Three Day Delay

I run a weekly trivia night at my local pub. I play a mix of songs in between questions, but really need some suggestions as my song list is getting stale.

I don't care how old the song is, or genre, but I try to stay away from songs that might be standard "wedding reception dance" crap. I like for most of the songs to be upbeat to moderate, with a mix of time periods, artists, etc. I try not to have more than two songs from one artist. I really just try to find good songs.

They don't really need to be songs that are my favorites, they just need to be accessible by a large group of people, ages 21-51. I consider it a good song if someone comes up and asks me who/what it is.

Here's a sample of my list, songs A to C (don't feel like listing them all):
311 - Down
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Abra Moore - Four Leaf Clover
Ace Frehley - Back in the New York Groove
Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No good
Bad Religion - Sorrow
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At
Beatles - Help!
Beatles - I've Just Seen A Face
Beck - Loser
Beck - Where It's At
Ben Folds - Landed
Ben Kweller - Penny on a Train Track
Berlin - The Metro
Big Country - Fields of Fire
Bitter Sweet - Dirty Laundry
Biz Markie - Just a Friend
Bloc Party - I Still Remember
Blondie - Heart of Glass
Blur - Coffee and TV
Box Tops - The Letter
Brandi Carlile - What Can I Say
Buddy Holly - That'll Be the Day
Built to Spill - Big Dipper
Butterfly Boucher - Another White Dash
Buzzcocks - What Do I Get
Cake - Short Skirt, Long Jacket
Camper Van Beethoven - Pictures of Matchstick Men
CCR - The Midnight Special
Clash - London Calling
Coldplay - Clocks
Corey Hart - I Wear my Sunglasses at Night
Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On
Cornershop - Brimful of Asha
Cracker - Happy Birthday To Me
Crystal Method - Name Of The Game

I hardly ever listen to the radio, so any suggestions are appreciated.

Heat

Just pick up some "Best of the '80s" or "Best of the '90s" CDs and go from there. Or look up these CDs from someplace like Amazon and listen to the twenty second clips.

mndtrp

Find the songs Beavis and Butthead showed the videos to, and cut out the harder metal ones. That'll give you a decent selection of songs, or at least bands, that the 21-35 yr olds will know.

chris_sc77

Tori Amos-Bouncing off Clouds
Beck-Dead Weight
Elbow-Forget Myself
Nick Cave-Straight to You
Elvis Costello-(what's so funny) bout peace, love and understanding
Elvis Costello-No Action
Elvis Costello-.45
Electric Light Orchestra-Mr. Blue Sky
Shivaree-Goodnight Moon
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Don't Stop
Garbage-I'm Only Happy when it rains
Garbage- Push it
New Order-Age of Consent
Jon Brion-Knock Yourself Out
The Stooges-The Passenger
The Dandy Warhols-Every Day Should Be A Holiday
The Dandy Warhols-Bohemian Like You
Blind Melon-No Rain
Travis-Love Will Come Through

JasonF

To go a little more off the beaten path, pick up these boxed sets:


No Thanks!


Left of the Dial

prp2

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - Switchblade

Shamus McAnally

Nice call! (Not necessarily the most upbeat, but a good palate cleanser and an awesome story that if someone catches part of, they'll be hooked listening.)

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - Little Hung Over You
ZO2 - Living Now or Paper Breakup
Butch Walker & The Let's Go Out Tonites - Bethamphetamine (Pretty Pretty)
or Hot Girls In Good Moods
Kid Rock - Rock N Roll Jesus (has the word "Bullshit" in it) or Lowlife (Living the
Highlife)
Britny Fox - Six Guns Loaded or Louder
The Clarks - On Saturday, Better Off Alone, or Chasin' Girls
Hanson - Crazy Beautiful or Lost Without Each Other
Bombay Black - Forget About It or Without You
The Pink Spiders - Little Razorblade
WigWam - In My Dreams or Bless The Night
Fixer - Tell No One or Before The Sun
Jesse Strange - The Island Song or If Whiskey Was a Woman
40 Ft. Ringo - A Freak Like You or Fanatic
Marah - Freedom Park
Silvertide - Ain't Comin' Home or You Want It All
Prince - Horny Toad or Starfish and Coffee


And of course, for working in an alcohol serving establishment:
Bowling For Soup - Last Call Casulty
The Clarks - Last Call

Is this a Name That Tune type deal? I used to play that weekly at my local BW3. We got to be good friends with the DJ running the music and he'd let us choose songs to bring in and play before the game started. (Until I messed up and took a song that had a swear word in it.) Also, my crowd was heavily into rock, so that's more the area towards which we gravitated with what we selected to take in. Maybe, if you're comfortable, ask some patrons you trust to bring you a song they like (or their team voted on) and you can check it out and play it the following week.

The songs I picked are slanted toward Rock and Pop. I'm assuming up tempo songs are better, right? Most everyone I picked is that way.

Also, I found that covers, particularly of more famous songs, garnered a lot of attention. To that effect, the following songs might work, particularly with certain age demographics:

Always Something There To Remind Me - The Marvelous 3
More Than A Feeling - Ingram Hill
My Sharona - Pink Cream 69
Tie Your Mother Down - Lynch Mob
Shot In The Dark - Jeff Scott Soto
Bad Case Of Lovin' You - Giant
American Hairband (Cowboy - Kid Rock) - Tuff
Cover Of A Rolling Stone - Poison
Larger Than Life - Jaded Heart
Tiny Dancer - The Phil & John Show
Love Rollercoaster - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Give A Little Bit - Tony Harnell & Morning Wood