Funeral Music Chart
We’re fascinated by funeral music choices, and have been compiling funeral music charts frequently since 2002. Music plays a massive part in personalising a funeral service and so our Funeral Music Charts are here to help you consider the right choice for your loved one.
2019 funeral music chart
Based on the data and insights of our Funeral Directors and Funeral Arrangers, who conduct up to 100,000 funerals a year, we can reveal that our 2019 chart winner is... 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra.*
Frank’s no stranger to our charts and has come out on top in the past, but in 2014 we were surprised to see Monty Python’s comical 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life' (now at number ten) knock him off the top spot. See the full top ten below or read the full report here.
For the first time ever no traditional hymns have made it into our top ten, suggesting that there's been a shift in funeral music trends.
Funeral music chart video
Other music categories and choices
We also took a look at specific genres of music, and spoke to people about what they’d like at their own funeral when the time comes. We interestingly found:
- The 'Game of Thrones theme' song may make it into future funeral charts, as 1 in 20 UK adults voted it as a song they would consider for their own funeral.
- Humour is key as over 42% of UK adults said they ‘want to raise a laugh’ amongst guests at their funeral.
- 1 in 10 UK adults said they’d consider having 'Another One Bites The Dust' (Queen) at their own funeral. 1 in 20 said they’d have ‘Going Underground’ (The Jam) and 1 in 15 said they’d go for 'Highway To Hell' (ACDC). Others said they’d consider 'Stayin’ Alive' (The Bee Gees) and 'Disco Inferno' (Trammps).
- When looking into specific music genres, new entrants to Contemporary Pop funeral music charts include Ed Sheeran's 'Supermarket Flowers' placed at number 3 and Abba's 'Dancing Queen' which has come in at number 6. Wiz Khalifa’s 'See You Again' dedicated to the late Paul Walker, which was new to the 2016 chart is now placed at number 4.
- Pop is now the most requested music genre with 25% of people saying they would choose pop songs for their funeral.
- Over half (54%) of funeral directors and arrangers stated that hymns are declining in popularity the quickest, a fact backed up by this year's top ten, as no hymns made our list.
- 59% of our funeral directors and arrangers have had requests for music to be played via digital devices including smart phones, tablets and laptops with a further 11% saying they expect to see more of these types of requests in the future.
- More than a fifth of people who have actually arranged a funeral say they were given explicit instructions from their loved one on what music they wanted, while almost 30% plan on giving their family a CD with our favourite songs on it.
Modern Funeral Songs
Top 10 Pop Songs 2019
|
Track
|
Artist/Composer
|
Movement since 2016 chart
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Angels
|
Robbie Williams
|
Non mover
|
|
2
|
You Raise Me Up
|
Westlife
|
Non mover
|
|
3
|
Supermarket Flowers
|
Ed Sheeran
|
New entry
|
|
4
|
See You Again
|
Wiz Khalifa
|
Down one place
|
|
5
|
Dancing Queen
|
ABBA
|
New entry
|
|
6
|
Lay Me Down
|
Sam Smith
|
Up 3 places
|
|
7
|
Dancing In The Sky
|
Dani and Lizzi
|
New entry
|
|
8
|
Flying Without Wings
|
Westlife
|
Down 5 places
|
|
9
|
How Long Will I Love You
|
Ellie Goulding
|
Down 5 places
|
|
10
|
7 Years
|
Lukas Graham
|
New entry
|
Funeral songs for Dad
Sport top 10 chart 2019
|
Track
|
Artist/Composer
|
Movement since 2016 chart
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Theme Tune
|
Match of the day
|
Up 1 place
|
|
2
|
Soul Limbo / Cricket theme tune
|
Booker T and MG
|
Up 1 place
|
|
3
|
You'll Never Walk Alone
|
Gerry and the Pacemakers
|
Down two places
|
|
4
|
The Chain (F1 theme song)
|
Fleetwood Mac
|
Non mover
|
|
5
|
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
|
West Ham UTD
|
Non mover
|
|
6
|
Blue Moon (Manchester City theme song)
|
Frank Sinatra
|
New entry
|
|
7
|
Golf theme tune
|
BBC
|
New entry
|
|
8
|
Bolton Wonders songs
|
New entry
|
|
|
9
|
Bring me sunshine
|
Morecambe FC
|
New entry
|
|
10
|
Racing theme tune
|
C4
|
New entry
|
Classical funeral music
Classical top 10 chart 2019
|
Track
|
Artist/Composer
|
Movement since 2016 chart
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Nimrod
|
Edward Elgar
|
Up 1 place
|
|
2
|
Time To Say Goodbye
|
Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman
|
Down 1 place
|
|
3
|
Canon in D
|
Pachelbel
|
Up 1 place
|
|
4
|
Ave Maria
|
Franz Schubert
|
Up 3 places
|
|
5
|
The Lark Ascending
|
Ralph Vaughan Williams
|
Up 5 places
|
|
6
|
Pie Jesu
|
Faure
|
Up 3 places
|
|
7
|
Adagio For Strings
|
Samuel Barber
|
Down one Place
|
|
8
|
Air on the G string
|
Bach
|
New entry
|
|
9
|
Four Seasons
|
Vivaldi
|
Down 4 places
|
|
10
|
Claire De Lune
|
Claude Debussy
|
New entry
|
Uplifting funeral music 2019
|
Track
|
Artist/Composer
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Angels
|
Robbie Williams
|
|
2
|
You Raise Me Up
|
Westlife
|
|
3
|
See You Again
|
Wiz Khalifa
|
|
4
|
Flying Without Wings
|
Westlife
|
|
5
|
How long will I love you
|
Ellie Goulding
|
|
6
|
I'll see you again
|
Westlife
|
|
7
|
Hello
|
Adele
|
Previous Top 10 Charts
Top 10 Overall Chart 2019
|
Track
|
Artist/Composer
|
Genre
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
My Way
|
Frank Sinatra
|
Old Favourites
|
|
2
|
Time To Say Goodbye
|
Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman
|
Classical
|
|
3
|
Over the Rainbow
|
Eva Cassidy
|
Rock, Pop & Old Favourites
|
|
4
|
Wind Beneath My Wings
|
Bette Midler
|
Rock, Pop & Old Favourites
|
|
5
|
Angels
|
Robbie Williams
|
Rock/Pop
|
|
6
|
Supermarket Flowers
|
Ed Sheeran
|
Rock/Pop
|
|
7
|
Unforgettable
|
Nat King Cole
|
Old Favourites
|
|
8
|
You Raise Me Up
|
Westlife
|
Rock/Pop
|
|
9
|
We'll Meet Again
|
Vera Lynn
|
Old Favourites
|
|
10
|
Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life
|
Eric Idle - from Monty Python's 'Life of Brian'
|
Humour, Film & TV
|
Top 10 Overall Chart 2016
|
Track
|
Artist/Composer
|
Genre
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
My Way
|
Frank Sinatra
|
Old Favourites
|
|
2
|
Time To Say Goodbye
|
Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman
|
Classical
|
|
3
|
Over the Rainbow
|
Eva Cassidy
|
Rock, Pop & Old Favourites
|
|
4
|
Wind Beneath My Wings
|
Bette Midler
|
Rock, Pop & Old Favourites
|
|
5
|
The Lord's My Shepherd
|
Psalm 23/Crimond
|
Hymns
|
|
6
|
We'll Meet Again
|
Vera Lynn
|
Rock, Pop & Old Favourites
|
|
7
|
All Things Bright and Beautiful
|
Traditional
|
Hymns
|
|
8
|
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
|
Eric Idle - from Monty Python's 'Life of Brian'
|
Humour, Film & TV
|
|
9
|
Abide with Me
|
Traditional
|
Hymns
|
|
10
|
Unforgettable
|
Nat King Cole
|
Rock, Pop & Old Favourites
|
Top 10 Overall Chart 2014
|
Track
|
Artist/Composer
|
Genre
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
|
Eric Idle - from Monty Python's 'Life of Brian'
|
Humour, Film & TV
|
|
2
|
The Lord is My Shepherd
|
Psalm 23/Crimond
|
Hymns
|
|
3
|
Abide with Me
|
Traditional
|
Hymns
|
|
4
|
Match of the Day
|
Theme Tune
|
Sport
|
|
5
|
My Way
|
Frank Sinatra
|
Rock, Pop & Old Favourites
|
|
6
|
All Things Bright and Beautiful
|
Traditional
|
Hymns
|
|
7
|
Angels
|
Robbie Williams
|
Rock, Pop & Old Favourites
|
|
8
|
Enigma Variations - Nimrod
|
Elgar
|
Classical
|
|
9
|
You'll Never Walk Alone
|
Gerry and the Pacemakers
|
Pop, Rock & Old Favourites, Sport
|
|
10
|
Soul Limbo / Cricket Theme
|
Booker T. & the MG's
|
Sport
|
*Research was conducted among 300 of Co-op’s Funeral directors and arrangers in April 2019 based on funerals conducted in the last 12 months
Also conducted among 2,000 UK adults with ICM on behalf of Co-op Funeralcare in April 2019