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Monday, July 13, 2009

Dancing Ultimate Wedding Playlist

Posted by Jeff Kirby on Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 2:47 PM

My infinitely wonderful friends Jason and Mary are getting married this weekend. I have been asked to help with music for the reception, specifically the “dance” music. I have manned the iPod for my share of drunken dance parties, but a wedding is a whole different beast than a house party. You have to account for old people, and children. Because of them you can’t play any of the good stuff with cuss words and graphic sexual content. So far my recommendations for their wedding reception playlist prominently feature the danciest tracks by Phoenix, Hall and Oates, Fleetwood Mac, MJ, Chromeo, James Brown, Junior Senior, and Justin Timberlake, for starters. It seems a wedding requires a mishmash of styles — music that both the kids and their parents can relate to. It is a delicate art finding those choice songs that shake asses across generations. For example: Play the Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers” at a house party and everyone will gyrate uncontrollably. Play it at a wedding and every person over 50 will simultaneously grimace as soon as the vocals come in (I’m assuming, I haven’t tried). I’m trying to be thorough, but this genre is hardly my specialty, so I come to you for guidance. What are the best songs to play at a wedding?

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Be sure to include:

* More than 1, but no more than 5 classic Motown songs that everyone knows (excluding Michael Jackson - who you can feel free to flog to death as everyone is still in love with him).

* Whatever the top 3 pop singles of the last three months are. When 18-40 year old women are drunk, they know no songs other than the latest 3 pop singles. Old people will pretend to be down with hip-hop as long as its not threatening.

* Breathers: include smaltzy slow songs because you can't go full throttle for hours with older folks, they need to stop for a break and/or slow dance at some point.

Posted by cosby

on July 13, 2009 at 3:03 PM

Um, duh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UV3kRV46…

Posted by Kelly O on July 13, 2009 at 3:57 PM

You should post this to questionland!

Posted by Original Monique

on July 13, 2009 at 4:36 PM

Weddings are tough gigs, especially if the guest list includes a lot of family members. @1 gives great advice, and I would underline the Motown classics. They NEVER fail at a wedding. Never.

You have this insurance to fall back on: people ALWAYS dance at weddings. Always. But, man, if they don't, it's on you.

If you know Kurt Reighley, ask him for some advice. He's done a lot of weddings, and knows how to please that fickle crowd.

Also, former Seattle DJ Michael Antonia has a new company that specializes in "cool" weddings, check his site for some music pointers: http://www.theflashdance.com/

Posted by kerri harrop

on July 13, 2009 at 7:12 PM

My sister made sure "Golddigger" was in there.

Posted by gloomy gus on July 14, 2009 at 8:55 AM

I've been to lots of weddings, and you can't really go wrong with 80s music. It's fun to dance to and doesn't assault the ears of old people.

You might also break out the Nuggets compilations. I went to the wedding of a garage rock couple, and both old and young people were really into dancing to the old 60s garage stuff, even songs that weren't well known.

You could play some disco like Donna Summer and ABBA. Or some old country music like Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, or Loretta Lynn.

Posted by virginia mason on July 14, 2009 at 12:42 PM