ALOTT5MA FRIDAY [THIS FEATURE NEEDS A NAME]: Last week's Playlist feature was ridiculously popular, so we're going to make this a regular segment.
For this week: songs that compel you to dance, and I'll start it off with Deee-Lite, "Groove Is In The Heart."
Among other compelling elements: how they insisted on giving the djs something to do. QTip! Random Bootsy interjections!
ReplyDeleteCelebration - Kool and the Gang
ReplyDelete(Next playlist could be sing-a-long songs!)
DMSR - Prince
ReplyDeleteDance to the Music - Sly and the Family Stone
ReplyDeleteGet the Party Started -- P!nk
ReplyDeleteLet's Hear for the Boy! - Deneice Williams
ReplyDelete(reminds me of that first summer of legally going to bars, in particular, Jims in Charlottetown, Wednesday Ladies Night)
So last week I mentioned a Madonna song... and I really don't want to be THAT gay guy who keeps bringing everything back to Madonna, but really! With a category like this, how can I not?!?! 21 years later, "Vogue" still does it for me. (21 years!! There are people who can now drink legally in the US that weren't even born when that song came out!)
ReplyDeleteThank you for this thread. :) I'm planning my wedding playlist for September and this will be a great resource.
ReplyDeleteIt Takes Two by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock
Never There by Cake
Linus and Lucy song by either Asylum Street Spankers or Vince Guaraldi Trio.
ReplyDeleteDancing Queen - ABBA
ReplyDeleteThank you, Muriel's Wedding.
Hot-n-Fun - N.E.R.D. (featuring Nelly Furtado) and Little Secrets - Passion Pit.
ReplyDeleteStayin Alive (the Bee Gees). Really, any disco song, but especially that one.
ReplyDeleteWanna Be Startin Somethin - Michael Jackson
ReplyDeleteThe Love Cats by The Cure
ReplyDeleteShoot - I should have said Jive Talkin' by the Bee Gees.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to co-sign "It Takes Two."
ReplyDeleteOne of my best college memories was getting pulled on stage with my friends to sing with Rob Base/EZ Rock. We got to sing the "It takes to two to make a thing go right" part... normally, I'm outrageously shy about those kinds of things, but the Lynchberg Lemonades and Down Home Punches made it much easier.
ReplyDeletePYT-Michael Jackson
ReplyDeletethere is just something about that song.
Crazy in Love - Beyonce feat. Jay-Z
ReplyDeleteAnother Madonna tune -- Get Into The Groove.
ReplyDeletePet Shop Boys -- It's a Sin.
New Order -- True Faith and Blue Monday.
Can you tell I'm a child of the '80s?
Melt With You - Modern English
ReplyDeleteCrazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen (Note - makes me want to dance, but I don't really know how to dance to that kind of music, so I fake it and look ridiculous and don't care because the song is just that awesome)
Sir Mix-a-lot -- Baby Got Back
ReplyDeleteFruit Machine by the Ting Tings
ReplyDeleteShake Your Tailfeather sung by Ray Charles in the Blues Brothers movie
PYT by Michael Jackson
Groove is in the Heart is my #1 as well, but I will add Big Country (Big Country), LoveShack (B52's) and Closer to Fine (Indigo Girls).
ReplyDeleteWhy Can't I Be You - The Cure
ReplyDeleteHere It Goes Again - OK Go
Little Bird - Annie Lennox
ReplyDeleteThe New Pornographers: The Bleeding Heart Show.
ReplyDeleteAnother child of the eighties here.... Groove is in the Heart is right up there for me, but another one that I can't *not* dance to is Come on Eileen.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was going to say. :) I mean really - can you hear that song and NOT shake your butt?
ReplyDeleteGonna Make You Sweat (C&C Music Factory)? I'm not much of a dancer, but it always gets me going when I'm working out.
ReplyDeleteRight Back Where We Started From by Maxine Nightengale (and yes I think I first heard it in the trailer to a terible rom com starring SJP, BUT the song is awesome)
ReplyDeleteSome of these may be duplicates, and wow do I agree with it takes two and groove is in the heart, lets' add:
ReplyDeleteYou're the one that I Want - Travolta and Newton-John
Off the Wall - Michael
Thriller- Michael
Billie Jean - Michael
When Doves Cry - Prince
Jungle Love - Morris Day and the Time
Apache - Sugar Hill Gang
Disco Inferno - The Trammps
I saw her Standing There - The Beatles
Jam on it - Newcleus
Burning Down the House - The Talking Heads
Jailhouse Rock - The King
Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield
Gonna Make You Sweat - C & C Music Factory
Walkin' on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves
ReplyDeleteModern Love - David Bowie (not Jermaine... David Bowie)
Root Down - Beastie Boys
Proposed title - "ALOTT5MA Social History of American Pop - Syllabus - Week 4: Shaking Ones Moneymaker"
Me too, Sue. Jump to the rhythm! Jump, jump to the rhythm! Jump!
ReplyDelete<p>U Can't Touch This - MC Hammer
ReplyDelete</p><p>Gay Bar - Electric Six
</p><p>Dance, M.F., Dance - Violent Femmes
</p><p>Jump Around - House of Pain
</p><p>Flash Light - Parliament
</p><p>Blue (Da Ba Dee) - Eiffel 65
</p><p>
</p><p>(I feel like there's more early 90's pop and late 90's Eurotrash popular but one-off or short-lived dance hits that inspire me to dance, but can't think of.)
</p>
Safety Dance. Because when you're told it's safe to dance you just want to get up and take advantage of that. : )
ReplyDeleteI regard that song as frightening: "I'm going to make you sweat until you bleed." REALLY?
ReplyDeleteDon't Stop Til You Get Enough -- Michael Jackson
ReplyDeleteAll My Friends -- LCD Soundsystem
Ooh! And how about Footloose by Kenny Loggins?
ReplyDeleteWow.
ReplyDeleteWas coming specifically to add Jungle Love, but Jim beat me to it. As Adam B. often says, there is nothing that can't be made better via a dose of Morris Day and the Time.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I mean, I think of Vogue as late-era Madonna, post-peak Madonna. Now, wow, am I old.
ReplyDeleteI don't dance, therefore there are no songs that compel me to dance. I will say that "Rainbow in the Dark" compels me to bang my head.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, dancing to Jungle Love requires duplicating the band's moves from the scene in Purple Rain (preferably inviting a friend carrying a large mirror to be Jerome).
ReplyDeleteEarly Madonna: Lucky Star, Borderline, Material Girl
ReplyDeletePeak Madonna: Like A Virgin, Papa Don't Preach, Like A Prayer, Express Yourself
Late Madonna: Vogue, Justify My Love
Even Later Madonna: all that electronica stuff.
SSSSS-AAAA-FFFF-EEEE-TTTT-YYYY
ReplyDeleteViolent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
ReplyDelete"...Baby One More Time" -Britney. I'm sorry, I can't help it.
ReplyDeleteI Don't Feel Like Dancing -- Scissor Sisters
ReplyDeleteBoogie Shoes -- KC and the Sunshine Band
Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
I have dance parties in my living room to I Don't Feel Like Dancing. To me, it's like a really great mash up of Elton John, George Michael, and the Bee Gees.
ReplyDeleteI'll add Pink's Raise Your Glass. I'm loving that song right now.
Boogie Shoes - now I have to pull out the SportsNight DVD's
ReplyDeleteI was quicker on the draw. Yayyyyyy me. I'm surprised there wasn't a bruce tune too from you my boss-lovin friend...
ReplyDeleteLollipop - MIKA
ReplyDeleteTake on Me - a-ha
"Ray of Light" makes a great dance song, too.
ReplyDeleteI thought about suggesting Dancing in the Dark, but only ironically. With some exceptions, he doesn't offer a lot of danceable stuff, even if the concerts get you up and moving.
ReplyDeleteThe song otherwise known as "Forget You" and also "Time to Pretend" by MGMT.
ReplyDeleteDancing Queen (it seems like every woman my age runs out onto the dance floor for this).
ReplyDeleteHey Ya (and I always break out into a faux Snoopy dance to this...anyone remember the Peanuts video/Hey Ya mashup on You Tube from back in the day)
Single Ladies
Good Vibrations (yes. Marky Mark. Please don't mock me.)
Bang Bang - David Sanborn
ReplyDeleteMay I offer you something blue to drink?
ReplyDeleteErasure, "Oh L'Amour!"
ReplyDeleteIronically, "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" - Scissor Sisters (although I see Maret already called it. Wise choice.)
ReplyDeleteand "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" - Bruce Springsteen
http://www.youtube.com/v/-sKrwsHweGc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
ReplyDeleteOne of the great moments in the history of the internet, so far.
The correct answer is George Michael, Freedom '90.
ReplyDeleteNow I have to go look for the Asylum Street Spankers' version.
ReplyDeleteJust mentioning I Don't Feel Like Dancing and I am already clap clapping to that part of the song.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also love pretty much all of Pink's "dance" songs.
Adlai, I was just about to post George Michael, Faith. And Wham!, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.
ReplyDeleteB-52s, Love Shack and Rock Lobster.
Pete Townshend, Let My Love Open the Door.
Billy Joel, Only the Good Die Young. (always played at our college dances)
Go-Gos, We Got the Beat.
Someone already mentioned "Boogie Shoes" so I'll say "The First Single" by the Format.
ReplyDeleteYou beat me to it! I was gonna say Rock Lobster. They used to play it at my summer camp dances and I just can't NOT think of dancing to it.
ReplyDeleteThis is cheating since it's not strictly my answer, but my sister always finds herself compelled to do an exaggerated, camped-up, arm swinging shoulder shrugging finger snapping dance whenever the chorus of the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" comes on.
ReplyDeleteRamrod?
ReplyDelete"Three Small Words" from the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack.
ReplyDeleteGenevieve, did you go to Catholic school? I went to Notre Dame, and Only The Good Die Young was a staple at all our dances, even though I went to college about 10 years after that song had hit the charts.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Shalimar's "Dancing In The Sheets" was the best dance song from the Footloose soundtrack. That song always got played at our high school toga dances.
ReplyDelete"You Should Be Dancing Again " - Bee Gees
ReplyDelete"I Want You Back" - Jackson 5
Back in the college days "The Electric Slide" never failed to fill the dance floor.
Turns out that "Groove is in the Heart" is a horrid ear worm.
ReplyDelete"House of Jealous Lovers" by The Rapture.
ReplyDelete"Everybody Dance" by Chic
ReplyDelete"Off the Wall" by Michael Jackson
Prince, 1999
ReplyDeleteYou Can't Stop the Beat, Hairspray Soundtrack
"La Bamba" by Ritchie Valens or Los Lobos.
ReplyDeleteThe summer that the movie of "La Bamba" came out, I was working in a record store. Whenever we played the soundtrack over the in-store speakers, we loved watching the customers, because EVERYONE would suddenly and unconsciously start bopping in place as soon as the guitar intro finished and the vocal and band kicked in. We called this phenomenon the "Bamba Bounce."
"Love You Madly" by Cake never fails to get me jumping around my apartment.
ReplyDelete"Short Skirt/Long Jacket" by Cake, AKA the "chuck dance song," known to induce "chuck dancing" in all parties who are watching "Chuck" or chance to hear it on the radio.
ReplyDeleteAnd most of the Lady Gaga catalogue. I can't help it. My boyfriend laughs at me but I get SUPER into dancing around to "The Edge of Glory"
Oh no! Someone did not just push B-7!
ReplyDeleteThe w will tell you that I'll dance to just about anything and for no particular reason. But "Big Dwarf Rodeo" by Reverend Horton Heat makes me stomp around like an "Injun" doing a rain dance in a bad '40s western.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, it doesn't get played much.
Oh, *everyone* in my house does the Chuck Dance. Up to and including the cats (sometimes unwillingly).
ReplyDeleteI have to add my name to the list of PYT fans.
ReplyDeleteAlso -- Finally, CeCe Penniston; Chains of Love, Erasure; It's Tricky, Run-DMC; Bust A Move, Young MC; When I Get You Alone, Robin Thicke
I'd add more but I feel compelled to go dance now.
Most certainly my #1 is "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by the Darkness.
ReplyDeleteBest dancing song especially if, by "dancing", you actually mean "rocking the air guitar like the world's gonna end but you are going down rocking." I'm just sayin'.
Warning: Video mostly ok but a little NSFW. Mostly just ridiculous.
http://www.youtube.com/v/sRYNYb30nxU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
That's my karaoke song. I urge you to try it next time - it's quite fun.
ReplyDeleteYup. Chuck dancing in our household, too.
ReplyDeleteIt's so obvious, I can't believe I'm the one to bring it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/mDENY9A-N1A" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
I have watched philosphy professors and librarians drop it like it's hot when this one comes up at my dress-up cocktail parties:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/3gOHvDP_vCs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
It's all about the slide whistle. When I was in middle school my friend Mary Joan and I joked we were going to start an all-slide band: slide trombone, slide guitar, and slide whistle.
ReplyDeleteOf course they played this at the end of the game whenever the K-Jays won. Now, my parents had this thing where they'd send us under the bleachers for the souvenir cups that people threw down on the ground rather than take home. (What? They were perfectly good cups and we had a dishwaher.) So, when I hear Celebration I smell mud/dirt and stale beer.
ReplyDeleteBeing performed in costume dress, for the King of Sweden, 1976:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/REElUors1pQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
Tried to post earlier from mobile but things got weird, so forgive any duplication....
ReplyDeleteI asked my kids (9.5 and 7) for their suggestions. Here they are:
Cha-Cha Slide
Cotton-Eyed Joe
Axel F.
Firework
My favorite thing about this song is that it seems to take all of the genres it mashes together to their logical conclusion. Nothing in this song feels tacked on, and it's ALL tacked on, but everything feels very organic. Q-Tip and Bootsy both sound completely at home. I love it.
ReplyDeleteI'll see your DMSR, and raise you Sexy MF.
ReplyDeleteHow about a thread with some workout/running songs??
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll see your Sexy MF and raise you every up-tempo song on Purple Rain.
ReplyDeleteCiara & Justin Timberlake - "Love Sex Magic"
ReplyDeleteI'm 2 days late, but if the feature name is still up for grabs, I suggest the Friday Mixtape Mashup - x Edition. This week it's Neato's Shake Your Moneymaker Edition, next week it's the Let's Get Physical Edition for KR.
Most definitely not Catholic school. It was just a quirk of the Billy Joel-loving house I lived in.
ReplyDeleteDo your kids know Axel F. from Beverly Hills cop, or elsewhere? My slightly older kid wouldn't recognize it, I don't think.
ReplyDeleteYes, please!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree on "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" and "I Don't Feel Like Dancing"...also, I can't help but dance to Cee Lo's "Forget You" and the uber-cheesy but awesome B*Witched's "C'est La Vie"
ReplyDeleteThey know it secondhand through us, not from the movie. (Actually, they know it by its alternate title, "That song that goes doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo-DOO-doo-doo doo-doo-DOO-doo-doo-doo-doo-DOO-doo.")
ReplyDeleteI won't dance (don't ask me), but everytime I hear "Mercy" by Duffy, I wish my heart would let my feet do the things they should do.
ReplyDeletePlaylist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL2CE2E1A5C2576F00
ReplyDelete