Wedding Songs

Swamp Pop For Your Wedding

The big day is around the corner and your wedding music is very important to make your celebration unique and memorable. Do you want a certain type of music? Try swamp pop music. Be careful and not confuse it to swamp rock which is something else. Swamp pop is a musical genre originating in South Louisiana in the late 1950s as a mixture of two very different styles: traditional Cajun folk balladry, especially the Cajun waltz and the slow, triplet-heavy ballad style of New Orleans R&B.




The first major swamp pop song was Warren Storm’s Prisoner’s Song released in 1958, which reached to the national Billboard charts. In 1959, a band called Cookie and his Cupcakes recorded a song which is considered to be the swamp pop anthem, Mathilda.

The typical swamp-pop song is made of a midtempo ballad, with 6/8 waltz time, piano triplets and a bluesy guitar sound. The special element of swamp-pop music is the melody which derives strongly from traditional Cajun ballads.

Even if the swamp pop genres together with the rest of rock’s original styles are not very popular nowadays, swamp-pop had influenced numerous musicians, especially the famous Elvis Presley. The 1970s led to a brief national revival of swamp-pop. Actually, the swamp pop style has never lost popularity in Southern Louisiana, becoming a part of the pre-rock and local folk music.

Here are some of the most representative swamp pop songs to consider for your wedding playlist:

Mathilda by Cookie and his Cupcakes

Prisoner’s Song by Warren Storm

I’m Leaving It All Up To You by Dale and Grace

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights by Freddy Fender

I Can Help by Billy Swan

This Should Go On Forever by Rod Bernard

I’m a Fool to Care by Joe Barry (this song was re-recorded in Cajun French as Je suis bęt pour t’aimer, in 1960)

Big Blue Diamonds by Earl Connelly King

Sea Of Love by Phil Phillips

Just a Dream by Jimmy Clanton

Send Me Some Lovin’ and The Freeze (If You Don’t Want Me To) by Warren Storm

Let’s do the Cajun Twist by Randy and the Rockets

Before I Grow Too Old and Sweet Dreams by Tommy McLain

All These Things by Uniques

Feed The Flame and I Need Somebody Bad Tonight by Van Broussard

Got You On My Mind and The Great Pretender by Cookie and the Cupcakes

I’m Leaving It Up To You and Let the Good Times Roll by Dale and Grace

Promised Land and Before the Next Teardrop Falls by Johnny Allan

Holly Beach by AKA Kenny and the Jokers

Betty And Dupree by Shelton Dunaway

I Can’t Stop Loving You by Jerry Jackson and the Boogie Kings

Red Red Wine by Charles Mann

Judy in Disguise by John Fred and the Playboys

Our Love by Clint West

Walking to New Orleans and Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino

When A Man Loves A Woman by Percy Sledge

Rainin’ in my Heart by Slim Harpo

Surf the Internet for more swamp pop tunes.

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