music everyone loves

[jazzjune18]

I saw a bluegrass/Americana band playing at a local pub last night. The crowd was typical for a pub. Until the band started playing wagon wheel. Instantly they were all singing along dancing. It was pretty impressive. Just curious, from what you have seen, what other songs seem to have this effect at a typical type of setting(singing along, dancing, etc)?

[Nashville]

Sweet Home Alabama, Freebird, Mary Jane's Last Dance (for the biker bar circuit in Tennessee)

[JeffD]

Anything by the Grateful Dead

[dwc]

Anything by the Grateful Dead

Agreed. Ripple, Friend of the Devil, Catfish John all seem to go over very well. I want to work Black Muddy River into our setlist, but the chords confound our guitarist.

Wagon Wheel is like the Freebird of acoustic music, so much so that I have been on stage with musicians who refuse to play it. I find that attitude arrogant and patronizing. I will play Margaritaville 5 times in a row if the audience wants me to. I don't consider it pandering, but rather giving my audience what they want.

I sometimes play some rather obscure Buffett tunes, in particular Distantly in Love which has a mandolin on the recorded version and works well as a slower song to contrast against all the fast-paced high energy bluegrass we play. Mountain Dew, Nine Pound Hammer, Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms can all start to get a little repetitive; I find something like Distantly in Love or Ripple makes a nice interlude.

[roysboy]

ABBA , Hank Sr. , Brian Adams' Summer of 69 , Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll , Boot Scootin Boogie , anything by Elvis , Billie Jean , Call Me Maybe , ....and probably a couple hundred more ....

[montana]

Brown eyed girl.

[DavidKOS]

I'm not sure about it as a mandolin tune, but whenever I play "Sleepwalk" on guitar, the audiences seem to love it.

[Ky Slim]

Wagon Wheel is like the Freebird of acoustic music, so much so that I have been on stage with musicians who refuse to play it. I find that attitude arrogant and patronizing. I will play Margaritaville 5 times in a row if the audience wants me to. I don't consider it pandering, but rather giving my audience what they want.

I agree with this and I now know how to play Wagon Wheel as a result of many crowd requests. I like the tune but I probably wouldn't have cared to learn in on my own. In other words, I didn't learn wagon wheel because I really really liked it and just had to know it. I figure if I expect an audience to listen to me play the tunes that I enjoy playing that they may not recognize, like, or understand, I should play some tunes that keep them interested. And Hey, at least Wagon Wheel has taken some of the demand away from that Gin and Juice cover that was so popular. I never did learn that one btw...

Whiskey River is another crowd pleaser. Pretty much everything on the Willie Nelson and Family Live records works.

[DavidKOS]

I agree with this and I now know how to play Wagon Wheel as a result of many crowd requests.

Is this the song? I'm ashamed to admit it, but I never heard of it!

[dylanferris]

That's the tune David! It was originally sketched out by Bob Dylan but wasn't finished until Old Crow Medicine Show got ahold of it. They finished writing it and recorded it!

[DavidKOS]

Seems like a nice tune but I don't see why it is so popular...but that ain't the first time I felt that way.

[journeybear]

Yes, it's popularity is mystifying to me. It's a good enough song, catchy tune, fun lyrics about traveling, toking, and, um, rocking but why and how it has caught on so is unexplainable. If it were, there would be countless more like it out there. Something about Dylan, and his uncanny knack for getting under people's skins and into their brains. Same with "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" - catchy tune, fun lyrics (albeit nearly nonsensical), and people just seem to love it, especially singing along with the chorus. Go figure - if you can.

My band started doing "You Are My Sunshine" not long ago, partly to have something nice to play right at sunset - that's a big event here, for one reason or another. This usually gets a big response, with people of all ages singing along on the chorus. Hank Williams songs usually so well this way, too. He was another songwriter with that populist knack.

We have an original song that almost always gets people dancing and singing along, even if some of them haven't heard it before. It's called "Freight Train" - a one-chord song about hopping trains and what that's like, with a really simple refrain - the title phrase - sung or almost chanted by the bunch of us, with a melody of minor third and root. People pick up on that real easily. It may be proof of the old acronymous advice - KISS (keep it simple and stupid),

[roysboy]

Seems like a nice tune but I don't see why it is so popular...but that ain't the first time I felt that way.

Several reasons :

1. " Rock me momma like a wagon wheel " is immediately memorable as a sing-along song hook regardless of whether or not ANYONE listens to or understands or cares about the rest of the lyric . You have all of the "M's" and the " W's " creating ear catching alliteration . It repeats SIX TIMES each chorus for a total of EIGHTEEN TIMES over the course of the song . Yup ...pretty damned MEMORABLE , .

2. Its a shuffle beat ....RARE on radio stations these days so it will stand out .

3. Place names :North Caroline , Raleigh , New England , Roanoke , Philly , Cumberland Gap , Johnson City Tennessee . Generally , place names in a song catch the ear of listeners and if a few come from those places - "HOME"...RUN ...NO.... PUN intended !!

[jazzjune18]

YAll are a definite wealth of knowledge. I have found also that whenever there are elderly ladies in the crowd they always sing along to Red River Valley! Hah

[JeffD]

This is why I hate performing.

If you could perform what the audience would have wanted if they had good taste... but to kowtow to the musical choices of a bunch of folks that could not guess which instrument is the mandolin given three choices and a help line...

I have a bad attitude.

I don't think its arrogance. Its just a difference. I would make a list - here is what I am playing. If this is not what you want to hear, go to a different concert. And if nobody shows up, hey lets jam.

[crisscross]

A long time ago, I played in a band doing Irish Pubs here in Germany. One of the audience's favourite was John Denver's "Take me home, country roads". Seems to work in a BG setting as well:

When the audience was rather American, they liked Skinnnnard, when it was more British, Oasis was a save bet.
Germans liked the Robbie Robbertson penned "Am Tag, als Connie Cramer starb"

And yes, Van Morrison's "Brown eyed girl"

And "Whiskey in the jar" known because of Metallica's version, wich I tried to do as close as possible to:

[DavidKOS]

My band started doing "You Are My Sunshine"

The Jimmy Davis (as in ex-gov. of Louisiana) song?

That song is one that everyone loves.....along with Woody Guthrie's "This Land is your Land".

This is why I hate performing.

If you could perform what the audience would have wanted if they had good taste... but to kowtow to the musical choices of a bunch of folks that could not guess which instrument is the mandolin given three choices and a help line...

I've been playing live gigs since I was 15 in 1972.

I totally get where you're coming from - I loved prog rock and jazz-fusion, into classical music, etc - but now I look at it like this.

No matter what audience, I can find something I like to play that they will like. Then we both win.

[journeybear]

... place names in a song catch the ear of listeners and if a few come from those places ...

I've heard there are colleges in most if not all of the Southern cities mentioned in the song, and the single is in the jukeboxes in the college unions and cafeterias etc, and also all around those towns. It surely gets a LOT of play that way.

[BostonCeltics]

Hi everyone! First time poster, long time lurker, ha!

One other aspect of Wagon Wheel and its popularity would be the chord progression. It goes I-V-vi-IV I-V-IV

It's a very popular progression that's found all over pop music. It seems to be a progression that is pleasing to the ear. From the root, to the five, then the quick tension of the minor six, then the pleasing four chord.

That's my guess on the popularity of the song.

[roysboy]

Hi everyone! First time poster, long time lurker, ha!

One other aspect of Wagon Wheel and its popularity would be the chord progression. It goes I-V-vi-IV I-V-IV

It's a very popular progression that's found all over pop music. It seems to be a progression that is pleasing to the ear. From the root, to the five, then the quick tension of the minor six, then the pleasing four chord.

That's my guess on the popularity of the song.

ABSOLUTELY . This is the most overused chord progression in many genres of music ( particularly country ) for many years. It's easily " disguise-able " so a listener wouldn't realize he is listening to the same thing over and over . It kind of creates a subconscious familiarity in those instances . If it ain't broke .........

[journeybear]

... from what you have seen, what other songs seem to have this effect at a typical type of setting (singing along, dancing, etc)?

Just a suggestion - Let's get off "Wagon Wheel." It's been analyzed, demonized, and pulverized a-plenty here - whole threads about it. The OP is asking about other songs that get an immediate positive response. There have been a few suggestions, with a bit of analysis as to why and how they have this effect. Let's try to think of some more.

Just a suggestion ...

[Timbofood]

My band has been doing "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" for almost forty years! I remember one time we were doing a weekly gig at a saloon here in town and stopped the bar to absolute silence! All these many years and that's only happened once, I felt good that night!

[bigskygirl]

Most anything by Jimmy Buffett or the The Band.

[jaycat]

Several reasons . . .
3. Place names :North Caroline , Raleigh , New England , Roanoke , Philly , Cumberland Gap , Johnson City Tennessee . Generally , place names in a song catch the ear of listeners and if a few come from those places - "HOME"...RUN ...NO.... PUN intended !!

Tom Waits said every song should have three things in it: 1. Places, 2. Food (in case you get hungry along the way), and 3. Weather.

Anything by the Grateful Dead

Here's a real crowd pleaser:

[JeffD]

ABSOLUTELY . This is the most overused chord progression in many genres of music ( particularly country ) for many years. ... If it ain't broke .........

I have a friend who is an above average singer song writer, playing guitar and harmonica. He tells the story of a jazz player who asked him why he doesn't "move on" form I IV and V. My friend says he told him that he sees no reason to move on until I IV V has been "mined out" and that there is still a whole lot to be crafted from those chord progressions. He says moving beyond may be interesting and good, and even inspired, but "moving on" implies "we have done as much as can be done here".