Catholic's can't sing?

Has anyone else ever noticed how well Catholics chant the Our Father?
I mean, you hear a lot of mumbling and such during the hymns; people don't know them, they're too high, too low, too fast, too boring. whatever.
But when Fr. chants, "...in the words our Saviour gave us:"
and then everyone just starts to SING their hearts out!-it's just wonderful.
who ever said Catholics can't sing?
I'm up in the loft, so I can't quite know for sure, but I really do think that every single person is singing!
[even those who don't like "that old-fashioned chant..."]
Maybe cuz it only has four pitches, it's not too fast, doesn't have too difficult rhythms, and everyone knows it so there doesn't have to be any overpowering cantor!
I feel like we ought to be able to learn something from this.
I'm just not quite sure what, and even though I have my thoughts, I'm not quite sure how to implement them...