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Mood is a Traditional Pop/ Jazz-influenced band influenced by the iconic Frank Sinatra. Mood will take you back as far as the swing-era with their rich horn arrangements and their soothing song selections.
The songbook is Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, played with full horn charts. Next to the standards, the band covers swing classics, salsa, Latin and smooth jazz. Mood plays at a level guests can talk over, so it suits rehearsal dinners, private dining rooms and company receptions.
Most people who ask about a Sinatra band are planning for a room where the youngest guest and the oldest one are sixty or seventy years apart. The table below puts the numbers behind that, and what each one changes when you book Mood.
| Figure | What it changes for your event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 7 musicians in Mood's promo photo: guitar, sax, trombone, snare and upright bass among them | A horn line and a walking bass are what make a Sinatra chart sound like the record, so plan floor space for a real band, not a duo. | LIV's photo of Mood on this page |
| 11 songs identified across Mood's four videos | You can hear the band's actual repertoire, from a 1929 Irving Berlin tune to 1960s soul, before you ask for a date. | Mood's caption files on this page |
| 14.4 million Americans aged 78 to 88 | The grandparents and guests of honor who know every word, because they first heard these records as teenagers. | Census Vintage 2024 estimates |
| 30.8 and 28.4: the typical groom's and bride's age at a first wedding | A couple marrying around 30 often has grandparents in that 78 to 88 group, so one set can serve both ends of the guest list. | Census table MS-2, 2025 |
| 6%: share of couples still married after five decades | A golden anniversary is rare, and the couple usually wants the songs from the year they met. | Census release CB11-90 |
| 55% of Americans 75 and older have disabling hearing loss | With this many older guests, sound level is the first thing to plan. | NIH, NIDCD |
| Culver City, CA: where LIV books the band from | Southern California dates are local. Events farther away are planned as travel dates. | LIV Entertainment Group |
A Sinatra cover band is rarely booked because one person loves Sinatra. It gets booked because a host is looking at a guest list with a 22-year-old, a 55-year-old and a 90-year-old on it and wants one band all three will stay in the room for. The songs in Mood's set were hits for the oldest guests, standards for their children, and the soundtrack of films and ads for the youngest. That spread is the whole reason the format works.
The Census Bureau's 2024 estimates count 14,436,787 people aged 78 to 88. Born between 1936 and 1946, they were between 10 and 20 in 1956, when Songs for Swingin' Lovers! topped Britain's first-ever albums chart that July (Official Charts Company). People in that group did not learn these songs as nostalgia. They heard them new, on the radio and at their own school dances.
For a host, that changes the job the band is doing. With this group in the room, the band is not playing a period piece. It is playing the music the guests danced to when they were young, and they will notice a tempo that drags or a lyric that is off. Ask for the songs the guest of honor actually owned on record, not a generic list of crooner hits.
The Census Bureau's table MS-2 puts the median age at first marriage at 30.8 for men and 28.4 for women in 2025. Do the arithmetic on a typical couple and their grandparents were born in the 1930s and 1940s. That is why so many couples who would never put on a Sinatra record at home still ask for a crooner band: it is the one style their grandmother and their college friends can both dance to.
It also explains a common split in what a couple asks for. They want the songs younger guests know from films and covers, such as "Fly Me to the Moon" or "Feeling Good", and the grandparents want the deeper album tracks. Mood's footage covers both. Tell us which side of the family is bigger and the set leans that way.
On July 1, 2024 there were 1,751,366 Americans aged 80 and 484,508 aged 90, by the same Census estimates. Families planning those parties tend to start from the music, because the person being honored has opinions about it. A 90th-birthday guest was born around 1934 and was in their early twenties when Sinatra's late-1950s albums came out. An 80th-birthday guest was a child then, and probably came to the songs through a parent's record collection or the 1960s singles.
That ten-year gap matters for the set list. The older guest of honor will often want swing-era material and the Gershwin and Berlin standards. The younger one may ask for "Strangers in the Night", which won Record of the Year at the 9th Grammy Awards, and other 1960s songs.
When the Census Bureau last published the figure, 6% of currently married couples had passed their 50th anniversary and 35% had passed their 25th (release CB11-90, based on 2009 survey data). A 50th is a once-in-a-family event, and the request we would expect most often is simple: play the song from the wedding, and ideally in the same arrangement. If you have a recording or the original program, send it with the inquiry.
Food, toasts and decor for a 50th are in LIV's anniversary planning article.
A rehearsal dinner has more in common with a milestone party than with the wedding itself. Everyone is seated, the speeches are long, and a good share of the table is older relatives who have just flown in. A band that plays under the conversation, not over it, suits that dinner better than a dance band, and it gives the grandparents their music a day before the reception belongs to the younger crowd.
Every band says it plays "the classics". The four Mood videos on this page let you check. LIV captioned each one, and the captions name the songs. Here is what is in them, and where each song comes from, so you know what you are listening for.
That is 11 different songs in about eight and a half minutes of footage, spanning roughly four decades of writing. It is a fair sample of how the band balances standards against dance material.
Sinatra's 1950s albums were cut with large studio orchestras. A cover band does not try to copy every part. It keeps the pieces a listener actually hums: the horn figure that answers the vocal line, the walking bass, the drummer's brushes in the ballads and sticks in the swing tunes.
In Mood's case the photo shows sax and trombone as the horn line, with guitar, upright bass and snare underneath. That is enough to carry the shout chorus of a swing chart, and it is why LIV describes the band's sound as rich horn arrangements rather than a singer with backing tracks.
If you want the full sound, the orchestra and big-band videos show the same songbook played by the larger forces; the price section below explains what that adds.
Footage is the closest you will get to an audition. Watch at least the performance reel and one of the shorter clips with the sound up, and listen for the things that separate a band that knows this music from one that is getting through it:
If something in the videos is close to what you want but not quite, describe it in your inquiry with the timestamp. That is more useful to the band than any genre label.
Several songs in the reel predate Sinatra's career. "Puttin' On the Ritz" is an Irving Berlin song from 1929 (UW-Madison Mills Music Library catalog). "They Can't Take That Away from Me", by George and Ira Gershwin, was written for the 1937 Fred Astaire film Shall We Dance and was nominated for the Academy Award for best song (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). Hoagy Carmichael composed "Georgia on My Mind" in 1930; Ray Charles took it to number one in 1960, and in 1979 it became Georgia's official state song (New Georgia Encyclopedia).
These are the songs a 90-year-old guest's parents danced to. If someone at your party grew up in Georgia, "Georgia on My Mind" is a request worth making before the night, not during it.
"Sing, Sing, Sing" was written and first recorded by Louis Prima in 1936. Benny Goodman's band turned it into a long drum feature, and its version at the January 16, 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, the first time a swing band played that hall, became famous (NPR). On the night, an instrumental like this is the signal that dinner is over: it is loud, it is fast, and it pulls the swing dancers out of their chairs.
Of the four style words LIV attaches to Mood, the last is rock n' roll, and the footage backs it up. "Fever" started as Little Willie John's 1956 R&B hit for King Records (Blues Foundation) before Peggy Lee's slow, finger-snapping version made it a lounge standard. "Land of a Thousand Dances" is a 1960s soul song, and "For Once in My Life" is best known through Stevie Wonder's Motown record. They are the bridge between the crooner set and the part of the night when younger guests want to move.
One video pairs Mood with a female vocalist on "They Can't Take That Away from Me". A second singer opens up the duet repertoire of that era, and it lets a couple's first dance or an anniversary dance be sung to both of them. Ask about it when you inquire, because it changes the line-up.
It is the one song in the reel that nearly every age group recognizes. A Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum podcast transcript notes that mission control liked to play it for the Apollo astronauts. For a guest list that spans generations, it works as a safe middle-of-the-night song that gets the floor moving without asking anyone to know the steps.
Requests for Sinatra impersonators for hire and requests for a cover band often arrive as if they were one and the same. They are different acts, and they suit different parties. Knowing which one you want saves a round of emails.
An impersonator plays a person. The costume, the voice, the stage banter and the jokes are all built to make an audience believe, for a while, that they are watching Sinatra. It is a show, usually with a set length and a script.
A cover band like Mood plays the music. The singer sings in the style of the songbook without pretending to be anyone. The band is on stage for hours rather than one set, and it can move between dinner volume, swing and soul as the night changes.
A short themed show works when the audience is seated and expects a performance: a fundraiser with a program, a themed corporate night with a set running order, a 50th with a planned "surprise guest" moment. It is entertainment to watch, and the evening is planned around it.
A wedding, a rehearsal dinner or a family birthday needs music that sits under conversation for an hour and then fills a dance floor. That is a band's job. Nobody on LIV's published roster does a Sinatra character. Its specialty entertainment roster does include MCs, dancers and costumed performers, which can be planned around the band if you want a show element.
The "Rat Pack" label covers Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. LIV's own description of Mood puts Dean Martin next to Sinatra in the songbook, so a Rat Pack night does not need a second act to cover the Martin songs. What it does need, if you want banter between numbers, is someone to deliver it. That is an MC's job, a separate booking, and worth deciding on before you sign.
LIV's own description of Mood talks about "the golden age of Old Vegas": smoky jazz clubs, velvet lounges and late-night glamour. A themed party gives that description something to do. Here is how hosts build one around the band without the theme turning into a costume contest.
There are really two mid-century themes, and they ask for different things from the band. The Las Vegas version is after dark and indoors: dinner jackets, a showroom feel, the band on a stage with lights. The Palm Springs version is daytime or early evening by a pool, looser, with the band set up on a terrace. The first suits the swing tunes and the big finish; the second suits bossa-tinged ballads and a lower volume.
"Rat Pack attire" on an invitation gets you a room full of fedoras. "Cocktail attire, 1960 Las Vegas" or "poolside 1958" gives guests a picture without forcing a costume. Mood performs in suits, as the promo photo shows, so the band will look like part of the evening either way.
A showroom look depends more on light than on decor: warm spotlights on the singer and darker tables. LIV handles staging and lighting in-house through its lighting and AV team, so the band and the room can be planned together rather than by two vendors.
A themed night for a 30-year-old's birthday is a different job from a 90th. Younger guests know the look from films and television, not from memory. For them, the set should lean on the songs that crossed over: "Fly Me to the Moon", "Feeling Good", "Fever" and the up-tempo swing tunes, with the deep ballads kept short. For the rest of the planning, see LIV's 30th birthday guide.
A crooner band booked for a mixed-age room has to solve problems a dance band does not. The oldest guests may hear less, sit longer and leave earlier. The youngest want the floor to open. Getting the first part right is what makes the second part possible.
NIH's National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders reports disabling hearing loss in 22% of Americans aged 65 to 74 and 55% of those 75 and older, and fewer than 1 in 3 adults over 70 who could benefit from hearing aids has ever used them. For those guests, a loud band does not just annoy. It drowns out the conversation at their table completely.
On the institute's noise scale, talking sits at 60 to 70 decibels and a concert at 94 to 110. Sound at or below 70 dBA is unlikely to harm hearing even over a long exposure, while long or repeated exposure at 85 and above can cause loss. A dinner set belongs at the conversation end of that range, which is the level LIV says Mood plays at.
Guests in their 80s often learned to dance to this music, and they will dance if the tempo is one they know. A medium swing at a comfortable walking pace gets them up. A very fast Lindy tempo usually does not. If the guest of honor is a dancer, tell us, and ask for a medium-tempo song early in the dance set while they still have the energy.
The CDC's Disability Impacts All of Us figures put mobility disability, meaning serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, at 12.2% of US adults, and the share rises with age. At a milestone birthday, the guest of honor may well be one of them. Three things help:
Hearing aids amplify everything, so music under a speech makes the speech harder for exactly the people who most want to hear it. Plan toasts between sets, with the band silent, and give the speaker a microphone through the band's system so the whole room hears the same thing.
Grandchildren tend to dance first and without inhibition, which helps everyone else. Songs with a strong beat and a chorus they can shout, "Puttin' On the Ritz" or "Land of a Thousand Dances", work well with kids on the floor. A short set aimed at them early in the evening also lets families with young children leave on time.
The Sinatra songbook is full of songs that sound romantic and turn out to be about something else. Each card below is a request people make, why it can misfire on the night, and what to ask Mood for instead or how to use it well.
The request
Why it can misfire: it opens with the end being near. It is a song about looking back on a whole life, a send-off more than a beginning.
Use it instead: as the closer of a 90th birthday or a retirement party, where looking back is the point. For a first dance, a love song from the Gershwin or Berlin catalog fits better.
The request
Why it can misfire: many older guests know it as the duet Frank recorded with his daughter Nancy, which was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1967.
Use it instead: when a bride dances with her father, because then the Frank-and-Nancy story is the point. It needs a second singer, so plan the duet line-up.
The request
Why it can misfire: it builds to a big, loud ending. Played while plates are on the table, it stops every conversation in the room.
Use it instead: as the last song of the night. It is a natural finale, and guests expect to sing along to it.
The request
Why it can misfire: it is a drum-led showpiece. Too early, it plays to an empty floor and drowns out the welcome drinks.
Use it instead: as the cue that the dance set has started, right after the cake or the toasts.
The request
Why it can misfire: Peggy Lee's version is slow and sultry. With a family crowd it can feel like the wrong moment.
Use it instead: later in the evening, once the families with young children have gone home. Mood's performance reel opens with it, so you can judge the mood of their version first.
The request
Why it can misfire: an obscure album track requested on the night can only be played if the band already knows it.
Use it instead: send the must-play songs with the booking, with the recording you mean.
There is no fixed price for Mood on this page, because the band is quoted per date. What we can lay out is what pushes a quote for this kind of band up or down, so you can decide where to spend.
The core band is the seven players in the photo. Adding a second vocalist for the duets adds a musician. Moving to the orchestra or big-band version shown in the videos adds many more, and with them a larger stage, more power and a longer setup. Most private parties do not need the bigger line-up; galas in a ballroom sometimes do.
A dinner set followed by a dance set is a longer booking than cocktail-hour music alone. If you only want the crooner style for part of the night, say so. Mood can take the dinner hours and hand over to a DJ or a dance band for the rest. LIV's cocktail band roster shows the shorter formats.
The start time and the day of the week are part of every quote. A milestone birthday for someone in their 80s or 90s can just as well be a lunch or an early dinner, and that is a different booking from a Saturday wedding that runs past midnight. Give us the hours you actually need rather than a whole evening by default.
Dates around Los Angeles, Orange County and the rest of Southern California are local. For an event in another state, travel, hotel nights and backline become part of the quote; LIV's Chicago live bands page walks through how a fly-in date is planned.
A hotel ballroom with its own house system is a different job from a backyard or a terrace with nothing installed. The room you have changes what the band brings, and if you want the showroom lighting described above, that is part of the quote too.
Yes. LIV Entertainment Group books Mood from its office on Fairfax Avenue in Culver City, so a date anywhere in Los Angeles County is a local booking for the band. Send your date and neighborhood through the contact form and we will check the calendar.
Mood covers Orange County as a Southern California date, no flights involved. LIV's pages for Irvine, Newport Beach, Anaheim and Huntington Beach show the other bands available in the county if you want to compare.
Yes; LIV books acts nationally, and Mood is already featured among the bands on LIV's New York City page. An out-of-state date is quoted as a trip, so the venue's city and load-in rules are the first things we will ask about.
Yes, as a travel date. It is also the city the band's Old Vegas styling borrows from. Other acts LIV offers there are on its Las Vegas roster.
It is simply the band's name, while the Sinatra label tells you its repertoire. The band has been listed under that name on LIV's site since at least 2022, when its profile lived at /cocktail-bands/mood/. That old address now forwards to this page.
Yes. Martin's songs sit next to Sinatra's in the band's book, played with horns. If one particular Martin number matters to you, name it when you book so the band can confirm it.
Swing, salsa, Latin and smooth jazz, by LIV's own description, plus some 1960s soul. That range lets the same band carry a dinner set and an early dance set without a change of act.
On many of his best-known records Sinatra sang in front of a studio orchestra led by an arranger. Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, for example, was arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle and recorded at Capitol's KHJ Studios in Hollywood, according to the Official Charts Company. Mood works from slimmed-down charts written in that style.
LIV lists company receptions and galas among the events Mood fits. The band works well where clients and staff of different ages mix over drinks. For a full dance party after the reception, LIV's cover bands page shows the dance-band options.
"The Way You Look Tonight" is a common pick; it comes from Swing Time and took the best-song Oscar at the 1937 ceremony (oscars.org). Two songs the band already plays on video, the Gershwin number from the duet clip and "Fly Me to the Moon", let you hear Mood's version before you decide.
LIV's other in-house bands cover nearby styles: LIV Vintage, Blue Velvet and Rubato. For a jazz combo without the crooner focus, see LIV's Los Angeles jazz bands.
The date, the city and venue, the number of guests, the hours you want music, and the age of the oldest and youngest guests.
Blues/jazz, theatrical, dance band, holidays
Acoustic, soothing, light-hearted, romantic
Acoustic Brazilian, bossa nova, samba, multilingual, latin
Also on the roster Saxophonist Harpist Violinists Cellists
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