Ballroom Joe: “Taming the Savage DJ”

“Taming the Savage DJ”

Ever been to a wedding and get the sense that DJs have a hidden agenda to inundate the world with Frank Sinatra, Hip Hop, Disco, and nothing else in between? Sometimes that can happen. It's not that DJs love disco and hip-hop. They are simply playing what, in their experience will get the party started. But how can you get the DJ to play a greater variety of music you can Ballroom dance to, without bringing your collection of “Dancing with the Stars” CDs along with you to the wedding, and playing music that nobody else can enjoy?

The fact is all good DJs depend on response from you. They love it. It makes their job so much easier. So you should never feel innappropriate or out of line for requesting music. But if you go up to a DJ and say "can you play a foxtrot" or "can you play a hustle", odds are, there is a good chance they won’t know what to play. Even though Ballroom dancing has been around for hundreds of years, it has only just recently experience a new “boom”, and the DJs have had a chance to become ballroom dance music officianados. So don't put the burden all on the DJ. Go In with a song title in mind. If you say "can you play a Cha Cha", odds are you'll get that version of "tea for two" from the 1940's, when you could be dancing to Santana, or Madonna, or Fresh Prince, or Outkast or even ACDC. If you ask for a swing, surely you'll get "In the Mood" and "Jump Jive and wail". But who knew you could just as easily swing to "Crocidile Rock", "Hey Ya", or "Footloose". All great swing rythyms.

If you ask for a foxtrot, will he look at you like you got nine heads, or will he be able to whip out Harry Connick Jr's "Had to Be You" or Bobby Darin's "Under the Sea" or every other Frank Sinatra song without a blink? And surely if you ask for a Rumba, you won’t get "Under the Boardwalk" or "My Girl" or "Stand By me" or Sting's "Field's of Gold". But you could. They’re all great rumbas.

You could ask the DJ to play a waltz. Sure, he might know which songs are a waltz, or they might put on the one Edelweiss instrumental they have from their “Ballroom Standards” cd. Or he’ll search and not have anything. But if you say "Can you play Aretha Franklin's "Natural Woman" or Eagles "Take it to the Limit". And then go out and Waltz to it, surely you’ll light up the dance floor. In addition, the DJ will now know that people can waltz to those songs for his next gig. I have never seen a time when a couple took to the floor and did some ballroom moves that it didn't light up the room to some degree and add and extra touch of class to the affair. So, I strongly encourage you to work with your DJ. Go in prepared with some song titles that other people will also enjoy. But Joe, you ask, how in the world are we supposed to gather up a list of which songs are which dance? If the DJ doesn’t know, how can we? Here's a start.

I’ve made two lists below of 100 songs that I have culled mostly from “top requested wedding songs” DJ websites. The first lists songs by their title, and gives you the artist and the dance most appropriate for that song. The second just lists the songs grouped in the type of dance you want to dance, so you can browse.

As I said, this list is a start. If you have any other song titles of great popular songs that you can ballroom or rythym dance to, that are not on this list, feel free to email me and ask me. Maybe we could have the largest online list of popular songs that people can request at weddings, right here at BallroomJoe.com...

SONG TITLE	ARTIST	DANCE
All I Want is You	U2	Rumba
And We Danced	Hooters	Swing
Beyond the Sea	Bobby Darin	Foxtrot
Black Magic Woman	Santana	Cha Cha
Blue Skies	Various	Foxtrot
BrickHouse	Rick James	Cha Cha
BrickHouse	Rick James	Hustle
Brown Eyed Girl	Van Morrison	Swing
Cant get enough of your love	Barry White	Hustle
Celebration	Kool & the Gang	Hustle
Change the World	Eric Clapton	Rumba
Come Dance With Me	Frank Sinatra	Foxtrot
Come Fly with Me	Frank Sinatra	Foxtrot
Crocodile Rock	Elton John	Swing
Da Butt	E.U.	Samba
Dancing Queen	Abba	Hustle
Does anyone Really Know what time it is	Chicago	Foxtrot
Evil Ways	Santana	Cha Cha
Father and Daughter	Paul Simon	Rumba
Fields of Gold	Sting	Rumba
Footloose	Kenny Loggins	Swing
Get Jiggy With it	Will Smith	Cha Cha
Gloria Estefan	Conga	Merengue
Good Love	Grateful Dead	Swing
Heat Wave	Martha Reeves	Swing
Hey Ya	OutKast	Swing
Hips Don't Lie	Shakira	Samba
Hot Hot Hot	Engelbert Humperdink	Merengue
I Heard it Through the Grapevine	Marvin Gaye	West Coast Swing
I knew the Bride when she used to Rock n Roll	Dave Edmunds	Swing
I Need to Know	Marc Anthony	Cha Cha
In My Life	Beatles	Rumba
In the Mood	Count Basie	Swing
In Your Eyes	Peter Gabriel	Samba/Mambo
Into the Groove	Madonna	Cha Cha
It Had to Be You	Harry Connick Jr.	Foxtrot
It is You	Linda Rondstat	Waltz
It Takes Two	Rob Base	Samba
Jump in the Line	Harry Bellafonte	Samba
Jump Jive & Wail	Brian Setzer	Swing
Kind and Generous	Natalie Merchant	Samba
Kissed By a Rose	Seal	Waltz
La Bamba	Los Lobos	Swing
Lady Marmalade	Moulin Rouge Sndtrk.	Cha Cha
Last Dance	Donna Summer	Hustle
Last Dance	Donna Summer	Hustle
Leave a Tender Moment Alone	Billy Joel	Foxtrot
Lido Shuffle	Boz Scaggs	Swing
Livin' La Vida Loca	Ricky Martin	Mambo/Salsa
Locomotion	Kylie Minogue	Cha Cha
Love Shack	B-52s	Cha Cha
Mac the Knife	Bobby Darin	Foxtrot
Mambo #5	Lou Vega	Mambo/Salsa
Margaritaville	Jimmy Buffet	Rumba
Moon River	Various	Waltz
More than a Woman	BeeGees	Hustle
Mustang Sally	Wilson Picket	West Coast Swing
My Everything	Barry White	Hustle
My Everything	Barry White	Hustle
My Girl	The Temptations	Rumba
Natural Woman	Aretha Franklin	Waltz
New York, New York	Frank Sinatra	Foxtrot
Nothin' But Flowers	Talking Heads	Merengue
Oh What a Night	Frankie Valli	Samba
Old Fashioned Girl	James Taylor	Waltz
Old Time Rock & Roll	Bob Seger	Swing
One of these Nights	Eagles	Rumba
Oye Como Va	Santana	Cha Cha
R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.	John Cougar	Swing
Rock around the Clock	Bill Haley & the Comets	Swing
Runaround Sue	Dion	Swing
Save the Last Dance for Me	Michael Buble	Cha Cha
Save the Last Dance for Me	Michael Buble	Cha Cha
Sexy and Seventeen	Brian Setzer	Swing
Shook Me all Night Long	AC-DC	Cha Cha
Smooth	Santana w/Rob Thomas	Cha Cha
Stand By Me	Ben E. King	Rumba
Stayin' Alive	Beegees	Hustle
Still the One	Shania Twain	Rumba
Still the One	The Orleans	Swing
Sway	Michael Buble	Cha Cha
Sweet Caroline	Neil Diamond	Foxtrot
Take it to the Limit	Eagles	Waltz
Tequila	Champs	Mambo/Salsa
the Game of Love	Santana w/Michelle Branch	Cha Cha
The Way you Look tonight	Frank Sinatra	Foxtrot
The Way You Move	Outkast	Cha Cha
Under the Boardwalk	The Drifters	Rumba
Vogue	Madonna	Hustle
Volcano	Jimmy Buffet	Samba
We are Family	Sister Sledge	Hustle
What I like about You	Romantics	Swing
What the World Needs Now	Various	Waltz
With or Without You	U2	Rumba
World on a String	Frank Sinatra	Foxtrot
You Light Up My Life	Various	Waltz
You Make me Feel So Young	Frank Sinatra	Foxtrot
You've got a friend	James Taylor	Rumba
Zoot Suit Riot	Cherry Poppin Daddies	Swing

DANCE	SONG TITLE	ARTIST
Cha Cha	Black Magic Woman	Santana
Cha Cha	BrickHouse	Rick James
Cha Cha	Evil Ways	Santana
Cha Cha	Get Jiggy With it	Will Smith
Cha Cha	I Need to Know	Marc Anthony
Cha Cha	Into the Groove	Madonna
Cha Cha	Lady Marmalade	Moulin Rouge Sndtrk.
Cha Cha	Locomotion	Kylie Minogue
Cha Cha	Love Shack	B-52s
Cha Cha	Oye Como Va	Santana
Cha Cha	Save the Last Dance for Me	Michael Buble
Cha Cha	Save the Last Dance for Me	Michael Buble
Cha Cha	Shook Me all Night Long	AC-DC
Cha Cha	Smooth	Santana w/Rob Thomas
Cha Cha	Sway	Michael Buble
Cha Cha	the Game of Love	Santana w/Michelle Branch
Cha Cha	The Way You Move	Outkast
Foxtrot	Beyond the Sea	Bobby Darin
Foxtrot	Blue Skies	Various
Foxtrot	Come Dance With Me	Frank Sinatra
Foxtrot	Come Fly with Me	Frank Sinatra
Foxtrot	Does anyone Really Know what time it is	Chicago
Foxtrot	It Had to Be You	Harry Connick Jr.
Foxtrot	Leave a Tender Moment Alone	Billy Joel
Foxtrot	Mac the Knife	Bobby Darin
Foxtrot	New York, New York	Frank Sinatra
Foxtrot	Sweet Caroline	Neil Diamond
Foxtrot	The Way you Look tonight	Frank Sinatra
Foxtrot	World on a String	Frank Sinatra
Foxtrot	You Make me Feel So Young	Frank Sinatra
Hustle	BrickHouse	Rick James
Hustle	Cant get enough of your love	Barry White
Hustle	Can't Get Enough of Your Love	Barry White
Hustle	Celebration	Kool & the Gang
Hustle	Dancing Queen	Abba
Hustle	Last Dance	Donna Summer
Hustle	Last Dance	Donna Summer
Hustle	More than a Woman	BeeGees
Hustle	My Everything	Barry White
Hustle	My Everything	Barry White
Hustle	Stayin' Alive	Beegees
Hustle	Vogue	Madonna
Hustle	We are Family	Sister Sledge
Mambo/Salsa	Livin' La Vida Loca	Ricky Martin
Mambo/Salsa	Mambo #5	Lou Vega
Mambo/Salsa	Tequila	Champs
Merengue	Gloria Estefan	Conga
Merengue	Hot Hot Hot	Engelbert Humperdink
Merengue	Nothin' But Flowers	Talking Heads
Rumba	All I Want is You	U2
Rumba	Change the World	Eric Clapton
Rumba	Father and Daughter	Paul Simon
Rumba	Fields of Gold	Sting
Rumba	In My Life	Beatles
Rumba	Margaritaville	Jimmy Buffet
Rumba	My Girl	The Temptations
Rumba	One of these Nights	Eagles
Rumba	Stand By Me	Ben E. King
Rumba	Still the One	Shania Twain
Rumba	Under the Boardwalk	The Drifters
Rumba	With or Without You	U2
Rumba	You've got a friend	James Taylor
Samba	DaButt	E.U.
Samba	Hips Don't Lie	Shakira
Samba	It Takes Two	Rob Base
Samba	Jump in the Line	Harry Bellafonte
Samba	Kind and Generous	Natalie Merchant
Samba	Oh What a Night	Frankie Valli
Samba	Volcano	Jimmy Buffet
Samba/Mambo	In Your Eyes	Peter Gabriel
Swing	And We Danced	Hooters
Swing	Brown Eyed Girl	Van Morrison
Swing	Crocodile Rock	Elton John
Swing	Footloose	Kenny Loggins
Swing	Good Love	Grateful Dead
Swing	Heat Wave	Martha Reeves
Swing	Hey Ya	OutKast
Swing	I knew the Bride when she used to Rock n Roll	Dave Edmunds
Swing	In the Mood	Count Basie
Swing	Jump Jive & Wail	Brian Setzer
Swing	La Bamba	Los Lobos
Swing	Lido Shuffle	Boz Scaggs
Swing	Old Time Rock & Roll	Bob Seger
Swing	R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.	John Cougar
Swing	Rock around the Clock	Bill Haley & the Comets
Swing	Runaround Sue	Dion
Swing	Sexy and Seventeen	Brian Setzer
Swing	Still the One	The Orleans
Swing	What I like about You	Romantics
Swing	Zoot Suit Riot	Cherry Poppin Daddies
Waltz	It is You	Linda Rondstat
Waltz	Kissed By a Rose	Seal
Waltz	Moon River	Various
Waltz	Natural Woman	Aretha Franklin
Waltz	Old Fashioned Girl	James Taylor
Waltz	Take it to the Limit	Eagles
Waltz	What the World Needs Now	Various
Waltz	You Light Up My Life	Various
West Coast Swing	I Heard it Through the Grapevine	Marvin Gaye
West Coast Swing	Mustang Sally	Wilson Picket