So, your wedding party is in full swing. Your guests have been watered, fed, then watered some more! It’s time to herd them onto the dance floor to give them chance to let their hair down and strut their stuff.
There’s an infinite number of songs that can be played at a wedding party. But, a good band or DJ will filter these down to a great selection of floor fillers guaranteed to keep your guests ‘throwing their shapes’ for the entire evening.
After the first dance, it’s time to throw down the gauntlet and let the party begin in earnest. But is it possible to literally keep people dancing all night?
Kieran and Dominic, of Award winning wedding band Rock My Reception, provide both live and DJ sets in their evening package. They gave me their tips on which songs are a dead cert to keep the party swinging.
Kieran says, ‘We’ve played over 200 weddings in the last 3 years. So we have a pretty good idea of what goes down well for both our live and DJ sets. When we play acoustic we tend to stick to the more traditional classics. For our DJ sets we’ll play more contemporary hits with a few old school dance hits thrown in.’
‘Here are two lists of our top ten floor filling songs for both our acoustic and DJ sets, and why they work.’
Top Ten Acoustic band songs
1 – Teenage Wedding – Chuck Berry
‘We tend to play this straight after the first dance. People generally remember it from the Pulp Fiction dance scene with John Travolta and Uma Thurman and love doing the actions to it.’
2 – Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
‘Everyone loves a bit of Queen and this Rock n Roll-style track really gets people up dancing.’
3 – Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
‘A cross-generational song that will get everyone up including parents and grandparents.’
4 – Living on a Prayer – Bon Jovi
‘Everyone loves a good old rock tune to sing along to and this song, with its catchy chorus, is ideal for people to sing along to.’
5 – Summer of 69 – Bryan Adams
‘Again, another anthem of a rock tune that people are familiar with and can let their hair down to and sing along with the chorus.’
6 – Faith – George Michael
‘A solo hit for George Michael that never seems to grow old. Released in 1987 it still gets both younger and older wedding guests dancing.’
7 – Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
‘This is a real sing-along favourite with a catchy chorus that people gravitate to the dance floor to. From the opening bars, everyone always seems to know the lyrics and it’s a staple diet of wedding songs.’
8 – 500 miles – The Proclaimers
‘This song was originally a hit in the 1980’s but was given extra life thanks to Peter Kay releasing it as a Comic Relief single in 2007. People can’t resist dancing and singing along to this track – a song we keep to the end of our acoustic set.’
9 – Don’t look back in anger – Oasis
‘Given that many of our couples are of the Britpop generation, it’s no surprise that this classic is always sure to get the whole wedding party singing at the end of the night.’
10 – Hey Jude – The Beatles
‘This is a song we leave ‘til the very end of the night. We often get all the wedding guests to form a circle around the happy couple and join in singing this one. At nearly 50 years old, the song is an absolute classic and the perfect song to end the night to.’
Top Ten DJ set floor fillers
1 – Jump Around – House of Pain
‘The perfect track guaranteed to get your hardcore dancers up. This American hip hop tune may be 25 years old but still has the effect of filling the dance floor.’
2 – I gotta feeling – Black Eyed Peas
‘We often start our DJ set with this track and it kicks things off nicely with its intro and by the verses everyone is on the dance floor.’
3 – Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars
‘This is obviously one of the recent massive hits and is already considered a classic dance track. It never fails to get people up dancing and is certainly a must for any wedding DJ set.’
4 – Single Ladies (Put a ring on it) – Beyoncé
‘A track with great dance moves in the video that are really simple to replicate. From the hand gesture to the strut, even your grandmother can say “oh I can dance to that!”
5 – Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations
‘Getting a DJ set right is about including something for everyone. So as well as the contemporary hits we often throw in the old classics which are still cool and get all generations up on the dance floor.’
6 – Thriller – Michael Jackson
‘The production of Michael Jackson’s hits is second to none. Songs like Thriller were made for people to dance to. Years after the singer’s death his hits are still as popular as the day they were released.’
7 – Tonight’s Gonna Be A Good Night – The Black Eyed Peas
‘A great, self explanatory track for setting the tone of the party.’
8 – I Wanna Dance With Somebody – Whitney Houston
‘A throwback to school discos, for many brides of a certain generation. This song never fails to get the ladies on the floor, singing at the top of their voices.’
9 – Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher – Jackie Wilson
‘This is a great song to play at a wedding as it seems to span all the generations. This one always has a real feel good factor to it and one of those hits that people seem to know all the words to.’
10 – Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
‘A real classic which is a sure way to get the guests singing along in the most dramatic fashion. Don’t forget to get the air guitars at the ready for the solo in the middle.’
A huge thank you to Kieran and Dom for sharing this with me. You can find out more about Rock my Reception here. They’re guaranteed to get any party going.
I’d love to hear what your ‘go to’ track is. What song is guaranteed to get you on that dance floor? Leave me a comment below.
As ever, you can contact me for some one to one support.
Louise
