Why the blog?

It all boiled down to the following conversation I had over and over at house parties etc..

“Hey, you can play guitar”
“Yup, 15 years”
“Play a song!”
“Can’t, don’t know any”

An exaggeration sure; I knew bits of songs, the hooks and riffs I was interested in. I knew some of the words, the choruses mostly. I can hold a note, but my voice is weak. When it boiled down to actually playing the song in front of people, I would choke. It was my excuse for not having to perform.

It wasn’t until I practiced songs over and over, and learned the words by rote that I gained the confidence to sing, play and enjoy performing in front of people.

This is my attempt to create a definitive list of songs to play at house parties, campfires and where ever else may take your fancy. I have come across lists like this one and others through forum discussions at guitar.com and ultimate-guitar.com, but i couldn’t find any site dedicated to “party songs”.

What should a “party song” be?
The best example of a party song is one that almost everyone at the party knows the words to, without even realising it! Earworms so entrenched in peoples’ minds, that they will chime in, before they know what they’re doing. Cheesy songs that people may groan at when they hear the first bar, then laugh at themselves by the end for enjoying them so much, everyone likes a bit of cheese!

Leave your personal preferences at the door. I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend of mine…
Friend : “It’s your birthday today, we should go celebrate!”
Me : “I don’t really like to celebrate my birthday”.
F : “It’s not about you, its just an excuse for everyone else to have a party!!”

It’s not about you. The more everyone enjoys the songs, the more you’ll enjoy it.

Why “the life and soul”?
The aim of the game is to that person who helps everyone at a party enjoy themselves, no small feat for the soon to be life and soul of the party!