Customer Reviews

Hit Me with Your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide To Karaoke Domination

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is perfect for that person in the office who thinks he's on American Idol! introduce him to karaoke! the history section is really funny, but most useful is the section of recommended playlists, so you're never clueless what to sing.

There's also some insider knowledge on where karaoke videos come from, and the origins of the karaoke home machine. Raina breaks down the archetypes of the karaoke singer. I must know someone from EVERY description. It's hilarious...truly great writing! Great gift for any music lover or karaoke freak!

What's not to love about this book? Whether you're a professional karaoke barfly or a shower singer, this book has you covered. Songlist by theme (not expected themes, hilarious themes) are included, as well as an honest primer of what NOT to sing. Kinda makes you want to hand it out to people at the karaoke bar!

Brush up on your karaoke etiquette and even learn a bit of karaoke history. This is the perfect gift for the American Idols in your life.

I love to sing karaoke even though I'm not very good, and this book is a boon to me! Author Raina Lee does an excellent job of researching the origins of this performative pastime as well as uncovering some of the lesser known and arcane chapters in its ongoing history. An exhaustive yet fun exegesis on all things karaoke related, it includes great photos, hilarious themed songlists and even reviews and rundowns of the best and most unique karaoke venues in the country. This book is absolutely necessary for anyone interested in karaoke, from the casual I'll-only-sing-if-I'm-drunk dipper to the serious American Idol wannabe. Plus the author is cute. I love this book!!!

It amazes me that a great karaoke book took this long to come out. As a seasoned karaokian(?), I can say that there really is no stone left unturned in this book. Song lists, drink recipes, karaoke history, a glossary - everyone has something to gain from the pages of this book.

Other bonuses: nice paper stock, funny pictures, and super-happy artwork. But my favorite? Its size. Small enough to carry as a guide or give as a gift, yet bold enough to claim real estate on my coffee table.

I almost feel bad for only paying eight bucks for it...

This book's petite size and catchy writing make it ideal for certain occasions - e.g., packing with you on an otherwise dreary flight or purchasing in mass quantities for holiday gift-giving. I have been following Ms. Lee's writing career since her days as editor of the excellent 1-Up Zine. 'Hit Me' retains the same depth of knowledge, sense of humor and unique perspective that she brought to another oft misunderstood subject matter (video games) in 1-Up Zine.

Raina is both sincere and hilarious which makes the book even better... ironic karaoke would be waaaaaaaay to easy... and Michael Perry's design/illo's rock the hutspa.

This book is fantastic! After reading Raina's book I was able to karaoke to Sisters of Mercy, and Johnny Cash June Carter duets - solo!

To tell you the truth, sometimes I have fun doing Karaoke, sometimes I'm a bit too self-conscious (even after a drink or two). The genius of this book and it's author is that by the end of reading it, I took out my phone and started to make a list of songs to remember that would be fun to sing the next time I found myself up at bat.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot covers a lot of ground, from the history of Karaoke and Karaoke practices in different countries to how to deal with stage fright, getting your friends past their usual excuses, Karaoke bar etiquette, & how to pick the perfect songs that no one else thought of. Even though it covers a lot of topics, it's still a quick read, and also has cool illustrations throughout.

Makes a great gift too. Definitely good for a holiday office party/White Elephant-type of gift exchange, or if you had to get a gift for someone you didn't really know all that well.

I spent several years in Japan, during which time I became a full-fledged karaoke addict. A far cry from the dingy karaoke dives that I was used to in the US, the ubiquitous Japanese karaoke boxes offered cheap fun that was always on the menu, usually as the starting point to a night out where we just drank and sang for an hour or two to get the energy going, or sometimes as the main event itself. (Including one famous 8-hour marathon karaoke session...).

When you get that involved in something, you start thinking up innovations to play, like various karaoke games and rules, and theories on which songs are the crowd-pleasers and what only works after midnight when everyone has some drinks in them and what makes a good karaoke singer verses a bad karaoke singer.

And that is exactly what "Hit Me with your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide to Karaoke Domination" is. In book form, these are exactly the kind of conversations we used to have, the games we came up with (especially Russian Roulette Karaoke, one of my favorites) and all the other stuff we used to chat about when we weren't out busting our lungs to Bon Jovi and Cyndi Lauper (two confirmed crowd pleasers). It's funny to realize how universal these conversations are, because here is someone I have never met who was somewhere else in the world chatting with friends about karaoke and saying the exact same things we were saying a world away.

The problem with "Hit Me with your Best Shot" is that, while these conversations are fun to have with your friends, they don't really merit a book. There is a lot of padding here, and you can tell the author needed to add page count in order to justify publication. Random song lists and internet sites and jumbled in into about a magazine articles worth of content. The photos don't help much either. They look just like the hundred or so drunken karaoke photographs I have of me and my friends. All the pictures included here just look like the author and her friends fooling around. Which is cool for them, but again I don't need to pay money to look at someone's karaoke pics when I can just look at my own.

There is a bit of karaoke background here, but nothing you couldn't find by reading a website or two in a few minutes. I did read one factoid that I hadn't heard elsewhere, that music companies don't allow karaoke videos to follow the storyline of a song, which explains all the weird and cheesy videos you get at karaoke boxes in Asia.

If the book was considerably cheaper, it would be a good throw-away gift to a karaoke buddy, something to read and pass around a few times before it made its eventual exit to the back of the room. If you are just getting started in karaoke and looking for some ideas, then you might have fun with this. But for folks who already have a couple of years' worth of hazy memories and can sing your top songs without looking at the monitor, you will probably find that you have heard all of this before.

Length:: 2:51 Mins

This is my first video review, in which I discuss the virtues of HMWYBS.