From Bo Diddley to behooded drone-mongers Sunn O))), you suggested the best songs about betrothals
For many people, the act of betrothal is the culmination of a love affair. What could be more romantic than a couple publicly declaring love for each other? So as long as there are love songs, there'll be wedding songs.
Jacob's Ladder captures the heady optimism of a good wedding. Come and celebrate with us, shout it from the rooftops! Post-punks go gospel in a joyous call-and-response single from 1985. It really should have been a hit, a view I'm sure the Monochrome Set are sick of hearing.
The Platters' With This Ring is stylish soul in the Four Tops mode. Long-term fans will have appreciated its unabashedly slushy subject matter, but by 1966 the Platters were unrecognisable as the group who'd enjoyed success 10 years previously with such high-end harmony hits as Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Sonny Turner had replaced Tony Williams as lead vocalist, and had more of a crackle than a cry in his voice.
"It should have been me," insists Yvonne Fair in her 1976 disco classic. It points the way to the high-camp hymns of self-belief by down-at-heel divas exemplified by Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive. But as nominator gordonimmel notes, she's the wedding guest from hell.
Firearms are not perhaps the ideal wedding outfit accessory, but Roy C's Shotgun Wedding is peppered with the sound of ricocheting bullets. Though thanks to Roy Hammond's soulful vocals, which bear the strong influence of Sam Cooke, Shotgun Wedding is no novelty record. A UK top 10 hit on two separate occasions, it treads the thin line between American R&B and Jamaican ska. Both Roy C and Yvonne Fair quote Wagner's Wedding March, as does Rock Steady Wedding, Jackie Mittoo & the Soul Vendors' reggae medley of wedding standards.
Every town has a band called the Originals. The most successful of these had a dreamily romantic hit in 1970 with The Bells, released on Soul, a subsidiary of Motown. It was co-written and produced by Marvin Gaye, who even played drums on it, too. It's similar in feel to What's Going On, and indeed the Originals' backing vocals were integral to Gaye's groundbreaking recordings of the early 70s. Does the song refer wedding bells? Well, I think so.
I know what you're thinking: what this wedding playlist needs is a Macedonian Roman brass band. Ko?ani Orkestar ? who some readers may have heard accompanying Zach Condon, alias Beirut ? have made wedding-themed music their speciality. Bayram Sekeri is drunken, demented and delightful.
Gram Parsons's �1,000 Wedding is mysterious. "Why ain't there a funeral/ if you're gonna act that way?" Whose funeral is it? Emmylou Harris joins him on the chorus, but the lyrics are disorienting rather than uplifting: "I hate to tell you how he acted when the news arrived/ He took some friends out drinking and it's lucky they survived."
The protagonist in Ballboy's They'll Hang Flags from Cranes Upon My Wedding Day holds out the promise of the big day as salvation, but the evidence suggests he's bent on a path of booze-related self-destruction.
Truth is, weddings aren't for everyone. Behooded drone-mongers Sunn O))) darken the mood considerably on the uncompromising Black Wedding, which royal-watchers will have noted was not part of the service in last week's Westminster Abbey fandango. How different that occasion would have been.
Here's the A-list:
Jacob's Ladder ? The Monochrome Set
It Should Have Been Me ? Yvonne Fair
Rock Steady Wedding ? Jackie Mittoo & the Soul Vendors
Bayram Sekeri ? Ko?ani Orkestar
They'll Hang Flags From Cranes Upon My Wedding Day ? Ballboy
And here's the B-list:
A wrong-headed call for legalising child marriage. That aside, it's completely gorgeous: unimpeachable harmonies, Brian Wilson's incredible arrangement ... from Today!, the Revolver to Pet Sounds' Sgt Pepper.
I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock'n'Roll) ? Nick Lowe
Zydeco accordion-enlivened knees-up, possibly inspired by Chuck Berry's You Never Can Tell.
We're Gonna Get Married ? Bo Diddley
One chord, one rhythm: the future Mrs Diddley gets told how it's going to be, as backing singers the Bo-Dettes whoop up a party.
Your Sister Cried ? Mary Gauthier
Another wedding guest laments the union of a loved one. And another mournful country song that raises more questions than it answers.
Betrothals were a recurring theme of songs by 50s vocal groups. A lugubrious priest provides the spoken interludes on the Solitaires' saccharine affirmation of the wedding as the ultimate in romance.
So echo-y, it could have been recorded in a church. Mind you, a doo-wop choir would be a great accompaniment to any bride's walk down the aisle.
The False Bride ? Shirley Collins
Ancient English folk song, hundreds of years old and an established part of the canon by the time Shirley Collins recorded this landmark version in 1963.
Giving Away the Bride ? Califone
Love the way the plaintive piano emerges from the seemingly random electronic sounds.
Let's Stick Together ? Bryan Ferry
Roxy frontman reaffirms vows in 1976 remake/remodel of Wilbur Harrison R&B classic.
The Ceremony ? George Jones and Tammy Wynette
George and Tammy do the wedding vows thing in song. How touching. But as Bastinado recounts: "Then came the booze, a lawnmower and divorce."
* Here's a Spotify playlist containing many of these songs
* Here's last week's blog, from which I've selected the songs above
* There'll be a fresh theme at guardian.co.uk/readersrecommend on Friday.
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