How to put together the best wedding dance songs for the best wedding playlist.
Our Los Angeles and San Diego wedding coordinating team coordinate and design lots of weddings and have witnessed of our fair share of wedding dances over the years. Though it may be hard to let go of, the days of the chicken dance, Y.M.C.A. and ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ have long since passed. So, I wanted to put together the best wedding dance playlist of what we currently see on today’s wedding dance floor. I have collected a popular list of songs that will get your wedding party up and boogying.
It’s really easy to have a listen to any of songs below on Sportify. If you don’t already have a free music account on Spotify, DO SO RIGHT NOW! (www.spotify.com) I highly, highly recommend Spotify to anyone out there who hasn’t taken the plunge yet. It’s free to sign up. Super easy to sign up. And, it gives you free access to every song, album or artist you can think of. (The only band I have not seen on there that I was interested in listening to was The Beatles.) Spotify is a splendid place to have a listen to the wedding dance songs below and to snoop around a bit and find more to add to your wedding playlist. If you want to add a jazz playlist for dinner, an upbeat funk playlist for cocktail hour, or put together a list of your favorite dance songs, I would highly recommend Spotify to search through songs, and create playlists on your account to purchase at a later date, or, just to play directly through your Spotify account. The month of your wedding you can easily pay the $9 fee to make your account commercial free.
An app for Apple products called DJay (http://www.algoriddim.com/djay) is also an awesome way to skirt around paying a DJ for your wedding. Simply make your playlist on your laptop, iPhone or iPad, and you can program DJay to match all the beats and seamlessly transition from one song to the next without any breaks between your songs. It’s an awesome app. Honestly, it’s the exact same app all the DJ’s you’ll pay to DJ your wedding will be using anyway. Seriously! It’s also just a really fun and powerful application to play around with. Though, I would recommend trying it out a few times and listening to your playlist around the house so you know how it all works.
BEST FIRST DANCE SONGS
Something to keep in mind when picking out your first dance song is to keep it short. One of my best friends played a 6 minute long song for his first dance and he later told me how it felt like an eternity. “You can only smile and kiss your spouse so many times in front of your wedding party before you start to feel everyone growing board watching you.” Don’t get me wrong, the first dance is a very special occasion but believe, from my experience as well, those few minutes will feel like an eternity as all eyes are on you two along on the dance floor. Its nice to find a song that’s more in the 2 to 3 minute range. Its just as special and you’ll gladly agree with me when its you up there.
I think the first dance should be a classic song, nothing new or trendy. Keep it classy. Here are a couple gems you can’t go wrong with (and that are also short!).
My personal favorite and the one that I played for my first dance was A Kiss To Build A dream on. Such a great song.
A Kiss To Build A dream On by Louis Armstrong (3:01)
At Last by Etta James (3:02)
As Time Goes By by Frank Sinatra
Close To You by The Carpenters
Dream A Little Dream by the Mamas & The Papas
BEST WEDDING DANCE SONGS
I know this is in no way a complete wedding dance playlist but it does have a great collection of songs to get you started. A good rule of thumb is to have a little for everyone. Play some of the hits for the older folks and mix in a few beats for the youngsters. To have the best wedding dance playlist your going to want to get everyone on the floor, not just the songs you and your spouse enjoy.
Thriller by Michael Jackson
All My Friends by LCD Sound System
It’s Your Thing by The Isley Brothers
Single Ladies by Beyonce
And I was A Boy From School by Hot Chip
Jump by The Pointer Sisters
Matchbox by the Beatles
Mess Around by Ray Charles
Dancing Queen by Abba
Green Onion by Booker T and The MG’s
Open Eye Signal by Jon Hpkins
Home by Edward Sharp and The Magnetic Zeros
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher by Jackie Wilson
Do Your Thing by Jaxx
Lucky Tonight by Daft Punk
Just What I Need by the Cars
Baby You’re A Rich Man by The Beatles
Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journy
Bad Romance by Lady Gaga
Billie Jean by Michael Jackson
Sex Machine by James Brown
I Love It by Icona Pop
Over And Over by Hot Chip
Dance! By Jamericoi (from Napoleon Dynamite)
Showdown by Electric Light Orchestra
American Boy by Estelle (and Kanye)
Party Man by Prince
Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper
Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake
ABC by The Jackson 5
Lanzarote by Lindstrom, Todd Terje
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head by Kylie Minogue
House Of Cards by Radiohead
Float On by Modest Mouse
Miss You by The Rolling Stones
Sister Jack by Spoon
Sharpeshifter Blues by Pilote
BEST LAST CALL DANCE SONGS
For my wedding, my wife and I had two songs on a reserve playlist for the last few minutes of the night before the bar closed. They were, I Did It My Way, and One For My Baby (And One More For The Road), both by Frank Sinatra. The first song gets everyone on the dance floor singing along, and the second song is probably the greatest closing song ever written. It’s a great song to hold on to before the nights all over. Give them a listen.
STRUCTURING YOUR WEDDING DANCE PLAYLIST
There are no rules to the layout of your wedding playlist but if you do decide to go without a DJ, I strongly recommend listing to your completed playlist a few times around the house from start to finish. When I created my wedding playlist we decided to put two or three slow songs at the begginging, and then Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the first upbeat dance song. We felt it would be everyones favorite and it would keep the most amount of people on the dance floor after the slow songs. From there we played tried to keep a nice mix of old and new so that everyone was happy.
We also found that if we put more of the sing along songs like, All The Single Ladies, Jump, Bon Jovi’s Livin On A Prayer, towards the end when people had more to drink that everyone would sing along.
And then lastly we played a few slow songs as the last two songs of the night. This brought everyone back out on the dance floor and was a great way to set the mood as we all said our good byes for the evening.
There’s no right or wrong way to through a wedding dance so do what works best for you and what you think your guests will really enjoy. Even though I gave suggestions on doing your own DJ don’t be afraid to still go with a DJ. Nothing can really replace an actual DJ. Just be sure you give him the list of songs you want him to play and he’ll fill the rest! Have fun!