Funeral music
5 Mar 2024 
Funerals
By Ashley Shepherd Funeral music & songs
Funeral songs play a major part in a funeral service. Changing trends in funeral music from hymns to contemporary songs is a good example of this. Whether it’s a tear-jerker, rock anthem, upbeat or quirky song, demand for this type of funeral music is increasing. Chosen carefully, the right funeral song can be a personal reminder to family and friends of happy times but with so many different songs to choose from, where do you start? To help, here is a list of the UK’s top 10 funeral songs, classical pieces and more unusual options.
In this guide, you will find the results of a survey conducted by The Co-operative Funeralcare showing some of the most popular pieces of funeral songs and funeral music.
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Top 10 funeral songs
- My Way - Frank Sinatra / Shirley Bassey
- Time to Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli
- Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler
- Over the Rainbow - Eva Cassidy
- Angels - Robbie Williams
- You Raise Me Up - Westlife / Boyzone / Josh Grobin
- You’ll Never Walk Alone - Gerry and the Pacemakers
- We’ll Meet Again - Vera Lynn
- My Heart Will Go - On Celine Dion
- Unforgettable - Nat King Cole
Top 10 classical funeral songs
- Nimrod from Enigma Variations - Elgar
- Canon in D - Pachelbel
- Ave Maria - Schubert
- Nessun Dorma - Puccini
- Pie Jesu from Requiem - Faure
- The Four Seasons - Vivaldi
- Adagio - Albinoni / Bizet
- Air on a G String - Bach
- Largo from Xerxes - Handel
- Clare de Lune - Debussy
Unusual funeral music
- Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Eric Idle
- Ying Tong Song - Spike Milligan
- Bat Out of Hell - Meatloaf
- Spirit in the Sky - Doctor and the Medics
- Match of the Day - TV Theme
- One Foot in the Grave - TV Theme
- Countdown - TV theme
- Last of the Summer Wine - TV Theme
- Dr Who - TV Theme
- Top Gear - TV Theme
- The X Files - TV Theme
- Red Dwarf - TV Theme
- Six Feet Under - TV Theme
- The Muppets ‘It’s Time to Face the Music’ - TV Theme
Rock & modern funeral songs
- Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
- Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve
- Who wants to live forever - Queen
- Highway to Hell - AC/DC
- Lay me down - Sam Smith
- Another one bites the dust - Queen
- Knocking on heavens door
- My Immortal - Evanescence
- Halo - Beyonce
- I'll be missing you - P Diddy
- Wonderwall - Oasis
- Yellow - Coldplay
- One day like this - Elbow