I’m planning a party w/a DJ, and I’m putting together a list of great dance tunes. What do you like to dance to? Looking for both fast and slow songs.
I’ll start off with a few of my favorites:
Rob Base & DJ Easy Rock- It Takes Two
Elvis- A Little Less Conversation
Gap Band- You Dropped A Bomb On Me
Spinners- Rubberband Man
Will Smith- Gettin Jiggy Wit It
Brian Setzer Orchestra- Jump, Jive & Wail
I tend to like the old school stuff, but I’m openminded. Lay it on me.
#1, without a doubt, is Insomnia by Faithless. The only song I know that has the hardcore beats AND lyrics with meaning (as in not totally nonsense, not necessarily world-altering.)
Probably in the Top 5 are some of the songs from the back half of “Movements in Still Life” by BT. The first half are too “Big Beat”, repetitive, and hip-hop to be in my top 10 dance songs. But the latter songs are in my ideal zone of predictability in beats, nice buildups, female alterna-diva singing, and inventive sounds.
Now, no one has ever made my ideal dance song. It would feature all of these plus:
– Lyrics that say something
– Slight pop-dance influence. Hardly anyone who does the inventive sampling of sounds also uses the poppy, slightly hispanic-influenced vibe of the straight up dance hits of the mid to late 90s (as opposed to sample-heavy crap of Big Beat or nice-sounding but unpredictable and yet repetitive boredom of trance.)
– Not only the classic drum build-up break but also the classic “run two beats at once” break. I know this is mostly done in clubs where the DJ transitions from one song to another but it works in songs as well for a short interlude.
Smooth by Santana
Gotta have The Electric Slide unless you’re trying to be real cool
Everybody Everybody - Black Box
Cha Cha Slide - Casper
Lady Marmalade - The LaBelle and/or Christina Aguilera & friends version
Hot in Here - Nelly
Can’t Get You Out of my Head - Kylie Minogue
Baby I Got Your Money - ODB
Days Go By - Dirty Vegas
Magic Carpet Ride - Crystal Method
Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Groove is in the Heart - Dee-Lite (DUH)
I’ll consider myself an expert on dance music as I’ve been listening to it for 20 plus years.
You might poke around on this which explains every variety of dance music and provides samples.
*Girls and Boys * (PSB Remix) - Blur
Always On My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
Lovely Day - Bill Withers
I Feel For You - Chaka Khan
Only This Moment - Royksopp
And I have to sneak this one in here, my favourite: Dare by Gorillaz is pretty damn danceable. It makes me dance, and I can’t.
Or, you could go all early 90s on everybody and haul out anything by 2 Unlimited (Twilight Zone, anyone?), KLF (3am Eternal), Real McCoy (Another Night - my personal old favourite), along those lines. Heh. Memories of high school dances…
From a couple of recent mixtapes:
The Halo Benders - Don’t Touch My Bikini
The BLOW - Hock It
Le Tigre - Hot Topic
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Pin
KaitO - Should I
The Go! Team - Panther Dash
The Rapture - Sister Savior
LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Crass Version)
Of Montreal - How Lester Lost His Wife
Fred Schneider - Bulldozer
Le Tigre - Deceptacon
Chicks On Speed - Turn of the Century
KaitO - Driving Manual Auto
Madonna Over Yorkshire - Gore In Rut
The Seahorse Liberation Army - Last Situationist (Beck’s Crit)
O.U.T. H.U.D. - Dad, There’s a Little Phrase Called Too Much Information
The Go! Team - The Power Is On
Liquid Liquid - Bellhead
“Seven Cities” - Solarstone
“As The Rush Comes” - Motorcycle
“Without You” - Dogzilla
“Sail” - Armin van Buuren
“Silence (DJ Tiësto remix)” - Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan
“Sublime” - Ferry Corsten
“Mr. Blue (The Thrillseekers Remix)” - Usual Aspect
If you can find it, Addicted to Base by Josh G Abrahams/ Amiel Daemion. It was popular in Australia in 1999, that’s where I got it. Excellent tune.
Of course, Play that Funky Music should be in your mix somewhere.
Beat me to it. I still get shivers when I hear it and turn it up loud as I can while driving
“Lazy” by Express2, vocals by David Byrne.
“Galvanize” by Chemical Brothers
“Starry Eyed Suprise” by Paul Oakenfold
“Canned Heat” by Jamaroqui
The “Night at the Roxbury” soundtrack has the “Insomnia” song on it as well as “Da ya think i’m sexy” by N-Trance, and the classic “What is Love”. A really good album.
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes
What You Waiting For? - Gwen Stefani
Hey Ya! - Outkast
She Wants To Move - NER*D
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
Debaser – The Pixies
Song 2 – Blur
Last Night – The Strokes
Bohemian Like You – The Dandy Warhols
Dare - Gorillaz
Filthy/Gorgeous - Scissor Sisters
Two More Years - Bloc Party
Private Idaho – The B-52’s
Underworld – Born Slippery
Hey Girl, Hey Boy – Chemical Brothers
Atomic – Blondie
Cannonball – The Breeders
The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Might be all a bit more indie-rock than you’re looking for, but that’s the kind of playlist I set up for a party at mine.
Beat me too. Damn fine song.
Pfffffft. So you say.
“No Sex” – Alex Chilton
“Victoria” – the Kinks
“China Cat Sunflower” – the Grateful Dead
“Codine” – the Charlatans
“Pink Thunderbird” – Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps
“Lester Leaps In” – the Count Basie Orchestra
“Emperor Waltz, opus 43” – Johann Strauss, Jr.
This song has the ability to make statues get up and then get down.
the Macarena?
d&r