Hymns are back among the most popular funeral songs, boosted by the queen’s funeral, while the Monty Python song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life has slipped out of the top 10, funeral directors have said.
All Things Bright and Beautiful and Abide With Me are the first hymns in the top 10 for seven years, in the Co-op Funeralcare chart based on song selections at about 93,000 funerals.
Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman singing Time to Say Goodbye by the Italian composer Francesco Sartori, who wrote much of Bocelli’s pop repertoire, climbed to No 1, replacing Gerry and the Pacemakers’ You’ll Never Walk Alone. Second was My Way sung by Frank Sinatra and at No 3 was Supermarket Flowers, Ed Sheeran’s tribute to his grandmother.
“Two hymns that were performed at the late queen’s funeral, The Lord’s My Shepherd and The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended, have been requested more frequently over the last year,” a Co-op spokesperson said.
Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell was the most popular rock song picked for final rites, with Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust and Who Wants to Live Forever not far behind. Diddy’s I’ll Be Missing You (sampling The Police’s Every Breath You Take) was the most popular R&B selection, while the themes from Only Fools and Horses and Match of the Day were the TV tunes picked most regularly.
Robbie Williams’ Angels, a previous chart-topper, was last among the most popular songs in 2019.
The chart suggests that the deceased do not always get what they want. When Co-op members were asked what song they would like at their funeral, Jerusalem by Sir Hubert Parry and Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World were among the top 10, but these did not appear in the most played list.
“Each element of a funeral is a very personal choice and we’re encouraging the nation to be more open about their funeral wishes,” said Gill Stewart, the managing director at Co-op Funeralcare. “Making it clear to their loved ones what they would want for themselves when the time comes, and music is a really simple and comforting place to start.”
• This article was amended on 20 June 2023. In an earlier version, the Queen song Who Wants to Live Forever was mistakenly referred to as “I Want to Live Forever”.
