Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” is the top pick for funeral songs, a new British survey reports. According to the Daily Mail more and more people are choosing the songs they want played at their funeral, and the signature song from Ol’ Blue Eyes is the most popular choice.
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According to the Daily Mail , pop songs are way more popular than hymns when it comes to picking songs for funerals in 2016. After Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” “Time To Say Goodbye” by Andrea Boccelli and Sarah Brightman was number two on the list. Rounding out the Top 3 was Eva Cassidy’s, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” The results were drawn from a survey of 300 British Co-op funeral directors and 2,000 adults.
And it isn’t just classics that are getting chosen as swansongs. Contemporary pop songs are also being played a lot at funerals as well. The list of sought after funeral songs also includes Robbie Williams, Westlife, Adele , and Rihanna songs . The survey also notes that song choices are also being influenced by the deaths of popular celebrities.
“Wiz Khalifa’s track ‘See You Again,’ dedicated to the late Paul Walker, has made it into the contemporary pop charts whilst the late David Bowie’s ‘Ashes To Ashes’ has also been requested by clients in the last 12 months,” said David Collingwood, co-op funeral chief.
According to The Telegraph , the study on popular funeral songs also claims that theme songs for beloved TV shows like Game of Thrones could become more popular at British funerals in the future.
Hymns are still among some of the go-to songs at funerals with “The Lord Is My Shepherd,” “Abide With Me” and “All Things Bright And Beautiful” still common picks. But the trend is skewing towards songs that meant something to the life of the person who died.
“Funerals are very much about personal choice and reflecting the personality, hobbies and interests of a person,” Collingwood said. “More so than ever we’re seeing people pre-plan their funeral music and, in the last 12 months, 42 per cent of our funeral directors and arrangers have received ready-made pre-planned funeral playlists.”
Ready-made funeral playlists on the rise as Frank Sinatra’s My Way stays top of the pops… https://t.co/3y11MdrfUi pic.twitter.com/8AxkRtendF
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 31, 2016
SID AVERY Frank Sinatra at a Capitol Records Recording Session 1954 pic.twitter.com/rB4CTYrh4l
— History in Moments (@historyinmoment) August 28, 2016
A brief history of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
According Song Facts , Frank Sinatra’s My Way was adapted from a French song called “Comme D’Habitude” (French for “As Usual”) written by composers Jacques Revaux and Gilles Thibault. The song was first recorded by French singer Claude Francois in 1967 and it became something of a hit in Europe. “Comme D’Habitude” is about a man whose life is destroyed by boredom. If you listen below you’ll hear that it has the same melody as “My Way.”
The song “My Way” did not become a reality until Paul Anka discovered the song and changed the lyrics. Anka offered the song to Frank Sinatra and Ol’ Blue Eyes recorded it in the late sixties. The rest, as they say, is history.
Although it become the song he’s most remembered for, Frank Sinatra hated “My Way,” and he said so repeatedly in concert, according to The Wall Street Journal . He apparently thought the song was too pretentious and self-serving.
“I hate this song — you sing it for eight years, you would hate it too!” Sinatra said on stage at Caesar’s palace in 1978 of the iconic song.
Would you like “My Way” to be played at your funeral? What are some of your favorite Frank Sinatra songs ? Let us know in the comments below.
[Photo by The Hulton Archive/Getty Images]
