This, for example, despite being from a movie, clearly evinces the kind of fun that "Shout" invites.
For the longest time, I thought the version in Animal House had them singing "Just a little bit fucking now" at the end.
Looking on youtube, I didn't know the Shangri-Las had covered 'Shout'. In the UK, the ubiquitous version is Lulu (from '64).
3: Have you encountered any hate for the song, wedding-based or otherwise? And are people saying "totes"? These are things we yanks must know, post-haste.
re: 4
No,* and no [except in the fashion/luggage context]. Glad to be of service.
* except that Lulu is terminally unfashionable, despite latter-day attempts by people like Bob Stanley to rehabilitate her 'Atco' era work.
I love that song. It reminds me of being at dances at summer camp.
I think its a great song, but I can see why a wedding caterer would hate it. Week after week, having to watch dweeby drunken wedding people shouting a little bit louder now? I'd come to hate it too.
I love that song too, but I think that I want a swing band at my wedding.
I'm glad you linked the video in #1, because while reading the post I couldn't understand why anyone would request Tears for Fears at a wedding. Guess I'm showing my age.
We went with an iPod for our wedding - way cheaper, obviously, plus how many bands play all 3 of (1) Gypsy brass & klezmer (2) 80s nostalgia music and (3) 50s nostalgia music? Didn't play "shout" though. Or YMCA.
What age? The Isley Brothers song was released 50 years ago, the Tears for Fears song was released 25 years ago.
(Dual anniversaries! You'd be a fool not to have a medley at your wedding)
Words cannot express my lack of enthusiasm about having a DJ/MC guy at our wedding reception. The wedding is going to be small anyway, and I can't imagine a situation where there are more than 10 people there both willing and able to do the Electric Slide. It seems like my nightmare won't become a reality, though.
Have you talked to your fiancee about children yet, Ned?
Not at the wedding. In your home.
I'm a lifelong Beatles fan, but I've always viewed their "Shout" as nothing more than a cover. It drives me nuts that it has, in some circles, supplanted the Isley Bros.
12: I'm a soulless music-hater, but you can throw a wedding without dancing. I did, and people had a perfectly pleasant time just drinking and talking.
14: JRoth -- you do realize that "Shout" is not the same song as "Twist and Shout", right?
Also, I just found out that Isley Bros. version of "Twist and Shout" is also a cover.
Isley Bros? You mean the people that sold the chipped ham?
15: Sure, but who would marry someone without a soul?
Oh...sorry, Buck!
(speaking as someone who got married at the courthouse twice)
We had no dancing at our reception. We had a sing-a-long instead.
Words cannot express my lack of enthusiasm about having a DJ/MC guy at our wedding reception. The wedding is going to be small anyway, and I can't imagine a situation where there are more than 10 people there both willing and able to do the Electric Slide. It seems like my nightmare won't become a reality, though.
By god, don't have a DJ/MC person! They are just awful. And don't believe all the bullshit about how you need someone to make announcements and introductions even if you're not having dancing or are having an iPod reception. Bullshit.
re: 16
The Beatles covered both.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn97f2VJx3I
16: Shit, I wasn't thinking clearly.
I disapprove of the Animal House version of "Shout" and of the Beatles version of "Twist n Shout." I am unaware of any covers of the Tears for Fears song, but I can't imagine that I'd approve.
OTOH, I massively approve of the samba-fied "Billie Jean" that appears on (what I believe to be) a recentish K-Sky mix.
I did not know that the Isley Bros. was itself a cover. Interesting.
all the bullshit about how you need someone to make announcements and introductions
This inclination is weird. Somehow this duty always falls to me, even though I never have a mic at non-wedding gigs. Someone will come over and whisper something like, "Okay, now call up Uncle Bob for the blessing." And I think, "This mic is on, and you know Uncle Bob far better than I do. Wouldn't it be nice if you called him up?"
22: Some people are mic-phobic. They need a DJ/MC. Stanley, it sounds like you are a natural.
I like "shout" too. They played it at my kids walkathon two weeks ago. I shazamed it so I would remember to get a copy. I had not heard that song in a long time.
The Isley Bros. have had an impressively long career with a top 40 hit in every decade since the sixties.
Fight the power is particularly sweet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL2xmc_Gnig
Stanley, it sounds like you are a natural.
Hardly. In those situations I'm constantly reminding myself to SPEAK. SLOWLY. CLEARLY. and with CONFIDENCE.
You never know what Uncle Bob is going to say about the bride's cleavage.
22: This inclination is weird.
I think it's an authority thing. The people managing the wedding (that is, the guy who knows it's Uncle Bob's turn and is handing you the mike) tend to be friends of the bride and groom or siblings/cousins in that generation, because the couple themselves and their parents are otherwise occupied. So you've got some twentysomething who, if he's a friend of the groom rather than a relative, may not know Uncle Bob, and is uncomfortable telling an older man to do something, and he hands it off to you, because as the front man for the band, you have an official position that allows you to order people around.
It takes a rare level of disinhibition (i.e., something beyond that caused by the consumption of alcohol) for me to get on the dance floor at a wedding, but when I have, I have found "Shout" to be one of the more enjoyable wedding cliches. Certainly it's better than "Y.M.C.A." and whatever that Chicken Dance song is called. And the "Hokey Pokey"—fuck the Hokey Pokey.
If I can move beyond participation dances, though, I will say that truly execrable is "You Look Wonderful Tonight". So heavy-handed, Eric! Can you try a little harder to tell us how to feel? And yes, DJ, real romantic to have the newly married couple do their first dance to the same damn first dance song that a bazillion other couples have first danced too!
And see, I got so worked up I hit the "o" key one too many times at the end there.
"You Look Wonderful Tonight"
I think I've brought this up before, but if I understand the lyrics, the narrator goes to a party with a woman who's looking great, gets too drunk to drive home, and falls asleep. This is romantic?
And yes, DJ, real romantic to have the newly married couple do their first dance to the same damn first dance song that a bazillion other couples have first danced too!
This isn't the DJ's choice, though.
you have an official position that allows you to order people around
That seems right. They want an officiant, because This is Still Something Official Happening, Mind You, but the priest/rabbi/judge/whatever is gone and band dudes are the ones hanging around with a PA system.
The real problem for me is that I'm repressing the urge to say, "Now we'd like to welcome Uncle Bob up here. Big round of applause for Uncle Bob! [pause for applause] Uncle Bob, as you all know is going to…NARFLE THE GARTHOK!!!"
True. I'm just thinking of a case when the bride and groom requested that he not play it, yet he played it anyway.
30: Yes, because all women really care about is that looking good.
Shit. I'm a bad husband. I can't remember what our first dance was to. It was a very old song, like from 40s or before.
And the "Hokey Pokey"--fuck the Hokey Pokey
Gosh, I didn't know anyone could be so hostile to the sweet, innocent, "Hokey Pokey."
You know, Otto, it is what it's all about.
Is there an old ballad called "Our Love is Here to Stay" or something like that?
38: Yes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Here_to_Stay
37: Kraftwerk version FTW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP1tkspU5yw
Thanks. I hope that was the right song.
43: Excellent choice, if it was.
36: but when a guest intercedes to be sure the proper songs are played at a wedding, it is the opposite of dickweed.
44: If that was indeed our choice, it was all the bride. I wanted Byran Adams.
Gosh, I didn't know anyone could be so hostile to the sweet, innocent, "Hokey Pokey."
The "Hokey Pokey" fills me with existential dread. We put our right hands in; we put our right hands out; we put our right hands in, and we shake them all about. All this action! All this ferment! And yet once we turn ourselves about we are just right back where we started again. It's Sisyphean, almost.
And yet once we turn ourselves about we are just right back where we started again.
I believe this is a common feature of dances.
The "Hokey Pokey" fills me with existential dread
Otto imagines his own funeral. "They're going to try to put me in a coffin. I can just see it. They put the left leg in. That's where the trouble starts."
I very much enjoyed dancing to Shout one time at karaoke, and I am not much of a dancer. A bobber, a jumper, a swayer, but not much of a dancer.
Hmm. You may be right. Perhaps you are not the epitome of idiocy of the Internet Generation after all.
OTOH, I massively approve of the samba-fied "Billie Jean" that appears on (what I believe to be) a recentish K-Sky mix.
via me.
51: Thanks, Otto! I feel a little less stupid already!
Yeah, which one was it? "Everything I do"? "Summer of '69"?
53: I'm such a dickweed.
Actually, maybe k-sky stole it. Did you put it on a mix entitled Borrowing Time?
Actually, maybe k-sky stole it. Did you put it on a mix entitled Borrowing Time?
I do think k-sky put it on a mix. (IIRC, when he posted the mix he commented that several of the tracks were from other people at unfogged).
58: Yeah, that's the one. And, indeed, at least one other song on the mix I already had from here (presumably from you, but who knows?).
Anyway, that song made AB say that she'd stop making fun of me for listening to Unfogged mixes (nothing against the music in them - well, in some of them - she just thought it was funny that I spend all my time on this blog then I listen to music from it, like some immersive experience).
She did want to know, however, whether the Conway Twitty was intended ironically. I said I didn't know.
55, 56: In my defense, Taylor Swift hadn't been invented then, so I had a suboptimal set of choices.
60: It's OK. And please don't take it personally. I'm just being a dickweed in this thread.
56: It isn't too hard to see that it had to be, "Heaven." Right, Moby?
I totally stole it and did not credit it to NickS specifically. It remains live at sendspace. Track list here.
There is another volume here with a CD cover here.
Nick, I love your blog.
63 to 58-59, and the Conway Twitty was not ironic when I put it in, nor do I think it was when Heebie loaded it up originally.
fuck the Hokey Pokey
I have a special place in my heart for the Hokey Pokey based on the home movie footage of my four-year-old self turning myself about utterly out of sync with all the other 4-year-old turn-yourself-abouters. I was freaking adorable.
I can't remember my bride/groom first dance -- some hideously long Irish ballad UNG liked. But my father/bride dance was awesome. We went with Connie's wedding theme from the Godfather. Meaningful, as the Kotimy family has long bonded over Godfather quotes. And mercifully short, as this particular Kotimy really has no business on a dance floor.
k - I have downloaded all 3 volumes, and love them, albeit in descending order. Although I did not love having Cannibal Queen stuck in my head from 6:30 am until 8:15 am yesterday.
I would have known you stole it from HG but my download of her mix failed somehow (it sat on my desktop looking fine for a month or two, but when I finally tried to open it to put on the iTunes, it crapped out. Oh well).
The Randy Newman reminds me of the discussion at Nick'S last spring (?) about narrators and such. It appears to be Randy being earnest, hard as it is to believe.
Nick, I love your blog.
That's great. I enjoy it but I am grateful to anyone who follows it despite the complete lack of pace.
The Randy Newman reminds me of the discussion at Nick'S last spring (?) about narrators and such.
Good memory. That was here and here with a minor follow-up here.
ben, who commented on those posts is still interested in that question and I keep trying to talk him into writing a guest post.
We went with Connie's wedding theme from the Godfather.
Combining this fact with all the stories you have told us about UNG, it really is a tribute to your good nature that UNG is still among the living.
Thanks so much, JRoth.
19 is overstated IME. We had that bullshit and it worked fine. Our DJ was a little weird about demanding that she not be replaced by a guest MC--"I have to establish a rapport with your guests in order to keep the party moving"--but in the end it was one less thing that I had to worry about.
67: The Randy Newman song I brought up in the comments really is the most impressive tangle of narrative ever. One of these days I'll have to blog it out at greater length than this comment. What an onion.
I admit that it is theoretically possible to have a wedding DJ/MC who doesn't suck... I just have never personally experienced one.
I should also mention, JRoth, that if you liked the Caetano Veloso cover of "Billie Jean" that my most recent post has another Caetano Veloso song.
It is one of my very favorite songs but also a bit odd. I find it immediately likable, but I haven't figured out a good way to explain what I like about it.
Your blog is great, NickS. Except that I can't stand Randy Newman or anything anyone writes about him.
"In America," Newman sings [in "Sail Away"], "every man is free/ To take care of his home, and his family." But no more than that, is the bitter, unsung line.
--Greil Marcus, Mystery Train.
How's that, ned?
except that Lulu is terminally unfashionable
If "To Sir with Love" is terminally unfashionable, well then I don't want to be fashionable. Or non-terminal. Or whatever. It's a great little pop song.
...I don't want to be fashionable.
You'll just have to settle for cute, then.
75 is exactly right.
I hope they use it on Glee, now that I'm not writing a spec using it.
76: I'm still waiting for someone to take me from crayons to perfume.
Sirrrrz.
Except that I can't stand Randy Newman or anything anyone writes about him.
I initially flipped anything and anyone in this sentence, and thought it extraordinarily harsh. As it is, it merely seems harsh.
My response to #74, for example, would be to say "Really?". A totally anodyne line like that, from a song whose satire is totally obvious with a couple laugh lines, actually has those particular hidden depths?
My response to #74, for example, would be to say "Really?". A totally anodyne line like that, from a song whose satire is totally obvious with a couple laugh lines, actually has those particular hidden depths?
As long as we're testing the limits of your distaste, I have to say that I think Randy Newman's writing can be quite good. His liner notes for Faust, for example, as classic.
ACT 1: It is 4004 B.C., and the Lord has just created the Universe. He and His Original Angels celebrate the Lord's great acheivement (Glory Train). Lucifer, the Lord's favorite, and the best looking angel by far, makes a little mistake, as will happen at parties, and is banished from Heaven forthwith and forever.
The centuries fly by. Lucifer, the Devil, now reigns in Hell where to the surprise of many, he has proven to be an effective administrator--harsh to be sure, vicious, even sadistic, ruthless when necessary but always fair. His life has not been an easy one however, and he longs to return to Heaven where they now have golf, roller coasters and Hawaiian music. He promises revenge (Can't Keep A Good Man Down).
I suspect there's just a pretty fundamental divide between people who like Randy Newman and people who don't.
72: Thanks for the tip; I actually read that post (today, that is), but I still haven't internalized the name of the artist, so I skimmed right past it: "2) "Maria Bethânia" -- Some Foreigner I've Never Heard Of, 1971".
Any tips on getting into samba? It's such a huge genre. One thing I'd say is that I'm more interested in the more energetic stuff - some samba can be a bit soporific.
84: Those who "don't" should listen to his Good Old Boys album, and if they still don't ... well what can one say?
86: that they don't like Randy Newman?
Having grown up reading any book of rock criticism I could find, several years before actually hearing anything by many of the artists, some of them turned out to be just incredibly disappointing. Two that leap to mind are Randy Newman and Graham Parker.
To hear any rock critic tell it, Randy Newman combines all the best features of Elton John and Tom Lehrer. I would describe it more like a combination of Billy Joel, and Tom Lehrer in a parallel universe where he had never retired and had ran out of ideas five albums ago but kept coasting on his reputation. Also, his voice annoys me. He sounds like he's trying to make fun of Van Morrison.
Any tips on getting into samba?
No, not really, sorry.
I would describe it more like a combination of Billy Joel, and Tom Lehrer in a parallel universe where he had never retired and had ran out of ideas five albums ago but kept coasting on his reputation.
Hmmm, I realize that you aren't looking for recommendation, but if you're looking for something by Randy Newman that is more Tom Lehrer-esque you might enjoy Great Nations of Europe (his voice may still annoy you).
Also, you're comment is actually a pretty funny description of Randy Newman.
Thanks for your equanimity and the recommendation. I'll listen to that song when I have speakers, later tonight.
I am looking for recommendations in fact. I haven't heard the Faust album, for example.
I haven't heard the Faust album, for example.
Ah, then I recommend that as well.
That was the album that got me into Randy Newman. In the right mood, it's one of the funniest albums that I know of. I'd mention specific songs, but they're funnier in context. And, if it helps, most of the songs on Faust aren't sung by Randy Newman and some of the casting choices are inspired. Frex, James Taylor as The Lord.
Randy Newman and I have the same birthday.
Having grown up reading any book of rock criticism I could find, several years before actually hearing anything by many of the artists
That seems like an odd thing to have done.
some of them turned out to be just incredibly disappointing [...] Graham Parker.
I'll second this. I have absolutely no idea why he is worshipped as he is. I'm not a big fan of his brand of country rock in general, but I'm open to it., I just find his stuff... uninteresting. Some of it's nice enough, but for his reputation.... It's weird.
Back to the original topic: the first time I got married, way back in the early 90s, I told the guy I absolutely wouldn't pay him one red cent if I heard even one measure of Whitney Houston shrieking "I Will Always Love You," no matter who came up and asked for it.
94: You sure you aren't thinking of Gram Parsons?
I have absolutely no idea why he is worshipped as he is. I'm not a big fan of his brand of country rock in general, but I'm open to it.
On the assumption that Apo is correct and that you're thinking of Gram Parsons I mostly agree.
I'm not a huge fan. I think he's done some good stuff; even some very good stuff, but that he's still just better-than-average.
But, as long as I'm indulging in self-promotion, I do think this is a good, well-written, song.
96: Funny, but wrong.
I probably wouldn't mind listening to a whole Graham Parker album, but I would never choose to do so. And, to be clear, I adore Emmylou.
OK, sorry, you're right, and I'm an idiot. I don't know about Ned, but I was thinking of Gram. And when I wrote 99, I was think of Alan Parsons.
shut up, gram parsons h8terz! he's great!
Alameida is at least 100 percent correct.
You know what else? The new albums by Ace Frehley and Kiss are both really good. No kidding.
I discovered the Randy Newman original version of "Political Science" by way of the David Bazan cover. I'm not 100% I would've liked the Newman version without the assist by Bazan.
I am meh on parson's solo albums and actively dislike "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". I do have to thank the critical consensus for then driving me to listen to "The Gilded Palace of Sin" over the objections of my previous listening experiences. It is an excellent album.
This is helpful. I like a few tracks off of GP and Sweethearts, but haven't fallen for it like I thought I would. I'll try Gilded Palaces.
By Gram Parsons, I really like "Durban Poison" and "No Protection" off of his live album. As apo's link above demonstrates, it's not easy to make an argument for him that isn't satisfied by Elvis Costello and a bit of Joe Jackson. OTOH I'll listen to anything that's "Beatlesesque".
107. For fuck's sake. .2 s/b "Graham Parker". I'm sick, all right?