Finding And Learning How To Play Popular Acoustic Guitar Songs

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Thinking of popular acoustic guitar songs, Peter, Paul And Mary come to mind. Not the ones in the Bible, the folk group from the sixties. At that time young people were interested in folk music. One of the few groups to make a financial success from the folk boom was Peter, Paul And Mary. They helped Bob Dylan become the legend that he is by making his songs accessible to the wider music-loving public. The ones who did not find a nasal whine romantic or, indeed attractive in any way. So here’s a lesson in getting together a repertoire of popular acoustic guitar songs: HOW you sing is probably more important than WHAT you sing.

Bob Dylan wrote the songs. He had the feelings that connected with a generation of angry and discontented young people. But Peter, Paul And Mary brought the composer and the audience together. So a popular acoustic guitar song need not be one that people have heard of before. It could be a song that you MAKE popular. Maybe not to a worldwide audience, but your own circle of friends is a start.

The Doors recorded a song called Light My Fire. It was a loud driving rock song. It was re-worked by Jose Feliciano as a Latin ballad and reached number three on the pop charts. To many music fans Jose Feliciano’s version of Light My Fire is the definitive one. Now THAT is a popular acoustic guitar song. Eric Clapton’s acoustic version of Layla is another example of a popular acoustic guitar song that started life as something totally different.

Of course don’t go the other way and totally forget acoustic songs that everybody loves, like Hotel California. This version is by The Gipsy Kings

Just to get you into thinking outside the box, this video is Hotel California sung in French by an Australian group called The Cat Empire: