Procol Harum top funeral song chart

Kane Fulton at AudioScribbler, 5 March 2009

In some domains I think it’s the old people who get it right. I mean, I’m all for contemporary music at funerals, but surely sliding into the fire to ‘What a Wonderful World’, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ or ‘Jerusalem’ is preferable to U2’s ‘With Or Without You’ or Westlife’s ‘You Raise Me Up’ or REM’s ‘Everybody Hurts’? Or Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ - I mean, classic song, but at a funeral? But hey, look at the bright side, James Blunt’s ‘Goodbye My Lover’ topped this poll in 2007, and now it’s nowhere to be seen.

Anyway, The Bereavement Register, a body which tries to stop junk mail from being sent to dead people by logging deaths, has released their 'songs most played at funerals’ charts for 2009, based on a survey of funeral directors and organisers, and the top tens by age group and then overall are as follows…

Generation X/Y (age 20–44)
1. Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye
2. REM – Everybody Hurts
3. The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
4. Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares To U
5. Robbie Williams – Angels
6. U2 – With Or Without You
7. Westlife – You Raise Me Up
8. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
9. Crowded House – Don’t Dream it’s Over
10. Gary Jules – Mad World

Baby Boomers (age 45–69)
1. Procul [sic] Harum – Whiter Shade of Pale
2. Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
3. The Beatles – Let It Be
4. Eric Clapton – Tears In Heaven
5. Righteous Brothers – Unchained Melody
6. Frank Sinatra – My Way
7. Ave Maria
8. Bette Midler – Wind Beneath My Wings
9. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
10. Elvis Presley – Love Me Tender

Seniors (age 70+)
1. Amazing Grace
2. Vera Lynn – We’ll Meet Again
3. You’ll Never Walk Alone
4. Louis Armstrong – What A Wonderful World
5. Ave Maria
6. Jerusalem
7. Nessun Dorma
8. Over the Rainbow
9. Psalm 23
10. Nat ‘King’ Cole – Unforgettable

Overall Top Ten
1. Procul [sic] Harum – Whiter Shade of Pale
2. Amazing Grace
3. Vera Lynn – We’ll Meet Again
4. Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye
5. You’ll Never Walk Alone
6. Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
7. The Beatles – Let It Be
8. Louis Armstrong – What A Wonderful World
9. REM – Everybody Hurts
10. The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony

Launching the charts, The Bereavement Register’s Manager Luci Penn told CMU: “I think it’s fascinating to see which songs speak to each age-group. Be they pop and rock favourites, traditional hymns or even opera arias, specially-selected music adds a wonderfully individual and moving dimension to every funeral. It’s food for thought, actually: What song would you like played at your farewell? We hope our latest Top 10’s will provoke some lively office as well as dinner party discussion and debate over coming weeks”.

I’d quite like Leftfield’s ‘Open Up’. And Caro CMU once said she wanted The Firm’s ‘Star Trekkin’. Yeah, come to think of it, I take back all my criticism of other contemporary music choices.

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