This weekend marks the official celebration of Eric’s upcoming nuptials, and as best man (TM) it’s my official and sacred duty to plan the event. Since I am incapable of planning an event without a themed playlist (R) (and incapable of doing any other event planning), I proudly present to you The Annotated Guide to The Official Eric Hall Bachelor Party Themed Playlist (R, TM).
High School
Friendtimes
- “Purple Stain” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers: On a trip to Cancun after freshman year, Eric introduced me to Californication; this is the song I think of when I think back to that trip and the adventures we had with Maria, Esteban, and a gaggle of 12-year-old girls.
- “Smells like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana: Another great aspect of that trip was the amount of conspiracy theory-laden documentaries we watched about Kurt Cobain.
- “By the Way” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers: This album was released right after that Cancun trip, which made it the soundtrack to all of sophomore year. In college I would decide it was a “fine, but not great” album, which would lead to a heated argument and a well-timed and highly confusing out-of-the-blue text message from Tyler asking me if I remembered how great that album was.
- “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina & the Waves: Braves win! Braves win!!
- “American Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: There was a time in high school when the Tom Petty greatest hits album was all anyone would listen to; this is about the only song on that album I could ever stand in bulk.
Cross Country / Track
- “My Band” by D12: The invention of the iPod allowed us to listen to this on the way back from pretty much every track meet and to sing along to it, much to everyone else’s annoyance.
- “Gimme Some Lovin'” by the Spencer Davis Group: this song played every Friday at 5:00 on 96 Rock, which during cross country season would be after practice but before spaghetti dinners. To this day, this song means that the weekend has started to me.
- “American Idiot” by Green Day: I didn’t like American Idiot very much until Eric convinced me to listen to it on the way back home from the Wendy’s meet in Charlotte junior year. After that it was one of my favorite albums. Alba? “Holiday” and “Letterbomb” are better songs, but apparently have been combined with their mediocre neighbors on the album in Spotify, so screw you Spotify.
Wrestling
- “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” by Billy Joel: This song somehow ended up on the radio on our way to every single tournament junior year, becoming the “official” Westminster JV Wrestling song of 2004-2005.
- “Boombastic” by Shaggy, “Faded” by Soul Decision: Two of the best songs on the inimitable T.H. Leet’s wrestling mix tape, which we listened to ad nauseam our entire freshman season. Nothing gets you in the mood to wrestle like the opening lines of “Faded”: “When I get you all alone, I’m gonna take off all your clothes.”
- “Love Shack” by the B-52s: In a brilliant move, Eric chose this as Patrick Hickey’s intro song when he neglected to choose one for himself.
- “The Boys are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzy: Eric’s wrestling intro song junior year; “Break on Through” by the Doors was his song senior year, which doesn’t lend itself to rad partying.
Band
- “Birdland” by Weather Report: We played this song in jazz band and later saw it performed by a jazz vocal group from Spelman College, and to this day I’d swear that Gary Coleman played in Birdland.
College
Friendtimes
- “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” by George Thorogood & The Destroyers: In what may have been our first experience drinking bourbon and / or scotch, Mike, Eric and I ordered the Thorogood special at Sati’s. It wasn’t the best experience we’ve ever had.
- “Sir Psycho Sexy” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Probably the dumbest song on my favorite album, we listened to this whole album on the many trips between Atlanta and Durham that we took over our four years in school.
- “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds: Eric, Grady and I used to meet every morning in the Great Hall, where I’d have a goooooood morning camper! from Alpine bagels, and we’d lament the fact that we had to be there because we taped a guy’s butt cheeks together in the locker room.
- “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” by the Stone Temple Pilots: When we saw STP play the NCAA Final Four in 2010, this was their encore. Everything about that trip was fantastic.
- “The Greatest Man that Ever Lived” by Weezer: On my 21st birthday, while Chris was repeatedly asking what the score of the game was, Eric was testing how drunk I was by making me recite the spoken word section in the middle of this song. I was very drunk; it didn’t go well.
- “Superman” by Lazlo Bane: The theme song from Scrubs. I think I watched the entirety of that show in Eric’s dorm room and apartment, and I think it’s the reason Mike became a doctor.
- “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by the Dan Band: Classic moment from Old School, which I think Eric gave me for Christmas once.
- “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne: Eric and I sat in the nosebleed seats for a Jackson Browne show that devolved once he started taking requests into a competition to see who could request the most obscure B-side. This was the only song we recognized.
- “Rude Boy” by Rihanna: Eric loved this song. Everyone else found that hilarious.
- “China Grove” by The Doobie Brothers: Played every time we drove through China Grove, NC about halfway between Greensboro and Charlotte.
- “Statesboro Blues – Live at the Fillmore East” by The Allman Brothers Band: Eric and I used to drive a shuttle for my fancy neighbors’ parties (they live on a big hill); said fancy neighbor then invited us in and told a story about being a lawyer in Georgia in the ’60s, the punchline of which was that he maybe represented Gregg and / or Duane Allman at some point.
- “A Praise Chorus” by Jimmy Eat World ft. Davey Vonbohlen: Riding around Durham in David Hershey’s Cabrio with Christmas lights strung up along the roll bar and this song on the radio is a seminal memory of freshman year.
Running
- “Bang a Gong” by T-Rex: Without this song stuck in our heads for the entire winter of 2006-2007, there is no way I could completed our long runs training for our first marathon.
DUMB
- “Freeze Frame” by J. Geils Band, “Vehicle” by the Ides of March were two of my favorite songs to play in the Duke University Marching Band. Also “Vehicle” is kinda creepy AF if you listen to the lyrics.
- “Closing: I Can’t Turn You Loose – Live Version” by The Blues Brothers et al.: The best version of this song I can find (the Otis Redding version is too slow and doesn’t do it justice); this is the version the DUMB imitates to introduce the team. Here comes Duke!
- “Devil With a Blue Dress” by Mitch Ryder: This song, when performed correctly, takes exactly one minute for the band to play.
LDOC
- “Bitches Ain’t Shit” by Ben Folds: Ben Folds probably wasn’t the best LDOC performer we had, but he did play this song; in his words: “I haven’t played this song in years, but you guys look like you might be drunk enough for it.”
- “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind: TEB definitely was the best LDOC performer we had, and this song is nontrivially super great. So yeah, it’s on the list.
Gen’l
Friendtimes
- “Take a Walk” by Passion Pit: Passion Pit played before the 2015 NCAA Final Four, spawning a really dumb Twitter joke theme that mostly just exasperates Eric.
- “Ninja Rap” by Vanilla Ice; “Turtle Power” by Partners in Kryme: This could go anywhere — from watching the first two live action Ninja Turtles movies together senior year during wrestling season (omg pizzaaaaa) to the flight I took to Wisconsin just to watch the first Michael Bay Turtles movie to the fact that he reads the comics, the Turtles are a running theme through pretty much everything we do. Cowabunga, dude!
- “Your Love” by “The Outfield”: “I’m going now, and I’m leaving the door open…”
- “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)” by Robert Palmer: A) Robert Palmer is amazing, and B) Eric is a doctor.
- “Party Hard” by Andrew W.K.: Because that’s what we’re going to do this weekend, obviously!
- “Ridin’ the Storm Out – Live” by REO Speedwagon: Eric once told me that when he took road trips with his dad, an REO Speedwagon album was one of the only things in the car to listen to.
- “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash: If you stay there will be trouble, and if you go there will be double. Seems like an obvious choice to stay, then?
Bachelor Party Participants
- “Fireflies” by Owl City: I remember this song drifting through the air one summer morning at Diki’s parents’ old place; for some reason it always reminds me of him.
- “Clocks” by Coldplay: You know how I know Wade’s gay? He likes Coldplay.
- “The Power of Equality” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Keegan once drove all the way from Athens to Durham and back in one day to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers play in Raleigh with Eric and me on a weeknight. They accidentally played “Under the Bridge” for their encore, but that’s not a song that’s conducive to partying. They also played this song at the behest of drummer Chad Smith, because “they hadn’t played it in awhile.”
- “Roll with the Changes” by REO Speedwagon: Every time I visit Mike, he spends at least two hours just mindlessly riffing on his keyboard. I think at least an hour and a half of it is this song. Remember: you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish.
- “Wait (The Whisper Song)” by the Ying Yang Twins: A hard call to go with this instead of “By The Way” for the aforementioned text message, but I have fond memories of Tyler preparing us to see his dick before Diki’s wedding in Kiawah.
- “Miss You” by The Rolling Stones: David won’t be at the bachelor party because he has better things to do, so we’ll miss him.
- “Danny Boy” by Happy Ol’McWeasel: Grady Daniel “Boy” O’Brien actually mumbles this song in his sleep. This is the only version I could find that maintains the party vibe without utterly ruining the song — it only ruins it a little bit. O Danny Boy, the Danny Boys are … Danny boys.
- “Black Skinhead” by Kanye West: Patrick loves Kanye West. This is the first song off Yeezus I think. OK? Happy, Patrick?
- “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” by The Offspring: I accidentally let it slip that my favorite band for along time growing up was The Offspring. Sue me, I was 12.
Conclusion
That’s it folks! You can check out all of these songs in order on my Spotify playlist “Eric Hall Bachelor Party 2K16,” which should differentiate it from all of the other Eric Hall Bachelor Parties we’ve had and will continue to have.
