WHEN I’M 64 – music for Babyboomer Funerals

Simon Smith of green fuse contemporary funerals had a piece published in October's Funeral Service Journal, the undertakers' trade journal, which, I feared, had something of a flower of the desert about it. Despite the best efforts of its excellent editor, Brian Parsons, funeral directors are not great readers, nor are they great writers.

I asked Simon if I might put what he had written before more fertile eyes. He agreed. Here it is:

The earliest babyboomers are now 64, and many

are prepared to think about funerals, sweeping

away the 20th Century taboo with regard to

death. If you are one of them, one thing you

probably know is that you don’t want a Victorian

style funeral, with solemn black, a vicar and

Abide With Me. What you’ll want is something

different. And the music definitely must be

different, to reflect your own particular taste.

I always advise that the best music to play at a

funeral is the music the person who has died

loved, and which family and friends associate

with them. One lady in her sixties came into

Showaddywaddy’s Under The Moon Of Love and

went out to Abba’s I Have A Dream, another had

Blue Hawaii by Elvis. One man had his heartthrob

Doris Day singing The Deadwood Stage

(“Whipcrackaway!”) at the end of the ceremony.

I love music and I have studied over three

hundred songs for lyrics, style and tempo, many

of which have actually been played at funerals

and some of which are my own personal choices,

and have come up with a Babyboomer Top 20

(not in any particular order):

Read the rest of Simon's piece here.