Friday 18 July 2008

The Big Goodbye

An interesting blog over at the Guardian recently about funeral music.

I devote a chapter to this topic in Reno, using a recent poll of 45,000 people as a starting point. The poll found that the ten most popular funeral songs in Europe are:

1. Queen - The Show Must Go On
2. Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven
3. AC/DC - Highway To Hell
4. Frank Sinatra - My Way
5. Mozart - Requiem
6. Robbie Williams - Angels
7. Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever?
8. The Beatles - Let It Be
9. Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
10. U2 - With Or Without You

I make my opinions clear in the book (especially about 'My Way'), but what are yours? Do any of these songs ring your bell? Are you generally in favour of using pop music at funeral services? If not, why? And if so, what would you play?

4 comments:

David said...

I'm all in favour of it, Graeme. Could make funerals much more fun. My Dad, who is 86, is planning on using Bruce's "No Surrender" - a little weird, but whatever! And because I want everyone to cry at mine, I like the idea of "Lazy Calm" by the Cocteau Twins.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure funerals are meant to be fun, are they?

Each to their own, but that 10 list is horrible. I'd hate to think of someone I loved passing on to the sound of Queen, it would kinda tarnish their memory!

Luke

Graeme Thomson said...

David - good for him! Are you planning floor slides at the ceremony....?

Luke - I tend to agree, but the question underlying all this is: Who is a funeral for?

John Mark said...

Queen is only acceptable at a funeral if the deceased is wearing a unitard.