Crafting the Perfect Puppy Prom Playlist

by Julian Spivey
So, my full-time job of doggie daycare, did something crazy this week – we hosted a Puppy Prom. If you had mentioned to me five years ago that I would be a part of something called a “Puppy Prom.” I don’t think I would’ve understood what you were talking about. At best I would’ve thought it was extremely “extra” or “bougie,” as my younger co-workers like to say.
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But here I was on Wednesday so into this idea of a Puppy Prom that I figured I, as a huge music buff, would compile a music playlist for the Puppy Prom. It’s probably not that surprising working at a place that would throw a Puppy Prom to find out that I wasn’t the only one interested in crafting a Puppy Prom Playlist. My friend Brittany was already on it.

She graciously accepted my collaboration.

So, how does one go about crafting a Puppy Prom Playlist?

Well, as the 100 songs on the final playlist would prove – overboard. Completely overboard.

Brittany is more of a popular music fan than I am, but honestly who isn’t? She populated her list with mostly a “best of” of the ’80s feel. I believe she was going for what the pet parents, who would be witnessing their puppies “prom it up” from a viewing area (and they seemed to have just as much fun as their dogs), would’ve enjoyed from their prom days. So, if you’re a pet parent who was of prom age in the ‘90s or ‘00s it’s Brittany who thinks you’re old and not I.

I’m a fan of throwback music, but I kind of like it a bit further back than the ‘80s. However, her choices were excellent for a Puppy Prom Playlist with selections of “You Make My Dreams” by Hall & Oates, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston, “Kiss” by Prince, “Hungry Like a Wolf” by Duran Duran and “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler.

If you want someone to craft a fun playlist that you can absolutely groove to you need to hit up Brittany Oviedo.

I don’t know if I saw too many movies of a certain era or listened to too much oldies radio growing up, but there is a certain era of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s that just screams “prom music” to me. Maybe these songs played in prom or dance scenes on something I saw as a kid and just stuck with me. I had to add a bunch of these songs to the playlist – songs like “This Magic Moment” (I prefer the cover by Jay & the Americans), Dion & the Belmonts’ “A Teenager In Love,” “Earth Angel” by The Penguins, “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles and, of course, “Save the Last Dance for Me” by The Drifters.

It’s probably the stuff our grandparents were dancing to at their proms, but these songs feel timeless to me.

Then there are the songs you just want to move along to … Brittany added Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance” and “Love Shack” by The B-52s. The classic rock/hip-hop mashup of “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. and “Wild Night” by Van Morrison were my choices. Side Night: If you want to see this big white boy move throw on some Van Morrison.

We also took suggestions and our friend Alea’s suggestion of Baha Men’s one-hit wonder from 2000 “Who Let the Dogs Out” was quite possibly the most important track on the entire playlist. “Who Let the Dogs Out” should be the theme song for any Puppy Prom and we tried to make sure it was played once every hour for the four-hour event.

Our friend Heidi suggested Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which is something of an inside joke between myself and my co-workers and friends because of how much I despise Journey and that song in particular. But Heidi is the nicest person in the world – the embodiment of Disney – and she gets whatever she wants. “Don’t Stop Believin’” made the cut and, I’m not sure if anybody realized, but was the very first song played at Puppy Prom on Thursday night so I could get it out of the way.

The most important aspect of crafting the Puppy Prom Playlist for me was to try to get dog themed songs into the set.

This isn’t an easy task because there aren’t that many dog-related songs in general. And, many songs that are dog related are slower and a good number of them feature the death of the dog by the end – not exactly an appropriate mood for a Puppy Prom.
So, some songs that simply had the word “dog” in the title made the cut: “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + the Machine I’m looking at you.

Anything that fit with the Puppy Prom theme made the cut: “Howlin’ For You” by The Black Keys, “Like My Dog” by Billy Currington, “Dogs Are Everywhere” by Pulp (which was so freakin’ true on Thursday night) and “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges. I don’t think a Puppy Prom is what “The Godfather of Punk” Iggy Pop had in mind when he wrote that one, but it works. We also got “Snoopy Theme” from the Peanuts cartoons in there.

During the song “8 Dogs 8 Banjos” by Old Crow Medicine Show Brittany came up to me and said, “It’s getting a bit too ‘yee haw’ in here.” I assured her it was the only bluegrass number on the playlist.

I tried to get Blake Shelton’s “Ol’ Red” on the playlist, but I got overruled. I told Brittany it was “the ultimate dog love song.” She said, “it’s not about a dog being in love, but being horny.” I guess she has a point. I guess it says a lot about men and women with how that is viewed in that song.

If there was a second theme song of the Puppy Prom Playlist it would have to have been George Clinton’s “Atomic Dog” with its infectious: “Bow-wow-wow-yippie-yo-yippie-yeah/bow-wow-yippie-yo-yippie-yeah.” That one got multiple spins during the night.

But, the ultimate Puppy Prom Song, the one that gets all of the canines and their paternals swooning is Paul Anka’s 1960 classic “Puppy Love.” It’ll make you want to find the nearest Great Dane and just slow dance the night away.

We put a lot of work into crafting this Puppy Prom Playlist. Hopefully it was enjoyed, if it could be heard at all over the barking of happy pups and the swooning of pet parents snapping photos and telling other pet parents how cute their dogs looked in their tuxes and dresses.

The idea of a puppy prom might be insane to many, like it would’ve been to me just a few years ago, but if there is anything more insane than throwing a puppy prom it’s attempting to meticulously craft the perfect playlist for said puppy prom.

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