Hi.
Was at a local hotel today where they wanted me to play a few nights.
While I was there I was asked I could get them some jazz/easy listening/dinner music for 3 periods :
Weekdays 7-11am, 12- 3pm and 5pm to 11pm, being a bit more lively in the evenings.
Any suggestions for artisits or songs. They mentioned Amy Whinehouse style for some of it.
Thanks guys

I would suggest some Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Michael Buble, Ella Fitzgerald, some of the slow soul & motown songs, even look at love song compilations and Robbie/Westlifes' versions of big band tracks.

I would also recommend not playing too much of one artist/genre at any point and also mix up male/female artists.

Thanks Paul.
I've got a few Paulo Nutini, Mariah Carey, Anna Nalick and a few others but need loads more.
Any suggestions for a slightly more upbeat genre for saturday and fri night, it's a classy bar so they'll want something to suit.
Thanks

Agree with the above suggestion. These albums are as cheap as chips on ebay.

I've got an Album by Paul Anka (can't remember the name... possibly rock swings??) he does swing versions of modern tunes...
Nirvana, Soundgarden etc.

it's great!

Yep its called rock swings and i agree its great ! The big band version of eye of the tiger is superb.

Some swing tracks are more upbeat so you could use those, Dire Straits, Drifters, throw in a few current sings (I like that new one by Kelis - Lil Star), even some RnB. I would imagine that the BPM for the evening bit would be in the region of 70 - 100

There's several ways you could work this:

• Play the songs randomly; mixing artists/genres
• Start at 70bpm and slowly work up to 100 over the time
• Start at 70bpm and go to 100 within say 8 - 10 songs and then work down, then up again

Although this is only background music you can still be creative and move away from the 'stick in a CD and leave it' - you could even take requests during this time so people feel included.

i have been asked before for dinner music and was sugested that i try karaoke music for background so i tried some carefully chosen sunfly cds which was asked later by lots where they could buy the tracks they listened to

Excellent idea. You have helped me out for tomorrow nights' dinner dance, awards ceremony, dinner music.

Ah the old sunfly.
Can't go wrong with that! lol
Thanks for input people

I often use the karaoke versions as background, in fact used 'White Wedding' by Billy Idol on the catwalk fashion show last Wednesday evening at a wedding fayre.

A couple of additional ideas that I've used over the years (get me my zimmerframe...)

During the background music, I've dropped the music midrange by a few dB - the idea being that it makes the words (and the midrange music) less intrusive on conversations - which of course are themselves midrange.

Also, if you've got a good "Key Adjust" (eg: No "mickey mouses" or "Darth Vaders") I've also been know to drop the pitch of all the tracks down to -2% to -5% to make them less "energetic".