Funeral Songs: Personalized Music Creates a Thousand Memories

If a picture can be worth a thousand words, then a song is worth a thousand memories. As people choose to personalize funerals, to endow the proceedings with the essence of the person lost, using popular music in place of liturgical readings has gained popularity. It doesn’t stop at pop music, however. Poems are also read and classical music is played to give vibrancy to a ceremony that marks a person’s death, but ultimately celebrates his or her life.

And so, below, a collection of lists of songs that can help celebrate a life. Some songs are about death, some songs are about love. Some songs are sullen, some are bright anthems. Each one, in its own way, helps connect the history of a person’s life to the collective history that we all share.



claptonThe Best Funeral Songs [Full List]

Including:
Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton
Amazing Grace- (Traditional) Elvis
Father and Son - Cat Stevens

midlerTop Funeral Songs [Full List]

Including:
The Rose - Bette Midler
The Long and Winding Road - The Beatles
Turn Turn Turn - The Byrds

BonoContemporary Funeral Songs [Full List]

Including:
One Sweet Day - Mariah Carey
I'll Be Missing You - Puff Daddy and Faith Evans
Closer to Fine - The Indigo Girls

Led ZeppelinClassic Rock Funeral Songs [Full List]

Including:
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
Wish you Were Here - Pink Floyd
Bridge over Troubled Waters - Simon and Garfunkel

Billie HolidayAmerican Songbook/Standards Funeral Songs [Full List]

Including:
Cheek to Cheek - Irving Berlin (Sung by Fred Astaire)
(Somewhere) Over the Rainbow - Arlen/Harburg (sung by Judy Garland)
As Time Goes By – Herman Hupfeld (sung by Billie Holiday)

Classical Music Funeral SongsClassical Funeral Music [Full List]

Including:
Adagio for Strings - Albioni
Clair de Lune - Debussy
Air on the G String - J.S. Bach

Sam CookeGolden Age Gospel Funeral Songs [Full List]

Including:
The Last Mile of the Way - Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers
Ezekiel Saw the Wheel - The Dixie Hummingbirds
Glory Hallelujah - Swan Silvertones

Walt WhitmanPopular Funeral Poems [Full List]

Including:
Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep - Mary Frye
The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost
I Sing the body Electric - Walt Whitman

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