Set lists for Senior Living venues

[rpjazzguitar]

Some Senior Living gigs have come up.

Average age is about 80. So, the audience, on average, were teenagers from 58 to 64. Of course, they heard their parents' music early on and probably heard plenty of music from the 60s and later. But, I'm just thinking about an age range when people develop their tastes.

On a recent gig, we were asked not to play love songs. Best response was from upbeat, positive-themed tunes, like Route 66 and Accentuate The Positive. We got requests for Sway and New York, New York.

I checked with Chatgpt which had some pretty good ideas for setlists.

But, I wondered, which tunes have others found most appreciated on this kind of gig? The group is a guitar, bass, drums trio with vocals. Might add a horn on some.

[Stringswinger]

It is downright weird to be the same age as old people.

The fact is that the Senior living places are no longer populated by the "Sinatra" crowd, but rather they are now populated by the "Beatles" Crowd.

Beatles tunes and 60's standards would all be in my set list for an 80 something crowd.

[BBGuitar]

We do play a few senior living gigs; we are 17 piece 5,4,4,4 with 2 singers.

Here is a tentative list, we use.

Draft playlist.
Alex tunes: (male singer)
-That’s Life
-I’ve got you under my skin
-Beyond the sea
-A man without love
-Ain’t that a kick in the head
-Sweet Caroline
Band Tunes: (half of these will be spares on reserve)
-How High the Moon
-Blue Bossa
-Foo Bird
-Blue Champagne (Dedrick)
-Bandstand Boogie (Higgins)
-I'm Getting Sentimental
-That’s All
-Penn 6500 (Hest)
-Freddie Freeloader (Sweeney)
-Honeysuckle Rose (Maltby)
-Black Orpheus
-C Jam
MaryBeth tunes: (female singer)
-Sway
-Quiet Nights
-All of Me (Niehaus) V MB
-I Get a Kick (Wolpe) V MB
-Moonglow (Wolpe) V MB
-S’Wonderful (Wolpe) V MB

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

It is downright weird to be the same age as old people.

That's actually the basis for my opening shpiel at the retirement communities I play. When I was young and I played gigs with older audiences, I had to work up an appropriate list for people who grew up on swing, SInatra, and Sh-Boom. As sidemen, we had to know a slew of tunes that we would never have learned for our own pleasure. But I / we grew up with the music that pleases today's seniors because we're old !! I share the fact that my trio has a collective 175+ years of gigging experience, and senior audiences have been very receptive to a band of their contemporaries.

I've been amazed at the number of people well over 70 who know and love everything from straight ahead jazz standards to old Latin hits to Tower of Power to Steely Dan to GAS to blues. They know Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, Miles, BB, Springsteen, Elton John, The Supremes, Stan Getz etc. Here are the 2 playlists I used this month. About half are vocals. Let The Good Times Roll is a consistent pleaser as an opening tune. I do it solo and with the trio as a more gentle swing like Louis Prima's version and Sam Butera's. The first list is longer because it was for a solo show, so the only instrumental solos were mine. With the trio, the tunes are longer because everybody gets a chance - solo choruses, trading 4s & 8s, etc. I'll often have the drummer bring a tune in with a solo, and our bass player plays the head on a lot of tunes.

Let The Good Times Roll
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Just a Dream
Misty
Secret Love
Tenderly
Never Make Your Move Too Soon
The Very Thought of You
Guilty
One More Song
My One and Only Love
ENCORE Treat Me Right
____________________________________

Let The Good Times Roll
Solar
Georgia on My Mind
You Are The Sunshine of My Life
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
Walkin’ The Dog
Misty
But Not For Me
Up On The Roof
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Get Out of My Life, Woman
ENCORE ATTYA

[Spook410]

We are in the midst of placing my mother-in-law in a local assisted living. It's a small place and I'm planning to volunteer playing there occasionally. So, I've been thinking about this.

- There will be no interest in jazz. Some Miles and Ellington will be tolerated but only as part of the overall. Sorry to be negative but that's the way it is here in southern Oregon.

- Age group is 80 - 85 for the most part. They graduated high school 1958 to 1963. If their musical tastes kept on evolving into their early 20's that would give a range of late 50's to late 60's. Pretty big palette to choose from there but a lack of musical sophistication is to be assumed regardless of specific years.

Off the top of my head I would think the audience will like Elvis, Chuck Berry, Tom Jones, and Neil Diamond along with whatever was at the top of the country charts around 1960. If I choose a bit later Monkees, Beatles, Beach Boys and upbeat like Doobie Bros. All this being limited, of course, by the availability of someone who can actually sing and what can be done with a couple of guitars.

It's not what I would choose to play being too cool for school and all. But I've always enjoyed playing all sorts of things and in the end, am I playing for the them or for me?

[callouscallus]

According Portland's senior living guy who plays 3-5 gigs a day at various senior centers around town, jazz is way less in demand than 50's 60's and yes.....70's tunes.

[shekie]

I'm part of a quartet that plays roughly twice monthly at senior living facilities. We do not play any instrumentals, from my experience playing familiar music that they can sing along to works best. A typical setlist for our gigs:

Hallelujah I Love Him So
Crazy
Blue Skies
The Way You Look Tonight
Ain't Misbehavin'
Girl From Ipanema
Since I Fell For You
Fly Me To The Moon
Georgia On My Mind
That'll Be The Day
Summertime
Fever
I Can't Help Falling In Love With You
Route 66
God Bless The Child
You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

Others:
Moondance
Walkin' After Midnight
Kansas City
Wake Up Little Susie
California Dreamin'
Lean On Me
On Broadway
Lullaby of Birdland

[Bob_Ross]

We got requests for Sway and New York, New York.

Wait, wut?

The fact is that the Senior living places are no longer populated by the "Sinatra" crowd, but rather they are now populated by the "Beatles" Crowd.

My parents -- who themselves are already well into their 80s -- run a tap dance troupe that performs at a lot of senior- and/or assisted-living homes. One of their most popular numbers is The Beatles' "When I'm 64"

But that's definitely not their most recent tune. Much of their repertoire comes from country & western hits from the past ~20 years.
80 is the new 60.

[RLetson]

I'm 80 my own self, with what I suspect is a probably non-representative experience of musical history (which drops off sharply around 1975), and in my 60s I played nursing homes a bit with my late duo partner (two guitars and vocals). What surprised me (until I thought about it) was how my partner's set list stretched from Stephen Foster to Miles Davis to Johnny Cash to Pink Floyd. But on reflection (and in part because some nursing home residents are there for rehab from surgery and such), the demographic really does stretch from middle to old age. And, of course, as a guy in his late 60s, all that material was well within my listening history.

Then there's the jazz group I sit in with. Almost all of our regular listeners are over 60, and one couple is crowding me. What they get is classic bop and jazz treatments of standards, along with some 70s/80s soul, thanks to a trumpeter with the pipes and the taste to do justice to that material. Of course, these are ambulatory people who seek out this music, so they may not be any more representative of a senior-facility population than I am, despite their age-cohort qualifications.

FWIW, I see a lot of overlap with our repertory in the jazz/standards parts of the playists above.

[pcjazz]

It has been a long time since I last played a seniors’ home, but years ago I was in a big band that regularly sent a small combo for such gigs. We played mostly GAS tunes, swing and Latin. At one such gig an old lady interrupted the set, yelling “Why can’t you play some real music?” The leader patiently asked her what she would like to hear. “Songs about Jesus, stupid!” As I say, it has been a long time …

[rpjazzguitar]

I just returned from a show at the Soundroom in Oakland CA (great venue). The band was the Jazz Therapists, which plays Senior Living places several times a week. Rhythm section, bone, tenor, voice, 7 people. All material is from 1945 or earlier and they make it work, with great playing by top players in the region.

I heard, in the same set today, Cherokee, Makin' Whoopie, What a Wonderful World, Besame Mucho, When the Saints Come Marching In and Take Me Out To the Ballgame, among others. Not in that order. These were arranged versions along the lines that a big band might play other than 11 or so horns missing.

The crowd was older, with people that knew the band from the Senior Living places well represented. On their feet, dancing and singing along by the end.

All played with a cheerful vibe and good groove. No bass solos. They did have both horns and piano solo a lot. Guitar, not as much.

[Spook410]

I'm part of a quartet.. <snip set list>

OK shekie.. I'm ripping off a few chunks from your set list. Good choices.

[shekie]

OK shekie.. I'm ripping off a few chunks from your set list. Good choices.

Lol........rip away. We are blessed to have a Berklee grad. vocalist in our band who lives and breathes Ella and Billie and Sarah V.

[Strat-itis]

For 70-90+ year old people, they grew up in the 40s-70s. So that's a pretty good range for quality tunes. Of course GASB from the 30s and earlier will be relevant, but if you mix in later tunes too I think that would increase the relevance.