Slowdancing through two decades of tunes...

May 1, 2009 9:25 AM

I run a Slowdance Night every few months, complete with dancecards, a mirrorball, and designated dancers (for the wallflowers). It's a fabulous time, but here's my problem. The music that hooks my nostalgia ends in the late 80's, early 90's. After that, for some reason, I kind of stopped listening to music. Thus, my playlist climaxes with a lot of 80's songs. But I've been noticing the demographic has been skewing younger the past couple of dances. Could you suggest some slowdance songs and ballads from the last two decades that I might dovetail into my established set? Thanks.
posted by Sully to sports, hobbies, & recreation (34 comments total)

SWV - Weak

Mariah Carey - My All

TLC - Red Light Special

Boyz II Men - I'll Make Love to You
posted by prefpara at 9:50 AM on May 1

It wasn't a middle school dance without Savage Garden's Truly, Madly, Deeply.
posted by phunniemee at 10:11 AM on May 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

4 P.M. – Sukiyaki*

*When I was in middle school in the '90s, I had no idea this was a cover of a famous Japanese pop song:

The title, sukiyaki (which is a Japanese steamboat dish), has nothing to do with the lyrics or the meaning of the song; the word served the purpose only because it was short, catchy, recognizably Japanese, and more familiar to most English speakers (very few of whom could understand the Japanese lyrics anyway). A Newsweek columnist noted that the re-titling was like issuing "Moon River" in Japan under the title "Beef Stew."

posted by ocherdraco at 10:13 AM on May 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

They might be coming for what you're already playing. Its their sixties, don't you know.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:27 AM on May 1 [1 favorite has favorites]

Man, that seems like a really broad question. Here's some that come to my mind after googling around a bit:

Luther Vandross, Here and Now
Everything I Do, I Do For You - Bryan Adams
It Had To Be You - Harry Connick, Jr.
My Heart Will Go On(from Titanic) - Celine Dion (and various other Celine hits
I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston)
Save The Best For Last - Vanessa Williams
I Could Fall In Love - Selena
Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx
Tears in Heave - Eric Clapton
I will remember you - Sarah McLaughlin

Something by Mr. Big, but I can't think of it's name right now?
posted by dpx.mfx at 10:29 AM on May 1

Ahhh, taking me back to school dances . . .

No Ordinary Love - Sade
Kiss of Life - Sade
Don’t Let Go (Love) - En Vogue
Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx
Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton
Giving Him Something He Can Feel - En Vogue
That’s the Way Love Goes - Janet Jackson
Kiss From A Rose - Seal
posted by annaramma at 10:31 AM on May 1

Don't Speak by No Doubt
I'll Be and I Could Not Ask For More, both by Edwin McCain
(Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Bryan Adams
Save The Best For Last by Vanessa Williams
You're Still The One by Shania Twain
Fallin' by Alicia Keys
Iris by Goo Goo Dolls
Brighter Than Sunshine by Aqualung
The Luckiest by Ben Folds
The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice
Mad About You by Hooverphonic
She's The One by Robbie Williams
You and Me by Lifehouse
Lucky by Jason Mraz
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight by Norah Jones
More Than Anyone by Gavin DeGraw
Make You Feel By Love by Adele
Like A Star by Corinne Bailey Rae
I Will Be by Leona Lewis
posted by alynnk at 10:31 AM on May 1

dpx.mfx, is it To Be With You?
posted by annaramma at 10:32 AM on May 1

Extreme - More Than Words
All-4-One - I swear
N sync - A Little More Time On You
Sarah McLachlan - Ice Cream
James Blunt - You're Beautiful
John Mayer - Your Body Is A Wonderland

Also, the Garden state soundtrack.

I could go all day with this, but I should probably get work done & I'm sure the hive mind has lots of good suggestions for this one!
posted by knile at 10:45 AM on May 1

Time of your life, Green Day
posted by craven_morhead at 10:48 AM on May 1

Come Away with Me - Norah Jones
The First Cut is the Deepest - Sheryl Crow's Version
Leavin on a Jet Plane - Chantal Kreviazuk's version
Wicked Game - Chris Isaak
More than Words - Extreme
Picture - Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
I Try - Macy Gray
Stay - Shakespear's Sister (1992, it may already be on your radar)

IMHO, power ballads are good for slow dancing, so I'd say put some Aerosmith, I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing, Crazy, Cryin or What it Takes.

Lastly, you may want to have a place people can request songs, too.
posted by soelo at 10:49 AM on May 1

How young is skewing younger? like, 30s? or 20s? I'm almost 30 and a few of these songs were around when I was in high school or younger. If your crowd is starting to fill up with folks in their early 20s they'll be just as retro to them.

Why not put out a request clipboard and see what they want to hear, or check the top-40 charts for current popular slow songs?
posted by Kellydamnit at 10:53 AM on May 1

Kellydamnit - Because the local university papers have kindly given us some coverage, we're getting like, 18 to 25 year olds. And Slowdance Night is meant to tap into that particular place where you're having your first few slowdances ever. For instance, my first slowdance with someone was to Tiffany's "Could've Been", and so that song will be special to me for the rest of my life. I'm looking for those songs that are special to the people just starting to come to Slowdance Night. One of the songs we like to play is "Tracks of My Tears", and while I know it and like it, it doesn't have its hooks in my nervous system the way songs of the 80's does because those were my formative years.

A request clipboard is certainly a great idea and we'll do it at the next one! Thanks.
posted by Sully at 11:08 AM on May 1

"Pullin' Back the Reins" - k. d. lang (and maybe "Constant Craving", but "Reins" feels more torchy to me)
"If I Were the Man You Wanted" - Lyle Lovett
"Overlap" - Ani DiFranco
posted by kristi at 11:26 AM on May 1

You probably already have it on there, but "Unchained Melody" was my first slow dance and I will remember that forevah evah.
posted by fiercecupcake at 11:26 AM on May 1

"All My Life" - K-Ci and JoJo
"How Do I Live" - LeeAnn Rimes
"I Wanna Be With You" - Mandy Moore

Man, this thread is sounding more and more like the most gloriously cheesy compilation album ever advertised on late-night tv.
posted by anthom at 12:02 PM on May 1

This I Promise You - N'Sync
I’m With You – Avril Lavigne
Hero – Enrique Iglesias
Collide – Howie Day
Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing – Aerosmith
By Your Side – Sade
Secret Garden – Bruce Springsteen
Feels Like Home – Chantal Kreviazuk
I Need You – Leann Rimes
One - U2
Freak Me - Silk
Push - Matchbox Twenty
Without You - Mariah Carey
Come Undone - Duran Duran
I Could Fall in Love - Selena
Making Memories of Us - Keith Urban
No Air - Jordin Sparks/Chris Brown
Don't Matter - Akon
Gravity – John Mayer
(You Want to) Make a Memory – Bon Jovi

If you're looking for something very current, try Halo by Beyonce.

And I know these are early 90’s tunes but in my time, no high school dance was complete without Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O’Connor and Listen to Your Heart by Roxette!
posted by yawper at 12:16 PM on May 1

I believe the Mr. Big song is "Be With You".

Also:

Boys II Men - "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye...To Yesterday" and 'End of the Road"
Sarah Maclachlan - "I Will Remember You"
Def Leopard - "Two Steps Behind"
PM Dawn - "I'd Die Without You"
Tonic - "If You Could Only See"
Lisa Loeb - "Stay"

BTW, I think this concept is awesome!
posted by patientpatient at 12:19 PM on May 1

Donna Lewis - I Love You, Always Forever (gets a bit quicker in the middle, which may or may not work for your purposes)
Monica - For You I Will
Boyz II Men & Mariah Carey - One sweet Day
Train - Drops of Jupiter
Counting Crows - Round Here
Dave Matthews Band - Crash Into Me
Phil Collins - You'll Be In My Heart
Seal - Kiss From A Rose
Shakira - Underneath Your Clothes
DJ Sammy & Yanno featuring Do - Heaven (Candlelight Mix)
posted by knile at 12:21 PM on May 1

I'm going to guess that Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale is a staple of any slowdance night.

If you haven't explored the world of Reggae, Dub, Dancehall, Calypso/Soca (Try Lord Kitchener), now might be a nice time to start. Some suggestions I could offer would be stuff from the Wackies Catalog like Love Joys, Horace Andy. Or check out some of the Studio One artists: Jackie Mitto or Sugar Minott.

Or you might want to explore early hip-hop like ESG or Newcleus which may not be SLOW dancing but you can dance close to someone with the slow beats.
posted by wcfields at 12:25 PM on May 1

Always and Forever - Whistle version
The Glory of Love - Peter Cetera
posted by mattbucher at 12:32 PM on May 1

I don't know if Matchbox Twenty's "Push" fits? It's a bit too violent, lyrically & musically. YMMV.
posted by knile at 12:33 PM on May 1

Yeah, you're right, knile. I love that song, but have never been in a position to slow dance to it...and now that I think of it, it doesn't really fit.
posted by yawper at 12:53 PM on May 1

Wow. These are all great suggestions.
Thank you all so much.
I'm going to have a lot of fun
investigation with this list!

It's funny, yeah - when you look at all the
songs together, it might look really cheesy.
But when you're slowdancing with someone
to it, it doesn't feel cheesy at all. It's quite
lovely. We've put on 9 of these nights so
far and each time it's quite wonderful.
The cheese, I suspect, helps people not
take it too seriously. And you might expect
that a room full of hipsters would treat
the whole event ironically, but there's
nothing ironic when you're dancing with
a stranger. You're scared, exhilarated.
posted by Sully at 1:07 PM on May 1

I Wanna Be Your Man - from the Love and Basketball soundtrack
posted by mattbucher at 1:19 PM on May 1

Your Armor - Charlotte Martin
Waiting in Vain - Annie Lennox
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
So Much - The Spill Canvas
posted by contrariwise at 1:31 PM on May 1

I'm not there but I want to request Roxy Music's "Avalon". It was always the last dance of the night at a club I used to go to in the 80's.
posted by willmize at 2:40 PM on May 1

Boyz II Men "I'll Make Love to You" immediately came to mind. Or "On Bended Knee."
Actually, can you please just put on "II" and play it until the album is over?

Also, any kind of slow jam/ballad from:
Seal, BoneThugs-n-Harmony, Backstreet Boys, NSync, 98 Degrees,
En Vogue, TLC, Christina Aguilera, Britney, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson

Overall though, I think 80s songs are fine, people in their early to mid twenties were little kids at the time, but would certainly feel nostalgic slow dancing to, say, a ballad from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, or Top Gun, etc.
posted by SassHat at 5:23 PM on May 1

Either of Zero 7's "Somersault" or "Destiny" would make nice dancing with a pretty stranger.

I too like the concept.
posted by OneOliveShort at 6:36 PM on May 1

Rickie Lee Jones singing ballads, like

Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
Up the Lazy River (with Louie Armstong!))
On the Street Where You Live

Just about anything by Norah Jones

Eva Cassidy:

Fields of Gold (and the original by Sting)
Autumn Leaves
I Know You by Heart
posted by sparrowdance at 7:50 PM on May 1

ps~I love that you do this! What a cool thing!
I also read about your strip tease spelling bee....got a ways to go to convince friends to set one up...I think they're just afraid we're too good at the spelling thang!
posted by sparrowdance at 7:54 PM on May 1

Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
posted by lemuria at 7:56 PM on May 1

Thanks to your question, I have discovered that apparently Boyz II Men and All-4-One have their "hooks in my nervous system." I'm not sure how I feel about that...

Late 90s:
Iris, Goo Goo Dolls
I Will Remember You, Sarah McLachlan
How Do I Live, Leann Rimes
I Don't Want To Wait, Paula Cole
I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, Aerosmith
My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion
Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Verve
As Long As You Love Me, Backstreet Boys
Candle In The Wind 1997, Elton John
Un-Break My Heart, Toni Braxton

Mid 90s (probably only works for the older end of your group):
It's All Coming Back To Me Now, Celine Dion
One Sweet Day, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
Because You Loved Me, Celine Dion
Wonderwall, Oasis
Kiss From A Rose, Seal
On Bended Knee, Boyz II Men
I Can Love You Like That, All-4-One
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?, Bryan Adams
I'll Make Love To You, Boyz II Men
I'll Stand By You, Pretenders
I Swear, All-4-One
Baby I Love Your Way, Big Mountain
posted by EmilyClimbs at 9:08 PM on May 1

Man, looking at these songs brings back all sorts of weird memories of middle and high school dances. And I'm 25, so apparently you're getting good results!

I always thought "I'll make love to you" was a really awkward song to play at a dance, and I used to hide in the bathroom whenever it played.
posted by radioamy at 11:14 PM on May 1 [2 favorites has favorites]