Robben Ford Discussion

StratCat · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 8:17 pm Post subject: Inappropriate Wedding "Waltzes"

Like a lot of musos, I do quite a number of gigs for Wedding Receptions. In my final year of high school, my music teacher said this to me as his final words of advice.... (I'm paraphrasing here...):

"As a musician you will probably do a lot of work for weddings. People will ask you to play all sorts of stupid stuff. Whatever you do, don't ever play Every Breath You Take - basically it's about a stalker, or Feelings - because of the lyric 'I wish I'd never me you'."

Anyway, I have managed to avoid those two songs over the years, but on the weekend just gone I had to play Evanesence's "My Immortal" for the main bridal dance (i.e. dance, not waltz...). It's actually quite a pretty song, but is basically a "torch song" for a dead person.

We checked that they knew what it was about (they did, but they really like the song). We also checked whether they wanted the nice version which is all piano and vocal. They actually wanted the band version, which is all piano and vocal for most of the song, and then near the end the rest of the band kicks in for about 30 seconds. "Kicks in" is an understatement by the way... in Spinal Tap terms it goes to 11.

Totally inappropriate, but soooo much fun to play.

Very Happy

So, I was wondering what other people's experience with this over the years might be. This is probably the best so far for me, although I do remember playing Hanky Panky for a friends bridal dance once.

Cool

Chris
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Bluelobster · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 1:17 am Post subject:

Well Saturday night or sunday morning i've been fired from a band , because i refused to play "shit" , & i was very upset with the fact of playing from 10 PM to 4 AM for a mere 100 bucks, plus some people in the audience hassling me for playing blues & hendrix tunes & "we can't hear the guitar" complaining, while the singer was posing in dramatic gestures sayin' the guitar was F"""""g too loud.

It's was a birthday ......................only a birthday, i can't imagine what would be a wedding party

JohnnyZ · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:28 am Post subject:

Blobby, you're just an ol' rabble-rouser... Very Happy

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elizabeth · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:13 am Post subject: Wedding tunes...

Gotta throw my hat in on this one...the strangest songs I have ever been asked to sing (and I did sing them both!) were "White Wedding" and "Another One Bites the Dust." Strangely (or not) this was at the same wedding...these folks had a great sense of humor, and they liked to rock!

elizabeth
Oh, and go figure...the wedding was about 17 years ago, and they are still happily married! Smile

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Aeolian · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:39 am Post subject:

In Hawaii a popular ballad is "Please Release Me". That's okay, but using it for a wedding dance? "Please release me, let me go, cause I don't love you any more ..." It was kind of sureal. Don't know if they're still together. Shocked

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telefunk1 · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:35 pm Post subject:

I played in a C&W band for years and we did a lot weddings for vet school students (the singer was a vet student and he knew everyone so we always got the gigs). We would play whatever song they wanted and then usually went straight into Hank William's "Your Cheatin' Heart."

jimfog · Member Joined: 09 Nov 2003 Posts: 9 Location: Phila, Pa.

Hey,
I'm doing a wedding next week......first song, as chosen by the couple...."Wicked Game", by Chris Isaak!!! lol

At my wedding (fairly untraditional), we had a great band, but no one was dancing. So, I said to my new wife "Next song, let's get up...maybe we can get people dancing". Song starts, we begin dancing.....suddenly everyone gathers around as if it's our "First Dance" (we didn't have anything like that planned)...............turns out the song was "Sympathy for the Devil"!! My grandmother is STILL mortified!!!

-jim
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Cal · Member Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 46 Location: Toronto

Funniest for us was playing "Too Late to Turn Back Now" when the bride walked down the aisle.

frank0936 · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:15 am Post subject: wedding songs

I guess the song, "You light Up My Life" is appropriate for a wedding, but I still think it's just way too hokey. We had to play it for a guest soloist once and I had to turn my back so the wedding party couldn't see me laughing-especially on the second verse when it gets to the part about "sailing into your harbor"! That just about did it for me. I still laugh every time that song gets mentioned!
Frank