds of my life. First of all, I’m a young, white female which is its own challenge with the audience and they had been lined up since that afternoon, watching artists like Slick Rick, seeing all the TV ins and outs so by 10:30pm when the amateur contest began, they were ready to boo and yell. I was the second to last act-- so the audience was hot and rowdy by then!
I got up and sang my song which starts kind of low and slow, building to a bigger climax. I improvised, riffing and giving a spicier performance earlier in the song in order to win over the audience. I had to work hard!
After the show, I recognized that the woman who encouraged me towards choosing a different song was right! She knew more than I did, and I seriously regretted not listening to her. Had I sung a song that the audience knew right away or vibed with, like “Tracks of My Tears” I would’ve won them over much easier.
It’s a big lesson.
Tori Amos reads newspaper articles from each town she performs in to check the pulse of the community and then she chooses from hundreds and hundreds of songs to compile a setlist best suited towards what she feels the community needs to hear.
It’s not about pleasing your audience-- it’s about knowing your audience.
Songs require different arrangements and performances for a festival than they do in an intimate room.
Take a look at your song choices-- are they really telling the stories you want to tell? Do they need adjustments for the venues you’re playing? Are they the stories your audience needs to hear?
Watch my performance on Showtime at the Apollo HERE!
I know, I know, I ask myself -- “Who is that?!” When I watch it too! Haha!