About 5 years ago I did the 45th year reunion for Leland that we celebrated at the Los Gatos Lodge. I do remember it was a good time when I looked up their playlist from their first event I did for them. This list was a little different from the previous party since it was all old school. Last time, they had some current hits sprinkled in. This year we had the party in Villa Regusa in Campbell. Downtown Campbell is not the easiest place to park but there is first floor parking in the garage. You have the option of taking your do gear up the elevator or take it up the stairs. There was another function but it did not interfere with the function we were having. I was all set up and I was playing 30 minutes before schedule.

  So getting music for this class was a good time. I looked at 1968 19691970 1971 1972 1973 and 1974. I found the best rock hits and dance hits. I always ask for a list to make each event custom. Then I combine all the songs on my computer. I strive to play all their songs on their list while incorporating songs I feel that would enhance the event.

  The night started with some words with the host then the comedian started. Comedian was a pro who also graduated with the Leland class. He was a very funny guy who connected with the crowd who had the crowd laughing the whole time.

It is crazy that 1982 didn’t seem like that long ago. I do remember the 80s. It has some of the best music of all time. There is so much to choose from. When doing a reunion, you have to see what year the group graduated and you can search the years. So for 1982 we were looking at 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983. Its good to capture a year before they entered high school and a year after high school. I will look for the hits of the year. One of the theories I always come across is the late 70s folks were labeled two types: One type was the rockers and the other type was the disco folks. Rarely they were both it was one or the other.

Our contact gave us a list which I will post right now and it was pretty much all rock based. These songs that were included was Boston, Queen, Reo Speed Wagon, Elton John, Journey, Jackson Brown, Eagles, Simon and Garfunkel, Lynard Skynard, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, Billy Joel, The Cars, Foreigner, Styx, Van Halen, and Supertramp.

Its always good to prepare. We had all the rock music and in our back pocket we had the disco just in case. And it was good that we were prepared with disco since most of the folks wanted it at the event.