Comments on: A Pretty Tune, But What Were They Thinking?

By: gettin hitched soon

gettin hitched soon — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:39:42 +0000

haha! it’s hilarious to read all of the commentary here.

I agree, however, that “The Oldest Profession” might be slightly inappropriate. (Notice the tongue in cheeck emphasis on ’slightly’)

How about a friend’s wedding where the grooms party requested, and the DJ ACTUALLY played Prince’s Pussy Control. Ummmm…I would have had my DJ fired after the event and gotten every penny back!

By: P.q.

P.q. — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:28:16 +0000

Just several suggestions from a wedding attendee:
For the 1st dance “All I ask of you” From Phantom of the Opera, “Hey there Delilah” Instrumental version from the The Vitamins String Quartet.
Also, If you want to play Brown Eyed Girl, do us all a favor and play the real, Van Morrison version.When I get married I want to have one “flashback” song, y’know something I used to like in high school, something the bridesmaids and I can go crazy to.

By: Sailorgirl

Sailorgirl — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:33:37 +0000

“Hollaback Girl” and “Baby Got Back” People actually got up and left in disgust.
The marriage lasted less than six months.

By: sara

sara — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:48:38 +0000

I’m a classical singer, so our wedding reception choices were:

Bridal party down the aisle: Mozart piano sonata in A, 1st mvmt (the theme, not the variations)

Me down the aisle: Ah Chloris, Reynaldo Hahn (in French - text briefly paraphrased is along the lines of I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have your love)

Random interlude: The Call, Ralph Vaughan Williams

Candle lighting: A new piece a friend of our composed for the wedding

Recessional: Brahms, Rhapsody in Eb (op 119 no. 4)

For the reception, we didn’t want a ton of music - we had tons of family there and we really wanted to encourage conversation more than crazy loudness - so my high school piano teacher played background jazz for a few hours. It was perfect.

By: Ninjarina

Ninjarina — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:15:02 +0000

I can think of many BAD wedding songs but I recently found a fantastic one for when I get hitched:

Cantonese: Jacky Cheung - Nay dik Ming Zi, Oa dik Sing Si (lit. “Your First Name, My Surname”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwASVwlbb-E

By: Fabi

Fabi — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:33:53 +0000

So I take it you’d be against “I’m Getting To Old for the Oldest Profession” as the bride and groom’s first dance, Twistie?

By: Mango

Mango — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:12:08 +0000

Yes, “Send in the Clowns” is definitely a bad idea. However, here are some musical theatre songs that seem like they’d be wedding appropriate, at least for some people, and have the added advantage of not being over-done. Here are my suggestions:

All The Wasted Time — from Parade. Pros: Particularly appropriate for couples who’ve taken forever to get together, beautiful, romantic. Cons: In the musical, the events immediately following this song are incredibly tragic.

In Whatever Time We Have — from Children of Eden. I’ve actually performed this at weddings. It’s lovely and effective. Life can throw whatever it wants at us, but “at least we’ll be together in whatever time we have.”

You Walk With Me — from The Full Monty. Technically a love song between two men, but it’s gorgeous, and sounds very traditional, and would be very wedding-appropriate. Would be a great processional.

Hero and Leander — from Myths and Hymns. Musically stunning, lyrically obscure, romantic in its own way, and no one’s ever heard of it. It is based on the myth of Hero (a nymph) and Leander, her lover, which is, in the end, an ill-fated romance, as Leander drowns trying to get to her, but I think I’d still be willing to use it for something.

Love Song for Lucinda — from Bright Eyed Joy: The Songs of Ricky Ian Gordon. Because love IS a ripe vine growing on a purple tree. Simultaneously old-fashioned and modern. And very unusual. Probably not for everyone, but if you had, say, a live pianist, this would be worth using as an instrumental.

Say it Somehow — From The Light in the Piazza. Unspeakably beautiful. There’s dialogue in the middle of the recording, so you’d probably want a live version, or to do a little judicious editing. I’d ‘first dance’ to this.

The Next Ten Minutes — from The Last Five Years. Pros: Lovely, and the actual wedding song from that show. Cons: The marriage doesn’t work out.

By: Brittany

Brittany — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:24:50 +0000

You know, thinking about it the only love songs I would ever find lyrically appropriate and not aurally offensive for a first dance would be some of Yo La Tengo’s love songs since they tend to be all established relationship/I love you even when you leave your socks on the floor yet again.

Personally, though, I think the dance music should just be fun to dance to, once you get past all the traditional special dances.

By: C*

C* — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:02:29 +0000

We only used classical music for our ceremony.

The reception was another story. R and I danced our first dance to Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, but we had all kinds of songs played during the reception. All the tween age kids requested “Soulja Boy” so many times we just had to play it, which resulted in the adults standing around going “wtf is this?” and all the tweens and teens doing the dance. It was hilarious. We did ban the Chicken Dance and a few others but somehow we did end up doing what felt like the world’s longest Macarena. I HATE the Macarena but it was hilarious to see R’s 75 year old great aunt on the dance floor…the video footage is so funny.

By: KTB

KTB — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:51:21 +0000

I’m just in the planning stages of my own wedding and my mother and I have already gone head-to-head on a few songs. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, my fiance and I have a song, and it’s “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues. For several reasons, it’s a slightly problematic first song to dance to, so we’re trying to figure out if we just say screw it and do it anyway, or find some alternative. Argh!