Opinions on medleys

[DWBass]

Anything works. Stopping after every song with dead air space ain't it for me! If you have folks on the dance floor and you stop, you'll lose them!! It doesn't have to be a medley but that drummer better be clicking off for the next song!!

 

[Derek Kay]

I'n impressed by bands who immediately count in the next item, using the last beat of the previous song as the first beat of the count.

Great way to start a set.

 

[KenD]

The answer completely depends on what and where your band is playing. Tribute? Medleys would probably be in order. Weddings? Probably expected. Retirement and long term care homes? A big hit.

 

[sean_on_bass]

if well arranged/executed a medley can be amazing. it's a great opportunity to surprise an audience.

 

[micguy]

Our cover band is doing fine, playing out enough, making some money on weekends so we're doing OK. But one guy in the band has all these ideas for some big medley he wants to do somewhere during the evening. I dislike the idea, and the guy is a BSer so we'll probably never see one anyway.

But let's just say it actually happens. I can just see us wasting rehearsal time trying to make songs work together that don't, or god knows what. Key changes that are half baked etc. No way to really go through it at home unless it's recorded right etc. No way to really be on top of it. I guess in the end I'm open to it, if he really has it down and can show us how to do it well. But that's being overly optimistic at this point, from where I sit anyway.

Plus if I go to a show I don't like medley's anyway.

Anybody else have experience with this or help me have a more postive attitude about this? Learn the songs as they are first, then put them together etc.? Meh, I'm thumbs down, but I could be wrong.

Unless you're stopping to talk for a couple minutes between every song, you should be paying attention to keys of adjacent songs in your set lists, and how one song flows to another. Medleys are a bit more work, because you're chopping stuff up and you're meshing more songs, but they're not that much more work than a well done setlist. Medleys are not good if you're short on material, but once you have more than enough it's a way to sneak a few more favorites into the evening - you make points when you play someone's favorite song. If you play a few more songs, you increase the likelihood that you will play your audience's favorites - it's good business for a cover band to do a few medleys. At the end of a set, a medley also increases the pace of things - songs come by quicker, which helps keep folks on the dance floor, and can build excitement and keep folks around through the break between sets.

Medleys can also be "mash-ups" - clever interweaving of parts of songs, where you (for example) stick the chorus of one song into another song, and go back and forth between songs - the audience gets tunes they know, but with a twist. It makes your band different, it makes things special.

If doing a medley is a "pain", then I'd suggest you're probably not doing enough work on your set lists currently. Do you want to be a lazy band, or a well oiled musical entertainment machine? Your call.

 

[Jazzdogg]

Anything works. Stopping after every song with dead air space ain't it for me! If you have folks on the dance floor and you stop, you'll lose them!! It doesn't have to be a medley but that drummer better be clicking off for the next song!!

Professionalism!

 

[SoonerBill]

When I saw the thread title it immediately brought up a painful memory. My wife was a HUGE Ronnie Milsap fan. Was. He was in concert here maybe 10 years ago. He did Smoky Mountain Rain, a couple of non hit songs and a medley of the rest of his hits. About half of each song. Then walked off stage with no encore. My wife was beyond pissed!

 

[mikeGJ]

Tommy Emmanuel does a killer medley of Beatles tunes, fifteen or twenty minutes worth, sometimes opening with it.

Very effective, but it wouldn’t work for most groups.

 

[klokker]

If doing a medley is a "pain", then I'd suggest you're probably not doing enough work on your set lists currently. Do you want to be a lazy band, or a well oiled musical entertainment machine? Your call.

I think you're right. This is interesting, and helpful, wasn't expecting the positive response to medley's.

 

[pcake]

as an audience member, if i like a song, i'd rather hear the entire song. if i don't like a song, i'd rather not hear it at all. as you may have guessed, i'm not the humble medley's biggest fan.

that being said, they can work when well-arranged.

 

[5StringBlues]

Bill is cool. A quite righteous brother.

 

[Michedelic]

Which reminds me -- Surf Rock sounds like another genre ripe for this -- WipeOut, Walk Don't Run, PipeLine, Misirlu if you can pull it off..

This was done 40 years ago, still brilliant…


Perfect for this short attention span world we’re living in.

 

[Bassdirty]

We play a bunch and they’re great. More than Medleys I’d say they’re pre-planned “groupings of songs”. Like 80’s Medley:

Your Love, into
Jenny Jenny, into
Jesse’s Girl

We used to do:

Summer of '69, into
Jesse's Girl, into
Your Love.

We called it the "CT coverband medley"

I had to check quick to see if you were from CT..

It did go over quite well, I have to admit.

T$

 

[HolmeBass]

I always wanted to do a mashup between Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama, one of those back and forth ones from song to song and back.

You’re kidding, right? I think Kid Rock stole your thunder here.

 

[TheReceder]

Good and bad.

Best ever... of all places the band that played at silver dollar city in MO. Combination of "the Grundy County auction" and the old song "the Actioneer" by Leroy van dyke. It was done flawlessly starting with one song, then the other, then seemlessly the were able to do a chorus together while both songs were played.

Easiest... my band did a short medley What I lke about you, Labamba, any number of john cougar melonhead songs, Twist and shout, and probably a couple of others... Made sure we didn't play more than a verse... it kept the dance floor filled, but we made sure we didn't go to long... we tended to draw an older crowd and we didn't want to leave the stage to perform CPR.

 

[HolmeBass]

There are medleys and there are segues.

I far prefer a cool segue, but you play both songs in their entirety.

Medleys feel kind of show-tune-ish, sort of a Broadway / musical theater vibe to me that I can usually do without at a show.

 

[Michedelic]

Long time ago, in a punky type band, we did a set closing medley of “Secret Agent Man”, first two verse/choruses, into the Peter Gunn theme with the break, back to the riff with a brief guitar solo, then overlaped into the James Bond theme. The chord intro/vamp on that is exactly the same( but slightly slower)as the Secret Agent intro(Em, Em aug5, Em 6), so after a couple rounds of Bond, we’d go back to John Drake for the third V/C and finish up.

 

[Akami]

There are medleys and there are segues.

I far prefer a cool segue, but you play both songs in their entirety.

In all actuality this has always been my preference, though I group them together in my mind. Last beat of the first song is the first beat of the next, and never give the dancers a break except to slip into a slower song here and there.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

I always wanted to do a mashup between Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama, one of those back and forth ones from song to song and back.

Sweet home, summertime (kid rock) werewolves is a mashup my band does.
Also
Hotel California/ man eater / staying alive

Another brick in the wall / dirt on my boots

Bust a move / stop (buffalo springfield)

Rocking in the USA/cherry cherry/ what I like about you.

 

[brianrost]

Ever go to a concert by an artist with a huge back catalog? I saw Smokey Robinson a few years back and he did a medley in the center of his set that was all songs he had written for other artists. He’s hardly the only artist who plays medleys of their old hits because they have so many of them.

So I see no reason for a cover band to not do medleys if there’s some thought behind it.