Songs to impress people?

Something you wrote yourself.
 
Stairway to Heaven
 
Rob MacKillop's 20 Easy Fingerstyle Studies book has some very interesting sounding pieces. My favorite is a piece called One-Nil and my next favorite is a piece called Cascades. Fun pieces to play.
 
Snowdrop (Aaron Keim version, so far .. .)
 
I've never exactly intentionally set out to impress people, but one thing I've noticed is that if you play something totally unexpected, not associated at all with ukulele, and play it decently, they'll be impressed. Even if you make a few mistakes along the way :)

For me, as a non-singer, this has meant a lot of classical - if that's something you're into, I'd recommend the books by John King and Tony Mizen. This could probably also apply to other genres of music as well, but classical is what I personally enjoy playing the most.
 
Why do you want to impress?

I play for pleasure and, I hope, to entertain. If someone says they've enjoyed what I've played, I'm happy.
 
Last night I played Love Me Tender, instrumental version for our jam session people, they loved it! Easy to play, but a real attention gitter!
 
I would be impressed if you could play IZ's actual strumming pattern on Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It's a lot harder than people think and I haven't heard anyone play it like on the original recording. Always close but no cigar! I'm still working on it.
 
What's your skill level? Are you looking for a piece that makes you appear to be better than you actually are, or do you want something to show off how good you actually are?

I've come up with a pretty slick finger-plucking version of "Shortnin' Bread" that I play really fast and with a lot of corny triplets. It's only two chords, but it fools most people (including real musicians) into thinking I'm really playing the heck out of the instrument.

The other thing I play to impress people is The Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun." When my uke is in tune (40% of the time) it sounds very sweet and pretty danged technical. But I'd imagine anybody on this forum can make it sound a lot better than I can.
 
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It's not the song that will impress, it's the YOU that will impress, if that is your objective. If it's obvious to the audience that you are truly having fun ... they likely will too. Some of my most well received songs at a gig are the simplest 3 chord tunes out there. Play for yourself, dial in a play list you're comfy with, let the rest happen naturally. Crowds tend to know when you're trying to impress...they call it EGO ... and then, yer dead :cool:
 
Crazy G!

That's a good one.
 
You know who impresses me?
Rawuke on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/user/rawuke

It's not what he plays but how he plays it. Don't get me wrong, he's a player, but there's more to it than his technique and quirky costumes. You can't not love him.
 
Something you love, have a connection to, and can play really well. That would be my choice.
 
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

No one EVER expects to hear that opening line come from a ukulele. It can actually cause people to spew beverages out of their noses.

Another good one is Simon & Garfunkel's, The Boxer. It shocks people to hear that intro riff, and the subsequent rolling fingerstyle of the song sounds really good on the ukulele.

By the way, both of those songs work better on a soprano...

SHOCK VALUE.
 
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