KARAOKE LIVES: YEARS AFTER THEIR CREATION, SONG MACHINES STILL PUMP OUT TUNES

At Pockets, a bar with pool tables and darts games and a clientele that favors wearing Cardinals jerseys, someone is sure to sing Alabama's rousing "Mountain Music" or David Allan Coe's angry-hurt "You Never Even Called Me By My Name."

Up the street at Show-Me's Restaurant, Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" and Billy Joel's "The Piano Man" are on the menu every night.

At the Brothers II Lounge and almost every karaoke bar in the U.S.A., some woman is going to sing the Dixie Chicks's murderously offbeat hit "Goodbye, Earl!"

Karaoke has not faded into the land of fads. The word, a Japanese concoction meaning "empty orchestra," now is in the Oxford English Dictionary. Glade, the air freshener brand, is introducing its new product Duet by sponsoring a $5,000 karaoke contest for duos. There are karaoke magazines and even a Karaoke Hall of Fame.

If the action at Cape Girardeau nightclubs is an indication, karaoke is staying awhile.

The Bermuda Triangle of karaoke in Cape Girardeau is formed by Show-Me's Restaurant on Independence and Pockets and the Brothers II Lounge, located within James Brown shouting distance from each other just west of Show-Me's. These locations attract people who want to stand up in front of strangers and sing every weekend.

You don't have to be a good singer to sing karaoke. In fact, those who run karaoke businesses say some of the performers who get the most applause may have the least talent.

That is not the case with Danetta Held, who may be Cape Girardeau's queen of karaoke. In a T-shirt emblazoned with an eagle and the words "Free Spirit," Held belts out "Magic Man" so strong you'd swear Heart was behind a curtain somewhere.

But recalling her first karaoke experience a few years ago, she says, "I was scared to death." She made her friend, Kristi Palen, sit beside her on the stage. Now, she says, "I'm way over being scared."

The 29-year-old hair stylist won a contest in 1998 that earned her a trip to Chicago, where she and 64 other karaoke contest winners competed for the right to go to Nashville, Tenn., and sing again for a $10,000 recording contract. She received 46 out of 50 points in the contest in Chicago but still didn't win.

Karaoke singing led her to try out for a role in the River City Players production of the musical "Nunsense II." She got the part. Now she is rehearsing with a new band called Red to Go. Upcoming are gigs singing the National Anthem at a horse show, a rodeo and a Harley-Davidson rally.

Held has no dreams of becoming a star. "It's just fun," she says.

Dreams of success

Jeffrey Lee Grammer does have singing aspirations beyond the Brothers II Lounge. He's trying to get a song he wrote 15 years ago recorded. It's called "Looking for a Girl That'll Give my Heart a Twirl."

When he isn't singing at karaoke bars, the 39-year-old takes care of horses on a farm in Gordonville, Mo. He says he got hooked the night he got up and sang with a band in Virginia. "It was like I couldn't quit doing it."

He often sings at Frisco's in Chaffee, Mo., and at the McClure, Ill., American Legion Hall as well.

Grammer met his ex-girlfriend singing karaoke. "She liked the way I sang, she liked the way I shook," he said, but "She doesn't call me any more."

Women don't seem to understand him, he says. "I tell them I want to be a star. They think I'm crazy. They don't know that's the most important thing in my life."

The atmosphere at the clubs differs. At the Brothers II Lounge, John Lovewell and his Cape Karaoke create a mood with a revolving globe that sprinkles colored lights around the dark room.

A rawboned, cowboy-hatted man named Big Dave sings the romantic "If There Hadn't Been You" for Darla, his darlin' sitting at the table.

Karaoke companies spend many thousands of dollars on sound and lighting equipment and the CD&Gs (compact discs & graphics) that play accompaniment and display lyrics. At Brothers II, Cape Karaoke's includes tunes by Sawyer Brown, Sheryl Crow, Destiny's Child, Toni Tenille, George Strait and most any singer who's anybody.

"It's just for fun," owner Lovewell says, trying to entice more singers to come forward. "I'm not Dick Clark, Ed McMahon isn't standing nearby and this isn't Star Search.'"

People get to join in the fun themselves, Lovewell says, explaining why karaoke has continued to be popular. "They're not listening to some loud, screaming band. You get to pretend you are a star for three minutes."

Fighting for attention

The atmosphere at Pockets is less dramatic. People are as interested in the pool games and sports on TV as in the karaoke. Jeff Morrison, who operates TNT Karaoke, has to wait until the darts game is over before he starts playing music.

He has more than 7,000 songs to choose from. He can raise or lower the key to accommodate the voice and has a hand on the equalizer knob, a gizmo that improves voices as much as possible.

Singers face other distractions at Show-Me's, where there are nine TVs and the waitresses are invariably cute and wear hot pink gym shorts with tops that say "Best Tails in Town" on the back.

Constance Borjes, an elementary education major at Southeast Missouri State University, is a karaoke regular there. She often sings "Goodbye, Earl!" "It's the easiest thing to sing for a girl," she says.

Tim Hite roams the bustling dining room singing the Tim McGraw hit "I Like It, I Love it." He is roundly ignored until a buxom waitress starts bumping booties with him.

One of waitresses, 20-year-old Erica Gianesin, has a good voice. She sings "Pour Me," the Trick Pony hit that includes the line "Little did I know he was the king of karaoke."

She dreams of being a professional singer someday.

"Someday I'm going to be there instead of here," she says.

KARAOKE VENUES

Fridays

McClure, Ill., American Legion, 8-midnight

Show-Me's, 8 p.m.

Pockets, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

Brothers II Lounge, 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

Daytimer's Lounge, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

El Patio Lounge, McClure, Ill., 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

Saturdays

McClure, Ill., American Legion, 8 p.m.-midnight,

Corner Bar & Grill, Benton, Mo., 8 p.m.-midnight

Pockets, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

Show-Me's, 8 p.m.

El Patio Lounge, McClure, Ill., 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

Carol's Bar & Grill, Delta, Mo.

Sundays

Show-Me's, 8 p.m.

El Patio Lounge, McClure, Ill, 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

Tuesdays

Sidetracks, Jackson, 8:30 p.m.

Wednesdays

Show-Me's, 8 p.m.

Broussard's, 8 p.m.

El Patio Lounge, McClure, Ill., 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

Thursdays

McClure, Ill., American Legion, 6:30-10:30 p.m.

El Patio Lounge, McClure, Ill., 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

Rufus Mudsuckers, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

Frisco's, Chaffee, Mo.

Sidetracks, Jackson, 8:30 p.m.

El Patio Lounge, McClure, Ill., 8 p.m.-1 a.m.