Relive the Horror: Prom Songs

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Okay it's the horrible high school music flashbacks thread! What was the Senior Prom song chosen by yr school, back-in-the-day? Do you associate really traumatizing memories with it?

My senior prom song was the truly awful "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun. Even today, if I hear the song in a store I lapse into involuntary spasms.

If you were too cool to go to yr prom, try to recall what the song was. Gutwrenching horror stories from your teenage years now please!

― geeta, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Luckily, over here we never had a prom. I think there were the occasional school disco, but I sure as hell wasn't going...or getting invited to any parties which I wouldn't have gone to either. The song would probably have been whatever dance song was popular in 1992.

― jel --, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You're American, aren't you? I'm not - proms don't happen in the UK, far as I've ever known.

And I didn't realise your proms only featured one song. I should think it'd get pretty boring by the end of the evening, even if it were a far better tune than Take My Breath Away. Has anyone thought of playing lots of different songs through the course of the prom?

― Martin Skidmore, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Geeta, would you just guess what instrumental version of a song my school plays when its time to cahnge classes?

I think i heard it so many times the song dont even have an effect on me anymore, its just something there, not good nor bad just indiference(but i do prefer the ocasional times they play new york new york)

― Chupa-Cabras, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i believe the official song was the beatles' "in my life" which was a nice song, but sort of an awkward choice given that no one really was in the mood to start turning the present into nostalgia fodder. the unofficial song was the immortal "c'mon ride it (the train)" by the quad city dj's, which was played three times during the night. now that song was perfect since it was goofy enough to completely nullify the sight of us 17-year-olds playing dress-up.

― dave k, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hah ok culture clash! i didn't realize that the UK did not have an equivalent to the horrific traditional american spectacle that is "the senior prom". here's the summary: at the last year of high school, in may or thereabouts, the prom happens. it's the one dance in high school where bringing a "date" is important - this is agonized over for months beforehand. the girls all dress up in formal long dresses and the boys all wear tuxes or nice suits, and it's all horribly awkward and there's dancing and dinner generally and the girls all spend the night trying not to fall over in their high heeled shoes. there is a "prom king and queen" (the most ick popular girl and boy in the class - generally the captain of the football team and the hottest and most bitchy cheerleader.)

many songs are played throughout the night by a generally terrible DJ but the "prom song" is the last song of the night, the special "slow dance". at my school, this was voted on and argued over for weeks prior to the actual event. then after the prom is over there are afterparties and road trips to "the beach" and clumsy attempts at sex and so on

oh it's all horrible and awful but you get the idea.

― geeta, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

For a while there in the mid to late eighties, Bon Jovi's "Never Say Goodbye" was THE prom song of choice, I gathered. All the more reason to hate the festering fools.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Proms are clearly where Americans learn about this mysterious 'dating' thing.

― N., Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

it's what the us had instead of punk, hence their otherwise inexplicable embrace of the clash

― mark s, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

at our prom-ish thing, we didn't have a 'prom song', but the live band closed with "should i stay or should i go"!!!!

― mitch lastnamewithheld, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

instead of going to my prom i drank half a bottle of scotch and drove around listening to doggystyle and damaged. i've never regretted it.

― jess, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

we don't have prom dances in the uk, so we went into littlewoods and poured a bucket of pig's blood over the cosmetics sales assistant we felt was most likely to be a witch

― mark s, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

dosen't the guy from Damaged go out with Baby Spice Emma Bunton?

― jel --, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

damn it mark yr so punkz0r heh

but really there were so many reasons for american kids to feel rage in high school: mandatory pep rallies! i don't suppose they had pep rallies in the UK either! how about mandatory daily 'physical education' classes run by some angry woman with a thick mustache? in my high school they had this really traumatizing 'circus death games' series that we all had to pass to graduate - this included stuff like walking tightropes 100 ft in the air, scaling very high walls, etc

you had brutally enforced (punishable by detention) "school spirit", surely? this wasn't just MY HIGH SCHOOL, was it?!?!

― geeta, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

PE only once a week. I expect the teachers would have been lynched if we they had tried to force us to do some awful endurance test like that. But, then we don't graduate high school, we just do exams and then leave.

― jel --, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

School is much more contractual, you do the time, you pass the exams, you leave. School spirit was virtually non-existant in my experince.

― jel --, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I utterly missed my prom. I don't even remember a single detail about its preparation, or any of my friend's participation, or even who was named King and Queen (or who might've been named King and Queen). Being gay has its advantages.

― Michael Daddino, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Junior prom. Girl I asked out deliberated for a couple of days before relenting to my request. An odd time had by all (mostly due to my oddness, and hold a wee grudge, and being socially awkward, and and and it was THE PROM). The year was 1992. The evening was soundtracked by Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".

In my mind, the perfect prom song would have to be the Extra Glenn's version of Leonard Cohen's "Memories", because, damn it, that's what ACTUALLY going on at the prom. (Plus, Glenn D.'s nasal pipes are more appropriate for the high school milieu than Cohen's bowel- cleansing baritone.)

― Daver, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

balls are too boring to remember.

― queenoftheharpies, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

don't know if it was the prom song but our class graduation song was 'never tear us apart' by inxs.

― keith, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't go to my prom, which I'm sure no one will be surprised to hear. And I don't mean this as a cool kid boast, I was simply too geeky. So as far as remembering what the song was, I don't remember.

― Nicole, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The DJ at my prom looked like Butch Vig and played only oldies. He would often play 3-4 slow ballads in a row and launched 2pac's "California Love" as if it were his secret weapon.

― Honda, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Can you take me HIIIIGH enough...?"

AAAARGH.

― Dan Perry, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't go to either my proms either.

― bnw, Sunday, 9 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

1993 SENIOR PROM, I DITCHED MY DATE AND HUNG OUT IN MY VW IN THE PARKING LOT DRINKING BEER, SMOKING WEED AND DRINKING BEER WHILE LISTENING TO BOB MARLEY'S EXODUS WITH MY FELLOW DATE DITCHERS.

― Chris, Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

see, if they'd called it "Distinctly unflattering in Pink" would anyone have watched?

― Alan T, Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They called it Some Kind Of Wonderful too - since that had exactly the same plot but with the other ending. John Hughes as a proto- choose-your-own-adventure moviemaker.

― Pete, Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't go to my high-school prom. After seeing all these pearly memories, I'm glad I gave it a miss....

― Nichole Graham, Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

see i went with the only metis girl ( and one of five people who were not white

got drunk and told the hottest boy in school that i would like to fuck him raw when he finally decided to come out . I had a good prom.

― anthony, Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

what is a pep rally?

― queenoftheharpies, Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

WE have formals in australia, which are organised by the students, which = underage binge drinking, competitions to see who can snogg the most people and there is alway a girl in full formal gear, on her knees spewing into the toilet, classy.

― Nalini, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

pep rallies at my high school were 'mandatory school spirit events' - we would be marched outside to the football field at regular intervals and attendance wd be taken and we'd be forced to watch the football team march around and go on about how they were gonna win 'the big game' and then the cheerleaders would do a cheer and oh god it was all pretty horrible. they were generally about an hour long or so

― geeta, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Senior prom. After the fiasco of the junior prom (two girls asking my friend out; me asking the girl that didn't get my friend to the prom; waiting THREE DAYS for answer, as girl presumably tried to find other potential date-goers, only to be stuck with yrs truly; allowing insecurities from this hoohah to mess w/ my head; high school sucks, anyway. motherfucking caste system horseshit), I abstained from this cultural right of passage. I stayed home, played Nintendo, and ate Domino's Pizza. My friends danced with girls in a platonic fashion and ate stuffed chicken breasts. The theme was Boyz II Men's "End of the Road". I believe I was playing Faxanadu that evening.

Advantage: my wallet.

― Daver, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

holy shit FAXANADU!!! that was MY GAME!!! (er well that and and ninja gaiden and and and and metroid and well like a ton more) aw man that was half the reason i got the game genie back in the day

alternate reality: football and prom and etc etc mysteriously "forgotten" by public and mandatory faxanadu pep rallies are run by ALIENS!!! gimme some of that mind-control

― geeta, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I went to prom three times and had a blast each time (despite the severe rubbishfest that was the music). I was going to go freshman year as well, but the girl who asked me had racist parents who wouldn't let her go with a black kid.

"You can hate me now/But I won't stop now"...

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There was the prom band at my senior year which covered REM's "The One I Love" as if it was a love song -- agonizing slow opening and everything. See, I'm not the only one who doesn't listen to lyrics! ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That ranks up there with couples who pick "One" by U2 as the first dance song at their weddings.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 11 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Those blasted U2... our prom song was "All I Want is You" for no apparent reason at all (since it was released ten years earlier). It's a damn long song as well.

― Vinnie, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My "prom" or close equivalent had a disco band playing Abba and the BeeGees and stuff. This wasn't too bad I suppose.

I had a great night though. My date was a good laugh.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

60/40 white/black split at my high school resulted in a prom theme "I Had the Time of my Life" being played by a smoov DC area R&B band, who closed the evening with an hour long Chuck Brown-style Go-Go medly. Sonicly, very much a classic.

― Colin Meeder, Wednesday, 12 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eight months pass...

Junior Year: Make it Last Forever (Keith Sweat) Awww yeah. I was actually on the prom planning committee.

Senior Year: Can't remember. (Wasn't on committee.) Though I do remember dancing to the last dance with someone who was NOT MY DATE.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 10:46 (twenty-two years ago)

We had a band at our prom. (The whole school went, cause my high school was so small that there would have been no one there if they separated it by grade.) They played "I Wanna Be Sedated" and let me play bass and do backing vocals coz I was wearing a tuxedo and had pink hair. Actually, it totally freaking RoXored.

After I got kicked out of that school, I went to the local high school for six months. I went to exactly one school dance there. The DJ said he'd been asked by the PTA *NOT* to play "I Want Yer Sex" by George Michael and tried to make this BIG REBELLIOUS THING out of the fact that he played it anyway. Puh-LEASE!!! Afterwards, some idiots graffitied up the high school with LED ZEPPELIN and PINK FLOYD tags and tried to blame it on me. I got hauled in by the police and everything. Excuse me, I'm sitting here in a JESUS AND MARY CHAIN t-shirt and you think that I'd write GRATEFUL DEAD on the gym? What a joke.

― kate, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't go, of course, but I remember the theme. It was the Dan Fogelberg song "Netherlands". I didn't get it then, I don't get it now.

Kate, your story is fab.

― Arthur (Arthur), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 17:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Prom Song was Eric Clapton's damn-superficial "Wonderful Tonight" song I think. Not totally sure. I DO remember that everybody got punch during the Celine Dion number and me and my date did some ballet to the Garth Brooks number. That was fun.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Ick. Mine was "Don't you forget about me".

The most memorable thing about my prom--I'd bought a great dress at a used clothing store for $20. At the restaurant before prom, there was a rip...the seam in back had given way. As I shifted around to see what had happened, it ripped (muuuuch) further. As nobody could find a sewing kit, it was repaired with a stapler. So I went thru prom with a dress held together by staples, acutely aware of the need to prevent an appearance by my ass. I danced anyway, and thankfully, the staples held.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Staples are WAY punk. :-)

― kate, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

At my prom, "Blue Monday" cleared the floor of all black people (my school was about 50/50). Shabba Ranks seemed to clear the floor of all white people (though my date and I kept dancing, we exchanged bashful looks during the racier parts of the ragga portion of the evening). It was a very depressing reminder of social segregation during an evening when it seemed to actually be breaking down a bit.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I got busted for drinking at one of my proms. I told my pricipal to go fuck himself.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"cause I can't fight this feeling anymore..."

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 19:00 (twenty-two years ago)

either Everything I Do I Do It For You or a Garth Brooks ballad.

― g.cannon (gcannon), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

senior prom - little river band "cool change"... dear lord, I still wake up screaming

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 6 March 2003 05:48 (twenty-two years ago)

We had an alt/pop cover band at our prom and they let me on stage to sing the Smiths' "What She Said". Looking back, this is incredibly strange for an early 90s prom in nowhere Kansas. I got rave reviews but was disappointed that I botched some grammar near the end (about smoking and early death, can't remember how it goes now)

― Aaron A., Thursday, 6 March 2003 06:05 (twenty-two years ago)

A band played at mine, but I don't remember what "the song" was. A bunch of us bailed early to go see the Kinks / Joan Jett show at the Palladium anyway.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Thursday, 6 March 2003 06:09 (twenty-two years ago)

all i remember is that i tried to put out my cigar half way through and it stank like a motherfucker, and i sweated like a hog in my polyester tuxedo. i remember that they played 'holla' at some point. that's about it. afterwards we had an awful party, and sat around on someone's back porch going around in a circle and admitting to who used to have a crush on who.

do other people have proms at their university? ours does. i have no idea why.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Thursday, 6 March 2003 06:23 (twenty-two years ago)

*stops screaming long enough to gasp...*

GREASE MEGAMIX

*resumes atonal screaming*

― Michael Stuchbery (Mikey Bidness), Thursday, 6 March 2003 06:52 (twenty-two years ago)

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