What song would you have at your funeral?

[Mudbug]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 1:49pm

From www.thisdayinmusic.com

A recent survey amongst the biggest undertakers reported that bereaved families preferred pop songs to hymns at funerals.

What song would you have?

Here are the 12 most requested songs:

Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt

I've Had the Time of My Life - Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley

Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler

Candle in the Wind - Elton John

With or Without You - U2

My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion

Tears from Heaven - Eric Clapton

Every Breath You Take - The Police

Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers

Angels - Robbie Williams

Another One Bites The Dust - Queen

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!

I'm having 'In My Life' by The Beatles.

http://www.thisdayinmusic.com more music trivia than you can shake a stick at

[tazber]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 1:49pm

And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going

[ExceedinglyPeculiar2]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 1:51pm

Bye Bye Baby like in Love Actually:)

Posted: 7/11/08 at 1:52pm

No fair that James Blunt has nudged my close personal friend Robbie William's Angels out of #1. A MUCH better choice if you ask me.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 1:52pm

nobody's fault but mine - led zeppelin

[Jonny boy]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 1:54pm

For Good... Wicked

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 1:56pm

The woman’s dead
The woman’s dead
She was a bitch
And under pitch
And now she’s dead...

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 2:02pm

Every Breath You Take played at a funeral? Wow.

I remember at my grandfather's funeral there was an unobtrusive muzak track, simple string arrangements with the occasional piano accompaniment. At one point, as my grandmother went into real emotional meltdown at the passing of her husband of more than 50 years, the piano over the sound system started playing the first notes of "What I Did For Love": "Kiss today goodbye..."

It was a bit much.

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 2:04pm

Last Dance by Donna Summer.

[jenna2]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 2:13pm

I can't stand it when music is played at a funeral. I understand why it's done, but it always RUINS the song permanently for me.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 2:17pm

i want passing afternoon by iron & wine

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 2:17pm

Either Warrant's Cherry Pie or Patti Page's How Much is That Doggie in the Window. It's impossible to choose.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 2:31pm

'Sick of You' by GWAR.

[Weez]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 2:43pm

Jenna - tell me about it. There's a hymn that's known as the Boys' Brigade hymn if you're a normal person, but because both my paternal grandparents were associated with the Boys' Brigade for so much of their lives, we sang it at both their funerals, and now it's just the Death hymn to me. I also have a good friend who can NOT listen to 'My Way'.

For my funeral, I was thinking about 'How Glory Goes'. It's not exactly cheerful, but it is beautiful, and it'd fit much better here than at a wedding. I've had my wedding planned for donkey's years, thanks to being in a church choir and going to many weddings, and if I died before I got married, I'd have all my wedding music bumped up to my funeral. So that's Jerusalem, Angel Voices Ever Singing, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (I'd only have the latter at my wedding if I married in December, but I'd totally have it at my funeral even if I died in June). With Tchaikovsky's Hymn to the Trinity and Walton's Crown Imperial. We'll skip 'One Hand, One Heart'. But perhaps 'Somewhere' would be a nice replacement.

Hymns I would NOT have at my funeral include All Things Bright And Beautiful and Abide With Me. I've been to a few funerals this summer (church choir again) and I'm fed up of singing certain hymns now.

Although I'm quite amused at the crossover between wedding hymns and funeral hymns. I guess people choosing hymns for these services are thinking of people who don't regularly worship and probably wouldn't be able to sing something like ... well, any other hymn in the book that comes out now and then for Sunday services but isn't known to the world at large. I like singing Jerusalem and I'm glad it turns up frequently. I do have to concentrate more on my technique than the words though, otherwise I get ridiculously choked up and then look like a freak for crying at the wedding of a stranger. XD

I've got another wedding tomorrow. I bet we have Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Jerusalem, Love Divine, or 1 Corinthians 1-13. It's just not a wedding if it doesn't have at least one of those four.

I'm rambling. I'm such a church music nerd. I'm not particualrly devout, but I think the music we sing is wonderful. Especially at Easter time. :3

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 2:49pm

Eh, I don't care. It's not like I'd be able to hear it.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 3:02pm

Oh! I know, Edgar Winters' Dying To Live.

Why am I fighting to live if I 'm just living to fight?
Why am I trying to see when there ain't nothing in sight?
Why am I trying to give when no one gives me a try?
Why am I dying to live if I'm just living to die?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 3:03pm

f*ck tha police by nwa

or maybe the feeli like i'm fixing to die rag by country joe and the fish.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 3:11pm

Also:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qSm2llQLCH4

Updated On: 7/11/08 at 03:11 PM

[Patronus]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 3:15pm

"Another One Bites the Dust" - Queen

[CJR]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 3:16pm

Weez, I feel that way about the song On Eagle's Wings. It's a funeral standard around here. When I was little and in Catholic school, we would sing it all the time. When I got older, I realized it was played at every single funeral I ever went to. Except my father's. I prohibited it from my father's funeral.

Personally, I would rather hear pop songs at funerals than the hyms I sing all the time at church (I'm in the choir and a soloist). Depending on the song and if it fits the person, if usually doesn't ruin the song for me.

When a friend of mine passed away a few years back (holy crap, 6 years now), we played I Hope You Dance by Leann Womack and Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day. While that song DOES make me think of him and his memorial services, it certainly doesn't ruin the songs for me.

As for music I'd like to hear..... well I won't be hearing it because I'll be dead, but here are some songs that stick out for me:

You Walk with Me ~ from the Full Monty

I'll Be Seeing You ~ Billie Holiday

The Prayer of St Francis (there are two versions of this song. I want the 'good version' that goes "so help me to love when I'd rather be loved, to understand when I'd be understood... to try to do unto as I would be done to -- to comfort the man who suffers alone forgetting that I have needs of my own")

Angels Among Us ~ Alabama

Flying Above the Clouds ~ Amber

New York State of Mind ~ Billy Joel

Don't Stop ~ Fleetwood Mac

And for good measure: I'm So Hood ~ G Unit

[Kristie-K2]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 3:38pm

Is That All There Is.....By My Miss Peggy Lee

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 3:55pm

I want this:


MY FUNERAL SONG

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 4:12pm

Well, I'm a huge Side Show fan, so maybe Say Goodbye to the Freak Show?

[StockardFan]

Posted: 7/11/08 at 4:12pm

LOL, JohnBoy.

So is this list for real? Because there are some odd choices on there.

Posted: 7/11/08 at 4:32pm

Oh and just to be clear- I don't care what's played at my funeral. I'll be dead.