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We all LOVE the annual tradition that Bayern Munich has at its team dinner where new players and staffers have to sing a song as part of their initiation.
Whether it was Alphonso Davies doing Whitney Houston, Fiete Arp channeling John Denver, or the Kovac brothers ripping off Nena’s classic “99 Luftballons” (RELEASE THE TAPE!), the event always produces some classics.
Thinking about that, I wondered what our staffers would sing...so let me get the festivities started.
CSmith — “The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground
For a hard rock and alt-rock aficionado like myself, this might surprise you, but here is why I chose this one:
- I suck at singing...like am brutal. I used to fake that (bleep) in Music class and in those school plays where they made entire classes sing some dumb-ass song. This song seems pretty easy to pull off.
- I would want to get everyone up and energized and I think this would work.
- Yeah, dressing up as Shock G aka Humpty Hump would be a good part of the act, too.
There you go...who’s next?
Cyler — “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes
Cop-out answer? Maybe, but I think it’s perfect.
- It was Bayern’s arena goal theme when I started watching them and continued to be so until about three years ago.
- It’s the only three-piece song that I can play in its entirety perfectly, drums, guitar and vocals.
Teddy Son — “Yeongil Bay’s Friend”(영일만 친구) by Choi Baek-ho
I could have gone for any K-pop number, old or new, but I settled on a more classical song. This particular tune, released all the way back in 1979 (Editor’s Note: Chuck is STILL older than that), is kind of a native song for citizens of Pohang City, a harbor city down on Korea’s southeast coast known for its steelworks. Yeongil Bay is a large landmark bay in said city. Ironically enough, singer Choi Baek-ho himself does not hail from Pohang, but from Busan a bit more to the south. However, he was nice enough to grant the song’s rights to Pohang for free(!), forever(!!). The song is also the main theme tune (and goal song) of Pohang Steelers FC, one of the K-League’s most traditional teams. It’s short, catchy, easy to remember, and just a banger overall.
Other than that, I’d just abandon all subtlety and go for Stern des Südens.
RIPLT — “I Need Sleep” by Balduin and Offbeat
Let me introduce you to an entirely different genre of music:
1. This music is what’s called “Electro Swing”, think tunes from the 20s (and 30s, 40s, 50s, even 60s) mixed with modern beats. Even more modern songs get remixed in this genre.
2. This song is sooo relatable and catchy (it’s basically me in a nutshell), I think you’ll like it.
3. I was gonna put “Booze Cruise“ by Swing’it (very good too, check it out as well), but it’s a bit hard to sing. Speaking of Booze, I have a funny story to tell. I was at a TGI Friday’s and I ordered something called ”Long Island Iced Tea”. I thought it was a type of brewed iced tea, but it was actually a cocktail that contained vodka, tequila, light rum, triple sec, gin, and cola that makes it look like iced tea. I found out the hard way and I ended up being red-faced and light-headed. Lucky they never found out that I wasn’t of legal age at the time...
Anyway, here’s the song:
Tom — “Stop” by Spice Girls
I literally had to do this in college footy and fraternity pledging and I didn’t get to pick the song. I had to sing “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry. Let me tell you, the funnier the song, the WAY better the team morale and comradery is!
1.) I have an older sister who was born in 1991 so was forced into SO MANY boy bands and she was also Spice Girls obsessed, so naturally I remember WAY TOO MANY lyrics for my own good. “Stop” is a bop - admit it!
2.) This would be absolutely hilarious to hear me sing because I’m God awful. Team morale would be at an all-time high! That’s the point of these little initiation songs! Deff used to have a crush on Baby Spice, too...
Muller_Era — “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen
Ok, for someone who is notorious for being obsessed with music from my own language, I do actually listen to music from other languages, like English. gasps
And Arabic. And Hindi. And Spanish. And German. And Croatian. And Hungarian. And Greek. And this list goes on.
But my love for Queen takes over for now. I would totally sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” but I have a special love for “Don’t Stop Me Now”. Hell, I have a typography poster of this song’s lyrics in my room. And I’ve spent hours singing it.
If not for this song, I’d sing “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by the Eurythmics. When I was in online school last year, I volunteered to do the reading during English class and my teacher makes me pause for a moment to explain that chunk of text. I forgot to mute myself and was LOUDLY singing this song. Sigh.
Else, I’d go directly to my language, but you all wouldn’t know it so... yeah.
The day I make my Bavarian Podcast Works debut, I will definitely showcase the results of having taken singing lessons since I was three.
Fergus — “New York State of Mind” by Billy Joel
Queen, Elton, Billy Joel, McCartney, Clapton, and Meat Loaf were the names ringing through my ears when Chuck suggested this post. My first thought was even “Don’t Stop Me Now” which Muller_Era has selected.
But I have to settle on New York State Of Mind. The reasons for this are short but reasonable. 1. I suck at singing. 2. I can play the song on the piano, limiting the signing time needed and providing much-needed musical amiability through some jazz piano solos.
Barish099 — “Ink” by Coldplay
Not much to say really. Just the most beautiful song, ever.
Soundz58 — “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana
Oh, this is a tough one. I grew up with multiple languages, and I have been fortunate to be exposed to music in different languages. I mostly listen to German, English, Spanish, and French music. The genre is usually somewhere between Hip-Hop and R’n’B, but I also do not mind some classic music, jazz, rock, pop, and even OSTs from movies. As is the case with some of my colleagues here, it is not easy to narrow the favorites down to one song. But here goes nothing... “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana has so much energy to it and would definitely make the audience go crazy. I am bad at singing. Like really bad. But it would be kind of funny seeing Uli lose his s...ausages when hearing this performed by me. Okay, who’s next?
RLD — RLD’s Legendary Legal Karaoke Trilogy
Okay, you never would have guessed it, but Mrs. RLD and I are Karaoke fiends. We own three, count’em three, Karaoke systems, throw a number of Karaoke parties a year and are the go-to people in our hood when people need to borrow a Karaoke machine.
And when people are not drunk enough to step up to the mike I am always nominated to be the first one to throw my pride to the wind, step up the the mike and get the party started.
Since I am a lawyer I chose songs with a legal theme just for fun.
Amongst veteran karaoke friends, after many Rusty Nails, I can be convinced to close the night with my legendary Karaoke trilogy always performed in the following order:
Eat your heart out Kovac!
Samrin — “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence and the Machine
After a long hard year of covering Bayern, I cannot think of a better song to end the year with. I thought about Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” as well as their “Go Your Own Way” but I ruled them both out — I need a break from Bayern when the Bundesliga goes into its Winter Break but I am definitely not leaving Bayern behind either. So, at least for a few weeks, I can rest assured that the dog days are indeed behind me. Billy Joel’s Piano Man would work as well but it is best left for when Julian Nagelsmann decides to play a 2-1-7 formation and gets us knocked out of the Champions League early on. For Nagelsmann himself, I would suggest Noah Kahan’s “Mess”. (I am planning early on for heartbreak already.)
There you go...none would touch Niko Kovac doing “99 Luftballoons”, but we would try our best.
What would you sing if put in this situation? Tell us in the comments below.
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