Here is a small list I recently created when I was making a CD for someone special in my life. These are great songs to use for a sensual, passionate evening with someone you are in Love with.
Let’s Make Love - Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
Mi Credo - Pepe Aguilar
Lets Get it On - Marvin Gaye
More than Words - Frankie J
Te Voy a Perder - Alejandro Fernandez
I’ll Make Love to You - Boyz II Men
When We Make Love - Ginuwine
Todo Cambio - Camila
Far Away - Nickelback
Below is an Amazon widget that allows you to preview the songs and purchase them if you’d like to own them.
Well I know you guys are always looking for the latest and greatest when it comes to songs to use at your upcoming event. Whether it’s a wedding or a quinceanera, you always want the newest or the most popular.
This year March was a blessing to me. In actuality all this year has been a blessing. I’ve stayed busy every weekend of the year (Except for the weekends that I take off to spend time with my daughters) and am booked all the way up to July (With a couple of dates to fill, and many Fridays still open) as I type this article. And I’m even thinking of raising my prices just a bit since I normally do A LOT more for my customers than most DJ companies in Houston.
So what I am going to do this post is write out the more popular songs that have been used by my brides and a few quinceaneras for their father daughter dances as well as for the first dance and any other traditional dances. Now I will not include every single on, but just the top songs that I enjoyed and I thought were really emotional.
OK, let’s get to it.
Bride and Groom First Dance
Aerosmith - I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing
Mana & Juan Luis Guerra - Bendita tu Luz
Etta James - At Last
Father and Daughter Dance
Rascal Flatts - My Wish
Stephen Curtis Chapman - Cinderella
Bob Carlisle - Butterfly Kisses
Mother and Son Dance
Boyz II Men - A Song For Mama
Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up
This is just to give you an idea of what’s been requested recently. For a more comprehensive list of songs, check out my extensive SongList.
Recently, I was asked by the Houston American Disc Jockey Association to give a presentation about the different genres of Latin Music. This was pretty simple since I am pretty familiar with all the different sounds of the Latin Music world. I had done all the hard work before, when I was beginning my road down my DJ journey. I needed to sort all my music in a way that would be easy for me to find and in a way that I could have all the music of the same Genre in the same folder. Since I’ve always used a PC for storing the music, I did this step in the very beginning and it took me a few months to perfect, but I have been using this layout for the last 8 years, so apparently it works.
The firs thing I did was to break it down into the main groups that I could think of which are; Mexican Music, Latin Music, and Tejano Music. These are the main groups of people here in Houston, so I had specify which music went with what group. That does not mean that Mexican people do not like listening to Latin Music or Tejano Music and so on.
Mexican Genres:
I did Mexican music, because a lot of the Latin music here in Houston is from Mexico. Even in the Mexican Music group you have a lot of genres to cover. Here is how I broke the Mexican Music Down:
Huapangos (Song Names)
Redoblando
Entrale En Ayunas
Tamaulipas, Tamaulipas
Cumbia
Fito Olivares - La Cobra
Kumbia Kings - Sabes a Chocolate
Control - Cumbia con la Luna
Norteñas
Duelo - Un Minuto Mas
Pesado - Ojala Que te Mueras
Intocable - El Amigo Que se Fue
Norteno Cumbias:
El Poder del Norte - Enamorate de Alguien
Palomo - Mi Verdad
Cardenales de Nuevo Leon - Para Olvidarme de Ti
Corridos
Los Tigres Del Norte - Most Songs
Los Invasores de Nuevo Leon - Mi Casa Nueve
Los Traileros - Cuando Nadie Quiera
Banda (Artist Names)
Banda el Recodo
Banda Machos
Sonidero
Aniceto Molina - Cumbia Cienaguera
Sabor Kolombia - Ritmo de Bota y Tambor
SupermerK2 - Que Calor
Huaracha (Song Names)
La Huaracha Sabrosona
El Gigante de Hierro
Paloma
Duranguense
Horoscopos de Durango - Mi Amor Por Ti
Montez de Durango - Pasito Duranguense
Patrulla 81 - Como Pude Enamorarme de Ti
Spanish Rock
Mana - Me Vale
Enanitos Verdes - Lamento Boliviano
Hombres G - Marta Tiene un Marcapasos
Latin Music
Latin music is probably a lot more extensive than this list, but as far as weddings in Houston go, a DJ only needs to be concerned with these top genres.
Salsa (Top Artists Names)
Sonora Carruseles
Marc Anthony
Jerry Rivera
Merengue (Top Artists Names)
Elvis Crespo
Oro Solido
La Banda Gorda
Punta (Top Artist Names)
Kazzabe
La Gran Banda
Los Roland’s
Bachata (Top Artists Names)
Aventura
Optimo
Xtreme
Reggaeton
Daddy Yankee - Rompe
Don Omar - Salio el Sol
Angel y Khriz - Ven Bailalo
Latin Dance (Top Artist Names)
Shakira
Ricky Martin
Enrique Iglesias
Tejano Music
Tejano Music is very popular here in Houston, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. For a DJ to be from Houston or any of these cities and not know Tejano Music, it’s pretty rare. Almost any party or any wedding that has a Latin crowd will dance to the most popular Tejano songs.
Tejano (Polka?) (Artists)
Hometown Boys - Mire Amigo
Emilio Navaira - Como Le Hare
Jaime y Los Chamacos - Puerta Negra
Tejano Cumbias
Selena - Como La Flor
Shelly Lares - Soy tu Amor
La Mafia - Un Millon de Rosas
It’s important to note that the method I used to separate these genres is by the way they are danced. What I mean is that all these sections are danced exactly the same way. They speed on the song may vary, but the way they are danced are the same. The Cumbia step is the same for all Cumbias listed above, however I broke even that down into several sections. Some DJ’s prefer to have ALL their Cumbias together, but I find it that if I go from one Mexican cumbia to a Tejano cumbia, I lose some people on the dance floor. Not always, but generally speaking. Why? Because they would probably like to hear another Mexican cumbia, that they know.
If you pay attention to the Tejano, the same artists will sing a Cumbia and a Polka. Now polka is not the official name, it’s just how I differentiate the steps. The tejano cumbias are danced the same way as any other cumbia, and the rest of the tejano is almost like a Polka step, and it is a lot easier to dance.
Another recommendation of mine, if the DJ is able to Beatmix, or keep one continuous beat going from song to song, the dance floor will remain full all night. However, if there is any gap between songs, a lot of people will go sit down. Sometimes, the dancers are waiting for a small break in the music to go sit down.
That’s all my knowledge of Latin music, anybody can feel free to email me and correct me if I am wrong or misrepresenting anything on this article.
Today, is Monday, January 14th and I am here at my office early reading all my weekend emails and making a to do list for this week. I have about 10 website submissions for people wanting to use my DJ Service here in the Houston area. That’s a good number and January is always a month where people start looking for their DJ. The holidays have just passed, they’ve gotten all their family time in, and they decided to wait until after the holidays to search for their Wedding or Quinceañera DJ.
I’m also sorting through all the Brides that stopped by my booth at the Houston Bridal Extravaganza. So I have a good foundation to build my business early in the year.
January is usually for the same reasons above. People want to spend the Holidays doing Holiday related stuff and very few people want to schedule their wedding right after the Holiday season because of all the spending and traveling that happens then. Then to add to that more Spending and Traveling! This month, I am doing a lot better then last January. I have an event every week of the month and they are all weddings. All these events are a result of my great Rank from Google and Yahoo! for they keywords “DJ in Houston” (Click on the links for proof).
January 12th, 2008
This past weekend’s event was a memorable one. The Bride and Groom Carol and Cory were very happy and very loving towards each other. I met them at their house about 3 weeks prior to their event. Not that they waited until the last minute for to search for their DJ, but the person they left in charge to find them a DJ found a good one, but there was one little bitty problem…. He was NOT a Bilingual DJ… When you have a Latin and African American, you sorta need that… So they hit their local Search engine (Google, I believe) and found their Ideal DJ. Me
Anyways, the Ceremony and Reception was amazing and people had a great time all night long. The place of the Ceremony and Reception was Houston’s Ballrooms which is only about 10 minutes from my home. That was a great thing since their Reception ended at 1:00 am!!!!!
Songs for the Ceremony!
Canon in D - Pachabel: for the Sitting of the Mothers and the entrance of the Bridal Party
Bridal Chorus - Wagner: Bride’s Entracne
Hallelujah Chorus - Handel: Recessional Song
Special thanks to the officiant Lynn Turner of Weddings Performed. This is about the 4th or 5th wedding that I have worked closely with her and would recommend her services to all that ask!
The wedding songs!
Bride and Groom’s First Dance: Alicia Keys - (Love me) Like You’ll Never See me Again
Father and Daughter Dance: Heartland- I Loved Her First
Mother and Son Dance: Boyz II Men - A Song for Mama (Very emotional for both Linda and Cory)
Father Daughter Dance: Paul Simon - Father and Daughter (Cory and his daughter Megan)
Bouquet Toss: Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Garter Removal: Next - Too Close
Cake Cutting: The Four Tops - I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)
Dollar Dance: Selena, Brooks and Dunn, K-Ci and JoJo, John Michael Montgomery…
Again, this was a memoral wedding even for me, all the guest loved Carol and Cory and it showed from their Bridal Party Introductions all the way to their last song played. I feel blessed and honored to have been a part of their special day.
Looking for ideas to have a fun grand introduction? This is becoming pretty popular and more and more brides are doing it to spice up the wedding reception. I’m sure the rest of the reception is just as fun…
Today is a beautiful day, its nice and sunny… and cool. I love this weather and we don’t get much of it down here in Houston.
I went jogging last night and it was also pleasant weather to do some exercise. Boy am I feeling the burn today But hey, no pain no gain right. Well In this case I hope is loss.
I’ve decided to drop some pounds and I’ve tried weight lifting, crunches, and push ups for about 8 months and only lost 10 lbs. as of last night. But the good thing is that they have stayed off while still eating bad, unhealthy food. Pizza, my wife’s home cooking with a lot of grease , fast food, and so on. So my next step is to add cardio and I’ve chosen to do running over purchasing exerciser equipment for a few reasons.
First, I get to enjoy the outside weather, the peace and tranquility of a park, the feeling of freedom, and just getting outside to breathe some fresh, well as fresh as it gets for Houston, air.
The alarm blasted in my ear and awww man, did I want to stay in bed another 10 minutes. It was one of those overcast day where no matter how good you sleep the night before, you still want to continue laying in bed.
As a former member of the American Disc Jockey Association and the Houston Chapter of the American Disc Jockey Association I have been able to transform my passion of music into what I love and enjoy doing, week after week. They have given me tools, resources, demonstrations, personal advice, personal assistance and personal care to be able to do it every weekend and to do it good. It is also thanks to them, and a few individuals, that I have been able to acquire the confidence necessary feel good about what I do and to start charging what I deserve to make as a professional entertainer.
What we do as DJ’s is more than just put in a cd, sit down, let the song play, and repeat the process all night long. We study, we practice, we visualize, and we do anything necessary to ensure that we are prepared before every event. Some times we devote up to 20 hours to a single event; Sometimes more and sometimes less. So when asked why we charge $600+ for a 4-5 Hour event, that is the answer we will usually give you. It’s not only 4-5 Hour of enjoyable work for us and time away from our families (my wife, my daughters) whom we work so hard for. It’s also all that time that does not go accounted for, planning the schedule, driving to meetings, reading and learning new activities, organizing the the entertainment agenda, arriving 1-2 Hour before the event, leaving 1-2 Hours later, and not to mention our accumulated knowledge and experience of how to make an event fun, enjoyable, and overall exciting for everyone.
So what have people started doing?
The newest trend is to rent out small DJ equipment, purchase or use an existing Ipod, downloading the music and letting the Ipod do the entertaining.
Good alternative right?
See for yourself, the American Disc Jockey Association has released a video of an actual wedding where they decided to use an Ipod for their reception.
Well I know you guys are always looking for the latest and greatest when it comes to songs to use at your upcoming event. Whether it’s a wedding or a quinceanera, you always want the newest or the most popular.
Recently, I was asked by the 
Today is a beautiful day, its nice and sunny… and cool. I love this weather and we don’t get much of it down here in Houston.
, fast food, and so on. So my next step is to add cardio and I’ve chosen to do running over purchasing exerciser equipment for a few reasons.
The alarm blasted in my ear and awww man, did I want to stay in bed another 10 minutes. It was one of those overcast day where no matter how good you sleep the night before, you still want to continue laying in bed.
As a former member of the 
