As the days to Andy’s wedding draw close, I have been spending a lot of time sorting through my music collection, picking just the right songs to play at the wedding reception. This process is two-fold; not only must good songs be included, but bad ones must be excluded. Good songs are defined as songs that people know, like, and would want to dance to. Additionally, good songs should elicit some sort of emotional response. Bad songs are generally defined as ones people don’t know, are annoying, overplayed, or are difficult to dance to. There is one additional category of bad songs, and those are songs that are inappropriate for a wedding. With each song I include or exclude, I ask myself, “what does this say about the wedding?” So far Poison is winning the inappropriate song list, as I’ve deleted four of their songs from the queue: Fallen Angel, Look What the Cat Dragged In, Nothin’ But a Good Time and Talk Dirty to Me. Van Halen is in a close second with three songs: Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love, Hot for Teacher, and Running With the Devil.
Here are the songs I’ve pulled out of the playlist so far. See if you can come up with any other songs that shouldn’t be played at a wedding. (No fair picking non-radio friendly songs: I could easily list every Cannibal Corpse song here, but that would be cheating.)
ACDC – You Shook Me All Night Long
Aerosmith – Love In An Elevator
Atlantic Star – Secret Lovers
Billy Idol – White Wedding – Parts I & II (Shot Gun Mix)
Billy Squier – My Kinda Lover
Billy Squier – The Stroke
Bulletboys – Smooth Up In Ya
Chicago – If She Would Have Been Faithful…
David Lee Roth – Just a Gigolo & I Ain’t Got Nobody
Elton John – The Bitch Is Back
Foreigner – Feels Like the First Time
George Michael – I Want Your Sex
Greg Kihn Band – (Our Love’s in) Jeopardy
Heart – All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You
J.Geils Band – Centerfold
Jody Watley – Looking For A New Love
Karyn White – Secret Rendezvous
Madonna – Like A Virgin
Olivia Newton John – Physical
Pat Benatar – Love is a Battlefield
Paula Abdul – Cold Hearted
Poison – Fallen Angel
Poison – Look What The Cat Dragged In
Poison – Nothin’ But A Good Time
Poison – Talk Dirty To Me
Ready for the World – Oh Sheila
Samantha Fox – I Wanna Have Some Fun
Samantha Fox – Touch Me (I Want Your Body)
Sly Fox – Let’s Go All The Way
The Police – Don’t Stand So Close To Me
Thompson Twins – Lies
Tina Turner – Private Dancer
U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday
Van Halen – Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love
Van Halen – Hot for Teacher
Van Halen – Running With The Devil
Vanity 6 – Nasty Girl
Waitresses – I Know What Boys Like
Warrant – Cherry Pie
Meatloaf – Two outa 3 ain’t bad. Not sure about the title, but that’s the sentiment. I want you, I need you, but I’m never gonna love you…..and two outa three ain’t bad. Not appropriate. Also, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. Strike them both.
Now hold up… the last wedding that Andy and I went to… the groom and his friends are quite the karoke team. Well, all of the men in the crowd were called forward and did a little jig as the groom sang David Lee Roth – Just A Gigalo & I Ain’t Got Nobody. It really was awesome and hilarious! I think as long as the music feels good, we’ll have fun with it! :)
Whaaaaaa … ?!! No Roxette? Shame on you! Gotta add “Joyride” to that list, man. “Fading Like A Flower” too.
Where’s “Hold Me Now” by Thompson Twins? Duuuuuuuuuuude … where’s the Prince songs? “Let’s Go Crazy” … “DMSR” … “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” … “When Doves Cry” … “Purple Rain” … too many to mention. :
Oops! My bad. Those were the rejects on the list. Show us the ones that are approved.
uhhhhh……I dont see any Oran “Juice” Jones on that list. As much as i love his hit “The Rain” it’s probably not appropriate.
On a side note, one of my friends I’ve grown up with practically my entire life just recently got married in Florida. Upon returning home a few weeks later, they had a reception for friends and family that couldn’t make it. I wasn’t able to be there, but my wife told me that during the karaoke portion of the reception, 3 young girls (ages 9-12) asked the DJ if they could sing “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood. Somehow the DJ was bamboozeled and actually played the song. My wife said everyone just had this astonished look on their faces while the girls had a good time singing………Don’t get bamboozeled, Rob!
The first song that comes to mind is Hall & Oates with “She’s a Man-eater.” What a great 80’s big hair song! I would put this one on the NOT APPROVED LIST!