Are you planning a St. Patrick’s Day party? Have you thought about music yet? Do yourself a favor and make sure none of these songs make it onto your party playlist. Too poppy. Too cheesy. Or maybe just too loosely considered Irish. These songs didn’t make the cut when compiling songs for our Must-Have Songs On Your St. Patrick’s Day Playlist article. Instead, they made the rejected file. Here’s our list of Rejected St. Patrick’s Day Playlist Songs.
“Jump Around” – House Of Pain
How did a hip-hop song from a non-Irish band called House Of Pain become a regular on people’s St. Patrick’s Day playlists? They used b-roll footage in the music video for “Jump Around” from the 1992 New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Bad song. Not Irish.
WARNING: If you’re throwing a St. Patrick’s Day house party at your home, then you might want to leave this song off your playlist. For some reason it makes people want to jump around and break stuff.
“Beautiful Day” – U2
Having personally survived both the “Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day” and the New York City “St. Patrick’s Day Parade“, one thing I’ve learned is that the weather doesn’t really matter. Your St. Patrick’s Day will probably end in a puddle of blood, urine, beer, whisky and vomit. It’s not a “Beautiful Day” but that’s all part of the fun.
“With Or Without You” – U2
U2’s “With Or Without You” is about Bono‘s struggle about being both a married man and a musician. In the process of writing the song, he realized that it wasn’t one or the other that defined him. It was his tension between the two. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked “With Or Without You” #132 on their list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“. Even though it’s one of the greatest songs of all time and defined the Irish band U2, it doesn’t belong on a St. Patrick’s Day Playlist.
Hozier – “Take Me To Church”
The ballad “Take Me To Church” is about Irish musician Hozier‘s frustration with the Catholic Church and its stance on homosexuality. Since its release, the song has been featured in numerous commercials, TV shows and movies. Confronting the issues of homosexuality and the church may not be an ideal topic of conversation a St. Patrick’s Day party.
“C’est la vie” – B*Witched
B*Witched is one of the most successful girl groups in Irish history. But in an interesting twist, their most popular song has a foreign title. “C’est La Vie” means “it’s life” in French. Another good French phrase is “il est rejeté”, which means “it’s rejected.”
“Irish Celebration” – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Irish hip-hop artist Benjamin Hammond Haggerty (aka Macklemore) released a song in 2010 about celebrating his heritage called “Irish Celebration“. But with cliche lyrics like “Don’t touch these lucky charms” and a thin chorus about a pint glass “lift up”, we’re dumping this song out.
“The Blower’s Daughter” – Damien Rice
The true meaning of this song has never been disclosed. However, one of the theories is that Damien Rice worked at a sales call center near Kildare County, Ireland. He had a lengthy phone conversation with one of his female numbers that lead to an ongoing daily phone, or “blower” relationship. Then one day she stopped answering the phone. Rice tracked down the home address and discovered who he was speaking to. She was a 16-year-old girl. She had stopped answering the phone because summer break was over and she went back to school. Rice was devastated and wrote “The Blower’s Daughter” about the experience. Beautiful song. Perhaps too slow and involved for a party playlist.
“Ordinary Day” – Great Big Sea
“Ordinary Day” is about a Vancouver street busker who was robbed and beaten up. She then returned to the same spot to keep playing like it was just an ordinary day. Good song. Potentially a contender. But the Great Big Sea is Canadian. So it’s out.
“Chasing Cars” Snow Patrol
“Chasing Cars” is a very popular love song by the Northern Irish/Scottish rock band Snow Patrol. The song spent a mind-blowing 166 weeks in the UK’s Top 100 song list and has sold over 3.9M copies in the US making it one of the best-selling rock songs in modern times. Might be too mushy and slow for your party playlist.
“Another Irish Drinking Song” – Minions
Here’s your comic relief novelty song of the playlist. Watching a bunch of drink Minions sing Irish drinking songs is funny. But nothing will confuse the room and kill the mood of your party faster than hearing a bunch of Minions singing.
Rejected St. Patrick’s Day Playlist Songs
What did you think about my list of rejected St. Patrick’s Day playlist songs? Do you disagree with any of these selections? Please let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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nice list! lots of good songs but they def dont below at a party. i tried using Pandora for my last St. Paddy’s party and it sucked. i’ll make a manual list next time.