You’re bound to have heard a story about people who meet while on holiday, exchange addresses and phone numbers, and hope like hell that they never hear from each other again.
Then, there are those cliched holiday romances — none more romantic than those forged on a sea voyage — that always end in tears (although not always due to an iceberg).
When I go on cruises — which has been quite often in the past three years (eight and counting) — I play a little game with myself called Cruise Ship Song Bingo. I have in my mind a list of popular songs and I tick them off when I hear them played onboard.
It didn’t take long for me to work out that cover bands of all stripes seem to gravitate to certain material. And while there may be a dozen or more nationalities on a ship, there are some songs that most people know. And by “most people”, I mean those people who are in the frequent cruising demographic, which is, generally, those 40 years of age and older. And, on some cruise lines, the average age is more like 60 or 70. So, that means a lot of music from the 1960s and 70s.
So, what numbers are top of the pops at sea? In my experience, over any given cruise you are guaranteed to hear the Beatles’ Hey Jude, YMCA and In the Navy by The Village People, almost anything by Abba, a lot of Queen, disco songs by the Bee Gees, Gloria Gaynor and their contemporaries, Country Roads by John Denver, Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond and, quite often, I’m A Believer by the Monkees. If it’s an Italian ship, then you can throw in That’s Amore and Volare, and anything or everything by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. If it’s British,or a reasonable number of passengers are, Living Next Door to Alice is a no-brainer. In Australian waters, you’ll get Cold Chisel’s Khe Sanh and The Angels’ Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?
Of course, there’s always something a little more current, if you consider Pharrell Williams’s Happy current. (It also suits the narrative of how one must feel on a cruise.)
Why are these songs so popular? It’s the audience participation aspect. The chorus of Sweet Caroline, for example, is memorable and simple, there’s even a flourish the audience can add that isn’t in the official lyrics (the repetition of “so good” for Americans and, for Brits, the curious line “I don’t believe it, you’re having a laugh.”) And, while I thoroughly disapprove of karaoke (except when I’ve been roped into it, when my My Way will bring down the boat), I am fully in favour of people picking up a song and running with it.
