"Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)"
"Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More" also by Steely Dan
"Across 110th Street" by Bobby Womack
"Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman" by Lee Hazlewood
"Hey, Manhattan" by Prefab Sprout
"The Apple Stretching" by Grace Jones

More later

it came up with

New York City - T.Rex

New York Telephone Conversation - Lou Reed (and of course anything from the album entitled New York)

New York City Cops - The Strokes

and anything by The New York Dolls :)

Ryan Adams - New York New York
Belle and Sebastian - Piazza, New York Catcher
The Clash - The Right Profile
Genesis - Back In NYC (or if you want odd, go for Jeff Buckley's version)
Shattered - The Rolling Stones
10CC - Wall Street Shuffle

New York - Paloma Faith
New York Minute - Don Henley
Englishman in New York - Sting
I Love New York - Madonna
New York State Of Mind - Billy Joel
Leaving New York - REM
Manhattan Avenue - Nellie McKay
Rhapsody in Blue - Gershwin
Chelsea Hotel No. 2 - Leonard Cohen

Rhapsody in Blue

I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City-Harry Nillson
What New York Couples Do-Craig Armstrong
Back In The New York Groove-Hello
Spanish Harlem-Laura Nyro and Parry LaBelle
Talking New York-Bob Dylan
In A New York Minute-Don Henley
Harlem Shuffle-Bob and Earl
Empire State Of Mind-Jay Z
New York Tendaberry-Laura Nyro
Jersey Girl-Bruce Springsteen
Downtown Train-Tom Waits

Loads of On Broadway
Neil Young
George Benson etc

Grand Central Station Mary Chapin Carpenter
Harlem Shuffle Bob and Earl
Nights On Broadway Bee Gees

Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mithell
Angela - Bob James (Theme music to Taxi)
Coney Island Baby - Lou Reed
Down In The Depths (On The 90th Floor) - Ella Fitgerald
First We Take Manhattan - Leornard Cohen
Harlem - Bill Withers (guaranteed floor filler that one)

I wouldn't have you any other way (NYC) - Elton John from The Captain and the Kid

Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind
Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind part 2
Human League - Empire State Human (maybe too "English"?)
Grandmaster Flash - The Message (just makes me think of NYC, don't know why)
LCD Soundsystem - New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down
Almost anything by the Beastie Boys
Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side
Velvet Underground - Waiting for my Man
Simple Minds - The American
Death Cab for Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan
Mercury Rev - Hudson Line
Soft Cell - Down in the Subway
Kirsty MacColl - Walking Down Madison
Doves - NY
Strokes - New York City Cops
Kim Wilde - Kids in America (...?)
Pet Shop Boys - New York City Boy
Paloma Faith - New York
Rufus Wainwright - The Art Teacher (set in the Met)

and finally

The Wombats - Moving to New York ... no? Oh OK then.

And one more that just popped up on shuffle as if in answer to your question:

PJ Harvey (with Thom Yorke) - This Mess We're In. Opening lines: "Can you hear them? / The helicopters? / I'm in New York / No need for words now..."

59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
Only Living Boy In New York

Another Clash song - Broadway

New York City Serenade
10th Avenue Freezeout
Incident on 57th St - Bruce
Harlem Nocturne - Earle Bostic (written by a hagen!)
Take The A Train - Duke Ellington
First We Take Manhattan - Laughing Len
Harlem Shuffle - Bob & Earl
King of the New York Streets - Dion
New York
Angel of Harlem - U2
Only Living Boy In New York
Bleecker St - Simon & Garfunkel
Lullaby of Broadway
42nd St - Ruby Keeler
Empire State of Mind - Jay Z/Alicia Keys
Fairytale of New York - Pogues
52nd St - Billy Joel
23rd St Lullaby - Patti Scialfa
Girl From New York City - Darts
Manhattan Skyline - a-ha
New York Groove - Hello
Nights On Broadway - BeeGees
On Broadway - Drifters
Positively 4th St - Bob Dylan

New York. The whole album.

Mentions New York in the beautiful chorus.

http://open.spotify.com/track/694viMJ3pA7Rrjq14jmsHw

and

Dybdahl - One day you'll dance for me, New York City:

by Christopher Cross

Queensboro Bridge - David Mead
Brooklyn - Jesse Malin
Into Brooklyn, Early in the Morning - The Innocence Mission
Lovecraft In Brooklyn - The Mountain Goats
Song From Hope St. (Brooklyn, NY) - David Kitt
Take The 'L' Train To Brooklyn - Brooklyn Funk Essentials
All The Way To New York City - Rosie Thomas
Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More - Steely Dan
New York - Brian Kennedy
New York - Cat Power
New York - U2
New York City - Norah Jones
New York City - T Rex
New York Man - The Blue Nile
New York, New York - Hobotalk
New York, New York - Moby with Debbie harry
Relax (New York MIx) - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Streets Of New York - Cerys Matthews
Talkin' New York - Bob Dylan
What New York Couples Fight About - Morcheeba with Kurt Wagner
Yeah! New York - Yeah Yeah Yeah's
Buffalo River Home - John Hiatt
Poughkeepsie - Devendra Banhart
Poughkeepsie - The Lemonheads
Back To Manhattan - Norah Jones
Manhattan Skyline - Aha
My Blue Manhattan - Ryan Adams
Silver Manhattan - Jesse Malin
Hudson Lady - Luka Bloom
Hudson Line - Mercury Rev
The Long Island Sound - Beirut

You have got include what could well be my all time number 5 record;

Richie Cole - New York Afternoon (its just made my day that im the first to list it, unless ive missed it above).

Native New Yorker - Odyssey
NYC Beat - Armand Van Helden
From New York To LA - Patsy Gallant (the campery!)
New York New York - Moby & Debbie Harry
I've Got New York - The 6ths
Fashion Crisis Hits New York - The Frank & Walters
Song From Hope St. (Brooklyn, N.Y) - David Kitt
The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side - Magnetic Fields (and In The Village In The Morning)

The Day I Saw Bo Diddley In Washington Square - Willie Nile
Spanish Stroll - Mink DeVille
City Of Immigrants - Steve Earle

Elbow Bones and Raketeers - take me for a nigtht in New York

anything by Crown Heights Affair or BB&Q

Counting crows - Chelsea

Eric B and Rakim - I know you got soul

Bob James - Westchester Lady

Here is the playlist for a disc I made called I Love New York:

Hard Times in New York Town - Bob Dylan
New York City - John Lennon
Boy From New York City - Ad-Libs
New York City Boy - Pet Shop Boys
New York - Ja Rule
New York City - Clarence Reid
New York City - They Might Be Giants
New York Telephone Conversation - Lou Reed
New York I Love You - LCD Soundsystem
Manhattan - Ella Fitzgerald
Hey Manhattan! - Prefab Sprout
There's a Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon for New York - Louis Armstrong
Drop Me Off in Harlem - Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington
Autumn in New York - Billie Holiday
Springtime in New York - Jonathan Richman
Sunday in New York - Bobby Darin
An Englishman in New York - Godley & Crème
I Wouldn't Live in New York City - Buck Owens
I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City - Harry Nilsson
New York, New York - Ryan Adams
N.Y.C. - Bryan Ferry
The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game - the Ratpack

Sung by Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie or many others.
or
Louis Armstrong - There's a boat that's leaving soon for New York (Gershwin).
OOPS.........PW13 (previous post) just beat me with these suggestions.

Or umbrellas in their mitts...Puttin' on the Ritz!

Puttin' On the Ritz by Fred Astaire, tho the Peter Boyle version from Young Frankenstein would probably amuse the heck outa the partiers. But definitely NOT the Taco version.

Also, I second Lullaby of Broadway in its original, definitive version by Wini Shaw.

'New York Windy Day' from their debut album First Wind on the Pegasus label (PEG2) in 1971 is one of my favourites. I don't expect it's on Spotify however.

is a Steve Earle album which has a couple of fitting songs.

City Of Immigrants is self explanatory.
Down Here Below is a spoken word song about an eagle that lives above NYC.

Same artist but this time the El Corazon album has

NYC

Steve Forbert's Alive On Arrival album is about the seedier side of NYC. Very appropriate song about busking in the station is

Grand Central Station, March 18, 1977

Loudon Wainwright III's album Here Come The Choppers has the artist's strange experiences of travelling on the subway system shortly after 9/11 in

No Sure Way

Ryan Adams' Gold cd has the excellent

New York, New York.

Delbert McClinton's album Room To Breathe has the horn fuelled blues rocker

New York City.

Always good fun are the Saw Doctors. From their album The Cure, feet will tap and heads will nod at

Last Summer In New York

begins

"Let me tell you 'bout a place
Somewhere up-a New York way
Where the people are so gay
Twistin' the night away-ay"

Almost every track has a NY theme though I hardly think it would be appropriate listening for your event. When I was discovering this album I was also heavily into Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels,and was particularly struck by how the subject the book I was reading at the time dovetailed with the title track of this Dan album,i.e. the arrival of a swathe Puerto Rican immigrants who then replaced the poor African-American population on the bottom rung of NY society.Not exactly feel-good,party time stuff but it's one of reasons "scam" is possibly my fave Steely Dan record.Gave me a deeper understanding of the song,hence greater appreciation of it.

I'm always late to these parties. But then I wouldn't have got even a small fraction of the above....

Freedy Johnston has a number of interesting NYC flavoured stuff on "This Perfect World", particularly "Gone Like The Water" and "Dolores".

Lou Reed's New York is obvious, and to be specific my particular faves are "Dirty Blvd", "There Is No Time", "Last Great American Whale" and "Busload Of Faith". Saved my sanity on a lot of long plane trips that has....

How about Anthony and the Johnsons for something startling and left-field.

Wallflowers "6th Avenue Heartache"

Crowded House "Chocolate Cake" sticks the boot into Broadway early.

Stones "Waiting On A Friend" ?

Lots of Springsteen (careful about the Jersey/NYC thing).

Must be tons of Jazz about NYC (not my field unfortunately).

You've been the subject of so many dreams,
Since I climbed your torso
Oh, my statue of liberty ...

"202 Rivington Street" - Genya Ravan
(listen at Amazon.com)

to everyone who has posted. I got a few ideas from iTunes and Spotify but nowhere near the breadth of what's been suggested above. Much obliged!