Which songs are safe for a corporate party?
Safe means three things at a company event, and you can test a song against them before it goes in:
- A clean version exists. If radio plays the song unedited, it passes. If the recording carries a warning label, leave it out or learn the radio edit and nothing else.
- Several age groups know it. The room holds people in their twenties and people near retirement, and the person who booked you is answerable to the oldest of them.
- It is not tied to one occasion. Songs that belong to weddings, to one religion's festival or to one country's sport divide a room of colleagues.
A song that fails one test is a risk you take knowingly. A song that fails two stays at home. The list below was chosen with those tests in mind, and it follows the usual order of the evening.
The notes under "Where it fits" are our suggestions for where a song can sit in a set. They are not facts about the song, and the list is not a ranking or a measure of popularity. Titles, artists and years were checked against MusicBrainz or Wikipedia when this page was written. We list no keys or tempos, because bands change both.
Arrivals and networking
| Song | Artist | Year | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lovely Day | Bill Withers | 1977 | Warm opener at low volume |
| Sir Duke | Stevie Wonder | 1976 | Instrumental-friendly, light funk |
| Moondance | Van Morrison | 1970 | Jazzy background, suits a trio |
| Just the Two of Us | Grover Washington Jr. featuring Bill Withers | 1980 | Smooth groove under conversation |
| The Girl from Ipanema | Stan Getz and João Gilberto | 1964 | Bossa nova, very quiet |
| Smooth Operator | Sade | 1984 | Cool mid-pace as the room fills |
Dinner
| Song | Artist | Year | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fly Me to the Moon | Frank Sinatra | 1964 | Swing at dinner volume |
| Don't Know Why | Norah Jones | 2002 | Soft, between courses |
| Georgia on My Mind | Ray Charles | 1960 | Slow, piano-led |
| Dreams | Fleetwood Mac | 1977 | Steady groove, no peaks |
| Beyond the Sea | Bobby Darin | 1959 | Light swing, late in dinner |
| Put Your Records On | Corinne Bailey Rae | 2006 | Bright end to the dinner set |
After the speeches
| Song | Artist | Year | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superstition | Stevie Wonder | 1972 | First song back, raises the volume |
| September | Earth, Wind & Fire | 1978 | Gets the first dancers up |
| Happy | Pharrell Williams | 2013 | Friendly, all ages |
| I Got You (I Feel Good) | James Brown | 1965 | Short burst of energy |
| Respect | Aretha Franklin | 1967 | Singalong for the front tables |
| Down Under | Men at Work | 1981 | Light relief, Australian teams especially |
Dance set
| Song | Artist | Year | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Don't Stop Me Now | Queen | 1978 | Start of the dance set |
| Billie Jean | Michael Jackson | 1982 | Early, the groove does the work |
| Shake It Off | Taylor Swift | 2014 | Younger staff, clean and quick |
| Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go | Wham! | 1984 | Cheerful, mid dance set |
| Livin' la Vida Loca | Ricky Martin | 1999 | Latin lift halfway through |
| Jai Ho (film: Slumdog Millionaire) | A. R. Rahman featuring Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer and Vijay Prakash | 2008 | Peak for an Indian or mixed team |
| Levitating | Dua Lipa | 2020 | Recent disco-pop, late in the set |
| Dynamite | BTS | 2020 | Younger and Asian offices, upbeat |
| Get Lucky | Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers | 2013 | Funk groove, can run long |
Closer
| Song | Artist | Year | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Celebration | Kool & the Gang | 1980 | Final song or the one before |
| We Are Family | Sister Sledge | 1979 | Team singalong near the end |
| Viva la Vida | Coldplay | 2008 | Big finish without heavy drums |
| I'm Still Standing | Elton John | 1983 | Last song, lights up |
Start a setlist with these 31 songs
Opens StageFloww with the titles typed in. Free plan, no card. Search can miss a song, and you can add it by hand.
How do you order the night around the programme?
By the gaps the organiser leaves you. A company evening is interrupted on purpose: a welcome, a meal, speeches or presentations, sometimes a quiz or a prize draw. Each interruption ends a block, so each block has to make sense by itself.
This running order is one suggestion built from the list above. Change it to suit your band and the room.
While guests arrive
- Lovely Day
- Moondance
- Just the Two of Us
- Smooth Operator
During dinner
- Fly Me to the Moon
- Don't Know Why
- Dreams
- Put Your Records On
After the speeches
- Superstition
- September
- Happy
- Respect
Dance set and close
- Don't Stop Me Now
- Billie Jean
- Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
- Livin' la Vida Loca
- Get Lucky
- Levitating
- We Are Family
- Celebration
Keep every block easy to cut. If the speeches run twenty minutes over, the organiser will take the time out of your playing, not out of the bar. Know which block you would lose first, and tell the band.
What should you ask the organiser before the event?
Get the programme with times, and the name of the person running it. That person, not the most senior guest, tells you when to stop and start. Ask them for a signal a few minutes before each speech, so you can end a song properly and not in the middle.
Ask what the evening is for. A thank-you party after a hard year, a product launch with clients in the room and a team offsite want different things. With clients present, stay in the background for longer. At a staff party, the dance set is the point.
Agree the volume plan out loud. Say when you intend to be quiet and when you intend to be loud, and get a yes. Most complaints at these events are about level, and almost none are about song choice.
Ask about microphones. The speeches often use your PA. Decide who mutes the band, who hands over the microphone and who brings the level back up afterwards.
Find out who is in the room. An office in Manila, Mumbai, Manchester or Melbourne will each have a song or two that everybody there knows and nobody elsewhere does. Ask the organiser to name them. Run each one through the same three tests, and learn the one that passes.
Keep stage talk neutral. Thank the company by name, read out what the organiser asks you to, and leave jokes about the boss to the people who work there.
Some guests will stand at the edge all night. That is normal among colleagues. Play to the people who are dancing and do not single anyone out from the microphone.
What does StageFloww handle at a corporate gig, and what is outside it?
StageFloww, the setlist and stage-lyrics app, keeps the blocks in one running order that the whole band can see. In the setlist builder you can label songs, write "stop here for speeches" in a song's notes and drag a block later when the programme slips, and the total minutes update as you do. The Free plan allows 40 songs per setlist, which covers the four blocks above with spares.
It does not vet songs for you: whether a song is suitable for a client's event is your call, and nothing here is a ranking. Its song search needs a connection and can miss a song, so add everything before you leave for the venue. It is not a playlist either, so the music between your blocks comes from the venue or a DJ.
Plan the length of each block with the set length calculator, and see how StageFloww fits a working cover band.