Spontaneous Subway Singing

Well… Last week, while on the 4 train en route back from the Yankee Game heading to casa de Heller/Millman, an interesting and provocative question was posed: What song will have the greatest chance of provoking the entire subway car to sing?

Is this some weird sociology experiment? Did I pay attention in that class in college enough to know if sociology was the area of applicable study to find the answer to my previous question? I did take sociology 101 freshmen year, so i was probably motivated to learn and didn't realize the social distractions all around me... However, i did have class with Garret Rivas "The Show" and Jake Long, so it couldn't have been tremendously hard.

Then i thought... What songs can I reference and recite at ease???

• Randy Newman - “I Love LA”


• Aladdin Soundtrack – “A Whole New World”


• Sublime – “What I Got”

All very good songs, but very niche… Then i thought... What factors would contribute to a successful spontaneous subway sing session (notice the consonance):

• Does Age play a roll in this (Yellow Submarine by the Beatles vs Get Low by Lil Jon)?



• Does geographic location matter (NY vs Boston vs LA)?

However, the answer dawned on us… The Number One song to spur spontaneous singing on a subway isssssssssssssssssss……………… Happy Birthday!

And thus, some random dude wearing a Mickey Mantle T-Shirt jersey was serenaded by an entire subway.

However, the question has altered… What is the 2nd most likely song that will be the catalysts for spontaneous singing on a subway car???

I think the front runner is: Coolio – “Gansta’s Paradise”...

However, what are your thoughts? Post your suggestions in the comments.