🎵 My MVP: The 20 Songs That Built Me

Every DJ has a musical autobiography. Here's mine. Plus, I'm challenging you to write yours.

Read Article Online

Music doesn’t just play in the background of your life. It marks it. Every song you’ve ever loved is attached to something. A person, a place, a version of yourself you’ve mostly forgotten about.

There is a version of me that exists only in music. Not the consultant. Not the podcast host. Not the past DJ at receptions on a Saturday night.

The version I’m talking about is the kid in Montana listening to my parents’ records, the college freshman hit by a bass drop that rearranged something in my chest, the friend standing by me finally understanding why a song can make grown men cry.

That version of me lives in 20 songs. Yes, I could have selected many more.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I’d leave behind if I suddenly couldn’t talk about music anymore. Not a playlist for a client. Not a set list optimized for a 200-person ballroom.

I mean the music that actually made me. The songs that were playing at the exact right moment, that became permanently fused to a memory, a person, a turning point.

I’m calling it my MVP. My Most Valuable Playlist.

Here it is. All 20. Every story attached.

---

🎵 My Most Valuable Playlist

In no particular order. I hit random play, and this is the output.

1. Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - C+C Music Factory

   1. The song was released during my freshman year of college (1990). It exudes the ultimate invitation to the dance floor. To this day, it defines the pop dance music of the era. There’s no way you cannot dance to this song!

2. Faithfully - Journey

   1. Journey is my favorite band of all-time. This is my favorite song. I had every single one of their cassettes - even before Steve Perry joined. The music fan and the romantic come out in my favorite lyric “And lovin’ a music man ain’t always what it’s supposed to be Oh, girl, you stand by me I’m forever yours Faithfully”.

3. Who Made Who - AC/DC

   1. I met my best friend in the 5th grade. Yep, hard to believe we have been friends for so long. His favorite group is AC/DC. He had their logo tattooed. We were playing in his room as kids, and the album had just been released. It was my introduction to the band and began our lifelong friendship. He passed away 2 years ago this month. I dedicate this to Mat.

4. Turn the Page - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

   1. I am really not a fan of cover songs. However, Metallica did a decent job if you want to listen to that version too. The original, however, was my introduction to Seger by my friend Alan. It is a highlight on his 1994 Greatest Hits album. The album is one of the greatest of all-time in my opinion. We played the song at one of his relatives’ celebration of life because she was a huge Seger fan. After learning the meaning of how tired Seger was on the road and the endless traveling, he wrote this song just before a long break. So much emotion is expressed that many mobile DJs feel at times.

5. Hot Girls in Love - Loverboy

   1. I was in high school or middle school and wanted to learn to play an instrument. The acoustic guitar was my selection. My parents paid for lessons where I learned the basics from songs like ‘Greensleeves’. I told my teacher I had had enough of the boring stuff. Let’s play some popular music. This was the first I played/learned. I wish I had kept the lessons going.

6. Honestly - Stryper

   1. I was very much into Christian music in high school. Think Michael W. Smith, Shawn Camp, and more. I am a die-hard Hair Band fan and Stryper from the beginning: ‘The Yellow and Black Attack’ - IYKYK. I have even seen them live twice in Vegas for anniversary tours. Anyway, this ballad brought them to the mainstream and constant play on MTV.

7. Girl You Know It’s True - Milli Vanilli

   1. The album under the same name spent 78 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. Milli Vanilli was huge! When news broke that they were lip-syncing, it was heartbreaking, but I still loved the music. Their story is very sad, but it still holds a special place in pop music infamy. This is their most recognizable party track, in my opinion.

8. Ain’t No Sunshine - Bill Withers

   1. My brother and I were in a bar as adults while I was visiting a very small town in Montana. Karaoke was happening, and I had no idea what song to sing for my first public karaoke song. Yep, this is it. I know. I know. I know…

9. Baby Likes To Rock It - The Tractors

   1. I think every DJ at some point in their career hears a song and thinks, when first released, “This is going to blow up and be a huge hit”. This was my first. I thought this was going to be the next “Achy Breaky Heart”. Well, it didn’t. But dang it, it’s a great party song to me and a hidden gem today.

10. Let Me Clear My Throat - DJ Kool

    1. Hip Hop was not my specialty when this song came out. However, seeing the crowd reaction will live on in my mind forever. It made me a better DJ and encouraged me to really learn about music and read crowds to play the best songs at the right time.

11. Macarena - Los Del Río

    1. The DJs who were performing in the 90s when this song was first released realized we had to teach the dance to this song. I remember DJing in small towns in Montana where they had not even heard the song yet. I got out on the dance floor and taught SO many kids how to dance the ‘Macarena’.

12. Strung Out - Steve Perry

    1. From a hardcore Journey fan who was part of their fan club and would get their newsletters in the mail, it was devastating when Perry left the band. His debut solo album, ‘Street Talk’, took off with his biggest hit “Oh Sherrie“. However, my favorite is “Strung Out”. It has so much personality.

13. In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins

    1. The song was featured in the very first episode of Miami Vice. Every boy pictured themselves being Crockett and Tubbs. The song draws you in, and then the iconic drum drops in at approximately 3 minutes and 40 seconds.

14. Mama, I’m Coming Home - Ozzy Osbourne

    1. DJing weddings was about half of my business, and the other half was high schools. My friend Chris would assist me with school dances around MT. On the trips home, we would hook up one of the DJ speakers to the stereo and blast this song rumbling down the highway at 2 am. Epic.

15. Two Sparrows in a Hurricane - Tanya Tucker

    1. I lived in Missoula, MT, and Sharon lived in Las Vegas, NV. We met in a Yahoo! chatroom in 1998. We were engaged in late 1999, and I moved to Vegas in 2000. We planned to get married in 2001, but the best man’s wife, the matron of honor, and the bride’s sister were all pregnant and expecting. When we married in 2002, this was our first dance song.

16. Say It - Voices of Theory

    1. I shared above that I proposed in 1999. Being a music fan, I had this song playing in the background with the lyrics “So please hold out your hand and let’s exchange these golden bands ‘Cause I want you in my life, I want you to be my wife” while asking for her to be my life partner.

17. Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi

    1. I am a big fan of acoustic music. Something raw and pure about a musician and a guitar. I remember my brother shared a story in college about a classmate performing this song at a bar and how unbelievable it was. That brought new meaning to it. It is one of the greatest acoustic songs of all time!

18. What’s Up - DJ Miko

    1. I was very confined in my music genres with pop, rock, and country for the most part in the beginning of my DJ career. DJ'ing in the 90s was one of the best eras with the popularity of Eurodance. However, one of my first dance remixes that makes for a great dance track and sing-along was produced by DJ Miko. It was first introduced by 4 Non Blondes six years earlier.

19. Rockin’ with the Rhythm - The Judds

    1. Everyone remembers their first music concert. Mine was The Judds with the Charlie Daniels Band at the Montana State Fair. The Judds became one of my favorite duos of all-time. This one stands out as a party hit and one of my favorites.

20. Forever In Blue Jeans - Neil Diamond

    1. Our parents definitely influence our music tastes. I remember listening to American Hot Wax, Neil Diamond, and Debbie Boone on records. One of the standout songs as a kid that I could sing every word of was “Forever in Blue Jeans”. Still one of my favorites.

Link to Spotify Playlist

Now It’s Your Turn

If you’ve made it this far, you know more about me than most of my subscribers. That’s the point.

This is what I’m calling it: My Most Valuable Playlist. Not my best professional work. Not my most requested songs. Mine. The songs that were there. The songs attached to people I’ve lost, chances I didn’t take, roads I drove at 2 am, a woman I found in a chatroom, and married near Vegas.

Here’s what I want to ask you to do.

Build yours.

Twenty songs. No more. Your rules, your memories. BUT, keep it to 20, because constraints force honesty, and short attention spans (yours and everyone else’s) are real. Write one sentence per song if that’s all you have. Write a paragraph if the story demands it. The format isn’t the point. The truth is.

And here’s the thing about doing this as a DJ that makes it especially worth your time: your MVP will tell couples something no bio page ever could.

When a couple is trying to figure out if you’re the right DJ for their wedding, what they’re actually asking is: Do you love music the way we love music? Will you care about this the way we care about it? Your MVP answers that question before they even get to ask it. It’s proof of a life lived inside music, not just alongside it.

Whatever it is: build that playlist. Max 20 songs. Give it a name. Make it shareable.

Then share it with couples on your website, with other DJs in your network, and with me here in the comments.

These specialty playlists do two things at once: they attract the clients who are looking for exactly what you do, and they contribute to the collective knowledge base of what we do. Both are worth your time.

Thanks for reading!

Matthew Campbell

Wedding MusicLetter