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Cover bands that play medleys

#41
my 7 piece jazz band (instrumental) plays all cover tunes as medleys and mashups or even a few 'medley mashups' --- the only tunes we play from beginning to end, intact, are our own. exceptions are the occasional jazz standard as a request. but all of the rock, funk, and pop tunes get a 'treatment' so that we can keep dancers moving with a bunch of familiar titles. even though we're considered "instrumental jazz," we compete with rock/funk/dance bands (in the same clubs) because of those medleys/mashes. and at private events (where no one is interested in our original, "deep" :D music) those medleys keep us competitive.

the tunes are easy enough. the cleverness is all about how to hook them up to each other in ways which 'delight' and surprise the audience/dancers. everyone in the band participates and comes up with ideas. we chart the arrangements and test-market at gigs. fun stuff!


Pacman said:
this one people really dug
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yeah, i see why --- nice work! :thumbsup:
 
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#42
JRA said:
the tunes are easy enough. the cleverness is all about how to hook them up to each other in ways which 'delight' and surprise the audience/dancers. everyone in the band participates and comes up with ideas. we chart the arrangements and test-market at gigs. fun stuff!

yeah, i see why --- nice work! :thumbsup:
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Exactly! In the end, it's all entertainment. We do it for THEM, to entertain THEM, whoever they are, regardless of genre.

The surprise / excitement aspect translates to any art form. When you can grab a viewer or listener, and surprise them with something that excites them, you've done it!

Not bass related, but I've been a custom furniture maker for nearly 30 years. In the same idea, it's really cool and satisfying when a purchaser sees a piece and discovers hidden features, like secret drawers, as well as finishes that invite them to touch it.
 
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#49
What I Like about you/ R.O.C.K. in the USA
Sharp Dressed Man/Gimmee all your lovin
Fat Bottom girls/ We will rock you
Dancing with myself/Sedated
Bad guy/You should be dancing
Havana/Smooth
Best Friends Girl/Just What I Needed
Like A Virgin/Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
We Got The Beat/Rock and Roll All Night
Twilight Zone/Radar Love
 
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#50
We did a couple of medleys, but not of songs by the same band. We did a medley of Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" into MJ's "Billie Jean" straight into CCR's "Fortunate Son". The drummer would basically play the same beat, with us changing the other parts over his beat. The crowd loved it. It basically took three place of three songs in that set.

Another popular one...We had done Tesla's "Love Song" for a long time. I had wanted to do "Stairway to Heaven" for a long time, but lets face it, the beginning of it is pretty boring in a bar setting. And starting with the fun part was kinda weird. So one day I thought, "hey, lets stop LS at the slow part at the end (the "I know...dooo doo do do..I know..." part) and go into the fun part of Stairway. So that's what we did. if you listen to the songs, Stop LS at 4:50 and pick up Stairway at 5:36, and thats what you got. Crowed always freaked out when we blasted into Stairway.

BnB
 
#52
Long ago, we used to do a medley of Stand(REM)/LaBamba/Twist and Shout and I think a few other of the 3.9M songs that use that progression. We didn't rehearse much but we sure did drink. Another band I was in did a ZZ Top thing from Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings went into Just Got Paid.

I've done a few others in various bands, and the success of a medley is 100% on the skill level of the members. Simply stopping a song while the drummer does a kick drum for 4 beats before starting the next song doesn't count. But transitioning at full speed and volume is a wonderful thing. This is one of the many reasons I love Jam bands.
 
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#54
I used to do a really cool medley - Woman by the James Gang, when it modulates from G to A, break into Funk #49, in the percussion part in Funk #49 transition to the ending of I just want to celebrate. The audience used to love singing along to I just want to celebrate.
 
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#56
hbarcat said:
I'm a big fan of the medley. I've seen them done by the greatest acts in the world and the local bar/lounge/festival groups and down to the garage band playing in someone's back yard.

Done well, a medley can get the crowd ramped up to maximum enthusiasm and also showcase the band's musical talents and versatility. Most importantly, a medley allows everyone to hear some really popular songs that have been thoroughly overplayed in a new context that brings some originality to the mix.

I was in a classic rock cover band in the mid 90s and we had about a dozen Lynyrd Skynyrd songs in our toolkit. We would typically play 1 or 2 of them during a gig. At that time, some people still thought it was funny to yell out "Freebird!" , which was one song we refused to play.

What we did do was play about 8 seconds of the intro and then switch to the LS song we wanted to play. Eventually, we hit on the idea of doing a medley of LS songs that we had gotten sick of playing in their entirety.

Other band medleys I've done in the past were Black Sabbath, the Rolling Stones, CCR, Pink Floyd, and even Joe Walsh.


I'd be interested to hear of some medleys other TBers have done before, including detailed setlists if you have them. Or maybe some medleys you e seen other bands play, especially famous bands.
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We do a mashup : Another brick in the wall start, to the shout " hey teacher", and then start John Pardi Dirt on my boots .

Really fun to see the looks on a country crowd's faces during that :)
 
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#57
garp said:
If your band is talented enough, you can probably get a full 15-20 minutes out of "What I Like About You" (The Romantics, 1980) and "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." (John Cougar Mellencamp, 1985).

I believe that we also somehow managed to pull off an interesting medley of "My City Was Gone" (The Pretenders, 1982) and Talkings Head's 1978 cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" (1974).

With enough effort – and a few transpositions – the possibilities are almost endless.
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Rock in USA/ what I like about you/ cherry cherry (Neil diamond)
We also do:
Sweet home, kid rock, all summer long , werewolves of London
 
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#58
I mainly play Oldies, Medleys are the way to go when folks want to dance, Sometimes I'll do a bit, tell the crowd I'm auditioning the drummer, He'll have to sing lead on (3) songs in row & one of them in Spanish.
We break into Twist & Shout, La Bamba & Do you Love Me?.. & back to Twist & Shout.. May sound a bit hokey but a lot of crowds like hokey.. It just works!
 
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#59
Interesting. I think we have different definitions of "Medley"

I always think a medley = three+ songs by one band
- Zep Rock & Roll, into Whole Lotta Love, into Black Dog, into Over the Hills

Two songs from different band is a Mashup
- ROCK/USA into What I like about you

And you could do three different bands
- R&R All Night to Nothing But A Good Time to Sat Nights All Right for fighting

but that is a little different


Playing half of two songs by Skynrd is just playing half of two songs....
 

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