Bolding mine.
I think you’ve nailed it. Most people don’t know any words to a song except the chorus. Which is often more G-rated and upbeat than the verses are.
I wanted High-Fiving MF by Local H. It was “our song”.
It didn't happen....Well, neither do the guests, so it works.
Sorry for the tangent, but what about songs in commercials? The worst I’ve ever heard was GMC advertising their SUVs with The Who song Eminence Front. Did no one tell them what it was about? Drug-addled pretentiousness? Why would you advertise your giant pretentious SUV with that song?
I read the title of this thread and said to myself, “The first answer will be Every Breath you Take.”. I think that is an urban legend at this point. I have been to a lot of weddings and never heard it at a wedding and I don’t know anyone who is age appropriate to have possibly used it who didn’t know it was creepy.
At one of my closest friends wedding reception they danced the first dance to Bruce Springsteen’s “Jersey Girl”. The groom had selected the song. The bride was not from New Jersey. The bride had never lived in New Jersey.
I missed the wedding. I was attending with a friend who was being a real PITA, she took her time getting ready. Then even though we were running late she insisted on stopping to get something to eat. And she took her time. We completely missed the wedding, we got to the church as everyone was leaving for the reception. I found out years later that the groom had been persistently hitting on her until she shut him down hard and threatened to tell my friend if he didn’t stop. She kept quiet because she didn’t want to hurt my friend and she knew if she told ANYONE -including me- it would get out. But she didn’t think she could stand to watch them actually get married, so she contrived to miss it.
No surprise, the marriage didn’t last.
How about one with these (translated) lyrics:
Flee now the splendor of the wedding feast, may the delights of the heart be yours!
This sweet-smelling room, decked for love, now takes you in, away from the splendor.
Faithfully guided, draw now near to where the blessing of love shall preserve you!
That’s why, when it is played at a wedding, you never hear the lyrics to the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin - or, as it is usually called in English, “Here Comes the Bride.”
The use in the commercial is a dog-whistle for rich pretentious people to buy their rich pretentious truck. (I have to assume accidentally, or ironically if on purpose.)
It didn’t happen but I was privy to the planning of a wedding where the groom was a big REM fan and had to have suggestion of “Everybody Hurts” shut down. I’m not 100% sure he was joking.
Our minister didn’t allow that song, since it came from an opera. Religious music only.
He also said he specifically banned “Speak Softly, Love”–a/k/a the Godfather theme.
We must be thinking of very different songs. I was referring to “If” by Bread.
[quote=“nearwildheaven, post:31, topic:797992”]
We must be thinking of very different songs. I was referring to “If” by Bread.
[/QUOTE]I could only think of “If” by Janet Jackson:
A little more dirty than you’d expect at a wedding, and featuring unrequited love.
My cousins wedding last year. Danger Zone.
I once went to a wedding where the groom was well known as bit of a player. Raised eyebrows all round at the idea of him settling down and getting married.
The first dance was “If you don’t know me by now”.
Lasted less than a year.
Yup. There’s a whole genre of very pretty melodies full of romantic choruses about true love counterpointed by verses about his (or very occasionally her) rampant cheating.
Lou Christie’s *Lightin’ Strikes *is another one from a few years earlier. Many classic Motown tunes had the same theme.
One I always liked as an inappropriate wedding tune was one-hit wonder Benny Mardones’ Into the Night. - YouTube. The music is lush and the chorus is romantic:If I could fly
I’d pick you up
I’d take you into the night
And show you a love
Like you’ve never seen - ever seen.Too bad the verse is all about his desire to have sex with some 16 yo girl over her parents’ (and possibly her) objections. It made it to #11 on the US charts when it came out. Then made the top 20 nine years later, a pretty rare feat. So clearly it resonated with more than a few people.
In a similar vein, in college a friend of a friend was making a mix tape for a girl he liked (I’m old) and he was including “Bat Out of Hell”. I told him that’s not a good idea because just listen to it but all he was hung up on was the part where he sings that she is “the only thing in this whole world that’s pure and good and right.” And I was like, “But the song’s about a guy leaving!” Didn’t matter, he put it in.
My sister didn’t choose the first dance at her wedding, and the DJ chose “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell.