I've been toying with a songbook that will be titled "The Ukulele Player's Burden."
Tiptoe
5'2
SOTR/Wonderful World
Ukulele Lady
Aloha Oe
I'm Yours
Happy Birthday to You
... and more songs, maybe Riptide and Ain't She Sweet? and Tonight You Belong to Me and (shudder) Lava.
I'm sure this list will be different in different places, with different age groups and subcultures (can I just say here that
Marrakesh Express at uke club last night totally rocked?)
There's no law saying you
have to play the songs people ask for. It's not like any of us are motivated by applause, right? Right? But so help me, every time I play
SOTR and there's a living human in earshot, they applaud. Every. Single. Time. Even when it's a group of us rehearsing and we suck. We could play a dozen songs before and after and those get ignored. Unless it's
I'm Yours when people whip out their phones to take video.
As the Kinks said, give the people what they want. Or not; your choice. If you can ignore the clamoring demands of the public, then you are stronger than I am.