BUNDLES-The Gift They'll Love Again and Again!
BUNDLES-The Gift They'll Love Again and Again!
7 min read
Celebrating a birthday soon?
While I always get giddy when I start to plan a birthday party—How will I decorate? What will I serve? What’s their favorite flavor of birthday cake?--it took me quite a few years to realize that even if the décor, food and drink are wonderful, the event isn’t complete without this missing ingredient.
Music!
If you’re lucky enough that live music is an option, go ahead and book that band or singer now. For the rest of us, a party playlist of birthday-inspired tunes can be exactly what our celebration needs to add a fun, festive vibe.
In the post below, I’ll share my go-to songs for a birthday party and offer strategies for selecting songs that can make the playlist more personalized.
Keep reading or jump to a particular section by clicking below:
Building a playlist for a birthday party can be a lot easier if you keep these tips in mind!
1. Build your playlist a few weeks before the party. It’s a fun task, but much harder to do when you are pressed for time.
Creating a playlist can be a blast, or you can end up falling down the rabbit hole and spend hours listening to songs you haven’t heard in a while (or maybe that’s just me?1)
If you’re looking for a playlist, feel free to copy/paste my collection of birthday party songs. You’ll find some pop favorites, classics and tunes that will make you want to get up dance.
Think of this list as your starting point. Review the songs, keep the ones you like and replace the ones you don’t like (more on that coming up!).
My Go-To Playlist for Birthday Parties
Unforgettable – Nat King Cole
Celebration – Kool & the Gang
Happy Birthday – Stevie Wonder
Forever Young – Rod Stewart
We Are Family – Sister Sledge
Birthday – The Beatles
Good Vibrations – Beach Boys
Don’t Stop – Fleetwood Mac
Hey Ya! - Outkast
Birthday – Destiny’s Child
Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
Birthday – Katy Perry
Stand By Me – Ben E. King
Birthday Party – AJR
Happy - Pharrell
Stayin’ Alive – The Bee Gees
We Are Young - Fun
All of Me (Tiesto’s Birthday) – John Legend
Dancing Queen - Abba
I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction
Party in the USA – Miley Cyrus
Everybody Talks - Neon Trees
You’re Beautiful – James Blunt
Don’t Stop Believing - Journey
I Got a Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
Sexy and I Know It - LMFAO
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive
Macarena - Los Del Rio
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
We Are the Champions – Queen
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough - The Temptations
Bust a Move - Young MC
Whistle - Flo Rida (Note: get the clean version or have some explaining to do to younger party guests! )
If you're someone who likes done-for-you playlists, you'll love this easy, elegant birthday centerpiece. In less than 5 minutes, you can have it set-up and ready to go.
Research has shown that our favorite music tends to include songs that we listened to during our high school years and into our early 20’s.
These songs tend to evoke strong emotions and result in remembrance—you can place where you were when you listened to the song.
Additionally, since so many life events happen from ages 14 to 25 (high school dances, football games, being able to drive, graduation, going to college, starting our first job and more), we’re more likely to remember this time period.
This finding resonated with me. Whenever I hear “Walking in Memphis” or “True Companion” by Marc Cohn, I can recall listening to the CD as a 21-year-old.
In a nanosecond, my mind flips to the memory of driving my light blue Honda Prelude (manual transmission!) up and down the East Coast as I made road trips to visit family and friends.
That period of my life was associated with so many firsts (first real job, first time living alone, first car....), that I can still taste the sweet memory of becoming a self-sufficient adult.
Using this insight, it’s highly likely that the birthday person enjoys the music that was popular from the time they were aged 14 to 25.
As that’s still a wide range, you can narrow it down even more by picking songs that were popular when they were in high school, or even focus on the year they graduated high school.
Not sure what year they graduated high school? No problem!
We offer two ways to do this: a formula so you can calculate the year they graduated in or tables that you can look the information up in.
Use this formula to estimate their year of graduation:
To see how this might work, let's use my sister's upcoming birthday. In March of 2022, she'll be 50.
Use these Charts to Estimate their Grad Year
The next two charts make it easy to find what music they likely listened to in high school. Simply:
Year of Celebration |
Milestone Birthday |
Likely HS Graduation Year |
2021 |
21 years old |
2018 |
2021 |
30 years old |
2009 |
2021 |
40 years old |
1999 |
2021 |
50 years old |
1989 |
2021 |
60 years old |
1979 |
2021 |
70 years old |
1969 |
2021 |
80 years old |
1959 |
2021 |
90 years old |
1949 |
2021 |
100 years old |
1939 |
2022 |
21 years old |
2019 |
2022 |
30 years old |
2010 |
2022 |
40 years old |
2000 |
2022 |
50 years old |
1990 |
2022 |
60 years old |
1980 |
2022 |
70 years old |
1970 |
2022 |
80 years old |
1960 |
2022 |
90 years old |
1950 |
2022 |
100 years old |
1940 |
Locating the songs that were popular when they graduated high school is as simple as popping that question into Google, Siri or Alexa.
Easy, elegant party decor that's music to your ears!
You can do this for any milestone birthday, but if we continue with my sister’s upcoming birthday as an example...
For her 50th birthday celebration in March of 2021, I would include popular songs from 1990, the year she graduated high school. No doubt that adding “Pump Up the Jam” and “Nothing Compares 2 U” would be a throwback for her—and the other guests!
Billboard magazine’s Top 20 Songs of 1990
Chart position |
Song |
Artist |
1 |
Hold On |
Wilson Phillips |
2 |
It Must Have Been Love |
Roxette |
3 |
Nothing Compares to You |
Sinead O’Connor |
4 |
Poison |
Bell Biv Devoe |
5 |
Vogue |
Madonna |
6 |
Vision of Love |
Mariah Carey |
7 |
Another Day in Paradise |
Phil Collins |
8 |
Hold On |
En Vogue |
9 |
Cradle of Love |
Billy Idol |
10 |
Blaze of Glory |
John Bon Jovi |
11 |
Do Me! |
Bell Biv Devoe |
12 |
How Am I Supposed to Live Without You |
Michael Bolton |
13 |
Pump Up the Jam |
Technotronic |
14 |
Opposites Attract |
Paul Abdul and The Wild Pair |
15 |
Escapade |
Janet Jackson |
16 |
All I Want to Do is Make Love to You |
Heart |
17 |
Close to You |
Maxi Priest |
18 |
Black Velvet |
Alannah Myles |
19 |
Release Me |
Wilson Phillps |
20 |
Don’t Know Much |
Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville |
We're so glad you're here! Birthday Butler helps make celebrating easier and more convenient.
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