h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Friends of mine had an original band a few years back (they would play the occasional cover as long as it was something different ie Elvis Costello, the HooDoo Gurus, the Beat Farmers or Robin Hitchcock et al.) When playing the local (Houston) clubs invariably some drunken fool would shout out "STAIRWAY!!!" or "FREEBURRRDD!". At which point the lead singer would announce they're #1 rule, "If you want us to play 'Stairway to Heaven', YOU have to sing it." At which point the punter would either sit down and let them get on with their songs or if sufficiently lubricated, would get on stage and try to sing it. The funny thing is the people who want to hear 'Stairway' NEVER know more than the first two lines of the song. Hilarious. It's great to see some fool completely fail to be as cool as he thought he was.

One other thing they would do when they had a crowd that weren't used to hearing original songs and kept shouting for the same tired covers would be to start into a perfect rendition of a very popular Fleetwood Mac song. But at the moment when everyone is expecting to hear the lyrics that Stevie Nicks made famous, the three guitarists would lean into their mikes and start BAAing like sheep. Most of the crowd would laugh (except for the couple of Stevie Nicks fans who might walk out) and the band would then get back to their songs having earned a few new fans.

Heh, I've done that a few times as well. It's always cool to let people have the power - as it were - only to discover that they're afraid to wield it, or don't even know what they're doing (or in this case, the lyrics).