This is the first in a five-part series, DJ Non-Traditional Romance Mix (Slow Jams) . Each mix will represent a different tempo or rhythm of romance, love and sensuality expressed through music. Of course, the mixes are not all inclusive. I could really make this into a twenty-part series without even scratching the surface.
The motivation was to provide those who are searching for music to use for alternative or non-traditional settings or couples to dance and move to. I have enough Brides and Grooms, as well as other couples that are not getting or already married that ask for recommendations for this kind of music. After completing the mixes, I will add a blog post including a larger list that has been compiled of songs that may be helpful to those looking for an alternative professional DJ playlist of romantic, love, sensual and sexy songs.
If you would like me to burn you a CD copy of the mix, I invite you to write and send me your address and I will mail it to you for free!
The second mix in the DJ Non-Traditional Romance Mix series. The Traditional Romance Mix (Lush Jams) includes songs that are a little too fast for Slow Jams but not really uptempo. They typically are lush and deep with textured sounds. These are not songs typically thought of or associated with romance, which is one of the reasons the DJ Non-Traditional Romance Mix (Lush Jams) was so much fun to create.
DJ Non-Traditional Romance Mix (Lush Jams)
Non-Traditional Romance Mix. Lush Jams - DJ Mystical Michael
I enjoyed the opportunity to mix in some covers of classic tunes like Madonna’s “Borderline”, Elton John’s “Sacrifice” and Ravel’s “Bolero”. It is fun playing with such textured grooves and beats together to weave an eclectic and diverse musical landscape.
As is the case with all the professional DJ mixes I have been posting online, if you would like me to burn you a CD copy, just send me an email with the information and I will get it right out to you.
The fourth mix in The Non-Traditional Romance Mix series. I had so much fun creating this one. I was able to add songs from several genre including R&B, Soul, Jazz, Folk and Blues. This particular mix also had music including decades from 1940’s to today.
I enjoy working with this project for couples that are looking for non-traditional songs for weddings, parties and events. As a professional DJ, we are always looking for opportunities to support others enjoyment of music and celebrations, especially when romance and love are involved. If you would like a CD copy, I invite you to send me an email and I will mail you one for free.
The fifth in the five-part series titled Non-Traditional Romance Mixes, Fire Jams. This is the mix that has more uptempo tunes with a focus on dancing to fast songs. This whole series has been a lot of fun for me. As a professional DJ that performs at many Weddings, Parties and Events who enjoy music that is not always as popular to what mainstream music is based, it is helpful to produce music for these kinds of Brides, Grooms and Event Planners.
I enjoyed mixing romantic and sensual music from Italy, France, Romania, India, Mexico, Brazil, England and of course, the U.S.A, just to name a few cultures included. I invite you to take a listen and get up and move to the jams.
Born, Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, ‘Seal’ is a British singer and song-writer of Nigerian and Brazilian descent. He has several international hits and won 4 Grammys and an MTV Music Award, including Seal Love’s Divine. Seal’s big break happened after returning from an Asian tour of Japan, Thailand and India while sleeping on a friend’s couch in London trying to determine if he had the talent to make it in the music industry.
Seal Love’s Divine Music Video
The Seal Love’s Divine official music video was directed by Sanji and marks the first occasion that Ukrainian model and actress Olga Kurylenko appears in an acting role. Seal Love’s Divine captures the challenges and joy of love and all that comes with the commitment to love from the lyrics, video and vocal performance. Seal is a professional Wedding DJ’s dream since his soulful tunes are great for Weddings and all romantic occasions in such a sweet, yet not cheesy way.
Seal Love’s Divine Lyrics
Then the rainstorm came, over me
And I felt my spirit break
I had lost all of my, belief you see
And realized my mistake
But time threw a prayer, to me
And all around me became still
I need love, love’s divine
Please forgive me now I see that I’ve been blind
Give me love, love is what I need to help me know my name
Through the rainstorm came sanctuary
And I felt my spirit fly
I had found all of my reality
I realize what it takes
‘Cause I need love, love’s divine
Please forgive me now I see that I’ve been blind
Give me love, love is what I need to help me know my name
Oh I, don’t bend (don’t bend), don’t break (don’t break)
Show me how to live and promise me you won’t forsake
‘Cause love can help me know my name
Well I try to say there’s nothing wrong
But inside I felt me lying all along
But the message here was plain to see
Believe me
‘Cause I need love, love’s divine
Please forgive me now I see that I’ve been blind
Give me love, love is what I need to help me know my name
Oh I, don’t bend (don’t bend), don’t break (don’t break)
Show me how to live and promise me you won’t forsake
‘Cause love can help me know my name
I think Peter Gabriel The Book of Love is an amazing song! It blew me away the first time I heard it and still gives me chills all these years later!
Peter Gabriel has been one of my favorite artists since I was a teenager listening to Genesis and my appreciation grew with every solo album he released. It is rare to find artists who can write lyrics and music the way he can that have spanned such a wide spectrum of musical styles and intentions. Strange to think he was a hard-core Progressive Rock writer and performer with Genesis and experimented with rhythms from around the world as a solo artist. Later, he composed the soundtrack to the film The Last Temptation of Christ titled Passion, one of the albums that inspires me the greatest past and present. “It Is Accomplished” feels like an entire soundtrack in one song! Then came Peter Gabriel The Book of Love.
He has written songs of freedom and advocacy like “Biko” that some say was the impetus for Live Aid., as well as featured in The Amnesty International Tour. I remember being overcome with emotion when watching the ending live in TV with the whole crowd totally engaged as each band member left the stage.
His sense of textures and rhythms continue to move me and as a dancer and someone who experiments with movement, find his work incredibly easy to facilitate lyrical and textural dance creativity.
I chose this You Tube of Peter Gabriel The Book of Love for its creative use of love and romance without losing the lush feeling that Gabriel captures in this song. For me, the lyrics in Greek, which I cannot read, somehow added to the effect.
As a special treat if you have never heard the song “Solsbury Hill” before. He wrote this about the leap of faith to leave the band Genesis and fly on his own.
U2 Beautiful Day. On this day, December 9th, in the year 2000, U2 made their first appearance on Saturday Night Live. As much as they are viewed as a commercial band today, that was not always the case. In fact, U2 was a band that started by Larry Mullen, Jr, the band’s drummer at age fourteen. He had posted a flier at his school looking for guys to start a band. The other three members that are still with the band showed-up along with a few other guys who either chose not to stick with the group or faded away. Their first meeting and rehearsal was in his kitchen. It was not till four years later that they received their first recording contract and were not very successful.
U2 Beautiful Day Music Video
An interesting note about the band. After their second album, The Edge, Bono and Mullen joined a Christian rock band named “Shalom Fellowship” and U2 almost broke-up over the spiritual direction of the band, long before U2 Beautiful Day.
U2 Beautiful Day is the first track from their 2000 album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and it was released as the album’s lead single. It was a commercial success, helping launch the album to multi-platinum status, and is one of U2’s biggest hits to date. Like many tracks from All That You Can’t Leave Behind, U2 Beautiful Day harkens back to the group’s past sound. The tone of The Edge‘s guitar was a subject of debate amongst the band members, as they disagreed on whether he should use a sound similar to that from their early career in the 1980s. Lead vocalist Bono explained that the upbeat track is about losing everything but still finding joy in what one has.
U2 Beautiful Day received positive reviews, and it became their fourth number-one single in the UK and their first number-one in the Netherlands. The song peaked at number 21 in the United States, the band’s highest position since “Discothèque” in 1997. In2001, the song won three Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The group has played U2 Beautiful Day at every one of their concerts since the song’s 2001 live debut on the Elevation Tour.
It occurred to me recently at a wedding that I have not added many slow songs to the list of music videos reviewed. This, Frank Sinatra The Way You Look Tonight, was the song I was playing when it hit me and figured that would be a great place to start. I know it is more fun and ‘sexier’ to only include the fast and hot songs but Frank Sinatra The Way You Look Tonight and many other great artists have recorded such a wealth of outstanding classic slow songs for the professional Wedding DJ.
More than any other artist, I grew-up listening to Frank Sinatra. I felt like he was a member of the family at times. His records were always on or close to the record player waiting to be played. Old Blue Eyes as he was called, would sing to us about love and life in the New Jersey/New York City region. I cannot count the number of times I heard my father and other friends and family members arguing over when they saw Sinatra and who he was with. His legendary connections, whether true or false, were part of the Sinatra lore. After all, he was a Jersey Boy from Hoboken.
He learned to sing by ear and never learned how to read music. At age eight he would illegally sing standing on the bar for tips to help his family pay their bills. His success peaked in the late 40’s and early 50’s. His acting career helped him to regain fame in the 60’s and was notorious for hanging with the Rat Pack, his friends Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, which originally centered around Humphrey Bogart. Sinatra, Martin and Davis were the three ‘core members’. They all starred in the original film, Oceans Eleven.
Frank Sinatra The Way You Look Tonight Music Video
I smile every time I am co-creating a professional Wedding DJ playlist for an event and the planner asks me to play Sinatra, especially Frank Sinatra The Way You Look Tonight.
John Hiatt Have A Little Faith has been featured in the films Benny & Joon, Phenomenon, Love Happens, Look Who’s Talking and My Best Friend’s Girl. John Hiatt Have A Little Faith has been covered by many artists including Joe Cocker, Delbert McClinton, Chaka Kahn and my favorite, Van Morrison. Jewel’s version is the one featured in Phenomenon.
Really this is just a beautiful song- the lyrics, the melody and intensity. It certainly carries a message we all can appreciate.
John Hiatt Have A Little Faith Lyrics
When the road gets dark
And you can no longer see
Just let my love throw a spark
And have a little faith in me
And when the tears you cry
Are all you can believe
Just give these loving arms a try
And have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
And when your secret heart
Cannot speak so easily
Come here darling, from a whisper start
And have a little faith in me
And when your back’s against the wall
Just turn around and you, you will see
I will catch you, I will catch your fall
Just have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
‘Cause I’ve been loving you, for such a long, long time
Expecting nothing in return
Just for you to have a little faith in me
You see time, time is our friend
‘Cause for us, there is no end
And all you gotta do, is have a little faith in me
I will hold you up, I will hold you up
And your love, gives me strength enough to
Have a little faith in me
Hey hey
All you gotta do for me girl
Is have a little faith in me
Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire. Since releasing his first hit song, “Piano Man,” in 1973, Billy Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA. Billy Joel has Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide.
Billy Joel attended Hicksville High School, class of 1967. However, he did not graduate from Hicksville. Due to playing at a piano bar, he was one English credit short of the graduation requirement; he overslept on the day of an important exam, owing to his late-night musician’s lifestyle. He left high school without a diploma to begin a career in music. Upon seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical career, and set about finding a local Long Island band to join.
Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire Story
“The song and music video have been interpreted as a rebuttal to criticism of Joel’s Baby Boomer generation. The song’s title and refrain mention “the fire”, an allusion to conflict and societal turmoil; Joel asserts that these can’t be blamed on his generation alone, as “the fire” has been “always burning since the world’s been turning”. Wikipedia.
For a list of the references throughout the song, please go to this Wiki page “We Didn’t Start The Fire” to get the info on each, it is fun!
The first single from the Album Storm Front, was released in September 1989 and it became Billy Joel’s third and most recent US #1 hit, spending two weeks at the top; it was also Billboard’s second-last #1 single of the 1980s.
Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire Music Video
Interesting piece of trivia. 52nd Street was the first album to be released on compact disc when it went on sale alongside Sony’s CD player CDP-101 on October 1, 1982, in Japan.
