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My parents are my best friends. I'm afraid my fiancé can't say the same thing. His mother was emotionally abusive for most of his life, but now they are trying to make amends. She is contributing to our wedding, and very much wants to do a special mother-son dance.Problem is, all the other wedding websites recommend songs like “Mama's Song” by Carrie Underwood, and “How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)” by James Taylor. Songs about love and how great a parent relationship are just too hurtful for him and bring up bad memories. There just has to better choices for dance songs not about love! Any suggestions on how to overcome this obstacle? I can't be the only bride out there struggling to find a slow sweet song not about love…
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It's a terrible situation when there's strife with parents during wedding planning. But I'm so glad there are amends being made and that it seems to be working out so far. My first piece of advice is that any formal dances at a reception don't actually have to be slow dances. You can bust a move with the folks without having to have it get overly sentimental. Plus, it tends to get the rest of the guests in the mood to live it up when it's not too slow.
Second, feel free to toss on an instrumental, especially if it's a cover of a song you really like. Any punk, metal, movie theme, etc. can be made totally wedding-friendly when it's an instrumental cover, like from Vitamin String Quartet.
Here are some suggestions for dance songs NOT about love…
- “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones or The Sundays
- “Tonight, Tonight” by Smashing Pumpkins
- “Dock Of The Bay” by Otis Redding
- “Day-O!” by Harry Belafonte
- “I Can See Clearly Now” by Johnny Nash
- “Imagine” by John Lennon
- “What's Goin On” by Marvin Gaye
- “With a Little Help From My Friends” by The Beatles
- “The Greatest” by Cat Power
- “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
- “Lights” by Journey
- “Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf
- Anything from this instrumental list!
Don't forget: we've got LOTS of other ideas for parent dances, too…
About the Author: Catherine Clark
Catherine Clark loiters at her local library, makes art, watches movies en masse, plays video and tabletop games, poorly cooks healthy things, cuddles with her feline fur babies, and blogs at BijouxandBits.com.
My fiance had a similar problem, but ultimately we’re glad he had a mother/son dance. The DJ picked out the Israel K. Ukulele version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” for them, which I think was a great choice. The DJ also opened up the floor to other mother/son combos in attendance about a minute into the song, which took some of the pressure/focus off of my fiance and his mother.
That is EXACTLY the song I was going to suggest! There’s also a Ray Charles cover that’s fantastic, which is what I danced with my dad to, if that’s more your style.
My husband and his sisters danced to “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Womack. They lost their mom as teenagers, so a parental-themed song would have been much too painful. The song worked well too, as it’s about hope for the future. It was still pretty tearful for everyone.
My dad and I danced to “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits, which also has nothing to do with parents or love! It’s more upbeat though, so it depends on what kind of tone your fiance and his mom are looking for.
I would suggest “Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie. That’s what my dad and I are dancing to.
Here are a couple of options I’ve seen used: “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong is good (not a “love” song & rather short), “Forever Young” by Rod Stewart,
My dad and I danced to “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley for our father-daughter dance. We’re huge Elvis fans so I picked a song I knew we would both enjoy.