I am finding no matter how hard I try, I always seem to have songs that would work perfectly that just don’t fit or make it on these mixes. This time it was the next in the DJ Non-Traditional Romance Mix Series, Rock Jams.
I do not get to play as much Rock Music as I used to and grasp at the opportunity when presented. While compiling the list of DJ Non-Traditional Romantic Mix songs over the last few weeks, it stared at me that there were enough Rock songs to make a mix of just Rock Romance! Of course, like I shared above, the amount of songs that I marked for this mix and what could comfortably fit in a mix below 100MB just didn’t work. No worries, I had fun and I think those of you Rockers out there will have something to enjoy! There may be a DJ Non-Traditional Romance Mix Rock Jams Part II at some point including more female voices than this mix, which only has one female lead vocalist.
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 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!
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.”
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.
Johnny Cash Ring Of Fire is a great song! The release of the movie I Walk The Line introduced a new generation to the greatness of Johnny Cash. He was one of the few artists to be inducted into the The Country Music Hall Of Fame, The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and The Gospel Hall of Fame; quite an accomplishment. He was often known as “The Man In Black” for his dark clothes when performing. He produced several free performances at prisons throughout his career and often did so to facilitate reactions to his choices, bringing attention to the conditions in many prisons and jails. Two of his more famous shows for inmates were recorded, San Quentin and Folsom prisons. he also performed abroad at Österåker Prison in Sweden, which also produced a live recording.
He generally started his concerts by saying, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” followed by his traditional opening song, “Folsom Prison Blues”.
Johnny Cash Ring Of Fire was co-written by his wife future wife, June Carter and Merle Kilgore. He told June’s sister, Anita Carter, “I’ll give you about five or six more months, and if you don’t hit with it, I’m gonna record it the way I feel it.”
Her version did not include the Mariachi-styled horns that came to him in a dream. Four years later the were married, which he stated helped stop his alcohol and drug addictions. His daughter Rosanne thought it proved the healing power of love. The song reached #1 on The Hot Country Singles and #17 on The Hot 100 Charts. Every good professional DJ know how important Johnny Cash is.
This past Saturday night I felt inspired to put together a Janet Jackson medley while mixing at a professional DJ gig that began with Janet Jackson If. I am surprised she is not played more these days. Her music is so well designed for dancing and creative movement. Her vocals are soft and somehow forceful and sensual simultaneously.
Janet Jackson is the first and only artist in history to produce seven top five hits from one album, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. In addition to receiving recognition for the innovation in her records, choreography, music videos, and prominence on radio airplay and MTV, she was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.
I remember driving kids in the van we used to pick them up from school to the program I was coordinating at the time. They played Janet Jackson If again and again, and the girls would practice all her dance steps every day while we were getting ready to begin. I got to know every beat of Janet Jackson If without ever choosing to play it or listen to it:) As a long-time fan of Diana Ross and The Supremes and a professional DJ, it inspired me to hear her sample beats from them along with the powerful guitar chords that introduces the Janet Jackson If.
Janet Jackson If Story
“Janet Jackson If deals with a female narrator’s fantasies of being someone’s girlfriend. The track contains a sample from Diana Ross & the Supremes‘ 1969 song “Someday We’ll Be Together“, and is built on a heavy metal guitar riff heard throughout the song. The combination of heavy hip hop/new jack swing beats with an electric guitar and a trip hop sound was a relative departure in sound for Jackson, and an extension of styles she developed on her previous album, Rhythm Nation 1814. A remix of “If” entitled Brothers in Rhythm House Mix appears on Jackson’s 1995 remix album janet. Remixed. The single contains a B-side called “One More Chance”, a cover of a song her brother Randy wrote, produced, and performed for The Jacksons‘ 1984 Victory album.” wikipedia
