Top 10 records every wedding DJ needs… NUMBER 1!!!

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The scenario is this. It's your wedding day.  You have 45 minutes left before the taxis arrive to whisk your guests away, and you want to finish in style. You have the dancefloor, the DJ, the lights and a one point twenty one Jigger-watt sound system, cranked to 11, hungry and waiting to be fed.

 You need 10 records, all killer, no filler. There are thousands of worthy contenders out there, but you want the best of the best. Guaranteed floor-fillers: feel-great anthems, and who cares if there's the odd overtone of ripe camembert.  Just get these weird and wonderful people onto the floor, cares cast aside and throwing moves like nobody's watching.

So here is the run-down: arguably the best ten records for wedding DJs.

No 10:Summer of '69: Bryan Adams
No 9: Billie Jean: Michael Jackson
No 8: Dance The Night Away: The Mavericks
No 7: Hey Ya: Outkast
No 6: Don't Stop Me Now: Queen
No 5: Nine To Five: Dolly Parton
No 4: I don't feel like dancing: Scissor Sisters
No 3: Young Hearts Run Free: Candi Statton
No 2: Brown Eyed Girl: Van Morrison

…

But what comes next? What makes a song the greatest disco record of all time?

Humbly I suggest the following step-by-step guide…

HOW TO MAKE THE GREATEST DISCO RECORD OF ALL TIME: THE JIGBLOG GUIDE

Step 1: Hire the tightest disco rhythm section on the planet.
Step 2: Start it quickly. Just a snare drum leading into a killer horn hook intro.
Step 3: Load the subject material with light-hearted innuendo
Step 4: Write catchy, repetitive lyrical hooks over a 4-to-the-floor bassline
Step 5: Get your performers to wear outlandish costumes
Step 6: Invent a dance to go along with it.

The result? you've guessed it…

the greatest disco record ever produced.

Are we all agreed?

Top 10 records every wedding DJ needs: No. 2

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Why is Van Morrison's Brown Eyed girl such a successful record?

People "hear" music before they "hear" words. But what do they actually remember? Neither, I think.
It's confusing for a songwriter to hear that, but I think it's true. So what do listeners specifically remember about a song?

In the vein of “Summer of 69” , “Brown Eyed Girl” is an enduring classic record. Who can avoid its charms at a wedding disco?  It’s a simple song about the reclamation of
youth, about love, simplicity, passion. And it has the added market appeal that
it references about 25% of the world’s population in the title. Van was not writing this for
a niche market.

I was playing pool in the student union when this record came on in the
jukebox. I could probably give you a good guess as to what I was
wearing, eating, who I was with, what I was thinking about, how much I was losing by…

Brown Eyed Girl is a soundtrack for happy times. Evocative. Music is a catalyst for emotion, but it's the emotion that people remember first, and the music second. Songwriters hoping for that enduring classic should think in terms of creating moments: enhancing experiences rather than creating notes and melodies.

Songs help human beings to feel alive. Once your song is indelibly associated with a certain emotional experience, listeners will return to the song to reclaim and re-examine that experience. The more firmly the song is rooted in a clear emotional experience, the more enduring the song will be.

I know a couple who admitted that Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" was their favourite all-time record. Need I say more?

Songwriters…musicians…people who enjoy good music… What are your thoughts? Do you agree, or am I way off the mark? Post a reply below.

Top 10 Records every wedding DJ needs: No 3

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CANDI STATTON – Young Hearts Run Free

DON'T DO IT LADIES! 

"What's the sense in sharing this one and only life? Ending up just another lost and lonely wife?"

Edit: if the youtube vid doesn't work hear it on last.fm

Strange
that a song that decries the meaningless nature of commitment should be so
popular at weddings…Or maybe people enjoy a dose of realism in the midst of
their fairytale day?

 Young Hearts Run Free again capitalises on nostalgic
emotions, this time sung from the persona of a bitter older woman (or maybe
she’s not so old?). Word of advice girls…don’t get married. Look out for
number one.

Why is this song so popular, especially when we're playing a wedding ceilidh? It’s an
enigmatic reminder that straightforward analysis of lyrics does not always tell
us how a listener is likely to respond.

When communicating, it's not always what you say, it's how you say it. Your voice communicates with music more than words. Interesting that something as "throwaway" as a 70s pop song can remind us the extent to which music, not lyrics, is the real communicator.

So what does this song *really* say to you?

Top 10 records every wedding DJ needs (no 4.)

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Hi all. Back from a nice blog-holiday break with…

Top ten records every wedding DJ needs: no 4

Scissor Sisters: I don't feel like dancing.

Ironically of course, play this record at a wedding, and people
do.

It annoys me that the Scissor Sisters made this record. It’s
just the right tempo for the “walking to the dancefloor dance”. Since I don’t
tend to play more than one song by the same artist (unless it’s a very long DJ
set), it means that I rarely get to play what I think is their absolute best single, the abounding-in-funk, groovetastic and often forgotten-about “take your mama out”.

Still, lyrics in the chorus for this record deserve a
special mention, just because they’re especially indecipherable (how many teenagers know what "that old joanna" is?). 

“I don’t feel like dancing when that old Joanna plays, my
heart could take a chance but my two feet can’t find the way, you’d think that
I could muster up a little soft-shoe gentle sway, but I don’t feel like
dancing, no sir, no dancing today”

PS Don't you love that fun Youtube video?

Top 10 Records every wedding DJ needs (no 5.)

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If you can’t enjoy Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 then you must be deaf, dull and dead.

I love this kind of tight, coherent songwriting, where every lyric flows easily towards a simple point. It avoids being trite on one hand and too clever on the other. Every part of this record fits so well, and it’s one of the true highlights of Parton’s career. I’m also a huge fan of Jolene.

A class act. Check out her greatest hits for some great, tuneful songs, shmoltzy, blue-eyed ballads and country-gal sass.
By the way,does anyone else find these fan-made videos with the cycling still images a bit spooky?