One More Song! The Ten Tunes That End Every UK Wedding — and What Yours Says About You

It is 11.40pm. The buffet has been reduced to a battlefield of cocktail sticks. Somebody's nan is asleep in a chair with a pashmina over her head, and the bride's cousin has lost a shoe. The DJ leans into the mic and says the four most loaded words in British social life: 'Right, last few songs.'

What happens next is not just music. It is a public reading of the couple's entire personality. Ten tunes do the heavy lifting at British weddings, and every one of them comes with a verdict. Here they are, in rough order of inevitability.

1. Sweet Caroline — Neil Diamond

'So good! So good! So good!' — and suddenly the entire room is doing hand gestures in unison, including the relatives who have not agreed on anything since 1998.

What it says about you: You want everybody in a group hug, and you are not embarrassed to engineer one. You are a host, not a guest. Your wedding had a sweet cart. Nobody minded.

Danger rating: Low, unless the DJ does that thing where he pauses the track for a singalong and the crowd comes in half a beat early. That is on you, DJ.

2. Mr Brightside — The Killers

The first four seconds of that guitar line and the floor transforms. Grown adults in waistcoats start jumping. Somebody throws a drink that they will be apologising for in the morning.

What it says about you: You met somewhere with sticky floors and a poster of a generic indie band on the wall. You are not doing a themed wedding, but your guests are acting like it is Reading Festival. Your DJ has played this at every wedding since 2004 and will play it at yours.

3. Come On Eileen — Dexys Midnight Runners

The song that asks the most of an audience, with its tempo switches and its 'too-ra-loo-ra' section that nobody has ever learned properly.

What it says about you: There is a fiddle somewhere in your family tree. Your guests are the sort who form a circle. Someone's dad has brought a hip flask. It is the closest your wedding will come to a ceilidh.

4. Don't Stop Me Now — Queen

A song about being extremely unwell in a fast car, adopted by the nation as an anthem of pure celebration.

What it says about you: The groom's mates requested it. The groom's mates have been waiting all night. There will be air guitar. There will be a man shouting 'I'm a rocket ship!' who has had six pints and no dinner since 4pm.

5. Dancing Queen — ABBA

The great unifier. From the flower girls to the aunties to the one uncle who claims to hate pop music but knows every syllable.

What it says about you: You invited three generations and you actually meant it. This song is the proof that your seating plan worked. If your DJ plays it early, the night peaks too soon — he knows it, you know it.

6. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) — The Proclaimers

A song that starts as nostalgia and ends as a physical endurance event. The 'da da da da' section can go on for a genuinely concerning length of time.

What it says about you: Your guests are Scottish, or wish they were. There is a chance somebody will attempt the full verse with the accent. There is a bigger chance somebody will fall over.

7. Livin' on a Prayer — Bon Jovi

Specifically the 'WOOOOAH, WE'RE HALFWAY THERE' moment, which is sung with more conviction than the national anthem.

What it says about you: Your crowd likes a key change and a big chorus and will not be embarrassed about either. This is the emotional peak of the night for at least four of your guests, and one of them is your father.

8. Wonderwall — Oasis

Alternatively titled: The Joke, but also a genuine beloved song, depending entirely on who is holding the guitar.

What it says about you: If it is played on record, you have a guest who thinks it is funny to shout 'Anyway, here's Wonderwall' before it starts. If it is played live, a groomsman has borrowed a guitar. Both outcomes are survivable. Neither is quiet.

9. Angels — Robbie Williams

The slow one. Arms around shoulders, glasses raised, one or two people quietly crying into a stranger's jacket.

What it says about you: You are a romantic and you wanted one moment of sincerity before midnight. The DJ knows exactly what he is doing, putting this near the end. It is the closest we get to a modern Auld Lang Syne, and it is devastating in the right room.

10. (I've Had) The Time of My Life — Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

Officially, it is a Dirty Dancing reference. Unofficially, it is an invitation for somebody to attempt the lift and for everyone else to watch in hopeful horror.

What it says about you: You are going out on a high note and a full-floor chorus. Your guests are standing in a big circle. Nobody wants it to be over.

The Ones That Just Missed the Cut

Hey Jude, for the endless na-na-na and the way it makes the whole room sway without being asked. Bohemian Rhapsody, for the headbanging bit which is a genuine safety risk after 11pm. Islands in the Stream, for couples who have been married longer than the bride and groom. And 9 to 5, which is never the last song but is somehow always the third-to-last.

Requesting It Without Ruining It: A Short Etiquette

Every good DJ has a request policy. Every wedding has at least one person who ignores it. A few ground rules so you can ask for your song and still be invited to the next one:

• Ask early, not at 11.55pm. Requests made during the first dance are ignored forever, rightly.
• One song per guest. Not one per hour. Not a themed mini-set.
• Ask the couple, not just the DJ, if your choice is unusual, emotional, or about a dead relative. Nobody wants to be ambushed by a meaningful song mid-buffet.
• Never request during the speeches, the first dance or the cake. These are the three unbreakable windows.
• Take no for an answer. The last half hour belongs to the couple, and they have probably already chosen every second of it.
• If they play your song, dance to it. Do not stand at the bar and shout the lyrics into your pint. Commit.

Over to You

Here at Songs4U, we think the last song of a wedding deserves more respect than it gets. It is the one everyone remembers on the drive home and the one people are still arguing about a decade later.

So tell us yours. What closed your night, was it worth it, and did anybody attempt the lift? Send us your wedding memories and your requests — we are collecting the nation's favourite final-hour anthems for our own Songs4U list, and we would love to hear the song that turned your dancefloor into a choir with the ties off and the shoes in hand.