ATLANTIC CITY - The Gypsy Bar at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa might be one of the trendiest night spots here, but it was hopping on a recent Saturday night thanks partly to a song written long before most of the patrons in the place could drink legally.

Men, and especially women, sang their hearts out to "Pour Some Sugar On Me," a 1980s era Def leppard classic being played by the Amish Outlaws.

The craziness increased when Hezekiah X, the Amish Outlaws' singer, placed his microphone stand on the dance floor. Women in the crowd took the opportunity to perform some impromptu karaoke singing into the mic while also dancing around the mic stand as if it were a stripper pole.

Audience members clapped in appreciation at the end of the song.

Musicians may want to retire them, but certain songs played by cover and bar bands always produce an automatic sing-along, heighten the party and add a jolt of electricity to an already memorable night. It doesn't matter whether the tune comes from the 1960s, Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline"; the 1970s, Tom Petty's "American Girl"; or the 1980s, Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer," there are certain songs people just love to sing along to.

With southern New Jersey being the land of the cover band, any night out at a bar with live music means some of these songs will be played.

"Nine out of 10 times ... the crowd in front of the stage will be singing along and throwing their hands in the air," said Amish Outlaws bassist Brother Eazy Ezekiel, who added the classic bar songs are good tunes for starting and ending a band's set.

Before the band closed out its set, they played "Livin' on a Prayer," a song the lead singer called from the stage, "The New Jersey National Anthem."

The crowd not only sang along with as much enthusiasm as Hezekiah X, but they acted out the lyrics to the song about Tommy and Gina. Cheri Law, of Mays Landing, stood at the front of the stage and sang the words as fervently as anyone in the room. Law, 33, said she ventures out to hear live music infrequently, but when she does, she wants the band to play songs she knows and can sing along to.

"I want to hear anything by Bon Jovi," Law said. "I like the 1980s music."

The members of Don't Call Me Francis also know how some songs are guaranteed to make the crowd move. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" serves as one of the group's standbys.

"Can anyone help us sing this song?" asked lead singer Frank Orsini. "Y'all know this song, right?"

With its simple, anthemic chorus, "I love rock 'n' roll/So put another dime in the jukebox, baby/I love rock 'n' roll/So come an' take your time an' dance with me," the crowd might know the words better than the band.

Besides the Jett song, Kristin Davie danced to Don't Call Me Francis playing Tom Petty's "American Girl" and other tunes.

Since the 1990s, there's been a lack of good original music produced, and that's why people love to hear the classic songs from the 1970s and 1980s, according to Davie, a Middlesex County resident.

Davie is 22, but she calls Journey her favorite band. She watched clips of the group on YouTube. The rock act had its biggest hits before Davie was born.

"Stick with the cover material. People like to hear that," said Davie, who does karaoke and hears live bands play some of the same famous karaoke songs. "People underestimate my generation and music. You would be surprised by how much of the music we know."

Brian Smarslok, the lead singer of the Philadelphia-based group Sub-G, said his fellow band members could live without ever playing "Pour Some Sugar On Me," "American Girl" or "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, again, but his group receives requests to play these songs and other staples when they perform live.

"We're kind of sick of playing them, but we don't let on to the crowd. We've got a job to do," said Smarslok about his band, who plays at Borgata, Bally's Atlantic City, Harrah's Resort, Trump Marina, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and in Cape May. "Every crowd loves the 1980s. The staple songs, you can play to a college crowd. For an audience of people in their mid-30s and up, you can play some Led Zeppelin, Stones and The Who. You always want songs that have gone over well."

The one thing that unites all of the staple bar band songs is they were huge radio hits, according to Bill Schmal, the entertainment director for the three Trump Properties.

The songs that represent the current bar band classics have risen out of the ashes to become very popular in the last few years, according to Bob Kimmel, a Mays Landing musician, producer and engineer. Kimmel has worked the audio systems at Harrah's Eden Lounge, the Deck at the Marina and the beach bars at the Plaza and Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort.

"There doesn't seem to be any particular rules. Bands play these songs all night long - from beginning to end and sometimes all right in a row - sometimes spaced out throughout the evening. Most bands know how to read the crowd and play what is necessary to make the night a success," said Kimmel, 55. "I haven't seen their popularity wane at all. I keep hoping that these same old songs will drop from lists, and new ones will take their place, but that hasn't happened yet."

E-mail Vincent Jackson:

VJackson@pressofac.com

The most singable songs

Head out to a local bar, and you're bound to hear the band cover at least a few of these 10 songs. The songs frequently weren't the biggest hits for the artists who recorded them, but they continue to live on for a few reasons. For most, not only is the chorus very easy to remember, but it also sounds really, really good when shouted or sung into a beer bottle that's substituting for a microphone. You might not know anything else Van Morrison has recorded, but it's hard to resist the joy of bellowing out "sha-la-la la-la-la-la-la la-la-la-dee dah" in time with the cover band's singer.

"Pour Some Sugar On Me," Def Leppard - It reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987, but the band's next single, the power ballad "Love Bites," is its only No. 1 pop single in this country.

"Livin' On A Prayer," Bon Jovi - It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987, but so did the first single, "You Give Love A Band Name," from the "Slippery When Wet" album.

"I Love Rock 'n' Roll," Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - The tune from 1981 is the only Jett song to reach No. 1.

"Don't Stop Believing," Journey - The song only reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart when it was released in 1981. The ballad, "Open Arms," released one year later was a bigger hit, making it to No. 2.

"Jessie's Girl," Rick Springfield - It is the only No. 1 single of Springfield's career, released in 1981.

"You Shook Me All Night Long," AC/DC - One of the biggest hits of the Australian hard rock band's career, the song only reached No. 35 on the Hot 100 singles chart when it was released in 1980.

"American Girl," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "American Girl" was released as a single in 1977, but it didn't make it onto the pop charts.

"Sweet Home Alabama," Lynyrd Skynyrd - The biggest hit of Lynyrd Skynyrd's career only reached No. 8 on the pop- singles charts when it was released in 1974.

"Sweet Caroline," Neil Diamond - It reached No. 4 on the pop charts in 1969, but Diamond has had three of his other singles reach No. 1. Many sports team play the song during their games.

"Brown Eyed Girl," Van Morrison - It reached No. 10 in 1967, but "Domino," released in 1970, hit No. 9. It is considered Morrison's signature song.