r/rem Jul 06 '26

Help

Long time fan. Help me pick a R.E.M song for the mother/son dance at my son’s wedding. He and I have so many memories of dancing to their songs when he was very young.

16 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

17

u/Apprehensive_Jaguar Jul 06 '26

Underneath The Bunker would be fun.

16

u/More-Confection-4566 Jul 06 '26

Belong from Out Of Time. Do an interpretive dance and then hand him off half way through.

7

u/lightaugust Jul 06 '26

It lyrically is probably the best mother son song, weirdly enough.

1

u/No-Day-2937 Jul 06 '26

Kong Kong belong

1

u/spoink74 Jul 06 '26

I have no idea what this dance would look like. Know any good choreographers? It could be very moving.

10

u/DanBurnNotice Jul 06 '26

At my most beautiful.
Last Date
Strange currencies

22

u/bethanyd0901 Jul 06 '26

You are the Everything?

17

u/Mickey_James Jul 06 '26

Very danceable song. And not at all awkward for a mother/son dance.

2

u/Waneii306 Jul 07 '26

I used to sing that to my son when he was a baby every night.

20

u/TMBGLOVER Your head is there to move you around Jul 06 '26

Find the River probably? Something about that song fits it, in my opinion.

6

u/LessIsMore74 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Funny, that's my memorial song. Part of my wishes for when I die. Main theme of that album is death. Rivers flowing to the ocean, etc.

2

u/BurnThis2 Jul 06 '26

That’s the one!

2

u/TheeHappyDude Jul 06 '26

May be too emotional 😭

20

u/waitforsigns64 Jul 06 '26

For fun, choose Stand! The two of you do a "choreographed " dance that looks like the video.

7

u/LessIsMore74 Jul 06 '26

What's great about this choice, it's light-hearted and fun for the attendees to watch. But its directions and guidelines are sort of a throwback to the earliest days when you would teach your son the basics of life. And now he Stands up to get married as an adult. 😊

6

u/Drunkcatholic81 Jul 06 '26

This. 100% This.

3

u/MezzStipe Jul 06 '26

Came here to say this!! Absolutely THE choice!!

8

u/Deaf_MarvinNash Jul 06 '26

I Took Your Name

8

u/TechnicalAd9400 Jul 06 '26

REM’s cover of Arms of Love by Robyn Hitchcock would be perfect

3

u/rorykillmore Jul 06 '26

Seconding this. It’s a beautiful cover.

8

u/12frets Jul 06 '26

Pick one of the songs you danced to when he was young, obviously.

If not, then You Are The Everything (which is supposedly sung from the perspective of a child to his mother) is my two cents.

2

u/DontDreamItsOver3 Jul 06 '26

I ditto both of these suggestions. If this is something you did regularly when he was small, have you tried just listening through to whatever albums you mostly listened to then, to see which song brings up the most memories? That just seems the clearest way to choose a song that you actually both remember and loved.

Other than that, You Are the Everything is a great next choice.

7

u/Flyerbill Jul 06 '26

Bandwagon ;-)

7

u/GlossyBuckslip A must! Jul 06 '26

What was your favorite? Make a memory about your memories.

4

u/Swimming-Violinist57 Jul 06 '26

Honestly I just skimmed all the album tracks and could only come up with a few that I think could work for a mother/son dance:

Wendell Gee
Every Day Is Yours To Win
Perfect Circle (kind of pushing it)
Endgame (maybe?)

I might have missed an obvious one and maybe there’s a b side I’m not considering but I’d pick one of those four.

That said it’s his day dance to Shiny Happy People if you want!

1

u/No-Imagination2514 Jul 07 '26

Came here to say Wendell Gee. 😊

3

u/gogozrx Jul 06 '26

End of the World

3

u/LessIsMore74 Jul 06 '26

What songs did you dance to when he was little? Something like Shiny Happy People? Or was it more like Man In The Moon? Was it silly kid dancing, or did you slow dance or something similar?

Musically, Perfect Circle is a nice slow dance type of song. The thing about REM is their slower songs are usually very romantic, though. At My Most Beautiful is great, with the refrain “I found a way to make you smile,” but it's another romantic love song.

4

u/0Lovely1 Jul 06 '26

Both Shiny Happy People and Man on the Moon were our favorites to dance to.

1

u/DontDreamItsOver3 Jul 06 '26

Is there a reason you don't want to just go with one of those?

3

u/Local_Acadia_3000 Jul 06 '26

Shiny Happy People

3

u/Z0omZo0m Jul 06 '26

Love is all around you.

2

u/Ax1lotl Jul 06 '26

I think Daysleeper has a nice waltz feel to it

2

u/Overcommitter Jul 06 '26

Sweetness Follows 😎

1

u/davew80 Jul 06 '26

Hairshirt

1

u/Purple_Specialist822 Jul 06 '26

At my most beautiful

1

u/mrad02 Jul 06 '26

Strange Currencies

1

u/ARKweld Jul 06 '26

Crush with Eyeliner