Cover band guys............

[Boogie1]

Just wondering......all you players in cover bands-

What are your top 10 best songs for packing the dance floor, specifically tunes from the 80''s and 90's-

Some from my band:

Round and Round- Ratt

My Sharona- Knack

Suffragette City- Bowie

Talk Dirty to Me- Poison

Enter Sandman- Metallica

Whiskey in the Jar- Metallica

Bad Case of Loving You- Robert Palmer

Bad Name- Bon Jovi

Mas Tequila- Sammy Hagar

Dr. Love- Kiss

I Want You To Want Me- Cheap Trick

Everybody Wants You- Billy Squier

[Bernard from Belgium]

Never wanted to do this one, cause it seems everybody plays it... On the other hand, it's a challenge to play it the way it should be... Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits) always helps to get people dancin'... Proud Mary in Tina Turner version's also good, When the lady Smiles (Golden Earring) is a topper also...

[Willie G. Moseley]

I play primarily for me peers (Boomers) so most of what works is oriented towards 50-somethings:

"Mony Mony"-Tommy James & Shondells

"Born to be Wild"-Steppenwolf

"Missionary Man"-Eurhythmics (Surprise! Token example for aging Gen-Xers)

"Do You Love As Good As You Look"-Bellamy Brothers

"Stand By Me"-Ben E. King

"Green Onions"-Booker T. & MGs

"I Feel Good"/"Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" (medley)-James Brown

"Wonderful World"-Sam Cooke (ends w/ an appropriate cha-cha-cha riff)

"Come On Up"/"Love is a Beautiful Thing" (medley)-Rascals

"Long Train Runnin'"-Doobies

The key phrase in the leadoff post is "best songs for packing the dance floors", and for most of us, the list differs wildly from something like the top ten we like to play. I really get off on "Comfortably Numb" but we rarely do such at a country club...mainly because the patrons are in the condition as described by the title, and we want to keep things that way....

RE "My Sharona": Get well, Doug Fieger.

[MCChris]

Judging by the songs you listed, "Crazy Bitch" by Buckcherry seems like a shoo-in. Every hard rock cover band is doing that one these days, it seems. You'll know why when you see the effect it has on the women in the audience.

[DavidE]

Never wanted to do this one, cause it seems everybody plays it... On the other hand, it's a challenge to play it the way it should be... Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits) always helps to get people dancin'... Proud Mary in Tina Turner version's also good, When the lady Smiles (Golden Earring) is a topper also...

I'd play Sultans if I could find a rhythm guitar player who could play his part right.... Not that I play the lead parts note for note, but without that rhythm kickin' it sucks.

As for packing the dance floor, most of what we play is danceable, but off the top of my head, these probably get the girls more than the others:

Brown Eyed Girl

Mustang Sally (thought we only play it when requested)

A medley of Proud Mary (cross between CCR and Tina) into Squeezebox into The Joker.

You Shook Me (All Night Long)

Sweet Home Alabama

Every Rose Has It's Thorn

Sold (The Auctioneer Song)

Jenny Jenny

Kung Fu Fighting

We do a LONG medley of tunes at the end that often results in girls dancing OFF the dance floor and on tables, on stage, on the band etc.... Magic Carpet Ride into 500 Miles (Proclaimers) into some other crap, into Billy Jean back to Proclaimers, ending with Eye of the Tiger. ;-)

The encore: Blister in the Sun

We don't play it anymore, but Brick House always works. So does Play That Funky Music

FORGOT SOME:

Superstitious

I Will Survive

Bust A Move

Walk This Way

[Bernard from Belgium]

Never wanted to do this one, cause it seems everybody plays it... On the other hand, it's a challenge to play it the way it should be... Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits) always helps to get people dancin'... Proud Mary in Tina Turner version's also good, When the lady Smiles (Golden Earring) is a topper also...

I'd play Sultans if I could find a rhythm guitar player who could play his part right.... Not that I play the lead parts note for note, but without that rhythm kickin' it sucks.

Know what you mean... I sing it and have to play the rhythm at the same time...

[tafkathundernotes]

As you can see, we're all over the map as far as decades go, but our most consistently successful dance-floor tunes are:

Wild, Wild, West - Escape Club

Smokin' in the Boys Room - Brownsville Station/Motley Crue

Let's Go - The Cars (on MySpace page below)

Hella Good - No Doubt

Stacy's Mom - Fountains of Wayne

The Breakup Song - Greg Kihn Band

You May Be Right - Billy Joel

Addicted To Love - Robert Palmer

Rebel Yell - Billy Idol

Hard Days Night - The Beatles

Twilight Zone - Golden Earring (when the crowd is right, this one goes over big)

Don't be afraid to update the sound of some older tunes either. We just added "Last Time" by the Stones, but we play it like Green Day would. It gets a great reaction.

[edgar_allan_poe]

Enter Sandman as a dance floor packing tune?

Here is what works for us....everytime. Dance floor tunes require you to put your ego as a guitar player aside. Sultans of Swing is one of my all time favorite tunes(yes, I can play it note for note), but if we played that, people would yawn and fall asleep.

1. Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes

2. Centerfold - J Giles

3. Song #2 - Blur

4. Fight for your right to party - Beastie Boys

5. Play that funky music - Wild Cherry

6. Shook me all night long - AC/DC

7. Bawitdaba - Kid Rock

8. Authority song - J Cougar

9. IWYTWM - Cheap Trick

10 867-5309 - Tommy Tutone

11 Use your love tonght(Josie) - ????

12 Jessies Girl - Rick Springfield

13 Summer of '69 - Brian Adams

14 Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison

15 Pour Some Sugar on me - Def Lep

16 American Girl - Petty

17 Don't Stop Believing - Journey

18 Seperate Ways - Journey

19 Boys of Summer - Don Henley

20 Jungle Boogie

21 What I got - ?????

If you play these, and they don't go over, you are playing them wrong/poorly. PERIOD.

[Jamie K]

11 Use your love tonght(Josie) - ????

Outfield

serious high notes on that one, EAP! hats off to ya!

[cmatthes]

"What I Got" - Sublime

Two chords that everybody loves...

[edgar_allan_poe]

11 Use your love tonght(Josie) - ????

Outfield

serious high notes on that one, EAP! hats off to ya!

I can sing that, but don't need to 'cuz our lead singer can handle that easily. We do the three part harmony on that one though. Great tune.

What I Got" - Sublime

Two chords that everybody loves...

Exactly why I said that dance tunes require you to put away your guitar playing ego. D to G the entire tune...

[HamerHokie]

2. Centerfold - J Giles

10. 867-5309 - Tommy Tutone

20 Jungle Boogie

I've been wanting to do a J Geils song for awhile but I can't get the rest of the guys interested in 'Give It Up,' my fave. Centerfold or Love Stinks might go over better with them.

If I was in an 80s band I would do Jenny Jenny in a heartbeat.

How do you do Jungle Boogie without a horn section?? That keeps us from doing things like 'Domino' by Van Morrison and 'Vehicle' by Ides of March.

To answer the original question, it all depends on the time of the evening and the type of crowd, but we get dancers for

Honky Tonk Woman

Roadhouse Blues

Pink Cadillac (we play it Bang a Gong style)

Brown Eyed Girl

Mustang

Mama Dont Dance

Takin Care of Business

Fire Down Below

[edgar_allan_poe]

How do you do Jungle Boogie without a horn section??

Our singer is actually a very good keyboard player...when he wants/needs to be.

[HamerHokie]

How do you do Jungle Boogie without a horn section??

Our singer is actually a very good keyboard player...when he wants/needs to be.

Aiiieee!! Digital horns drive me nuts. I guess if the patch was authentic enough I could live with it.

[edgar_allan_poe]

Aiiieee!! Digital horns drive me nuts. I guess if the patch was authentic enough I could live with it.

I agree...but we aren't in a recording studio and 99.9999999% of the crowd could care friggin less how authentic the horns sound. As long as they aren't a complete joke(aka Casio keyboard sounds) they work plenty fine. Like I said before...playing in a cover/dance band requires major sacrifice of not only ego, but standards as well. Remember, we play that song at around 1:30AM when the crowd is good and plastered. Trust me bro...no one is standing in the audience saying "THOSE ARE DIGITAL HORNS!!! DAMN THEM!!!" LOL!!

[mathman]

I'm sure there's at least ONE person who's doing thinking that.

[edgar_allan_poe]

I'm sure there's at least ONE person who's doing thinking that. ph34r.gif

No one that matters. That song is played for the female *dancers* who are there to have a good time. I could give two shits about the dudes at the bar with their arms crossed saying to themselves "I could do that better..."

[DavidE]

I'm sure there's at least ONE person who's doing thinking that. ph34r.gif

No one that matters. That song is played for the female *dancers* who are there to have a good time. I could give two shits about the dudes at the bar with their arms crossed saying to themselves "I could do that better..."

What's funny about those guys is that they never play outside of their basement to show the world that they really can do that better.......

[edgar_allan_poe]

What's funny about those guys is that they never play outside of their basement to show the world that they really can do that better......

LOL!! (poe sits back and waits for the shitstorm caused by Dave's extreme insensitivity to the basement rockers) HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

[DavidE]

What's funny about those guys is that they never play outside of their basement to show the world that they really can do that better......

LOL!! (poe sits back and waits for the shitstorm caused by Dave's extreme insensitivity to the basement rockers) HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

;-)

I thought about that when I wrote it. I have no problem with basement rockers. I've heard some amazing players who never play out, never play in a band etc..... Some of those guys don't understand that it takes more than chops to play live. Even the guys and gals who are better players doesn't necessarily mean that they could do it better in a live gig situation.

[cmatthes]

When the bar/club owners see women having a good time, they always seem to appreciate it.

[DavidE]

When the bar/club owners see women having a good time, they always seem to appreciate it.

They like it even better if it's because they've been drinking at the club and the cash registers have been ringing! ;-)

[edgar_allan_poe]

They like it even better if it's because they've been drinking at the club and the cash registers have been ringing! ;-)

Exactly...*that* is why we are booked solid until Sept of next year.

[serial]

Pour Some Sugar

Enter Sandman (ALWAYS goes over, moreso with the ladies actually)

Sweet Home Pennsyltucky (God I HATE that song)

Brown Eyed Girl

Rock and Roll All Nite

I Want You To Want Me

You Shook Me

Blister in the Sun

Should I Stay or Should I Go

American Girl

Funny that everyone probably plays from the same 100 or so tunes every night!

[DavidE]

They like it even better if it's because they've been drinking at the club and the cash registers have been ringing! ;-)

Exactly...*that* is why we are booked solid until Sept of next year.

Yup. Put together an entertaining band that people want to see and get a following that will spend money when they come to see you and you've got it made.

My band probably played its last gig last night since two of the guys are hitting the road with Saving Jane soon (their next single is starting to air). The guy who ran the club was telling us we have to put the band back together when they get off the road. Of course they're hoping they have a top 10 hit, make it huge and move to Malibu. Frankly, the new single has that potential. At least to hit the top 10 if not make them rich (one song off their last record hit the top 23). We'll see what happens.