What song packed your dance floor??

PamBeesly524

So I've been loving the "Do Not Play" list over on SB, and while I was putting together some paperwork for our DJ this weekend it got me thinking. I have a pretty long DNP list but my "Please Play" list is short. 

For those of you already married, what songs stand out to you from your wedding as a huge hit with your crowd? For those who aren't married, what songs are you planning on requesting to get people up and moving? Or, as a wedding guest, what song made you get out of your seat?

climbingsingle

I think this is a know your crowd thing. My friends, who are big dancers, are all in their mid 30s. So I had the DJ play a lot of hip hop from the 90s. I knew this would get them all up. And it pretty much got everyone up. The dance floor was packed with those songs. 

emmaaa

"Shake it off" by Taylor Swift. Every lady there, and guys, hit the dance floor. "Call me Maybe" was also a huge hit. 

"Copperhead Road" which has a line dance to it was a big hit to get people on the dance floor after spotlight dances.

"Friends in Low Places" "Drinking Class" "Family Tradition" (which are all country songs) were a huge hit for the guys

Our crowd isn't full of big dancers, so just songs they could sing to and that had some memories behind them were best.

southernbelle0915

"Shout" had all generations on our dance floor.

Honestly, I can't really remember what else... I know we had a packed floor the whole night and I was in love with our DJ for that reason, but I don't remember exactly what songs were crowd pleasers. 

theartistformerlyknownas

southernbelle0915 said:

"Shout" had all generations on our dance floor.

Honestly, I can't really remember what else... I know we had a packed floor the whole night and I was in love with our DJ for that reason, but I don't remember exactly what songs were crowd pleasers. 

This. The dance floor was packed all night. We had dueling pianos (who played DJ music between sets) and they were AWESOME. Perfect mix of fast and slow songs, shout along songs, new songs, old songs, everything from Billy Joel to Tupac. 

thisismynickname2

Know your crowd!

We told our DJ to play, and I'm totally serious, "Early 2000's frat party mixed with 80's."

The last wedding I attended was 95% 90's music. So fun. 

On top of whatever floats you and your crowd's boat, the latest Top 40 hits generally work. "Shake It Off" was a new single for our wedding and everyone loved dancing to it. It may be played out by the time of your wedding, but the next big single would probably work. 

loveislouder

Absolutely a know your crowd thing. FMIL went to a wedding where the Bride and Groom requested every song to have a techno beat underneath.  Nobody danced.

novella1186

loveislouder said:

Absolutely a know your crowd thing. FMIL went to a wedding where the Bride and Groom requested every song to have a techno beat underneath.  Nobody danced.

Yeah, our DJ told us a few horror stories. One was that the couple INSISTED that he only play really obscure indie music, to show off to their friends that they have super great unique taste in music. People were asking the bride and groom to play some different music and they refused. Apparently nobody danced. At all. 

There are a few songs I know our group of friends love that I'm going to ask our DJ to play (like songs from the 80s, 90s, early 200s) but other than that, I know he's an awesome DJ and I know he knows what he's doing, so I've asked him to play anything he knows will get people onto the dance floor. 

QueerFemme

It really depends on your people. I'm sure in some circles, the achy breaky heart would put people on the dance floor.   For us, it was old school hip hop and R&B.

stefuhknee

I definitely agree with PP's that this is a know your crowd type thing. Having said that, there are a few songs that always get my friends & family off their feet.

Be Faithful- Fatman Scoop

Cha Cha Slide (I know, I know,  everyone hates line dances)

Poison

90's Reggae like "Action" & "Sim Simma"

Give Me Everything- Pitbull & Ne-Yo

I guess we enjoy "throwbacks" more than anything. My mind is drawing a blank on current music.

 

wandajune6

This definitely depends on your crowd. My side was friends/cousins in our 30's and tons of people 60+. DH's side is all younger (the oldest person on his side was 60) and largely Spanish-speaking (Mexican and Puerto Rican).

We made a mistake- we asked people for requests on their invitations. Everyone loved the idea but no one danced to the songs that were requested--- even when we thought they would be huge hits. Once we gave the DJ the go-ahead to ignore the list, it was a fabulous party. We got people dancing to a lot of 90's pop and hip hop, lots of oldies, and some newer hits.

My 94 year old grandfather was on the floor for a lot of the 60's pop but my mom was still dancing to Meaghan Trainer (my dad couldn't bring himself to dance to that one). People of all backgrounds loved the salsa and merengue thrown in as well.

lyndausvi

My dance floor was packed all night.    So was my SILs.  The key was making sure there was music for all generations.    Both our DJ's mixed up the music very well.  They went from oldies, to new, to 80's, back to new, then 70's.  It was always changing that no generation felt left out.  Even if you didn't really know a song you stayed on the floor because the next song you would know.

I think the only song on my DNP list was Macerana..  I hate that song.  There were other line dance songs that I'm not fond of but I never banned them from the wedding.  I put them on a "by request only" list.  IDK, seems kind of silly to ban a whole list of 3 or so minute songs entirely.  If guests requested them it was all good.   If I didn't like the song I used that time to freshen up.

The first dance song at my sister's wedding was the Twist.   She was only 28 years old.  Old, young, everyone was out there.

Cookie Pusher

We're in Jersey, Bon Jovi "Livin' on a Prayer" was the hit of the night, followed closely by "Thriller" (complete with the dance).

ElcaB

Hang On Sloopy 

--- then again, we do live in the Buckeye State. O-H-I-O!

PamBeesly524

Great suggestions everyone! 

badbnagdway

wandajune6 said:

We made a mistake- we asked people for requests on their invitations. Everyone loved the idea but no one danced to the songs that were requested--- even when we thought they would be huge hits. Once we gave the DJ the go-ahead to ignore the list, it was a fabulous party. We got people dancing to a lot of 90's pop and hip hop, lots of oldies, and some newer hits.

I have always wondered about asking for requests and whether it leads to more or less dancing. 

I think this raises the point of, not just know your crowd, but tell your DJ to read the room. If it's after dinner and no one is dancing, they need to change it up until people get interested. 

I see a lot of suggestions for 90's music. That's interesting to me because I have found that people's experience of 90's music and what they mean by that depends a lot on how old they are. I am 33. When I was in junior high stuff like Boys II Men and Kriss Kross was big. I never truly loved Backstreet Boys and the boy bands of that ilk, because I felt like I was too cool for them when I was in high school. However, folks my sister's age (she is about four years younger) love love love NSync, et al. For her bach party we went to a cover band of 90's music and I was so excited, until I realized it was pretty much all late 90's boy band stuff. To me that is yuck and I don't want it at my wedding. (No offense to any that must do all the moves to "Bye Bye Bye" whenever they hear it). 

Couggal12

Our DJ was really good about playing a huge variety of songs and we had a ton of people dancing all night.

"YMCA" was a huge hit and had almost everyone out on the dance floor, lol. Surprisingly Backstreet Boys was also a crowd favorite. 

ahyatt87

Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Maggie0829

Like a PP said "Shout" was a big one.  But really I can't remember which songs packed the dance floor more then others.  We just had our DJ play a variety of music from different decades.  I do remember when "Mustang Sally" played my Dad actually got out there and danced which is saying a lot (or it could have been the rum and cokes he was drinking all night).

melbenso

"All of Me" by John Legend was by far our most popular slow song.  For faster stuff, 80s music seemed to get the most people out on the dance floor.

charcoalandblush

Shout is basically always a crowd-pleaser.

I agree with the previous posters suggestions of a big generational span for your music, and would add the caveat that you should also play older stuff earlier in the evening when the older crowd is likely to still be there. The last wedding I went to played all new stuff (Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, "Shots," "Happy," etc.) at the beginning and then more oldies ("Hound Dog," "Shout," etc.) at the end of the night, but most of the older crowd that would have particularly enjoyed those had already left. To me, it makes more sense to do it the other way around.

Also, I think one thing that can really negatively affect the dancing almost as much as song choice is the acoustics. The last wedding I went to with a band was in this giant hall with high ceilings (like 5 floors high in the atrium where the reception was), stone pillars, and tile floors. All of the sound got lost, and if you weren't 3 feet from the stage, you couldn't hear the music at all. People left pretty early, and even for songs that are usually crowd-pleasers in my group ("Call Me Maybe" and "Fishing in the Dark") there were never more than 5 or 6 people on the dance floor. If your guests can't hear the music well, they aren't likely to dance.

emmaaa

Re: Requests

Our DJ was my little brother's best friend and he did an amazing job. He specifically told me to let everyone know that he would take requests. People could walk up to him and request their song right then. That worked for us because I wasn't against any particular song.

Except my mom and her boyfriend kept suggesting beach music. Which I love, in moderation. I had to go tell the DJ to not play anymore of their requests for a little bit! Lol

chibiyui

Cookie Pusher said:

We're in Jersey, Bon Jovi "Livin' on a Prayer" was the hit of the night, followed closely by "Thriller" (complete with the dance).

While in central PA, "Living on a Prayer" was easily the song that caused my wedding to be heard over at the adjacent reception venues as nearly everyone sang along with the chorus.

Our dance floor was packed all night.

vikinganna87

Our thinking was that the younger people will dance to almost anything so the goal was to get the older crowd dancing right away.  Our first five songs were

Twist and Shout

Play That Funky Music

All About That Bass

ABC

Stayin' Alive

and the dance floor was packed

Cookie Pusher

chibiyui said:

Cookie Pusher said:

We're in Jersey, Bon Jovi "Livin' on a Prayer" was the hit of the night, followed closely by "Thriller" (complete with the dance).

While in central PA, "Living on a Prayer" was easily the song that caused my wedding to be heard over at the adjacent reception venues as nearly everyone sang along with the chorus.

Our dance floor was packed all night.

I have pictures of my mother, sisters, officiant, bagpiper, and closest friends singing their faces off and dancing like maniacs. It was amazing.

Knottie72792636

I a soon to be bride, however, all my friends are getting married and a song that's always put everyone to dance is "Give me everything" by Pitbull ft Neyo. Not many people dance when it's a romantic/ slow song.