Big mistake. This is not a request that I can take lightly. Just one song? *One*? I'm not suggesting they hand over the entire disco to me - I'm not - well, I am - I totally am - but given that that's not going to happen, it's the work of an entire day to pick a song which encapsulates all of my musical taste, is enough of a crowd-pleaser to get everyone moving on the dancefloor, and isn't something that any passing DJ would have just picked anyway. I'm supposed to be writing my novel!
What's that? Taking this *too seriously*? Man, are you ever reading the wrong blog. Move along.
For the rest of us that are still here, shall we go to a vote?
I have decided that 1990s nostalgia is the way to go, given that's when we first were friends, and also it narrows the field considerably. Consider -
Call the cops! I can't find a youtube of the original (I didn't look that hard) but even those unfamiliar (can there be such people?) can get the gist from this live version. Advantages: we call get to dance like Bez. (Note also the excellent moves of Rowetta, the bonkers X Factor contestant in her early days as a Happy Mondays backing singer.)
Then there's -
Too slow? But they are the quintessential 1990s band and I bet loads of people wouldn't have heard this song for years. And think of the singalong potential of the chorus. Also, those of us who are single and thin get a great line towards the end.
And would people go mad for this?
Or would it clear the dancefloor now we're older and nobody's on any drugs except antibiotics? I am very tempted to suggest it. What's a wedding without a hint of heroin after all? Plus it would stand out nicely if everyone else has suggested ABBA.
Too bleak? OK. How about the least bleak song of the entire 1990s?
This blog post could go on and on, so I'm going to make myself end with this, maybe the most appropriate 1990s pre-nostalgia post-nostalgia reunion wedding song ever?
Right then. Let's take a vote.
If you happen to be reading this and it's your wedding, do feel free to vote twice.
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21 comments:
Was worried that this would show my age and I wouldn't know any of these at all. I am relieved I know most of them, but it's interesting to see how cultural refs change according to age. All my nostalgic flashpoints are 80s, but then I am terribly old (-: Will have a ponder and come back and vote. My favourite song here is definitely Disco 2000 but I think what you're after is something more anthemlike which will have everyone singing and hugging (there is a group of friends I knew as teenagers who I am sure would all still huddle in a circle to Come on Eileen - that's what you're after, no?)
Over on Twitter we've just had votes for Tubthumping and Brimful of Asha. You lot are good.
Oh! Brimful of Asha! That's bloody perfect. My heart kind of belongs to Born Slippy but I suspect it's not too weddingy. Alright would be fabulous, too.
Oh God, hard choice! I would dance to all of those. I think the decent thing for you to do is make a compilation and push the DJ aside. No?
The Cult - She sells sanctuary
Nineties stuff that would get me dancing? Off the top of my head: "Walking on Broken Glass" Annie Lennox(not the greatest lyrics for a wedding, but the video was set at an eighteenth century reception...); "Big Bang Baby" Stone Temple Pilots; "Never Let You Go" Third Eye Blind.
"Disco 2000" is great, but "Common People" would make me dance. I wouldn't be able to resist aping the Jarvis Cocker hand gestures...
Ha - I am both thrilled and unsurprised by the results so far and with Persephone's suggestion which I would heartily second for encouraging frantic Jarvis-esque hand gestures!
Still, very entertaining (and Bro, my hat to you as I have very fond memories of the 1980s track 'She Sells Sanctuary' from my first works disco - yes, it cleared the dance floor apart from a handful, including me, of goth-empathising young folks!)
verification word: fancipte which really SHOULD be a word
Great suggestions all around but I think Step On would definitely be a floor filler. The Mondays never seem to get played these days so it's got nostalgia AND Bez-dancing opportunities
This is entirely irrelevant to this discussion but thought it was worth noting here:
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/5001961.article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/29/david-tennant-hamlet
I DJ'd at a wedding recently and at the request of the groom had to play some Prodigy. We thought this was a bad idea. We thought nothing was likely to kill the floor quicker than a bit of hard-core rave.
WRONG.
We played Out Of Space and the crowd, as they say, went wild. I have honestly never seen the like. Parents, children, half the senior civil servants of HM's Treasury... everybody LOVED IT.
x
I have just had a friend suggest Dizzy, which is going to be very hard to beat.
Ooh ooh I've got a good one - Felix, 'Don't You Want Me'. Total floor-filler!
Marie,
If you really want to do it, that would be great and we would be very happy to hand it over to you. We were just planning on plugging an ipod into a PA and hoping that everyone would be too drunk to notice.
So let's get our people to talk to your people and see if we can work something out.
Seriously? Bring it on! I will call forthwith. We can do the blog's entire playlist.
My vote's with The Wonder Stuff and Size of a Cow, just scraping in at 1991...
I'm going to love this album so much I'm making one like it right now. Pretty much all the abovementioned songs will be on it. Other ones that got everyone off their arse at some point in the nineties: I Wanna Be Adored (SINGLE released 91); Come as You Are; Mulder and Scully; Losing My Religion; Parklife; Don't Look Back in Anger (yeah, Wonderwall, etc., but I don't like it as much); Girl from Mars; Buddy Holly; Loaded; Wake Up Boo; Walkaway; Ballad of Tom Jones
I could go on. I think you can see I am not afraid of the obvious choices, but even so I will not include Angels because I have always hated it. Other people like it apparently. I will include Sit Down, even though you don't like it. I also really loved Would You... by Touch and Go, and would be interested to know if that was just me. And Barbie Girl got people dancing, if that is the pure and simple name of the game. I quite love Aqua. They're funny.
Robert Hudson, regarding Would You... It wasn't just you
Birdhouse in Your Soul, also.
Ohhh this thread is bringing back memories! Brimful of Asha is good, as is Birdhouse in Your Soul.
May I suggest "Staying out for the Summer" by Dodgy? If it's a summer wedding that is...
If I can get my iTunes to work again, I'm coming straight back to this post to remind me of a bunch of songs I need on my iPod *now*
You could go with You're Gorgeous and hope everyone is too busy thinking about how appropriate the chorus is to ignore the verses...
Perhaps in that case 12 Reasons Why by My Life Story? Loads of energy, right sentiment, but perhaps not floor-fillery enough.
You can never go wrong with a bit of the Divine Comedy; Everybody Knows for the slower dancing towards the end? Given the nature of the event it may kick something off. (Perfect Lovesong might be more appropriate, but it missed the 90s by 2 years.)
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