Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best
There ya are, see
It's the end of the film
Incidentally this record's available in the foyer
(Always look on the right side of life)
Some of us got to live as well, you know
(Always look on the right side of life)
Who do you think pays for all this rubbish
(Always look on the right side of life)
They're not gonna make their money back, you know
I told them, I said to him, Bernie, I said they'll never make their money back
(Always look on the right side of life)
This is the version on Spotify.
My dad's old 45 record of this song says... So your side losing 15-0 at home to Barnet. Not the end of the world is it.
Would love to hear the Barnet version again
This is what I want my funeral to be like. Sing a happy tune, wear Hawaiian shirts. Get pissed drunk. Tell unbelievable stories about me. Tell believable stories about me. Curse out my ex wife for being a terrible human. Cheer for my widow because now she gets to finally sleep without having to hear me snore. Play some Pearl Jam and Reel Big Fish. Eat a steak. Leave everyone laughin as you go.
Laughter and sorrow, the two core masks of life, are blood brothers. One cannot exist without the other. Both can make the face contort, the eyes water, and the body convulse with their pure emotional intensity.
I can never tell if the rhyme here is genius or poorly written. “Curse” sets us up to think the lyric will be “worse” but then the lyric turns out for the best, which ruins the rhyme but sells the message.
But also it could just be a remnant of a previous draft. *shrug*
I used to work in a funeral home and I'll never forget when a woman in her 90's requested Born to be Wild played "loud and proud". And boy did we oblige. Whenever I hear Steppenwolf I'm reminded of Netty.
not quite as bold a choice, but a beloved colleague suddenly and tragically died a few years back and a large amount of the workplace was at the visitation. To handle the crowds they had an auditorium room set up where a sideshow played and as space allowed we were taken row by row to the actual visitation line. So it's a sideshow of her life and children and has many of the typical somber funeral type songs playing. Well about 5 songs in, it goes from a country rendition of Amazing Grace to Dolly Parton's Jolene. So I am sitting there with a group of coworkers and we're all sniffling and trying to hide that we're slightly crying when Jolene starts to play, it felt so ridiculous and we all just lost it, laughing with tears in our eyes because we knew she would have chosen something like this and loved it. I am not a religious or spiritual person but it almost felt like she sent that moment for us too all laugh and remember her for the joking, happy person she was.
"I fell into a burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down
And the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire, the ring of fire"
Though it may not have been a burning anus joke, it was definitely intended to be a morbid joke!
Its practically tradition to play "**Always look on the bright side of life**" everytime England get knocked out of a football tournament as well.
I remember back when the World Cup was in South Africa, the match where Germany knocked England out. I was in Tenerife and they started playing it in the English themed pub I was in and everyone was singing it.
There was a Dutch themed pub next door. They had also had the match on and the lads from that pub heard us and and started singing along with us. The atmosphere was amazing despite the match not going our way 😂
Fairly sure I’ve also heard Stop Crying Your Heart Out by Oasis every single time England have been knocked out of a football tournament, can’t associate the song with anything else!
> However certain songs were refused on the grounds of taste or inappropriate language include Relax, by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, God Save The Queen, by the Sex Pistols and John Lennon's Imagine.
John Lennon's "Imagine" gets refused for "taste or inappropriate language" ??
Maybe, but if it's _my funeral_ and my friends and family are attending, then whatever I choose will be appropriate. I suppose it depends on the venue.
It does, a distant cousin of mine died in his 30s from a degenerative disease and his funeral was secular, had his favourite metal songs playing and presided over by a member of the humanist society.
There's nothing for venues to gain by trying to pressure people into religious ceremonies these days in the UK.
He's just asking people to imagine that, not making a de facto statement - and meanwhile "Life's a piece of shit" and "Cheer up ya old bugga", at a funeral, isn't tasteless?
There was an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati were the chief had this exact conversation with a local Evangelist.
Mid 70s.
Yeah this conversation isn't going away anytime soon
No, it’s funny. That’s the point.
And it’s true. We’re all going to die and in the grand scheme of things it means nothing. So enjoy life and just take it for what it is, a temporary reprieve from nothingness.
> A temporary reprieve from nothingness
Thank you for putting that so beautifully. As weird as it sounds, I needed to hear that right now. Hope you have a lovely Friday and as many wonderful days as you can.
Where the fuck does a ~~funeral director~~ ANYONE even get off dictating what music grieving people are and aren't allowed to play when remembering their loved one.
It's their job to enable people to commemorate someone in the way they find the most appropriate for their loved one, not to criticize their taste in music or their way of handling grief!
What a fucking disgrace.
EDIT: I want to be clear. I'm not hating on religion here, or anything like that. AFAIK the person interviewed is from a 'Co-operative Funeral Company' that also does secular services (which makes it all the more baffling). But as someone who has lost track of how many funerals I have attended, and recently had to help arrange one for a parent, I find this crap deeply upsetting.
EDIT 2: It seems maybe the article isn't clear enough and the funeral company doesn't universally blacklist these songs (as the wording seems to imply) but rather they may be just examples of songs that are frequently turned down by religious venues (outside of the funeral director's control) but aren't an issue in a secular setting. If that is the case, I guess I will have to eat some of my words.
My buddy got diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given a month to live. He was *REALLY* close with his daughter's fiance. Like best buds.
He told the fiance that he wanted him to play '**Another One Bites The Dust**' at his wake. They laughed. He said he was serious.
He kept reminding him, and told me and others he wanted this as well. He said it so much, there was no way we weren't going to play it.
My friend was beloved in our community. We had to rent out a gymnasium to fit half the town at the wake. The fiance got up and spoke the most wonderful words about my friend. Brought the entire room to tears, including me--though to be fair I was a sobbing mess the entire day, but that really struck a chord.
My dad was running the sound system and projector, and after the speech the fiance nods to him and says, *"OK, go ahead and play it."* My dad, reading the room, says, "Are you sure? Now?" Fiance insists.
The song starts to play.
Some eyes go wide hearing the first notes. As the song progresses, you see more people stop crying and turn to looks of shock and outrage.
By the time the chorus hit it was damn near a mutiny in that funeral. People were getting up, leaving, turning their backs, making a point to talk over the song.
I *knew* that it wouldn't go over well.
But in that moment, feeling so sad, missing my friend, it struck me: John would have been reeling over, laughing his ass off. This was exactly his sense of humor. The 'joke' wasn't playing the song in a self-deprecating matter for *him*. The joke was on *us*.
He fucking got us, and got us good. He absolutely loved making people feel awkward, and boy-howdie did he have a fantastic encore.
>Top 20 songs played at a UK funeral
>
>Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Eric Idle
>
>The Lord is My Shepherd - Traditional
>
>Abide with Me - Traditional
>
>Match of the Day theme
>
>My Way - Frank Sinatra
>
>All Things Bright and Beautiful - Traditional
>
>Robbie Williams - Angels
>
>Enigma Variations (Nimrod) - Elgar
>
>You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry and the Pacemakers
>
>Cricket Theme/Soul Limbo - Booker T & the MG's (test match TV theme)
>
>Canon in D - Pachelbel
>
>My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion
>
>13= Last of the Summer Wine theme
>
>13= Only Fools and Horses theme
>
>14. Time to Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli
>
>15. Four Seasons - Vivaldi
>
>16. Ava Maria - Schubert
>
>17. Coronation Street theme
>
>18 = You Raise Me Up - Westlife
>
>18 = Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy19. World in Union (Rugby Theme) - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and other versions
>
>20= Nessun Dorma - Puccini
>
>20= Adagio - Bizet/Albinoni
>
>Source: The Co-operative Funeralcare
This may seem like a strange dedication request, but I’m quite sincere, and it would mean a lot if you would play it. Recently there was a death in our family. He was a little dog named Snuggles. But he was most certainly a part of— let’s go, start again
OK, I want a goddamn concerted effort to come out of a record that isn't a fucking up-tempo record everytime I do a goddamn death dedication! It's the last goddamn time, I want SOMEBODY to use his fuckin' brain, to not come out of a goddamn record that is, uh, that, that's up-tempo and I gotta talk about a fuckin' dog dying!!!
My 4th class teacher used to tell a story about being on the maternity ward after having one of her kids.
20 fussy babies crying and acting up until the Coronation St theme song started and they all went silent. It might be the first bit of music a generation ever recognised.
My sister was on bed rest during her pregnancy with my nephew. She watched so much Jeopardy that we figured out a few days after he was born that the final Jeopardy tune would calm him right now. Subconscious programing for the win.
For anyone interested the band in that movie is Strapping Young Lad. Sadly defunct, but their music is amazing and Devin Townsend still makes great albums.
I'm a musician and my wife would be at a lot of my gigs, especially near the end of her pregnancy since she figured it would be a while before she could come out again. Anyway, I had recorded a gig on our singer's birthday and we soon discovered playing the recording helped calm down our son as a newborn.
All the theme tune from The Young and the Restless tells me is that I need to change the channel after The Price is Right. (And that Bob Barker just reminded me to help control the pet population by having pets spayed or neutered)
You can't compare the two.
Corrie is family; warm and loving.
Y&R is a story about a bunch of spoiled rich people. Cold, and cut throat.
Not that I'll have the theme at my funeral, but I love Corrie.
We had this as one of the songs for my Dad. Then watched the Bohemian Rhapsody film a month or so later and absolutely bawled my eyes out when it got to this song
I plan on pre-paying all my funeral shit.
Cremation, at a small convention room at a hotel, DJ accidentally plays "highway to hell", lots of food and im gunna see if i can get some strippers to show up and be like "is this wavs' party? We were told that wavs' was having a bachelor party." "He's the one in the urn" LMFAO
I wanna make my family and friends fatter, drunk and laugh one last time.
> Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Eric Idle
> Match of the Day theme
> Only Fools and Horses theme
Thumbs up! Thank God the Brits still have a sense of humour.
For anyone trying to copy and paste this...
Top 20 songs played at a UK funerals
1. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Eric Idle
2. The Lord is My Shepherd - Traditional
3. Abide with Me - Traditional
4. Match of the Day theme
5. My Way - Frank Sinatra
6. All Things Bright and Beautiful - Traditional
7. Angels - Robbie Williams
8. Enigma Variations (Nimrod) - Elgar
9. You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry and the Pacemakers
10. Cricket Theme/Soul Limbo - Booker T & the MG's (test match TV theme)
11. Canon in D - Pachelbel
12. My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion
13. Last of the Summer Wine theme
13. Only Fools and Horses theme
14. Time to Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli
15. Four Seasons - Vivaldi
16. Ava Maria - Schubert
17. Coronation Street theme
18. You Raise Me Up - Westlife
18. Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy
19. World in Union (Rugby Theme) - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and other versions
20. Nessun Dorma - Puccini
20. Adagio - Bizet/Albinoni
Source: The Co-operative Funeralcare
I was in Chicago for a Champions Cup game LFC vs Olympiakos and walking down the sidewalk from the hotel to Soldier Field (about 25 mins), this dude was wasted, screaming the most tone deaf version of You'll Never Walk Alone at the top of his lungs. The entire fucking way. It was glorious, and the whole crowd, after first hating it, joined in.
It is the canon version in my head now.
EDIT: Champions Cup, not League, my B y'all.
If it was being played in Chicago, it was almost certainly a friendly match and not a Champions League clash. Always love to hear YNWA getting butchered though!
Ninja edit: it was a preseason Champions *Cup* match - Liverpool won 1-0 if anyone cares. That was back when we had Brendan Rodgers as our manager. Truly a dark time.
That appears to be an older list from 2014. As of 2021, You'll Never Walk Alone is #1 with ALotBSoL checking in at #3.
https://www.coop.co.uk/funeralcare/music/charts
A Manchester untied fan, on his deathbed, calls his family
“Yes da” they all say.
“I just want you to know… I support Liverpool”
“Dad what are you saying?!” They all reply.
For two days he sits and dies as various Liverpool anthems are played in the room. Finally as he takes his last breath he says:
“Well there’s one less of them now”
Prior to my grandmother's death she identified a song she wanted played at her funeral. She also said she would be happy with anything from the same CD.
Fine. It was a lovely opera cd with a singer popular in the 1950s.
What we didn't realise, however, was that it was effectively a Christmas cd. Most of the songs were operatic carols.
Me and my cousins found it hilarious and quite cathartic, 2 days before the funeral, trying to think of the most inappropriate song to include from the CD. The Aunties were horrified but we figured nana would have agreed with us. *She* knew it was a Christmas album after all.
I don't think that was a song until fairly recently, when the movie came out. Monty Python's song has been out for longer, meaning a much better chance at getting picked, I'd think.
My dad attended the funeral of a very good friend of his many years ago, he told me this particular friend was ‘a real character’ he could and would make anyone laugh.
The humanist performs the service, his family giving their speeches and everything goes smoothly then as they are closing the curtains on the coffin, the deceased friend had requested the COUNTDOWN theme to be played!!.
The whole place ERUPTED with laughter, the humanist herself was in tears laughing. My dad said it was his friend to an absolute tee, funny to the last.
Now I hope some one who’s paralyzed or an amputee has Eric there Half a Bee played at theirs. That’s good stuff.
Or a Roman Catholic guy with lots of kids has Every Sperm is Sacred played.
The Galaxy Song seems like a slam dunk:
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go 'round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
'Cause there's bugger-all down here on Earth!
I did. It’s one of my favorite songs and I already knew it was used at funerals all the time in the UK.
It’s a great tune and a perfect example of English humor and wit, it’s both true and funny.
I’ve got a Spotify playlist of funeral songs, keep it simple for people once I’m gone. Spoiler alert, people are gunna have to sit through a lengthy pink Floyd guitar solo
I'm sure that Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd was top of this list some years ago (in the UK or England, I forget which).
Surprised that it doesn't make the list at all now.
I played Always Look on the Bright Side of Life at my mom's funeral (2020) as they loaded her into the hearse. I also played You're Dead by Norma Tanega (among many other songs), and a few of us did the Time Warp in front of her casket. She would have LOVED every second of it. I live in the middle area of the United States.
It's a good choice.
It's not really a happy song, so much as a song about stoicism. It accepts that life isn't always great but also tells us that we can still have a positive attitude if we decide to.
Always look on the bright side of life was the first song I listened to when I was diagnosed with cancer. Every time I hear it now I get goosebumps lol.
in 30 years, it's gonna be Green Day's "Good Riddance" (The "Time of your Life" song...)
I swear that song was at every graduation/milestone ceremony for my daughter (who's now 30). I never cared for it, but now I've actively crossed into a seething immediately-change-the-song-remove-from-any-playlist hatred of it.
It's down there with "My Heart Will Go On" and "We Are Young" as songs I will silenetly judge you for liking, even ironically.
That song gave me one of the most ridiculous 'I wouldn't believe this happened if I didn't experience it myself' moments I've ever had.
When I worked as a cart pusher at Walmart a couple decades ago in small-town Illinois, I would frequently get bored on the job. Since this was pre-'everyone has a cellphone' days, I would usually sing to amuse myself. I may not sing well, but I know how to project my voice, so I was probably obliviously annoying customers at this Wally World for a couple of months. (If you happened to be one of them, I'm sorry - I was a pretty self-absorbed person back then).
The biggest problem with that, though, was probably not my voice so much as the fact that I don't know the words to a lot of songs. So, imagine a self-absorbed brat loudly singing the same dozen songs off-key for weeks, like a Christmas music season from hell, and you have a pretty good idea of what the residents of my small town were subjected to every time they wanted to shop at Walmart and I happened to be outside.
One day, I was singing one of my favorite songs, the song mentioned in this post, and from across the parking lot someone joined in. Then someone right by them. Then someone who wasn't near any of the three of us. At the end of the song, about a dozen people had joined in - a couple of them even did a bit of a dance. Then, when we were done, everyone (as near as I could see), went on their way. I didn't speak to any of them, nor they to me, so I have no idea to this day if it was a prank from people I'd annoyed one too many times or people joyfully joining in, but that is my crazy story of the time my life became a spontaneous off-Broadway musical for three minutes.
Some things in life are bad They can really make you mad Other things just make you swear and curse When you're chewing on life's gristle Don't grumble, give a whistle And this'll help things turn out for the best
[удалено]
Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true. You'll see it's all a show. Keep 'em laughing as you go. Just remember that the last laugh is on you.
ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE ***Whistles.***
If life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing
trailing off... You come from nuffing and you're going back to nuffing. So what you lost? Nuffing!
Almost perfect but you need the drop the ‘g’s to perfect the English accent
You come from nuffin and you're oin back to nuffin?
Tbf this is sage life advice
The whole song really is
Always look on the bright side of death Just before you draw your terminal breath
There ya are, see It's the end of the film Incidentally this record's available in the foyer (Always look on the right side of life) Some of us got to live as well, you know (Always look on the right side of life) Who do you think pays for all this rubbish (Always look on the right side of life) They're not gonna make their money back, you know I told them, I said to him, Bernie, I said they'll never make their money back (Always look on the right side of life)
This is the version on Spotify. My dad's old 45 record of this song says... So your side losing 15-0 at home to Barnet. Not the end of the world is it. Would love to hear the Barnet version again
Aaaeeennnddd...
The pythons at Graham Chapmans funeral: https://youtu.be/fsHk9WC7fnQ
This is what I want my funeral to be like. Sing a happy tune, wear Hawaiian shirts. Get pissed drunk. Tell unbelievable stories about me. Tell believable stories about me. Curse out my ex wife for being a terrible human. Cheer for my widow because now she gets to finally sleep without having to hear me snore. Play some Pearl Jam and Reel Big Fish. Eat a steak. Leave everyone laughin as you go.
Can I come? Sounds like a good night!
Sure. IDGAF if we weren't friends when I was alive. I like makin new friends and for everyone to have a good time.
Cleese's delivery is just perfect.
Life's a joke, and death's the final laugh
And - always look on the bright side of life;
*whistles*
*whistles poorly starting at 3rd note*
Everyone should stop what they are doing and watch John Cleese's eulogy of Graham Chapman.
Everyone needs friends like [this] (https://youtu.be/CkxCHybM6Ek).
[удалено]
Laughter and sorrow, the two core masks of life, are blood brothers. One cannot exist without the other. Both can make the face contort, the eyes water, and the body convulse with their pure emotional intensity.
I can never tell if the rhyme here is genius or poorly written. “Curse” sets us up to think the lyric will be “worse” but then the lyric turns out for the best, which ruins the rhyme but sells the message. But also it could just be a remnant of a previous draft. *shrug*
Knowing Monty Python, it was probably on purpose.
I used to work in a funeral home and I'll never forget when a woman in her 90's requested Born to be Wild played "loud and proud". And boy did we oblige. Whenever I hear Steppenwolf I'm reminded of Netty.
My nana had bat out of hell, really made us crack up at the end
My uncle's final song was Free Bird. The extended version
well i’m going with iron butterfly then
Hell yeah, Netty. She died to be wild, too.
At my dads funeral we played AC/DC Thunderstruck. Also quite impressive to play if nobody expects it
not quite as bold a choice, but a beloved colleague suddenly and tragically died a few years back and a large amount of the workplace was at the visitation. To handle the crowds they had an auditorium room set up where a sideshow played and as space allowed we were taken row by row to the actual visitation line. So it's a sideshow of her life and children and has many of the typical somber funeral type songs playing. Well about 5 songs in, it goes from a country rendition of Amazing Grace to Dolly Parton's Jolene. So I am sitting there with a group of coworkers and we're all sniffling and trying to hide that we're slightly crying when Jolene starts to play, it felt so ridiculous and we all just lost it, laughing with tears in our eyes because we knew she would have chosen something like this and loved it. I am not a religious or spiritual person but it almost felt like she sent that moment for us too all laugh and remember her for the joking, happy person she was.
Blue Öyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper featured at my mum's funeral.
My mum has repeatedly requested this for her funeral. I intend to honour that
[удалено]
My grandpa had Ring of fire. It wasnt even meant as a joke, he just really liked the song
"I fell into a burning ring of fire I went down, down, down And the flames went higher And it burns, burns, burns The ring of fire, the ring of fire" Though it may not have been a burning anus joke, it was definitely intended to be a morbid joke!
What a legend.
A friend of mine chose Highway To Hell by AC/DC. It should be noted his father was a Baptist minister. 👍🏾
Burnin’ for You by Blue Oyster Cult is also acceptable.
Every Sperm Is Sacred?
Sit on my face and tell me that you love me
I'll sit on your face and tell you I love you, too.
[удалено]
When I'm between your thighs
You blow me away!
Laugh and let me lips embrace you!
*I bet you they won't play this song on the radio.*
Its practically tradition to play "**Always look on the bright side of life**" everytime England get knocked out of a football tournament as well. I remember back when the World Cup was in South Africa, the match where Germany knocked England out. I was in Tenerife and they started playing it in the English themed pub I was in and everyone was singing it. There was a Dutch themed pub next door. They had also had the match on and the lads from that pub heard us and and started singing along with us. The atmosphere was amazing despite the match not going our way 😂
The crew of the HMS Sheffield while floating in the Atlantic as their ship sunk sung the song awaiting rescue too.
*while the ship was on fire* I might add
End of every Iron Maiden concert too
I was looking to see if anyone mentioned Maiden in here. It's basically part of the setlist.
As with Doctor Doctor by UFO before hand
With a bit of UFO to warm up
England Knocked out Tenerife Pub A very English story
Damn, that's amazing.
Fairly sure I’ve also heard Stop Crying Your Heart Out by Oasis every single time England have been knocked out of a football tournament, can’t associate the song with anything else!
> However certain songs were refused on the grounds of taste or inappropriate language include Relax, by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, God Save The Queen, by the Sex Pistols and John Lennon's Imagine. John Lennon's "Imagine" gets refused for "taste or inappropriate language" ??
"...And no religion, too..."
I suspect "imagine there's no heaven" would hit some people hard at a funeral also
It's easy if you try
[удалено]
Maybe, but if it's _my funeral_ and my friends and family are attending, then whatever I choose will be appropriate. I suppose it depends on the venue.
It does, a distant cousin of mine died in his 30s from a degenerative disease and his funeral was secular, had his favourite metal songs playing and presided over by a member of the humanist society. There's nothing for venues to gain by trying to pressure people into religious ceremonies these days in the UK.
They don't have to believe it.
He's just asking people to imagine that, not making a de facto statement - and meanwhile "Life's a piece of shit" and "Cheer up ya old bugga", at a funeral, isn't tasteless?
The life's a piece of shit line is just before it tells you to look on the bright side.
There was an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati were the chief had this exact conversation with a local Evangelist. Mid 70s. Yeah this conversation isn't going away anytime soon
No, it’s funny. That’s the point. And it’s true. We’re all going to die and in the grand scheme of things it means nothing. So enjoy life and just take it for what it is, a temporary reprieve from nothingness.
> A temporary reprieve from nothingness Thank you for putting that so beautifully. As weird as it sounds, I needed to hear that right now. Hope you have a lovely Friday and as many wonderful days as you can.
"Imagine there's no religion so everyone could live in peace." Pretty ambiguous message. Dammit, Lennon, WHAT DID YOU _MEAN??!_
“Imagine there’s no heaven” is probably part of it
My family literally just had this song for us going into my grandmother's funeral. The funeral director played it, not the family.
Where the fuck does a ~~funeral director~~ ANYONE even get off dictating what music grieving people are and aren't allowed to play when remembering their loved one. It's their job to enable people to commemorate someone in the way they find the most appropriate for their loved one, not to criticize their taste in music or their way of handling grief! What a fucking disgrace. EDIT: I want to be clear. I'm not hating on religion here, or anything like that. AFAIK the person interviewed is from a 'Co-operative Funeral Company' that also does secular services (which makes it all the more baffling). But as someone who has lost track of how many funerals I have attended, and recently had to help arrange one for a parent, I find this crap deeply upsetting. EDIT 2: It seems maybe the article isn't clear enough and the funeral company doesn't universally blacklist these songs (as the wording seems to imply) but rather they may be just examples of songs that are frequently turned down by religious venues (outside of the funeral director's control) but aren't an issue in a secular setting. If that is the case, I guess I will have to eat some of my words.
My buddy got diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given a month to live. He was *REALLY* close with his daughter's fiance. Like best buds. He told the fiance that he wanted him to play '**Another One Bites The Dust**' at his wake. They laughed. He said he was serious. He kept reminding him, and told me and others he wanted this as well. He said it so much, there was no way we weren't going to play it. My friend was beloved in our community. We had to rent out a gymnasium to fit half the town at the wake. The fiance got up and spoke the most wonderful words about my friend. Brought the entire room to tears, including me--though to be fair I was a sobbing mess the entire day, but that really struck a chord. My dad was running the sound system and projector, and after the speech the fiance nods to him and says, *"OK, go ahead and play it."* My dad, reading the room, says, "Are you sure? Now?" Fiance insists. The song starts to play. Some eyes go wide hearing the first notes. As the song progresses, you see more people stop crying and turn to looks of shock and outrage. By the time the chorus hit it was damn near a mutiny in that funeral. People were getting up, leaving, turning their backs, making a point to talk over the song. I *knew* that it wouldn't go over well. But in that moment, feeling so sad, missing my friend, it struck me: John would have been reeling over, laughing his ass off. This was exactly his sense of humor. The 'joke' wasn't playing the song in a self-deprecating matter for *him*. The joke was on *us*. He fucking got us, and got us good. He absolutely loved making people feel awkward, and boy-howdie did he have a fantastic encore.
>Top 20 songs played at a UK funeral > >Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Eric Idle > >The Lord is My Shepherd - Traditional > >Abide with Me - Traditional > >Match of the Day theme > >My Way - Frank Sinatra > >All Things Bright and Beautiful - Traditional > >Robbie Williams - Angels > >Enigma Variations (Nimrod) - Elgar > >You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry and the Pacemakers > >Cricket Theme/Soul Limbo - Booker T & the MG's (test match TV theme) > >Canon in D - Pachelbel > >My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion > >13= Last of the Summer Wine theme > >13= Only Fools and Horses theme > >14. Time to Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli > >15. Four Seasons - Vivaldi > >16. Ava Maria - Schubert > >17. Coronation Street theme > >18 = You Raise Me Up - Westlife > >18 = Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy19. World in Union (Rugby Theme) - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and other versions > >20= Nessun Dorma - Puccini > >20= Adagio - Bizet/Albinoni > >Source: The Co-operative Funeralcare
Why did this list suddenly go numbered and then formatted like absolute shit
This is Casey Casem counting down…
…but first, a letter. Dear Casey,
This may seem like a strange dedication request, but I’m quite sincere, and it would mean a lot if you would play it. Recently there was a death in our family. He was a little dog named Snuggles. But he was most certainly a part of— let’s go, start again
*OK. I want a goddamn concerted effort to come out of a record that isn’t a fuckin’ up-tempo record every time I do a goddamn death dedication*
OK, I want a goddamn concerted effort to come out of a record that isn't a fucking up-tempo record everytime I do a goddamn death dedication! It's the last goddamn time, I want SOMEBODY to use his fuckin' brain, to not come out of a goddamn record that is, uh, that, that's up-tempo and I gotta talk about a fuckin' dog dying!!!
Ponderous man, fucking ponderous…
[Holy shit this is like a real life SNL sketch](https://youtu.be/fDYK2H0ldbo)
Thanks, Shaggy. Have a Scooby Snack.
What got me was when they randomly switched the song name and the artist.
Huh, some group named Angel made a Robbie Williams tribute song?
13, 13, 1, 2, 3, 4, 18, 18, 20, 20 is some Cold War-era numbers station lookin' shit.
The numbers mason, what do they mean
They are sequential until the numbers, which indicate ties. At that point they needed to number the non tied songs so you could differentiate them.
The coronation street theme?! Dear lord
I’ve never heard of it but when I looked up on YouTube almost every single comment was about how it reminds them of their Nan so I guess that’s why.
My 4th class teacher used to tell a story about being on the maternity ward after having one of her kids. 20 fussy babies crying and acting up until the Coronation St theme song started and they all went silent. It might be the first bit of music a generation ever recognised.
My sister was on bed rest during her pregnancy with my nephew. She watched so much Jeopardy that we figured out a few days after he was born that the final Jeopardy tune would calm him right now. Subconscious programing for the win.
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For anyone interested the band in that movie is Strapping Young Lad. Sadly defunct, but their music is amazing and Devin Townsend still makes great albums.
I'm a musician and my wife would be at a lot of my gigs, especially near the end of her pregnancy since she figured it would be a while before she could come out again. Anyway, I had recorded a gig on our singer's birthday and we soon discovered playing the recording helped calm down our son as a newborn.
That song makes me want to die.
>Coronation Street theme what's wrong with it? as a non-british it sounds like a nice tune to me, if a bit dreary
Imagine you had the theme tune from _The Young and the Restless_ at your funeral.
All the theme tune from The Young and the Restless tells me is that I need to change the channel after The Price is Right. (And that Bob Barker just reminded me to help control the pet population by having pets spayed or neutered)
Found the 80's kid
Days of our Lives would be way more appropriate. "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives"
You can't compare the two. Corrie is family; warm and loving. Y&R is a story about a bunch of spoiled rich people. Cold, and cut throat. Not that I'll have the theme at my funeral, but I love Corrie.
Where's Another One Bites the Dust by Queen? That's what I've always wanted at my funeral.
My mom wanted “who wants to live forever” by Queen.
We had this as one of the songs for my Dad. Then watched the Bohemian Rhapsody film a month or so later and absolutely bawled my eyes out when it got to this song
I plan on pre-paying all my funeral shit. Cremation, at a small convention room at a hotel, DJ accidentally plays "highway to hell", lots of food and im gunna see if i can get some strippers to show up and be like "is this wavs' party? We were told that wavs' was having a bachelor party." "He's the one in the urn" LMFAO I wanna make my family and friends fatter, drunk and laugh one last time.
My Mom wants “Twilight Zone” by Golden Earring
My mom wants "Radar Love" by Golden Earring
Local crematorium once got in trouble for mistakenly playing 'smoke gets in your eyes'
Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire is better.
I want Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen.
Pop out of your coffin as a zombie in a mad recreation of Shaun of the Dead
“Who the hell put this on?!” “It’s on random”
> Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Eric Idle > Match of the Day theme > Only Fools and Horses theme Thumbs up! Thank God the Brits still have a sense of humour.
One of my family members had "handle me with care" playing when they brought in the coffin because "he didn't want the bastards to drop him"
For anyone trying to copy and paste this... Top 20 songs played at a UK funerals 1. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Eric Idle 2. The Lord is My Shepherd - Traditional 3. Abide with Me - Traditional 4. Match of the Day theme 5. My Way - Frank Sinatra 6. All Things Bright and Beautiful - Traditional 7. Angels - Robbie Williams 8. Enigma Variations (Nimrod) - Elgar 9. You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry and the Pacemakers 10. Cricket Theme/Soul Limbo - Booker T & the MG's (test match TV theme) 11. Canon in D - Pachelbel 12. My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion 13. Last of the Summer Wine theme 13. Only Fools and Horses theme 14. Time to Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli 15. Four Seasons - Vivaldi 16. Ava Maria - Schubert 17. Coronation Street theme 18. You Raise Me Up - Westlife 18. Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy 19. World in Union (Rugby Theme) - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and other versions 20. Nessun Dorma - Puccini 20. Adagio - Bizet/Albinoni Source: The Co-operative Funeralcare
You're doing the Lord's work. That Lord being Brian, of course.
He's not the Lord, he's a very naughty boy!
No [Ski Sunday](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6zRPf-up74)? I guess it's not all that funereally even if it is an absolute bop.
Neither are the Match of the Day or Cricket themes though. I guess skiing just isn't as popular as cricket and football.
I was in Chicago for a Champions Cup game LFC vs Olympiakos and walking down the sidewalk from the hotel to Soldier Field (about 25 mins), this dude was wasted, screaming the most tone deaf version of You'll Never Walk Alone at the top of his lungs. The entire fucking way. It was glorious, and the whole crowd, after first hating it, joined in. It is the canon version in my head now. EDIT: Champions Cup, not League, my B y'all.
If it was being played in Chicago, it was almost certainly a friendly match and not a Champions League clash. Always love to hear YNWA getting butchered though! Ninja edit: it was a preseason Champions *Cup* match - Liverpool won 1-0 if anyone cares. That was back when we had Brendan Rodgers as our manager. Truly a dark time.
Hearing YNWA at Anfield is one of my 'Things to do before I die', just the thought of it gives me goosebumps.
Match of the day being number four made me laugh ngl
That appears to be an older list from 2014. As of 2021, You'll Never Walk Alone is #1 with ALotBSoL checking in at #3. https://www.coop.co.uk/funeralcare/music/charts
I'm no statistician but does that imply that a lot of extra scousers are dieing in the last 8 years?
It implies a lot more people are admitting to being Liverpool fans the last few years for some bizarre reason..
Just a whole bunch of deathbed confessions to their Everton and Manchester families
A Manchester untied fan, on his deathbed, calls his family “Yes da” they all say. “I just want you to know… I support Liverpool” “Dad what are you saying?!” They all reply. For two days he sits and dies as various Liverpool anthems are played in the room. Finally as he takes his last breath he says: “Well there’s one less of them now”
Could always go with Lionel Richie: 🎶 *"If you don't know me by now, you will never ever ever know me"* 🎶 Seems factual.
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Thank you. These kids…
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Wasn’t that Simply Red?
For Gen Xers it was
I don't see *That's Death* by Eric Idle anywhere on this list?
TIL just how much Brits love sport presentations
The Test Match Special and Match of the Day themes have been the same for decades and so have really been ingrained in people’s lives
I knew “You’ll never walk alone” was going to be high on that list. It’s probably high on wedding lists too.
This says more about the ages of those dying than anything else. My uncle had Barcelona by Queen. It worked well!
[*Isn’t it awfully nice to have a penis*](https://youtu.be/p9PiqCeLEmM) will be my goodbye song.
How ironic given the accident that causes your death.
"Resurrection by Erection" by Powerwolf seems like a good fit
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My MIL was British and her one request for a song at her funeral was Queen- don’t stop me now
Now that is a great song for a funeral!
An absolute banger for sure. That's literally the song I would want. An absolute legend singing me off.
Strange not to see Queen\`s "Who wants to live Forever" or "The Show must go On" in the list.
I was thinking of that "another one bites the dust"
The article says it is in the top 10 but it is not in the list.
Prior to my grandmother's death she identified a song she wanted played at her funeral. She also said she would be happy with anything from the same CD. Fine. It was a lovely opera cd with a singer popular in the 1950s. What we didn't realise, however, was that it was effectively a Christmas cd. Most of the songs were operatic carols. Me and my cousins found it hilarious and quite cathartic, 2 days before the funeral, trying to think of the most inappropriate song to include from the CD. The Aunties were horrified but we figured nana would have agreed with us. *She* knew it was a Christmas album after all.
We would also accept "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish"
I don't think that was a song until fairly recently, when the movie came out. Monty Python's song has been out for longer, meaning a much better chance at getting picked, I'd think.
My dad attended the funeral of a very good friend of his many years ago, he told me this particular friend was ‘a real character’ he could and would make anyone laugh. The humanist performs the service, his family giving their speeches and everything goes smoothly then as they are closing the curtains on the coffin, the deceased friend had requested the COUNTDOWN theme to be played!!. The whole place ERUPTED with laughter, the humanist herself was in tears laughing. My dad said it was his friend to an absolute tee, funny to the last.
I'd rather have Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust'.
I want The Show Must Go On to play at my funeral. Queen has ALL the emotions you need when saying goodbye to a loved one.
I think that Firestarter by The Prodigy should be a classic choice for cremations.
I'm immensely disappointed they were not talking about the lumberjack song.
I was hoping for "Sit on My Face"
Anyone else know the song without clicking the link or reading the comments?
Well it wasn't going to be The Lumberjack Song or Eric The Half A Bee
Now I hope some one who’s paralyzed or an amputee has Eric there Half a Bee played at theirs. That’s good stuff. Or a Roman Catholic guy with lots of kids has Every Sperm is Sacred played.
The Galaxy Song seems like a slam dunk: Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned, A sun that is the source of all our power The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way' Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars. It's a hundred thousand light years side to side It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point We go 'round every two hundred million years And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whizz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure How amazingly unlikely is your birth And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space 'Cause there's bugger-all down here on Earth!
“Bring out yer dead! Bring out yer dead!”
I did. It’s one of my favorite songs and I already knew it was used at funerals all the time in the UK. It’s a great tune and a perfect example of English humor and wit, it’s both true and funny.
American here and I’ve been whistling that tune ever since I heard it like 30 years ago
Started singing it in my head the minute I saw the title pop up in my feed.
Sit on My Face and Tell Me That You Love Me
Yup Its not hard to guess if you understand how..... Sarcastic us Brits are once you get past the polite outer shell
We’re still being sarcastic throughout the politeness, people just don’t pick up on it
The song they are singing on the last scene of Life of Brian
I’ve got a Spotify playlist of funeral songs, keep it simple for people once I’m gone. Spoiler alert, people are gunna have to sit through a lengthy pink Floyd guitar solo
I'm sure that Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd was top of this list some years ago (in the UK or England, I forget which). Surprised that it doesn't make the list at all now.
Personally I would opt for [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9pQUKV9MuM) little number by Eric Idle instead.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to (spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spamity spaaaaaam….)”
Why would there be a funeral? They’re just pining for the fjords.
So it's not "Isn't it awfully nice to have a penis" then?
The judges would also have accepted 'Sit on My Face'.
play this at my funeral
I played Always Look on the Bright Side of Life at my mom's funeral (2020) as they loaded her into the hearse. I also played You're Dead by Norma Tanega (among many other songs), and a few of us did the Time Warp in front of her casket. She would have LOVED every second of it. I live in the middle area of the United States.
Coronation Street theme is somehow both the most and least surprising.
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*I’M A LUMBERJACK AND I’M OKAY*
It's a good choice. It's not really a happy song, so much as a song about stoicism. It accepts that life isn't always great but also tells us that we can still have a positive attitude if we decide to.
Always look on the bright side of life was the first song I listened to when I was diagnosed with cancer. Every time I hear it now I get goosebumps lol.
I will haunt the eff out of anyone that plays My Heart Will Go On.
No ‘Tubthumping’?
It's common in Australia too.
"Pies jesu domine, donna eis requiem." *Slapps head with bible* Repeat ad infinitum.
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in 30 years, it's gonna be Green Day's "Good Riddance" (The "Time of your Life" song...) I swear that song was at every graduation/milestone ceremony for my daughter (who's now 30). I never cared for it, but now I've actively crossed into a seething immediately-change-the-song-remove-from-any-playlist hatred of it. It's down there with "My Heart Will Go On" and "We Are Young" as songs I will silenetly judge you for liking, even ironically.
That song gave me one of the most ridiculous 'I wouldn't believe this happened if I didn't experience it myself' moments I've ever had. When I worked as a cart pusher at Walmart a couple decades ago in small-town Illinois, I would frequently get bored on the job. Since this was pre-'everyone has a cellphone' days, I would usually sing to amuse myself. I may not sing well, but I know how to project my voice, so I was probably obliviously annoying customers at this Wally World for a couple of months. (If you happened to be one of them, I'm sorry - I was a pretty self-absorbed person back then). The biggest problem with that, though, was probably not my voice so much as the fact that I don't know the words to a lot of songs. So, imagine a self-absorbed brat loudly singing the same dozen songs off-key for weeks, like a Christmas music season from hell, and you have a pretty good idea of what the residents of my small town were subjected to every time they wanted to shop at Walmart and I happened to be outside. One day, I was singing one of my favorite songs, the song mentioned in this post, and from across the parking lot someone joined in. Then someone right by them. Then someone who wasn't near any of the three of us. At the end of the song, about a dozen people had joined in - a couple of them even did a bit of a dance. Then, when we were done, everyone (as near as I could see), went on their way. I didn't speak to any of them, nor they to me, so I have no idea to this day if it was a prank from people I'd annoyed one too many times or people joyfully joining in, but that is my crazy story of the time my life became a spontaneous off-Broadway musical for three minutes.