10 Songs That Carrie and I Insist Be Played At Our Wedding: A Semi-Regular Feature (...Maybe)By way of a preamble, to qualify, a song must be (a) mellow enough that you can slow dance to it, or (b) upbeat enough that you can bust a move/rock out/get your freak on (or whatever the hell the kids are calling in these days. My God, when did I get so old??). What this means is that certain songs that I love dearly--"Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Massive Attack's "Angel"--simply won't make the cut. With that said, onto our selections.
Kyle's Picks
1. "Come Pick Me Up" by Ryan Adams (or: "Oh, My Sweet Carolina" or "The Hardest Part"--both are also by Adams): I've discussed this elsewhere (see footnote #42 here) and I'll renew my concerns here: much like a PG-13 movie, you probably can't use "fuck" as a verb (or, maybe, at all) during a wedding reception. If that's the case, I'd opt for one of the other two Adams' songs I've listed. But, if I had my druthers, it'd be "Come Pick Me Up," which remains, hands down, the best musical meditation on love gone wrong in existence...
2. The Counting Crows cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City": ...although, in fairness, you could make a pretty convincing case for this song, as well. (Though the tone here, while bleak--see: "I guess everything dies, baby, that's a fact"--is undeniably hopeful, too) Springsteen's version is tremendous, don't get me wrong, but the Crows version has always resonated with me.
3. "Shout" by Otis Day and the Knights*: not to be too blunt about this, but, if you didn't play this at your wedding, I don't officially recognize you as married. That's right, I just (probably) slammed your marriage--deal with it. Granted, I'm not big on dancing (truth be told: I avoid it at all cost), but if there's ever a song to get me out of my chair, it's this one. Please note that's it's vital that you slowly lower yourself to the ground during the "a little bit softer now" section and that you raise yourself up during the "a little bit louder now" section, a la Animal House. (Togas optional.) Remember I said this, as the song is roughly 25 times more fun to dance to if done correctly. You'll thank me later...
* = Technically, Otis Day and the Knights were merely a cinematic construct (they don't actually exist...and the song is lip-synched in Animal House--something I only recently discovered) and the song should be credited to the Isley Brothers, but, screw it, it'll always be Otis Day for me.
4. "Wonderwall" by Oasis (though, not to be repetitive, the haunting Ryan Adams version would probably serve as an adequate substitute): Now...has this song been slightly devalued by me mangling it a dozen or so times while playing Rock Band? In a word: absolutely. Nevertheless, it's still beautiful...and probably my favorite song ever.
5. "Banquet" by Bloc Party: goddamn, I just adore this song. This is obviously one of their more danceable tunes, but if we're looking to slow things down, I'd go with their acoustic version of "Plans" or "This Modern Love" (though that one--in that the refrain is "this modern love...breaks me"--is arguably a little bleak for our wedding day).
Carrie's Picks
6. "Thriller" by Michael Jackson: because MJ is [Kyle here: "was"?] shit cool and this is his best song to dance to.
7. "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey: Lots of reasons. Carrie says that this song reminds her of "Muldoons with the girls," that she loves it because you have to sing along with it any time it comes on, and because it's an all-around feel good song. (And I'd like to point out that this is probably the only song in music history where the chorus doesn't kick in until the very end of the song. Think about it.)
8. "Delicate" by Damien Rice: our love for Damien Rice is one of the reasons we connected in the first place, so something from DR is essential here. Neither of us would cite this as our favorite track on O ("Volcano" and "Cannonball" are both superior, if a little, uh, intense for the reception), but "Delicate" is probably the sweetest of the bunch.
9. "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon: Because Carrie's a huge Paul Simon fan and loves this video. A great song any way you cut it. (Also, according to Wikipedia--aka "the site that never, ever lies"--Al Gore, somewhat hilariously, used this song on the campaign trail in '92--apparently, there's no truth to the rumor that he also had a copy of "Celebrate" on vinyl on hand in his White House office.
10. "Down Under" by Men at Work: because this song is very Australian, and Australia is where we: met up after Korea, lived together for the first time, and got engaged. Good times.
