If you want to sing in a karaoke bar in the Philippines, be forewarned not to sing Frank Sinatra's My Way ... that tune by Ol' Blue Eyes could just be your last ...
“I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”
The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”
The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?
Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks. And the country’s many Sinatra lovers, like Mr. Gregorio here in this city in the southernmost Philippines, are practicing self-censorship out of perceived self-preservation.
Norimitsu Onishi of The New York Times has the fascinating story: Link (Photo: Jes Aznar/NY Times)
If everybody knows about these killings, why does anybody sing the song?
Sid Vicious' cover of the song rules, IMHO.
It probably didn't help that, in my intro, I dedicated it to anyone in the audience who didn't think of WWE when they heard the name "Sid Vicious". Or, perhaps it was the "Today, I killed a ca-a-a-a-at / And, may I say / Not in the gay way..." lyric.
Ah, fun times!