Best 200th Street Party

Monday night the Inwood Ward held a tri-ward 80s Dance FHE at their chapel, I was asked to DJ. DJ'ing an 80's dance is easy: you make a huge playlist of all your favorite 80's songs, then ask your friends what their favorite songs are, your list gets huger, and then at the party you just play a few of those songs and everyone loves just about every song AND best of all, you don't have to play Put a Ring On It. The only trick is balancing between quintessential 80's hits that mostly win for being famous and songs from the 80's that are actually totally awesome. I was lucky to get to play mostly songs that were famous and totally awesome.






(this dude is Tyson and he's one of my roommates)









The Inwood Ward treated me nice, this was my first time ever having something to sit on AND a legitimate surface to put my computer on. It's weird not having a super-sore back today from spending the whole night bent over, looking at my computer.


(photos graciously donated from the Mapp collection)

The 80's Music from the 80's Set -- It was tough trimming down from my 11 hours of songs selected for the party (4 hours of which were set aside in the special "must play" sublist), but this is what I did:

Burning Down The House by Talking Heads
Into The Groove by Madonna
I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow
Venus by Bananarama
The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson
Tainted Love by Soft Cell
Faith by George Michael
I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston
Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners
Jump by Van Halen
Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister
Take On Me by Aha
Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper
I've Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison
Our Lips Are Sealed by The Go Gos
Situation by Yazoo
Two Of Hearts by Stacey Q
Thriller by Michael Jackson
(I played this during the Dance Off/Costume Contest...the winner, the girl in the pokadots got a copy of Goonies)
Skulls by The Misfits
(I played this with the volume low twice in a row during the award presentation for background music but, hey, I played a Misfits song. Twice.)
Take My Breath Away by Berlin
(The only slow dance of the night, but I had a stack of slow songs at the ready in case more romance was detected on the dancefloor...I almost played Lady in Red after this but wisely did not)
Let's Go Crazy by Prince
(You should have seen Ryan's air guitar on this. Astounding!)
Mony Mony by Billy Idol
Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi
She's a Maniac by Flashdance
TNT by AC/DC
(These five songs made pretty relentless demands of the dancers' enthusiasm, but they delivered)
A Little Respect by Erasure
(I was very happy with the cheers of approval this received)
Always On My Mind by Pet Shop Boys
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!
Material Girl by Madonna
I Know What Boys Like by The Waitresses
Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic
(I could tell there were some that worried this was a 90's song...but I knew it wasn't, and Robert calmed many by looking it up on his iPhone)
Ask by The Smiths
Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds
(Also a slow song, I suppose. This was the last song of the night)
(But you know what comes after last songs of the night, right? Cleaning up songs!)
Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order
Space Age Love Song by A Flock Of Seagulls

It was good, it was fun. It could have gone on forever.