Strangest/Obscure songs played at weddings

Hello esteemed forum,

The thread about Shout being played at weddings lists off tried and true tunes you're sure to hear:

• Macarena
• The Chicken Dance
• Thriller

Let's go the opposite way: What have you heard at a wedding which made your ears perk up and think "Gee, I wasn't expecting that"

At one wedding I was at, the entire Abbey Road Medley was played during a meal course. That was cool.

Thanks for playing.

 

My sister played Moody Blues "You and Me" during the recessional (exiting the ceremony). Words and music very appropriate.

It was awesome.

 

not quite the same but at our wedding we decided none of that typical awful stuff. we hired my friend's 5 pc acoustic swing band playing django and david grisman style material. in between their sets my brother made three 30 min tapes. one with big band, one with Motown and the last with 60's rock. all very danceable. everyone had a great time and no chicken dance!

 

Played during my wedding ceremony: Todd Rundgren's "Marlene"and Tommy Keene's "Places That are Gone".

 

I knew my wedding reception would be multicultural and multigenerational, so I took a lot of time to programme the music as well as I could to maximise inclusion. I got compliments on it from people of my generation, but my parents' neighbours (why were they even there?) decided to hijack the music system and replace it with a CD of BTO's greatest hits. Sigh.

 

"I Never Been To Me" by Charlene

 

My best friend walked down the isle to the Dead Milkmen’s Punk Rock Girl.
My wife and I did our cake cutting to the theme from Shaft. That was my choice.

 

We had M83's "Midnight City" and Arcade Fire's "Reflektor" played at our wedding as special request songs for us. The DJ cut them both off early and later on played two garbage songs that were on the "Do not play" list, but we had our moment.

 

Tammy Wynette -D-i-v-o-r-c-e at mine, but here we are nearly 20 years later

 

The best audience reaction to a wedding disco DJ I've ever seen was early this decade, he never spoke a word all night, played Ghostbusters twice (because it got such a huge reaction first time around) and the full 8 minutes of the Stone Roses "I am the resurrection".

It was genius, but you'd never have predicted it.

 

At mine, I put together a playlist with my best friend/best man...he helped me burn several CDs!... Here's a brief sampling:

Birds - Neil Young
I'm In Love With A Girl - Big Star
Without You - Harry Nilsson
Baby Blue - Badfinger
I Am the Cosmos - Chris Bell
Buckets Of Rain - Bob Dylan
That Is Why - Jellyfish
On Top of the World - Cheap Trick
Moondance - Van Morrison
God If I Saw Her Now - Anthony Phillips
Pretty Persuasion - R.E.M
Pink Moon - Nick Drake
If I Fell - Beatles
Go All the Way - Raspberries
Best Of My Love - Eagles
Your Own Special Way - Genesis
Start! - The Jam
And You and I - Yes
My Best Friend - Queen
Bellbottom Blues - Derek & the Dominoes
Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire - Joni Mitchell
There She Goes Again - Velvet Underground

....plus...

 

My wife and I had a local rockabilly band -The Walking Clampetts- play at our reception. They played lots of well-known and very obscure rock & roll songs all night long. We danced like crazy!

Man, it was a great night of rock & roll!

 

We spent a lot of time putting together playlists for our wedding: Guests arriving/chatting, Dinner, Dancing etc.. THE wedding dance was Ella Fitzgerald - Night And Day from The Cole Porter Songbook (1956). Somewhat surprising intro on that song for a wedding dance. We had a great time.

Avoiding the biggest cliches I guess but of course some romantic ballads. Quite different stuff mixed in like BigBang - To The Mountain, Massive Attack - Teardrop ++

 

We had a deejay. We left the choice of music to him, except for one special request. I first met my wife at a college dance, during "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones, so we had to dance to the song at our wedding. The dj played that tune and a lot of other great songs, and every one had a great time.

 

I was at a wedding where the DJ was running late. Someone had a CD boombox to provide some tunes until the DJ showed. The person running the music was needing folks to bring in CDs so they had some songs to play. I helped them out with some Beatles, but I did have her play one unusual tune. "Nashville" by Liz Phair. She wanted a slow dance song, and I figured that one would do the trick, even if it was off the mainstream path.
I noticed 3 or 4 people go up to look at the CD case, so the song went over well.

 

My wife and I decided on A whiter shade of pale and Hey Jude just before the Catholic ceremony sang by the church female soprano. Awesome!
(This was 1975 btw).

 

At my best friend's wedding we all entered the ballroom where the reception was being held to The Theme From M.A.S.H. (aka Suicide Is Painless). As a bunch of music heads, we all gave each other a WTF-look, then burst into hysterics. I don't think the DJ got the joke.

Happy to report that 30 years and two kids later, my friends are still happily married!!

 

My parents keep telling me that they had a tape of Queen's A Night At The Opera playing at their wedding. Most older people kept telling them to turn that noise off! That was 1978 in Bulgaria, so nobody understood the lyrics, but celebrating to the likes of Death On Two Legs seems weird.

 

My wife and I's first dance was to McCartney's This Never Happened Before

Followed by Blondies One Way or Another.

 

Heh, I was at a wedding once where my date requested that the DJ play "Lorelei" by Styx, and to my amazement, the DJ complied.

I've never seen a dance floor clear off so quickly in my life prior to that.

 

People play "every breath you take" which is about a possesive stalker

 

We used the Everly’s “Let It Be Me” and Springsteen’s “If I Should Fall Behind” in our ceremony.

 

My son and his wife walked down the aisle to the Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows".

 

That's funny, because one of my stories is very similar. One of my wife's friend's from high school was a big Ramones fan. At her daughter's wedding they were playing all this crappy slow rap and NOBODY was dancing. I asked the DJ if he could play "I Wanna Be Sedated" as a special request for the mother of the bride. The dance floor immediately filled with the 40+ crowd and the young folks soon joined in. After that the DJ alternated oldies with the more uptempo/fun hip hop/rap stuff and the dance floor was pretty full the rest of the night.

 

When I was 19, my best buddy got a girl pregnant and felt he had to marry her. Their first dance song was “Better Man” by Pearl Jam. Not sure they looked at the lyrics to that one...