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Cover band songs: tunes that shake those money makers!

MtManiac

MtManiac

Mar 6, 2007
9,089
6,993
Nova Scotia
#1
My band is a four piece: bass, drums, electric guitar, and acoustic guitar, and the two guitar players share vocals.

We have a 50+ song set list, but many of the songs are not getting people to the dance floor. Here's our set list, below; some of these songs will be unfamiliar to many of you, as they are popular in Canada moreso than the US or abroad, but the list should give you an idea of what sorts of songs we do - somewhat elclectic, but a sort of focus on plain ol' rock, country-ish rock and some traditional Irish stuff. Question is, can anyone recommend some really danceable songs that fit well in our current set list?

Recommendations should be relatively simple for the guitar players, but as complex as you want for the bass, so long as it has a groove!! A lot of this stuff is root-fifth, which is ok if you're playing really fast, which we often do, but I like stuff that has more of a groove to it, like Burning Love, Stuck IN the Middle, heck even Brown Eyed Girl.

Set List
Folsum Prison Blues
Walk 500 Miles
Shine (Collective Soul)
Hasn’t Hit Me Yet (Blue Rodeo)
Black Velvet Band
Wild Rover
Bad Bad Leroy Brown
Pink Houses
45 Years (Stan Rogers)
Wheat Kings (Tragically Hip)
Heart of Gold
Horse With No Name
Lodi
Hell for A Basement (Heavy rock - Big Sugar)
Into The Great Wide Open
Rockin In The Free World
Sailor’s Shanty (traditional Maritime folk)
Sonny’s Dream (traditional Maritime folk - a dancer)
Margaritaville
Ahead By A Century (Tragically Hip)
Devil Inside (Inxs)
Proud Mary
Free Fallin’
Mary Ellen Carter (Stan Rogers - Maritime folk)
Lukey’s Boat (traditional Maritime folk - a dancer)
Farewell to Nova Scotia (traditional Maritime folk - a dancer)
Running Down A Dream
Nothing At All
Those Were The Days
Barrett’s Privateers (Stan Rogers - Maritime folk, a crowd pleaser but not a dancer)
Feel The Same Way Too (Maritime folk - a dancer)
Stuck In the Middle With You
Burning Love
Friends in Low Places
Sweet Caroline
Brown Eyed Girl
Mustang Sally
Bad Timing
Sweet Home Alabama
Wasn’t That a Party (Irish Rovers)
The Gambler
Drunken Sailor (traditional Maritime folk - a dancer)
Mari Mac (traditional Maritime folk - a dancer)
Old Black Rum (traditional Maritime folk - a dancer)
Paddy Murphy Died (traditional Maritime folk - a dancer)
Take The Money And Run
Mony Mony
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
 
#3
if you want people to shake their rumps, then how bout some funk/

i'm familiar enough with alot of those songs to know theyre good and fun, but really dont encourage me to dance,

If you want the groove throw in some funk ey?
 
#4
Your guess is as good as mine (probably better) as to what tunes will fit into your set list but still get people dancing. It seems like you would have to go the disco/funk/R&B route, which doesn't really fit with the tunes you currently play. Maybe some Motown tunes?

edit: Whoops- got my Jethro Tull tunes mixed up. Please just forget that I'm here... :hiding:
 
#5
I've played in 5-6 bands over the past 3 years. Each had its own musical focus and each one worked regularly. Some called themselves classic rock "cover" bands, some "blues" bands, some "dance" bands, etc. And every one of those bands played at least 6 of these 8 songs:

Brown-eyed Girl
Mustang Sally
Proud Mary
My Girl
Brick House
Play That Funky Music
Celebration
Stand By Me

Why? Because people like them, request them and will dance to them, of course.

We didn't always start out with them in our songlists, but input from audiences and club owners always resulted in most of them being added. It used to annoy me more than it does now. I've since realized that playing a half dozen songs that make both the club owner and the audience happy--even if I've long grown tired of them--is a small price to pay for being paid to play three dozen other songs that I like and still enjoy playing.

And guess what? When we all keep our attitudes where they should be and make a real effort to play even these tired standards well, I'm surprised at how often they sound pretty good and are more fun to play than I recall.

Bluesy Soul :cool:
 
#9
You got a lot of snoozers in there - great for a bar band but not for a dance band. Decide what kind of band you want to be, find another band successful in that genre in the clubs you want to play and WATCH. You don't have to copy their

Since you seem to be getting good responses with your folkier stuff, I'd focus there. I'm assuming you are playing the Great Big Sea arrangements of those tunes (and because of what you selected) Check out maybe doing some Seven Nations, Enter The Haggis, or Wolfstone.

I play in a celtic rock band too (I double on bagpipes), wish we had the crowds here for it aside from Irish/Celtic festivals.
 
#13
A few months ago I joined a coverband.

Most of our tunes are very danceable:

1. Badfinger - No Matter What - (A)
2. Beatles, The - Drive My Car - (D)
3. Beatles, The - I Saw Her Standing There - (E)
4. Big & Rich - Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy - (E)
5. Clapton, Eric - Wonderful Tonight - (G)
6. Commitments, The version - Mustang Sally - (C)
7. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River - (E)
8. Green Day version - I Fought The Law - (F)
9. Green Day - Warning - (A)
10. Hollies, The - Long Cool Woman - (E)
11. Lynard Skynard - Sweet Home Alabama - (D)
12. Martin, Moon - Rolene - (D)
13. McCartney, Paul version - All Shook Up - (E)
14. McCoys, The - Hang On Sloopy - (G)
15. Mellencamp, John - Authority Song, The - (A)
16. Mellencamp, John - Hurts So Good - (A)
17. Miller, Steve - Rock N' Me - (B)
18. Rolling Stones, The - Last Time, The - (E)
19. Rolling Stones, The - Satisfaction - (E)
20. Springsteen, Bruce - Pink Cadillac - (E)
21. Stealer's Wheel - Stuck In The Middle With You - (D)
22. Vaughan, Stevie Ray - Pride And Joy - (E)
23. Yoakam, Dwight - Fast As You - (E)
24. Yoakam, Dwight version - Little Sister - (E)
25. ZZ Top - Tube Snake Boogie - (E)
26. Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top
27. Give me all Your Lovin - ZZ Top
28. Keep Your hands to yourself
29. Tired Of Waiting For You – The Kinks
30. laudy miss claudy – Paul Mc version
31. Route 66 – John Mayer
32. Everything Is Broken – B. Dylan
33. Bad Boy
34. New Shoes
35. Rock you Up
36. Boot Scootin Boogie
37. Real Gone – Billy Ray Cyrus version
38. Its All Over Now - Johnny Winters version
39. I’m Ready – The Band
40. Venus – The Shocking Blue
41. James Dean – Eagles


I’m Ready
and Everything Is Broken

are especially fun to play. There are lots of songs out there that are danceable, but not overdone IMO.
 
#14
60HzRumble said:
I'm assuming you are playing the Great Big Sea arrangements of those tunes (and because of what you selected) Check out maybe doing some Seven Nations, Enter The Haggis, or Wolfstone.
Click to expand...

They are the GBS arrangements, or at least roughly inspired by the popularity of the GBS arrangements. I wasn't sure how popular they'd be outside of Canada, so I didn't mention their name, as the songs are really old "Celtic" standards (many are actually English in origin, but as they're traditional they get called Irish or Celtic). These plus the Rankin Family song are often our biggest dance floor fillers, depending on where we play.

I actually don't know any of those other bands you mentioned, but I've also considered suggesting tunes by Spirit Of the West (Home for a Rest), Waterboys (Bang On The Ear), and the Pogues (Dirty Old Town is a popular song locally).

I agree somewhat with the snoozer comment, although that's maybe a little harsh! :) I feel cover bands songs fall into one of two categories - songs you sing along with, or songs you dance to, and I feel we as a band have a huge surplus of the former and not even close to enough of the latter.

I'm totally OK with adding more "Celtic" tunes, but I'd also like to add some danceable rock songs, so I'm open for suggestions for both, but am primarily interested in rock tunes that people know and love to dance to.

I don't think Brick House or Play That Funky Music really fit our style - although I personally would be open to playing them, I don't think we could pull them off as a band or with our audience.

Another couple of suggestions I've made are "Get Back" and "Revolution" by the Beatles, and I don't know how well known Trooper is outside of Canada, but "We're Here For a Good Time Not A Long Time" also.
 
#15
60HzRumble said:
You got a lot of snoozers in there - great for a bar band but not for a dance band. Decide what kind of band you want to be, find another band successful in that genre in the clubs you want to play and WATCH. You don't have to copy their

Since you seem to be getting good responses with your folkier stuff, I'd focus there. I'm assuming you are playing the Great Big Sea arrangements of those tunes (and because of what you selected) Check out maybe doing some Seven Nations, Enter The Haggis, or Wolfstone.

I play in a celtic rock band too (I double on bagpipes), wish we had the crowds here for it aside from Irish/Celtic festivals.
Click to expand...

By the way, you could gig seven days a week in this area with a band like yours. No lie.
 

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