A Soulful Serenade for Your First Dance
By Aaron Wulff
If you want a first dance song that screams “we’re serious about this,” (or rather, HE’S serious about this), it’s hard to beat Percy Sledge wailing about what a man’ll do for the woman he loves. This is 1966 soul at its finest. Raw, emotional, and about as romantic as it gets without getting uncomfortably cheesy.
The organ intro alone is iconic. Everyone in the room knows what’s coming. It’s like the bat signal for feelings.
Percy wasn’t messing around when he recorded this. According to Sledge, the inspiration for the song came when his girlfriend left him for a modelling career after he was laid off from a construction job in late 1965.
Damn. Revenge is a dish best served on a gold record and a million copies sold.
Legend has it he was so emotional in the studio they kept the first take. Nice! The man’s voice cracks in all the right places!
The lyrics are basically a groom’s vows set to music. You know, like…
“He’d give up all his comforts. Sleep out in the rain.”
Really? Well, maybe he won’t be sleeping in the rain, but you can stick him on the couch at some point. (It’s not just me, right?)
Ok, so can we dance to it?
Sort of. It’s slower than I like, and it’s not in 4/4 time. That doesn’t mean it’s a pass.
It’s in 6/8 time, which is common for a lot of slow wedding dance songs, so we’ll have to make due.
Because it’s around 65 BPM you could try a Canter Rumba, but you might prefer a laid back Nightclub Two-Step.
You get a 15 second intro to gather yourself, then a steady drum beat you can’t miss. But be wary of the ending because it’s a quick fade you won’t see coming. No time to strike a pose.
The good news is it’s short. Under three minutes is a good first dance length if you’ve got a few moves, but if you’re just going to sway back and forth, it’ll feel a lot longer.
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