What do Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, Daryl Braithwaite’s ‘Horses’, John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ and Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ all have in common? There’s no way any of these songs can play at a pub without sweaty masses of merry humans dancing and singing along. However – in 2020 – these classic tracks also pose a serious health risk to patrons.
Speaking of viral songs, hear about all the ones TikTok has made famous below:
According to 7News, Murphy’s Irish Bar in Spain’s Canary Islands has “banned” Neil Diamond’s 1969 banger ‘Sweet Caroline’ due to the risk of spreading COVID-19.
A chalkboard at the Irish pub reads, “Due to COVID-19 ‘Sweet Caroline’ is banned. There will be no: touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you.”
Murphy’s Irish Bar has a point. The lyrics of ‘Sweet Caroline’ include “hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you,” which is a surefire way to cop coronavirus.
Sadly, ‘Sweet Caroline’ isn’t the only song to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March, social media users started rewriting the lyrics to classic tracks to make them more relevant to the world’s current circumstances.
One Billy Joel fan changed the lyrics of ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ to “Schools close, Tom Hanks, trouble in the big banks, no vaccine, quarantine, no more toilet paper seen. Travel ban, Weinstein, panic COVID-19, NBA, gone away, what else do I have to say?”
Another comedian gave the Queen favourite ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ the COVID-19 treatment with lyrics like, “Is this a sore throat? Is this just allergies? Caught in a lockdown. No escape from reality. Don’t touch your eyes. Just hand sanitise quickly. I’m just a poor boy, no job security. Because of easy spread, even though, washed your hands, laying low. I looked out the window, the curse doesn’t look flatter to me, to me.”
The most genius coronavirus anthem came from singer JoJo who reworked her 2004 hit ‘Leave (Get Out)’ with new lyrics like, “I never thought corona could be such a nasty bitch, now that she’s here, boy, all I want is for you to use common sense. Stay in! Right now! Do it for humanity. I’m deadass about that, but we will survive.”
![JoJo - Chill (Stay In) [Live From Home]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ghk1oBDecKE/hqdefault.jpg)
It’s great to see people are still maintaining a sense of humour amidst these truly challenging times. But whatever you do, don’t act on the lyrics in ‘Sweet Caroline.’
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