I'm considering taking my 12 string guitar along on solo gigs, but first I'd
like to form a set of 12 string songs. Does anyone have any good ideas for
some songs that were written specifically for a 12 string? Both instrumental
and vocal songs would be good.... especially 60's music. The Byrds are the
main group that comes to mind, but I'm sure there are alot of others.

"Hard Days Night" - a true classic!

Help me thru the night Joe Walsh! Classic 12 String

I never thought of my 12 string as an instrument for only certain numbers. I did find that playing the same song on it, and the 6 string, made me pull different things out of it. I would say play your "standard set", what ever that may be.

Just about anything by Jefferson Airplane or Crosby Stills Nash (and Young) or Buffalo Springfield has an electric twelve string on it.

Sounds of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel
Sugar and Spice - The Cryan Shames
Every Time That She Walks In the Room - Dusty Springfield/Searchers
On a Carousel - The Hollies

"When You Walk In the Room"-Searchers
"Hard Day's Night"-Beatles
"She Walks In So Many Ways"-Jayhawks
"Mr. Tambourine Man"-Byrds
"I Can't Explain"-The Who

"I wanna be sedated" Ramones

I don't know if it was written for a 12 string but I always liked playing Hotel California on mine . . .

Gordie Lightfoot - Early Morning Rain

and I dare you to play Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, just to see how long your audience pays attention. :p

One of my favorites is the Beatles - "I call your name".

Try a bunch of slow or medium tempo tunes that you usually do on a six string and see what happens. A good 12 string might take a worn out song to a new dimension.

Anything from Pete Townsend. A 12-string really fills out the chords, and responds well to the percussive playing style. The octave strings bring a nice effect to the single notes, too.

*Like a rolling stone; Hurricane; Emotionally yours- Bob Dylan

*Tamborine Man; She don't care about time; Country comfort; Chimes of Freedom- The Byrds

*Free Falling- Tom Petty

*Ticket to ride; Hard days night; Yesterday; Norwegian Wood; Paperback writer; Here comes the sun- Fab Four

*Hotel California; Best of my love- Eagles

*America- Simon & Garfunkel

*Beautiful; Early morning rain- Gordon Lightfoot

*Morning has broken- Cat Stevens

*Aqualung- Jethro Tull

*Comes a time; Down by the river; Harvest moon; Field of opportunity- Neil Young

*Substitute; Behind blue eyes; Pinball Wizard- The Who.

* Light my fire- Jose Feliciano

*Fire & Rain; Your got a friend- James Taylor

ENJOY!!!!!!

Led Zeppelin's "Tangerine" from Led Zeppelin III. Do it all the time, nice and rich.

To be clear though, are you talking ELECTRIC 12? or electrified acoustic 12? Just asking, because I do things like the Rolling Stones "Wild Horses" & "Angie" or Led Zep "Ramble On" on 12 and they sound awesome.

Walk Right in - Rooftop Singers.

The Kinks-Well Respected Man.

Nadles,
I was wondering when the best 12-string song of all time would be mentioned.
A great list has been posted here, I could only add:
You Can't Do That - Beatles
sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford
Anything by The Kingston Trio
Finally...
A sweet little song called 'Twenty Miles' I've only ever heard it played by an Aussie band called 'Ray Brown and The Whispers' - it's on YouTube. It's fun to play, goes over great and sounds terrific on a 12-string!

The Byrds version of Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" is my all-time 12-string favorite. Makes a great live set song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opqjh2jjIM0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Opeth's closure sounds amazing on a 12 string

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgNYv0bHqqQ

I have a Taylor T5-12. It can be very acoustic, or very electric.

Early Bowie, Space oddity era- all very 12 stringy

Hole Hearted - Extreme (nuno)

Quite a few of Pink Floyd's stuff sounds good on a 12 string. I usually play "Wish you were here" on my brother in laws :D

Leadbelly was a six string master. You might find some tabs of his. Arf

We Five - You Were On My Mind

"Eight Miles High" by The Byrds

Wouldn't want to play that out on an acoustic on my own though :D

Playing a 12-string at a(little) gig last Saturday, I was asked if I knew 'Pretty Woman' - couldn't sing it worth a damn, but it sounded pretty good on guitar. I followed it up with the 'Them' song, 'Here Comes The Night'. And that didn't sound too bad either.
It seems to me that any song with a nice bass line melody added to it will sound okay on a 12-string. The Beatles 'In My Life' always sounds nice on 12-string, (did I mention almost ANY Steve Earl song?) 'Guitar Town' rocks on a 12-string.

Thank you for sending me back to my little yamaha APX 7 12-string. I'm enjoying more than I have in years.