'80s songs: which ones work best in your set?

[bass12]

For any of you who play '80s songs in your sets, which ones do find consistently go over well with the audience (and keep folks on the dance floor)? Are there any in particular that you find work well with both a younger and older crowd? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Jebberz]

These songs are always a hit, even with people in their early 20's (we play a lot of '80s songs)

Summer of '69
You Give Love a Bad Name/Living on a prayer
You Shook Me All Night Long
Billie Jean
Footloose (always a BIG hit, fills the dance floor every time)

 

[Richland123]

We have a few 80s songs in our current set list that always go over very well with all ages and always get the dancers up.

Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Sharp Dressed Man
The Break Up Song
Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Runnin' Down A Dream
Hurts So Good

 

[bass12]

Footloose (always a BIG hit, fills the dance floor every time)

And the bass line is fun to play.

 

[Jebberz]

And the bass line is fun to play.

Yes, but after playing it at each every gig since a decade, you tend to be in automatic mode when playing it.

 

[dramatwist]

Shock the Monkey.

 

[oldrocker]

Stop Dragging My Heart Around and I Hate Myself for Loving You usually gets us a good response.

 

[LBS-bass]

Well, we're not a dance band, and looking at our song list it's pretty much all 70's or originals with a few more contemporary songs tossed in.

That said, the covers that everyone seems to love are as follows: Hard to Handle (dancers love it), Superstition (ditto), Hey Bulldog, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Tempted (Squeeze song) and 50 Ways to Leave your Lover.

No idea why, mostly, but people love when we play those songs.

 

[MrLenny1]

Footloose gets young and old up. I had to learn it
for a New Country band that threw in a few rock tunes.
I was surprised on what a great bass line it is.

 

[LBS-bass]

Footloose gets young and old up. I had to learn it
for a New Country band that threw in a few rock tunes.
I was surprised on what a great bass line it is.

The great Nathan East!

 

[Thundar]

Shock the Monkey.

I'd wet myself if I ever heard a cover band do that song...much less got to play it myself!

 

[Plectrum72]

Love Shack gets them dancing everytime.

Everyone in our band sings and we have two ladies in the band, so this one works for us without being weird. Well, no weirder than the song already is.

 

[commonplayer]

Our band does I Can’t Go for That by Hall and Oats. We do mostly original tunes but we throw that in there from time to time and it does really well.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Crazy Little Thing, Jessie's Girl, What I Like About You, 867-5309, Keep Your Hands to Yourself

 

[JimK]

From the peanut gallery -
I would think "What I Like About You" would still pack the floor...

 

[buldog5151bass]

From the peanut gallery -
I would think "What I Like About You" would still pack the floor...

Yep, everything time.

 

[Michedelic]

Sat in a few months ago with my wife’s band, who do a mixture of punkier Celtic, and Ska/reggae. They got hired to play a birthday party(50th)of a superfan, and she requested a set of ‘120 Minutes’ type tunes. Their regular bassist(more of a jah person)didn’t want to know, and quite frankly wasn’t equipped to play some of the stuff, so I covered it, doing Cure(Let’s Go To Bed), Echo&B-men(Killing Moon), Duran(Girls on Film), TFF(Mad World), and Berlin’s Metro, nailing the sequencer bass line(the irony being that I had been in a band who opened for them in ‘84), the Church’s Milky Way(because my wife and I know them), and so on.

 

[Nephilymbass]

For any of you who play '80s songs in your sets, which ones do find consistently go over well with the audience (and keep folks on the dance floor)? Are there any in particular that you find work well with both a younger and older crowd? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I don’t play 80s covers but I have a friend who’s does. This song always goes over well with the crowd.

 

[Rib 13]

West End Girls
Dont You Forget About Me
1999/Relax (We do as a medley)
Tainted Love
Pour Some Sugar On Me
Closer (NIN...ok, thats 90s)

(part time band)we do more 80s than this, and all go over fairly well, but these go over the best for us

Some songs work better at different times,too, like Let's Go by The Cars works better earlier in the night than in later sets

 

[crazyBassClown]

At our last gig my band added Cher's If I could turn back time and it went over way better than I expected with the 20's crowd. The ladies were all singing it.
The best by tina turner and Black velvet also goes over well.