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T

the dogman

New DJ
Jan 1, 2007
1,113
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67
Fort Atkinson WI
About 3 weeks ago I met with the bride and groom from last nights wedding for the final planning....actually the only planning meeting....their schedule and mine just never clicked....This show had been booked for about 3 months....

At the meeting they present me with a play list of 77 songs....all good music but I now began to worry.....simple elegant is all they wanted.

Last night arrived and to be honest I was really concerned...they said they knew their friends and family pretty well....so my job was to mix this music so that people would have a good time....

I pulled every song out the day before...put it in catagories....classic rock...hip hop etc...

Well they did know the music they liked....and I mixed one of the best musical nights of my dj life.....the floor was always full of people and never was it empty .....just had to get this out....they were extremely happy with what I did..and I was pumped at my effort and glad that its over and went so well.....

I know many of you have said you need creative control of the music....but sometimes the client does know what the group will like
 
I've had this before where I ended up playing some real off the wall tunes that packed the floor. Sometimes you have to trust your client just as they should be able to trust you.

young...
 
I've been saying this for many years........B/G knows their crowd better than the DJ does.

Whenever I'm given a Long List (like the one in Dogman's example), I reserve the right to mix out of any song when nobody was dancing to it. My clients are always OK with this!
 
DJMC said:
I've been saying this for many years........B/G knows their crowd better than the DJ does.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with this entirely. I've had more weddings where this wasn't true. One B&G wanted Jazz the whole entire time because they said "that's what the crowd wanted". It wasn't the case...we ended up taking crowd requests of Disco, TOP 40 etc...the B&G thanked us afterward for NOT sticking to Jazz.
 
Traffic- I thhinks there's a difference there....You can't dance to jazz all night....Sometimes we fear the worst and as Dogman finds out: you do your best...

Dogman...can you post a list....?

I had 2 such an event last year..I was given a list of songs....I just has to sort it and play it...I had some concerns it, but in the end it all worked out...

For those interested...this was the list from one event.....I had 2 songs left over...


Barry White You're the first…… (Grand Introduction)
Eva Cassidy You Take My Breath Away (Bride/Groom dance)
Steven Curtis Chapman I Believe In You (Father/Bride Dance)
Cliff Edwards When You Wish Upon A Star (Mother/Groom)
Anne Murray Could I Have This Dance
Barry White Can't get enough of your love babe
Barry Manilow Copacabana (At The Copa)
Michael Buble Save the Last Dance for Me
Frank Sinatra The Way You Look Tonight
Paul Simon Loves Me Like a Rock
Van Morrison Crazy Love
Marc Cohn True companion
Al Green Let's Stay Together
ABBA Take a Chance on Me
KT Tunstall Suddenly I See (PO)
Johnny Cash Get Rhythm
Alabama If You're Gonna Play in Texas
John Denver Thank God I'm a Country Boy
Signal Hill Barrett's Privateers
Neil Diamond Sweet Caroline
Bryan Adams Summer Of '69
Stevie Wonder Signed sealed delivered
Aretha Franklin I Say A Little Prayer
Gordon Lightfoot Beautiful
Tony Bennett It Had To Be You
Louis Armstrong What A Wonderful World
Peggy Lee Fever
Cherry Poppin' Daddies Zoot Suit Riot
Brian Setzer Orchestra Jump Jive An' Wail
Great Big Sea When I'm Up (I Can't Get Down)
Champs Tequila
Scissor Sisters I Don't Feel Like Dancin'(PO)
KC & the Sunshine Band Shake Your Booty
Sister Sledge We Are Family (radio)
Barry White You're The First, The Last My Everything
Carpenters We've only just begun
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole Over The Rainbow/What a Wonderful World
 
Matt no Brides and Grooms Dont know thier guests well enough

I have seen some real bad ones because its what the Bride and groom wanted and NOT what they said that thier guests would like.....

so yeah no the bride and groom never know what thier guests like
 
DJMC said:
I've been saying this for many years........B/G knows their crowd better than the DJ does.

Whenever I'm given a Long List (like the one in Dogman's example), I reserve the right to mix out of any song when nobody was dancing to it. My clients are always OK with this!
Click to expand...


Um no.... I did one last year that the bride and groom wanted Bela Fleck, Celtic Women, Coltrane, and Tom Cochrane... I let them know that I didn't think this would fly, and it did not.... fortunately they saw it themselves and then let me go with what worked...

This one wedding is why I am now so against big must play and DNP lists....
 
Good show Dogman you handled it the RIGHT way. In case the requests provided dont work my Clients are informed of the options in advance.Never had a couple not trust me for trusting them. 20+ yrs doing weddings perhaps Im just lucky.
 
Good job Dogman. I'm sure you took what they gave you and made it flow so that the right songs followed each other. I'm curious now after your description to know some of the music that requested since it wasn't what you would normally play. Can you share some of the playlist? Thanks
 
Ok here goes...

Grand march...sexy back
1st dance...Its your love...tim mcgraw-faith hill
mother son...I still believe in you...vince gill
wedding party dance...we danced...brad paisley

dancing queen...abba
dude looks like a lady...aerosmith
good time...alan jackson
sk8er boi...avril lavigne
love shack...b-52s
if i had a $1000000...barenaked ladies
barbara ann...beach boys
stayin alive...bee gees
save a horse...big n rich
my humps...black eyed peas
livin on a prayer...bonjovi
letter to me...brad paisley
shes everything
online
hillbilly deluxe...brooks n dunn
neon moon
convoy...cw mccall...............got played
genie in a bottle.....im just going to type songs now thank you
pour some sugar on me
two steps behind
unbelievable
every mile a memory
runaround sue
all shook up
shake that
wonderful tonight
at last
london bridge
low
the way you look tonight
friends in low places
here for the party
knockin on heavens door
big pimpin
i love rock n roll
ive been everywhere
ring of fire
rock your body
sexy back
stronger
better life
i go back
she thinks my tractors sexy
summertime
you save me
get low
a little more you
4 minutes
my town
something to be proud of
country grammer
rockstar
sister christian
hella good
hypnotize
hey ya
something to believe in
your mama dont dance
dont cha
bless the broken road
if youre going through hell
king of the road
its tricky
push it
closing time
these are the days
give it to me
i love this bar
brown eyed girl
heaven

i managed to play all but 19 songs....and since the group including the groom were wisconsin badger fans and the game started in the middle of the dance and yes the game was being played.....i played the bud song...when you say wisconsin....groom loved that as did the whole group
 
Don:

Great job.

I do have a clause in my contract for creative control; however, the definition is everything from programming the list the client gives me to outright picking the songs.

Playlists are always discussed with the client. If it looks ecclectic I will tell them. If I feel that it is a bad list and they insist on no requests or no enhancement from the DJ then the following announcement is made, "Ladies and gentlemen, Dick and Jane have selected a playlist that they know all of you will enjoy so we will not be taking requests."

I recently had one where the FOB picked the entire playlist. He was paying and his daughter let him. He gave me a good classic rock and disco selection and told me to program it for dinner and dance; cocktrails he left totally up to me. Well, White Room made it to the dinner list (LOL), AND IT WORKED!

He had said that if any guets wanted to see the list and ask for some songs to be moved up, that was fine. One guy came up and noted that there were no Beatles (I ass-u-me-d that he didn't like the Beatles) and the guy said that was surprising. I took the time to speak to the FOB and he told me that he just forgot to put in the Beatles (Hey, I'm over 50 and sometimes I forget were his exact words) and told me to pick something. Twist and Shout made a nice dance floor even nicer.
 
the dogman said:
...but sometimes the client does know what the group will like
Click to expand...


Good work, Dogman. Someone who just shows up and pushes the PLAY button might not have been able to work the dance floor like that.

But I have to say, the definitive word in your comment is "sometimes." Yeah, sometimes they do and I'm surprised at how well things work out. But I would say most times, they just want to hear what they want to hear.

I had a wedding this past weekend where the play list included a lot of Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Louden Wainright III, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, etc. I worked for way too many uncompensated hours trying to make that play list work. Frankly, I had a decent dance floor all night...it surprised me. But I think it had to do more w/ my manipulation of the play list than to the B/G knowing their guests.

I did a buttload of weddings this summer and I'm starting to agree w/ Papa about the must-play list and the do-not-play list. I find I am spending more and more time w/ the client trying to find out what they expect of me. Asking them if they mostly just want to hear their music, or do they want to create a party?

You should see the play list for the wedding I have this weekend! Ay!

Still, props to you, Dogman!

--Will
 
Customer is always right (Most of the time)

I have a whatever the customer wants attitude. It usually works for me. Not always but most of the time.

My ex-boss' daughter got married this past Saturday September 13, 2008. The bride and groom are in there 20's and very "hands off". They didn't get me their list until the day before. They knew what I had and told me they'd burn me a disc of anything else. I wasn't that concerned because it would be on them if the discs weren't produced. When I got their list I noticed that a few of the songs he burned for me I had anyway. The wedding day comes and and I play as much from their list as possible. Some things worked some didn't but it wasn't the type of crowd that was going to dance all night. At the end of the night the groom thanks me and tips me $50.00. So everything worked out fine.

Here is the list he emailed me the day before.


Introduction of parents/wedding party: Shakedown Street - Grateful Dead
Introduction of Bride/groom: The Medallion Calls - Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack
1st dance Bride/groom: If I had the world to give - Grateful Dead
Father-Daughter/Mother-Son dance: Teach your children well - CSN

We've burned a CD with the following song requests:
Faster Dance, tracks 1-12:
Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To
Franz Ferdinand - Michael
Franz Ferdinand - Darts of Pleasure
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Rolling Stones - She's a rainbow
Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love
Modest Mouse - Dashboard
Flogging Molly - What's Left of the Flag
Flogging Molly - Salty Dog
Flogging Molly - Rebels of the Sacred Heart
Supremes, The - Stop! In The Name of Love
Supremes, The - Baby Love
Slower Dance, tracks 13-16:
Dido - The Closer You Get
John Lennon - Love
Muse - Endlessly
John Lennon - Imagine (live)

Our requests from your repertoire (I will bring a printed sheet to the reception):

Abba - Dancing Queen
Bryan Adams - Heaven
Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss A Thing
Beach Boys, The - God Only Knows
Beach Boys, The - Good Vibrations
Beatles, The - All My Loving
Beatles, The - Can't Buy Me Love
Beatles, The - In My Life
Beatles, The - All You Need Is Love
Beatles, The - Twist & Shout
Beatles, The - When I'm 64
Allman Brothers Band - Melissa
Armstrong, Louis - What a Wonderful World
Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer
Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name
Brian Setzer Orchestra - Jump Jive An' Wail
Brown, James - I Feel Good
Charlie Daniels Band, The - Devil Went Down to Georgia
Clarks, The - Born Too Late
Doors, The - Light My Fire
Clash, The - Rock the Casbah
Cure, The - Friday I'm in Love
Four Tops, The - I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
Extreme - More than Words
Hendrix, Jimi - Angel
Grateful Dead, The - Sugar Magnolia
Grateful Dead, The - Uncle John's Band
Jackson 5 - I Want You Back
Joel, Billy - It's Still Rock and Roll To Me
Joel, Billy - Only the Good Die Young
Joel, Billy - We Didn't Start The Fire
John, Elton - Tiny Dancer
K C & The Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight
Killers, The - Read My Mind
Kinks, The - You Really Got Me
Madonna - Like A Prayer
Marley, Bob - One Love/People Get Ready
Monkees, The - I'm A Believer
Outkast Fear. Killer Mike - Hey Ya!
Petty, Tom - You Wreck Me
Presley, Elvis - All Shook Up
Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noise
R.E.M. - It's The End of the World
Rusted Root - Send Me on My Way
Seger, Bob - Old Time Rock & Roll
Simon, Paul - Still Crazy After All These Years
Springfield, Rick - Jessie's Girl
Springsteen, Bruce - Born To Run
Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride
Stewart, Rod - You're In My Heart
U2 - Beautiful Day
U2 - Where the Streets Have No Names
White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
Who, The - I Can't Explain
 
I also play what they want but........ how many songs can be played in the TOTAL 6x hr wedding

have you really worked out how many can be TOTALLY played in that time
no stops, no speeches at all, no cutting cake etc etc

so think about it on these so called big lists
can you get in and play 100 songs in 6x hrs

dogman great job :)
 
I will ask the customer for what songs they might want and I will play them but if I dont see the dancefloor packed I will usually play whatever I want and will get the dancefloor packed and take some requests and play them.
 
The given songs...grand march...first dance...father/daughter..mother/son...wedding party...parents dance not a problem....

I usually tell the bride/groom that pick out 7 to 10 other songs that you really need to hear...and maybe 7 more you would like to hear and oh yeah the ones you dont want to hear ...by penalty of death...lol

This groom use to be a banquet manager....his words...this day isnt about the dj its about us...we want simple and elegant....thats what he got .....nice tip at the end of the night for following the list....the real reward was the floor was packed.....but people dancing and singing to convoy....that still cracks me up:sqlaugh:
 
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