DJ For A Double 50th Anniversary Party!

This weekend I will have the opportunity to DJ, MC and provide music for a dual 50th anniversary party.  A woman is throwing a party for her parents and her husband’s parents, who are both celebrating their 50th wedding anniversaries. I think it is amazing.

 

Can you imagine how mind-boggling it must have been when they discovered both their parents were wed the same week in the same year? What are the chances of that? Talk about a marriage meant to be.

 

I love that my work as a professional DJ allows me to connect with people and their lives in such a meaningful and profound way. I get to hear their stories and their plans for their future. I listen while they share what is important to them and what is not. I offer support and direction as it pertains to my role as professional DJ in this brief period in their lives.

 

I find it funny that after more than fifteen years as a counselor and social worker, I am provided with just as many opportunities to support families and help them meet their needs as a professional DJ. These days it takes a much different shape and form but the supportive, calm, focused demeanor still creates space for individuals and families to be clear in what they want and not get caught up in the details that do not matter or out of our control.

 

 

I can’t wait till the party! The music is predominantly from the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. I have a large collection from this era and glad to continue to get requests to play it at the right events. A double 50thanniversary party is just that event!

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Oldies DJ For Birthdays and Anniversaries

I have been hired as professional Oldies DJ for several Oldies events lately. These are typically parties with lots of good, clean fun. I grew-up with plenty of the songs from the late 50’s and early 60’s with artists like Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Dion & The Belmonts, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke, Johnny Mathis and all the MoTown stuff being the ones that stick out in my memory the most. My family also listened to a lot of Jazz, Pop Vocalists and Big Bands as well.

 

For reasons I do not know, as a child I gravitated towards the Oldies genre on my own. It started with me asking my parents to find me The Crusin’ Series of albums and cassettes. They are where I first began to study the history of  music and the roots of Rock and Roll. The Crusin’ 1961 album was the first since it was the year I was born, then 1958 and 1962. Soon after that I got the double album soundtrack to the film American Graffiti.  My brother gave me as a gift a couple of albums by Shanana with covers of many of the great tunes of that era. The collection grew with time and patience.

 

When I first started as a professional DJ, I was hired for a party for some Morristown Police Officers. They had so much fun they kept hiring me for all their events and it wasn’t long before all the police, fire and P.A.L. events booked me and I became known as the “Oldies DJ” even though I was only nineteen or twenty at the time. I had fun and learned a lot about music and Rock and Roll.

 

I still enjoy the opportunity to break out the Oldies and spin great times with folks who really appreciate the music and memories.  I think it is easier for me since I was alive during most of this music and grew-up with it. I imagine a young professional DJ who is trying to play the songs of the 50’s and 60’s through reading about them or just what Billboard says would struggle with knowing what works with what, as I did when I was DJing in my early twenties and playing some Big Band and Swing gigs back then. I do know a couple of young professional DJs who actually do an excellent job with both The Oldies and music of today though.

 

Back to the playlist I am working on for a 50th anniversary party coming up soon!

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Professional Anniversary Party DJs

One of the beautiful aspects of a professional anniversary party DJ at an anniversary party is the opportunity to chronicle lifetimes and moments of a relationship through music. It is an event that is really shared by the family. It speaks to their periods of joy and grace and the periods of hardship and struggles. All of which are the testaments of a marriage that has lasted time and the pressures of the outside world.

 

When I first started professional DJing anniversaries, they were not a big deal – at the time Americans stayed married through thick and thin. Times have changed and now anniversaries hold a higher value in this climate of divorce and separation. I am not judging, just speaking to a change in values of a culture and how long term marriage is becoming more of a miracle every day. One to be celebrated by and with the family.

 

As a professional Wedding DJ, we get the opportunity to play music from many eras and genres at such an event due to the diversity in age and personalities of the guests without the familial pressures of a wedding that often don’t allow the host s to enjoy the event.  Sinatra, Bennett, McCartney, Jackson, Ross, Madonna, Hammer, Beyonce and Lady GaGa all share the night’s entertainment. It is fun and sentimental all at the same time.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ