Soulband setlist help

[Fredepadde]

Hi

I was wondering whether you guys could me and my band out a bit... We are a gigging soul/funk/motown/disco cover band but we want to add some songs to our setlist. This is what we've got:

"I wish" - Stevie Wonder
"I want you back" - Jackson 5
"Sex Machine" - James Brown
"Sunday Morning" - Maroon 5
"As" - Stevie Wonder
"Smooth" - Santana
"Regndans" - Danseorkessteret (Danish band)
"Cissy strut" - The Meters
"We are family" - Sister Sledge
"Something to talk about" - Bonnie Raitt
"I feel Good" - James Brown


"Mustang Sally" - Commitments
"Respect" - Aretha Franklin
"Hot Stuff" - Donna Summer
"Lady marmelade" - LaBelle
"Can’t Touch This" - MC Hammer
"Bad girls" - Jamiroquai
"Play that funky" - Wild Cherry
"Sir Duke" - Stevie Wonder
"Express yourself" - Charles Wright
"Son of a Preacherman" - Aretha Franklin
"Hey Jude" - The beatles


"Don’t change horses" - Tower of Power
"Soulman" - Sam & Dave
"I heard it from the grape wine" - Marvin gaye
"Signed sealed delivered" - Stevie Wonder
"I never loved a man" - Aretha Franklin
"All night long" - Lionel Richie
"Kung fu fighting" - Carl Douglas
"Crazy" - Gnarles barkley
"Shame shame shame" - Shirley
"Stop" - Jamelia

We would like some more songs like that but they don't really have to be soul songs, as long as they're crowd pleasers.

Any suggestions?

[InstantGroove]

Hi , I'm in a band that plays mainly 60s soul and Motown. Here is our current set list

Set 1

Philly Dog - The Mar-keys
Just Can't Turn You Loose - Otis Redding
In The Midnight Hour - Wilson Pickett
Knock On Wood - Eddie Floyd
6345-789 - Wilson Pickett
Let's Stay Together - Al Green
Band Of Gold - Freda Payne
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Rescue Me - Fontella Bass
My Guy - Mary Wells
The Sweetest Feeling - Jackie Wilson
Nowhere To Run, Nowhere To Hide - Martha & The Vandellas
Dance To The Music - Sly & The Family Stone
You Can't Hurry Love - The Supremes
Heatwave - Martha & The Vandellas
Higher And Higher - Jackie Wilson
River Deep, Mountain High - Ike & Tina Turner

Set 2

Lady Marmalade - Labelle
Soul Finger - The Bar-Kays
Hold On I'm Comin' - Sam & Dave
Soul Man - Sam & Dave
Ain't Too Proud To Beg - The Temptations
Think - Aretha Franklin
Sweet Home Chicago - The Blues Brothers
This Old Heart Of Mine - The Isley Brothers
Night Train - James Brown
Papas Got A Brand New Bag - James Brown
I Feel Good - James Brown
Get Ready - The Temptations
Do You Love Me? - The Contours
Twisting The Night Away - Sam Cooke
Shake A Tailfeather - The Blues Brothers
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love -The Blues Brothers
Mustang Sally - Wilson Pickett


Hope that helps,

IG

[Busker]

IMHO, one of the greatest of the Motown era songs is:

What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, Jimmy Ruffin

Very nice moderate tempo song. The bass line is a joy to play.

[gkbass13]

your love-jackie wilson
jackie wilson said-van morrison
domino-van morrison
dark end of the street-percy sledge
son of a preacher man-dusty springfield
tired of being alone-al green
mercy mercy-marvin gaye
jungle boogie-kool and the gang
miss you-the rolling stones
higher -sly and the family stone

all would be fun additions to your setlist....man, i wish i coudl find a band like that to play in.

[Deacon_Blues]

Perhaps you could add something newer too. I love those older hits mentioned above but there were some great hits in the 80's and 90's too. Here's a few:

All around the world - Lisa Stansfield
Shy guy - Diana King
You might need somebody - Randy Crawford or Shola Ama

Of course these songs work best with a female vocalist.. don't know what you have... If you have a male vocalist , perhaps some Jamiroquai could work. My fav's are "Canned heat", "Love Foolosophy" and "Cosmic Girl". Among older songs not mentioned yet, you have the overplayed but funky "Long train running" by Doobie Brothers that always work.

[bassguppy]

Originally Posted by gkbass13

man, i wish i coudl find a band like that to play in.

No kidding. Since I lack the proper networking skills I look on Craigslist in the SF bay area and there are funk/soul/motown bands but many are either not looking for a bassist OR they are not very good at their craft.

[Fredepadde]

Thanks for all the suggestions!... Our singer is female but we've still got the jamiroquai song "Bad girls" and I think I'll suggest some more Jamiroquai, especially since Stuart Zender rocks! I can't remember if we've decided or even discussed "Long Train running" but that one's a must have!

"Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher" is really cool aswell and we've already added "son of a preacherman" as well as "Pappa's got a brand new bag".

If anyone know some really cool bossa in the style of "mas que nada" or just some good crowd pleasers I'd still like to hear some more suggestions... The more we have to choose from the cooler the setlist we're gonna get...

And thanks again for all the great replies!

[Vandelay]

Very cool set list you have there, we do several of those tunes, but there are a lot of others in your list that I'd love to play too.

I'd recommend some Sly & The Family Stone -- Dance To The Music, Everyday People, Thank U (Falletin' Me...). I think any/all would be crowd pleasers. BTW, my band does a simple but cool little segue from "Lady Marmalade" into "Dance To The Music", hard to explain but if you're interested I'll send you an MP3.

A few others from our setlist that you might like:
"Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus/Chaka Khan
"Will It Go Round In Circles" by Billy Preston
"Vehicle" by The Ides of March

And others I've wanted our band to do but we haven't got around to:
"Let's Get It On" - Marvin Gaye, a HUGE crowd favorite with some bands that I've seen
"Let's Stay Together" - Al Green
"Rock Steady" - Aretha Franklin
"Hollywood Swinging" - Kool & The Gang

[Fredepadde]

Thanks... I've made a list of songs that i will suggest to my bandmates now....
I don't quite get how it became so full of sexymusic but what do you think... Any songs missing?

Katrina & The Waves - Walking On Sunshine
I Will survive – Gloria Gaynor
Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
Easy like Sunday Morning by: Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie - Brick House
Jackie Wilson - Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher.
Marvin Gaye - Mercy, Mercy Me
Just the Two of us - Grover Washington Jr.
Diana Ross - Upside Down!
Ain't no Sunshine – Al Green
Al Green - Let's stay together
I'm Coming Out – Diana Ross
Saturday in the Park- Chicago
Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up!!
Me and Mrs. Jones – Curtis Mayfield
Ain’t no sunshine – Al Green
Marvin Gaye - Lets Get It On
Marvin Gaye – How sweet it is
Hot Chocolate - You Sexy Thing
SANTANA - Black Magic Woman

This list is lacking some really funky songs....

[bkbirge]

All good choices. Here's some more soul suggestions...

Teddy Pendergrass - Love TKO
The Spinners - Rubberband Man
Ray Charles - What'd I Say
Isley Bros. - All Because I Love You
Maze - Can't Stop the Love
Soul Providers - The Landlord

[BillyRay]

Some more Ray Charles:
Unchain my Heart
Mess Around
Hit the Road Jack
What Kind of Man are You *

* Especially nice if you have a female vocalist in the band with a nice blues voice.

You can always throw in some Chuck Berry. It always gets the crowd going.

[bassplayinggirl]

How about "Gone 'Till November" by Wyclef. There's a song that will get me slow dancing with my man any time.

[Deacon_Blues]

What about these:

Ai no corrida - Quincy Jones
The Dude - Q again
Slow Jams - Q
Stomp - Brothers Johnson
Don't stop 'til you get enough - Michael Jackson
Rock with you - Michael Jackson
Georgy Porgy - Toto

[bkbirge]

Originally Posted by Deacon_Blues

Stomp - Brothers Johnson

+1 on the Bros. Johnson funkiness of Stomp, but I'd respectfully suggest that a true Johnson soul song would be "Land of Ladies", lol.

[bradjonesbass]

Commodores - Brick House and Lady (You Bring Me Up)
Bill Withers - Use Me and Kissing My Love
Earth Wind and Fire - Let's Groove, Can't Hide Love, Boogie Wonderland

We're playing similar music and those are in our set list, along with a bunch of stuff already listed.

Also, David Bowie Let's Dance and Fame work well

Rolling Stones Miss You also works well since it's from the Disco Era

[etoncrow]

In my opiinion you need more Volt/Stax representation as shown in InstantGrooves list with artists like: Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Jr Walker, etc...

[bradjonesbass]

No Parliament yet? Give Up The Funk goes over huge! Bop Gun is another one.

Also, for an instrumental Chameleon, Herbie Hancock gets our crowds groovin, and does Cissy Strut and Scofield's A-Go-Go (with Medeski, Martin & Wood.

[Cureswhatailsye]

Hey, I play in a similar outfit in the Midlands, UK. Feel free to pinch any of our setlist from www.sweet-soul-music.co.uk

If no-one dances to a particular song we chuck it out so they're all crowd pleasers. In particular,

Happy Radio - Edwin Starr
Love Train - The O'Jays
Brick House - The Commodores

And try linking as many songs together as possible to improve flow.

all the best

[John127]

I went looking for an old set to see what soul/R&B we used to play. I happened to find what may be the most ecclectic setlist ever!
It's from a gig at the San Gennaro festival in NYC, around 7 years ago (I think it was the first anniversary of 9/11 because I remember incuding NY Groove for that reason - we thought it would be fun and uplifting and I still remember the great crowd reaction to this day):


Set 1

1-Knock On Wood
2-Can’t Buy Me Love
3-Night Fever
4-Hot Stuff
5-Chain Of Fools
6-What is Life
7-Nowhere To Run
8-Love Shack
9-Don’t Stop
10-My Old School
11-Sloopy, Louie, Wooly medley

Set 2

1-Grapevine
2-I Feel Good
3-Wrap It Up
4-Say You Love Me
5-Lights
6-The Jeffersons
7-I’ll Be There
8-Heatwave
9-Jet
10-Proud Mary
11-N.Y. Groove

Set 3

1-Sweet Child O Mine
2-Play That Funky Music
3-Sweet Home Alabama
4-I Want You Back
5-Mustang Sally
6-You Learn
7-Piece of my Heart
8-Johnny B. Goode
9-Spider Web
10-Good Lovin
11-Twist and Shout

Songs left out of set
1-Boys
2-Over My Head
3-The House is a Rockin’
4-Birthday
5-Midnight Hour
6-Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag
7-Ain’t to Proud To Beg
8-Sweet Home Chicago
9-Second That Emotion
10-Mony, Mony
11-634-5789
12-25 or 6 to 4
13 - the kids are alright
14 - Under pressure

[Deacon_Blues]

A few more suggestions:

Street Life - The Crusaders with Randy Crawford
Lowdown - Boz Scaggs
Dancing in the streets - Martha and the Vandellas
Reach out - Four Tops
Loco in Acapulco - Four Tops
For the love of money - O'Jays
Good Times - Chic
Crosstown Traffic - Jimi Hendrix (I have a version with Clas Yngström's Big Band Experience too, great groove! See if you can find it, better than Jimi's version)