Tag Archives: Wedding Cocktail Hour Music

Mumford & Sons I Will Wait

Posted on by

It has taken nearly a year since its original release but Mumford & Sons I Will Wait is finally getting the commercial success it deserves!

“We wanted to do something unashamed,” says Ben Lovett. “We’re confident and happy to be where we are as a band — everything that’s happened with us has exceeded expectations, and it’s all been a surprise, it’s all much bigger than what we were prepared for. So when we came to recording this record we had a choice: to shy away from that, or to realise that people dig what we’re doing, and make something robust, with that energy.” Mumford & Sons Website

Mumford & Sons I Will Wait with Rhode Island Wedding DJ

Mumford & Sons I Will Wait Critical Response

The song has received generally favourable reviews. Grady Smith of Entertainment Weekly gave the song a positive review, saying how the song “hearkens back to their Grammy-nomination-festooned single “The Cave” with its shouted refrain, triumphant horns, a driving kick drum, and an earnest lyric about a relationship so perfect it has Marcus Mumford kneeling down in reverence, raising his hands, and wishing for his mind to be “freed from the lies.”” Stephanie Middleton of The Celebrity Cafe said, “With untouched vocals and harmonies, the boys manage to create yet another genuine Mumford & Sons track.”

Katie Hasty of HitFix gave the song a B+, saying “Marcus is a softie, but he’s got a problem with repetition,” but also said “they bring it home when they jump up an octave and beat the hell out of the chorus.” She concluded with, “This song could be really huge.” Liv Carter of Urban Country News awarded the song a ‘thumbs-up’. Reviewing the song after it started receiving airplay at country radio, she called it “a perfect piece of folk-rock that more than deserves to be introduced to the wider country radio audience.” Rolling Stone magazine named the song the 13th best song of 2012.

Mumford & Sons I Will Wait Music Video

The Mumford & Sons I Will Wait Story

During the year, the band had been releasing new songs from their second album online or performing them at concerts. Marcus Mumford told MTV that the song “reflects the band’s hectic life on the road – which shaped the new album’s sound.” Ted Dwane told Rolling Stone, “Being away so much for the last couple of years is inevitably a theme on the record, because it’s something that we’ve all shared.” The song was played live in various forms through 2010-2011 under the working title ‘Nothing Is Written’.

What is your favorite part of Mumford & Sons I Will Wait?

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ

973.908.8147

Vitamin String Quartet

Posted on by

I was first turned-on to Vitamin String Quartet when the older sister of a Bride was helping me prepare for her sister’s wedding and requested that four of the Vitamin String Quartet’s songs were to be played during the ceremony, “God Only Knows”, “Don’t Stop Believin'”, Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Clocks”.

Vitamin String Quartet Sweet Child O’ Mine

      Vitamin String Quartet - Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns and Roses Cover)

I did some research on Vitamin String Quartet and began to explore Vitamin String Quartet library. It turns out they have over fifty albums with the majority of them as tributes to an artist or band exclusively. Vitamin String Quartet music has been featured on Dancing With The Stars several times and an episode of The Vampire Diaries included three of their tunes.

Vitamin String Quartet Rolling In The Deep Adele

      Vitamin String Quartet - Rolling In The Deep

Vitamin String Quartet is a group of musicians in the Los Angeles area that record string arranged covers of Rock and Pop music to offer listeners, “Vitamin String Quartet is about applying rock n’ roll attitude to classical technique,” says Tom Tally, a violist and arranger who has performed on and produced over fifty Vitamin String Quartet albums.  They do use non-string instruments occasionally.

Beautiful Wedding with Vitamin String Quartet Rhode Island Wedding DJ

I find Vitamin String Quartet covers often very original and unique with passion and clarity. I enjoy Vitamin String Quartet Music while driving on road trips as well as dancing. As a professional DJ, Vitamin String Quartet are an excellent resource for music for ceremonies, cocktails hours and special circumstances that a Rock audience will appreciate in a setting that harder music is not properly suited.

Vitamin String Quartet Under The Bridge Red Hot Chili Peppers Mp3

      Vitamin String Quartet - Under The Bridge

“Remember the scene in This Is Spinal Tap where singer David St. Hubbins mulls his prospects after the breakup of his heavy metal band? ”I’ve always wanted to do a collection of my acoustic numbers with the London Philharmonic,” he sighs. For nearly six years, Vitamin Records has tapped that same symphonic spine with its String Quartet Tribute series, which takes rock music and puts it through an orchestral filter. Aimed at collectors, completists, and fans open to reworkings of their favorite songs, the Vitamin catalog includes 140 classically gassed homages to every three-chord wonder from Metallica to the Darkness. ”I like the tribute to us,” says Nickelback guitarist Chad Kroeger. ”When your music is taken to a different place, it’s an honor.” EW.com

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

DJ Smooth Cocktail Hour Mix

Posted on by

The DJ Smooth Cocktail Hour Mix was created for Brides and Grooms when hiring their professional Wedding DJ who are lost when it comes to choosing music for the Cocktail Hour for their wedding. All professional Wedding DJs have several options to offer couples, one of them is the classic  and stylish ‘smooth’ Jazz, R&B and Rat Pack mix of music to set a perfect mood after the Ceremony, setting up the Reception.

DJ Smooth Cocktail Hour Mix

      Smooth Cocktail Hour Mix - DJ Mystical Michael

Fun Rhode Island Multicultural Wedding DJ Smooth Cocktail Hour Mix

Let me know what you think of DJ Smooth Cocktail Hour Mix!

Here is The DJ Soft Rock Cocktail Hour Mix  and Vitamin String Quartet for Cocktail Hour for ideas

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ

Ask about my Rhode Island Wedding DJ & Rhode Island Party DJ Guarantee!

DJ Soft Rock Cocktail Hour Mix

Posted on by

I gratefully continue to receive calls from Brides and Grooms requesting their professional Wedding DJ to play Rock Music at the Cocktail Hour and Reception of their Wedding. This makes me happy since Rock Music is not as popular today among younger people as it was before the rise of Hip Hop, Rap and R&B. Of course, just like Hip Hop and Rap, the professional Wedding DJ needs to be mindful of not playing music that is too hyped-up or loud during the Cocktail Hour of Weddings and make sure those who are elderly or want to enjoy conversation and relaxation during the Cocktail Hour, are not overpowered by the music. This is what I created the DJ Soft Rock Cocktail Hour Mix for.

 

It is hard for me as an ‘old school’ professional DJ to make mixes that cut songs short and segue to songs that maybe do not belong together in order to include enough tunes to offer Brides and Grooms a large enough sample of what we can play at their Cocktail Hour or Reception in a mix like this. I even struggle when doing this with Dance mixes but when it comes to Rock, I struggle greater due to the nature of Rock Music and the integrity of the lyrical content and musicians talent. I guess we all have to make some concessions as professional Wedding DJs to serve our Brides and Grooms best and help them decide what music they want at their weddings.

DJ Soft Rock Cocktail Hour Mix

      Soft Rock Cocktail Hour Mix - DJ Mystical Michael

This same mix would also work well as a sample for a Birthday, Anniversary or Reunion Party for those whom would like Rock Music played during Dinner at their event too!

Beautiful Rhode Island Wedding DJ with DJ Soft Rock Cocktail Hour Mix

Let me know what you think.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ

Ask about my Rhode Island Wedding DJ & Rhode Island Party DJ Guarantee!

DJ World Music Party Mix

Posted on by

I really enjoy music from varied cultures and places throughout the world, one of the reasons I appreciate travel as much as I do.  However, I find the term, ‘World Music’ annoying and condescending. It speaks to The American mindset that there is the American way and everybody else is one big category called ‘other’. In India alone, there are enough musical genre to make this an obsolete term. The same is true for the continents of Africa, South America and Asia. It is sad to me that we glop them all together as one genre, ‘World Music’. Unfortunately, it is some of my favorite sources of music and I do not have a better name for the DJ World Music Party Mix.

DJ World Music Party Mix

mp3j track= “World-Music-Party-Mix.mp3”]

I am a true fan of music from many places globally, some I have had the opportunity to visit, others I hope to make it there someday soon.  This particular mix of music includes music from India, The Middle East, Bulgaria, Northwest Africa, Japan, Latin America, Jamaica and other great sources of music. Let me know what you think of the DJ World Music Party Mix!

Fun Rhode Island Wedding DJ with DJ World Music Party Mix

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about World Music:

“World music is a musical category encompassing many different styles of music from around the world, including traditional music, quasi-traditional music, and music where more than one cultural tradition intermingle. World music’s inclusive nature and elasticity as a musical category pose obstacles to a universal definition, but its ethic of interest in the culturally exotic is encapsulated in fRoots magazine’s description of the genre as “local music from out there”. The term originated in the late 20th century as a marketing category and academic classification for non-Western traditional music. Globalization has facilitated the expansion of world music’s audiences and scope. It has grown to include hybrid sub-genres such as world fusion, global fusion, ethnic fusion and worldbeat.”

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

DJ Buddha Bar and Global Lounge Mix

Posted on by

As DJ Buddha Bar and Global Lounge Music rise in popularity and acceptance, it made sense for me to as a professional DJ create a DJ Buddha Bar and Global Lounge Mix for you to listen and enjoy.  I have enjoyed a significant segment of this mixed genre for many years and appreciate every opportunity to share the music with new listeners as a fan and professional DJ.

 DJ Buddha Bar and Global Lounge Mix

      Buddha Bar & Global Lounge Mix - DJ Mystical Michael

I have been hired for a few Weddings that the Bride and Groom have requested Buddha Bar and Global Lounge Music for their Cocktail Hour music and worked very well. More often I am requested to play these genre as a professional DJ in situations where the event planner wants to create a diverse, intimate and creative atmosphere and mood for mixed crowds when neither dancing or sitting are preferred but still want it to be fun and alive.

Claude Challe (born Claude Chalom in 1945 in Tunisia) is a French DJ and club owner, the creator of the Buddha Bar restaurant/clubs and music compilations.

Challe moved to France at age three. He attended Rabbinical school as a young man. At the age of 19, he opened a hair salon in Paris, and became known as “the man with the golden scissors”.

Challe then abandoned the salon and lived as an expatriate on the island of Sardinia, in a hippie commune. He subsequently traveled to India, Nepal and Indonesia. He uses Buddha statues for the interior design of his bar and restaurant.

Challe returned to France and was introduced to New Age music by the likes of Andreas Vollenweider and Ennio Morricone. He became involved in Parisian nightlife. He managed a series of French clubs, including Le Prive (1974), Le Centre Ville in Les Halles (1979), Les Bains-Douches (1984), El Divino in Ibiza (1992), and Buddha Bar (1996). The restaurant/club became a popular destination and led to Challe’s Buddha Bar mix compilations.

Challe produced the “Reveillon de Mondes”, attended by 50,000 people, and held at Vincennes, in conjunction with Radio Nova.

Challe produces his music and others’ on his Chall’o Music label. He has said, “I consider the art of DJ-ing to be the passion of [my] life. When I’m DJ-ing, I give myself to the people. When I play, I’m in the music.”

Fun Multicultural Wedding DJ DJ Buddha Bar and Global Lounge Mix

The “Buddha Bar” music series is a compilation of lounge and chill out music with touch of world music released by George V records.

The Buddha Bar series was Created by the DJ Claude Challe who compiled and produced the first two albums. The series continues with different DJs including DJ Ravin, Sam Popat, David Visan. Later, The first original Buddha Bar came out “Buddha Bar Nature” composed and produced by Arno Elias (also composer of Amor Amor, Buddha Bar 2) included also a DVD of Nature footage directed by Allain Bourgoin Dubourg.

Enjoy DJ Buddha Bar and Global Lounge Mix and let me know what you think.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Frank Sinatra The Way You Look Tonight

Posted on by

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.

Rhode Island Wedding DJ Frank Sinatra The Way You Look Tonight

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.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

John Hiatt Have A Little Faith

Posted on by

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 Rhode Island Wedding DJ

 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

John Hiatt Have A Little Faith Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire

Posted on by

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.

Billy Joel We Didn't Start The Fire icon Rhode Island DJ

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Adele Turning Tables

Posted on by

Adele is a such a powerful writer and vocalist, which is very evident on Adele Turning Tables. It is a nice change to see a pop singer succeed that looks like a regular person and not a stick figure or Photoshopped beauty. Unfortunately they decided to produce a ‘live’ video that has the pianist in two different shirts during the performance, not sure why they did that.

Adele Turning Tables Music Video Live at Albert Hall

It is rare that songs that top The Billboard Charts are produced with such quality like Adele Turning Tables. It lets me know there is still enough of us out there to know the difference and to provide hope to those wanting to share their musical gifts with us that they have a chance too.

 

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born in Tottenham, London, to a single teenage mother on 5 May 1988. She began singing at age four and asserts that she became obsessed with voices… Adele has cited the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that “they made me what I am today.”

 

According to the Official Charts Company in The U.K., Adele is the first living artist to achieve the feat of two top five hits in both the Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since The Beatles in 1964.

Adele 21 Adele Turning Tables with Rhode Island DJ

“Turning Tables” received acclaim from music critics who praised Adele’s vocals and its production. The song reached the top-twenty of the singles charts in four countries, including Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. It also peaked at number 62 on the UK Singles Chart and 63 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling over 500,000 digital downloads. “Turning Tables” was promoted with live performances across both sides of the Atlantic, including Late Night with David Letterman in America and The Jonathan Ross Show in the United Kingdom. American actress and singer Gwyneth Paltrow performed a cover of the single in the Glee episode “A Night of Neglect“.Wikipedia

At the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele won awards in the categories of Best New Artist and Best female Pop Performance.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ