I have been booked for a 60th party, and as the customer was outlining some tracks on the 'phone, I offered to send her an 'advance request form' for her to fill in and return with the signed booking form.

All should have been OK, but this is an exact transcript what she has written:

Songs to play:
Joe Cocker - Unchain My Heart
Van Morrison - Any
R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
Blues Brothers - Any
Buddy Guy - Mustang Sally
Rolling Stones - Satisfaction, Brown Sugar, Under My Thumb etc.

Songs not to play:
No Cliff Richard
No Abba
No Carpenters

On the back of the sheet she has written this:
"We have fairly catholic tastes. We like classics of the 60s, 70s, (Beatles, Stones, Kinks etc); Blues, soul (e.g. atlantic soul). Of the more modern stuff, we enjoy Santana, Queen, I've put a few numbers down on the flipside of this page to give you an idea of what we want. I'm sure we can leave you to select some titles in that rein.

Things we don't want: Middle of the road - e.g. Abba and novelty records. Not keen on modern rap, hip hop."

I can certainly throw a few tracks her way, but how would you interpret this (especially the 'catholic tastes' bit), and what tracks would you suggest I dig out for this? I don't really want to ring her up again and show my ignorance!

Any sensible suggestions welcome, the more the merrier.

You not seen "The Commitments" ???

i would ring and hold a meeting with them to clarify what they mean by that.obvious the no novelty songs rules out the cheese.then you cant play any middle of the road so chirpy chirpy cheep cheep is out i would assume by the catholic thing they might mean any thing offensive or with bad language in it

Looks like a decent playlist, I would also include

O'Jays
Barry White
Average White Band
Billy Ocean
Kool & The Gang
Stevie Wonder
Earth, Wind & Fire
Trammps
Luther Vandross
Patrice Rushden
George Benson
Sam Cooke
Ben E King
Jackie Wilson
Nat 'King' Cole

Will that do for starters ?

'Catholic Tastes In Music' seems to be an expression eg I found these quotes:

This 'middle of the road' bit is confusing me slightly, as much of the stuff could be considered just that. I wonder how many of the 60s & 70s chart classics are not 'middle of the road'?

Thanks ADS for your suggestions, that is just the type of stuff I had in mind anyhow.

EDIT:
Just seen your post, Paul;
Very interesting - that gets me off the hook very nicely! Thanks for that!

Well I'm a catholic and pretty much anything goes in my book. I'd imagine AndyW has hit the nail on the head - nothing offensive. I'd recommend you leave the devil worshipping albums at home too ! !

Catholic with a capital 'C' relates to the religion. With a lower case 'c' means universal in extent; all-encompassing; wide-ranging;

After Paul's quotes I did a goooogle for the term, and that does seem to be what it means - broad-ranging.

Odd - I've never heard the experssion before.

Oh well, I don't really need to worry very much then really - bung in the usual classics, but no Abba or Cliff! Should be a good night if anyone bothers to dance...

The Buddy Guy track, by the way, is with Jeff Beck. It's on a blues and soul compilation I have.

On Atlantic look for stuff by Don Covay, Rufus Thomas, Mary Wells, The Capitols, Rex Garvin, Aretha Franklin, Soul Brothers 6, Eddie Floyd, Sam & Dave, Booker T & The MGs, Archie Bell & The Drells, William Bell, Clarence Carter, Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex, Arthur Conley, The Drifters, Ben E King amongst others.

There's a good ( and inexpensive ) Kent compilation - Sock It To 'Em Soul - that contains 30 Atlantic sides.

Throw in a bit of BB King, Bobby Bland,maybe Freddie King and that's probably what she's looking for.

I think by "catholic" she means not too much out and out pop.

With taste like that she may have been a mod when younger.

Blimey, hadn't thought of Catholic as in religion, just broad ranging too.
Thought they wanted MOR soul funk type songs.

does it! Novelty songs to me are Black Lace, the Tweets, Gap Band, but not mains stream popular music at all.

The playlist looks reasonable and I would you be fairly happy following her wishes.

Plenty of Tamala Motown
Drifters
Sam Cooke
Chris Montez
Showaddywaddy
Honeycombs
Christie
Dawn
Bucls Fizz



Any offensive stuff forget it. If in doubt don't play it.

A fairly low key event by the sounds of it.

Spinner, thanks for your advice.
I already have tracks by most of the artists you listed, but I'll look into that compilation - bound to be stuff there I haven't got, and as I seem to be getting a few 60ths coming in, probably a worthwhile investment.

"With taste like that she may have been a mod when younger."
I'll turn up with a quiff and leathers then...

EDIT:
Quote Norfolk DJ:
"A fairly low key event by the sounds of it."

Yep - she did say it was pretty informal, so I'm not expecting a lot of dancing, if any.

Best lay off the Brylcreem.

Those 60's compilation type albums are a winner at these type of events. About 10 years ago I invested in the'Heartbeat' album from the TV series. Very good indeed and this is the type of gig where it would gets plenty of play.