Swan Song

I noted that Hugh Jackman sang at Joan Rivers' funeral
His piece was the emotional romping Judy Garland swan song
" quiet please there's a lady on Stage"


It's a wonderfully indulgent song to have at a funeral.
Now I love picking songs to be played at my funeral
I drive Chris potty with the game

Walt Disney has an ideal collection to choose from
Every one would slay 'em in the aisles
This is my latest choice


Rather apt I thought....
What is your swan song?
And why?

82 comments:

  1. "born to be wild" by steppenwolf; played at full blast volume (read: L-O-U-D!) with a deep bass. hell yeah!

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  2. I have my funeral all planned, the last song is Born Slippy by Underworld because I want my family to smile and remember me jumping around like an idiot every time I hear it. Good tune to end on :)

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    1. I am a firm fan of laughing ( and crying) at funerals if at all possible

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  3. What a brilliant swan song - I may have changed my plans. I'd want 'Take It With Me' by Tom Waits. It will be my farewell to them rather than their farewell to me, because I always need the last word.

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    1. Perhaps the goodnight song the kids sing from THE SOUND OF MUSIC would be another good choice?

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  4. Hi John. Mine would be 'Parisienne Walkways - Thin Lizzy. Just listen to that lead guitar sing and cry.

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  5. Edith Piaf's No regrets maybe?

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    1. Sung with a Yorkshire accent no doubt

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  6. Anonymous9:43 am

    I don't know, John. Between Mozart, Beethoven, Motorhead and flushing the toilet there is so much choice I just want peace and quiet. Whistle if you must. No, actually, it's come to me: The sound of a penny which has finally dropped. That would be so lovely. Ripples and all.

    John, you are as sweet, if not sweeter, than your choice of music when going down the plug hole. However, first things first: Get married. Then plan your funeral.

    U

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    1. Ursula , I have been planning my funeral since I was 20

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  7. I have mine all planned - readings, music, the lot. If I die before hubby then The Promise by Tracy Chapman is on the list.

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  8. I'm kind of partial to Funeral For a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding - it starts out somber to keep the weepers happy and then rocks out for everybody else.

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    1. Dave a prefer a good weepie to start with
      Gets the mourners into a frenzy of grief

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  9. Anonymous10:58 am

    I will watch the video later. 'I drive Chris potty with the game'. What a laugh of a conversation, I can well imagine it. While I love Mary Poppins, it is not my choice. Aria from La Wally will have them crying in the aisles at my funeral.

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    1. When I hear a prospective funeral song
      I always tell chris about it
      For what it's worth
      He never listens

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  10. Anonymous11:21 am

    No funeral, no song...just the sound of an old lady landing plop in a hole.

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  11. A Jimmy Buffett tune, School Boy Heart, and or Last Mango in Paris. why, both are about going and doing and enjoying as much as you for as long as you can.

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    1. Ah...I am not as deep as that
      Pure emotion for me

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. No funeral,no grave...I'm being cremated then sprinkled on the ocean..just the sound of crashing waves and seagulls
    (safe in the knowledge that the seagulls can't nick my chips).
    Jane x

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    1. You could be sprinkled onto your chips then fed to the seagulls?

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    2. Then I could crap on people I don't like.
      Love it!
      Jane x

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  14. No swan song for me, I am no swan. I will be the dust in the wind.

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    1. Perhaps to Pocahontas' " colour of the wind"?

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  15. Anonymous12:52 pm

    "Just Another Manic Monday."

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    1. Allot better than " walk like an Egyptian "

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    2. I love this song and mentioned it on my blog today !
      How great is that.

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  16. "nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbyeeeee"

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  17. How very apt for you! And such a gentle and lovely song.....for Me? The Parting Glass.....

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    1. Linda..I would also insist on a single hen walking up the aisle when it was played

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  18. 'I would walk 500 miles' etc, just to force the buggers to sing it.

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  19. Simple Minds " Don't you ( forget about me ) "

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  20. '99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall'.

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  21. I've got a soft spot for 'Feed the Birds' too.
    As for a single swan-song'. Dunno - Have to give it some thought.

    This is rather like my 'Desert Island Discs' posting of two or three years back (Maybe time for a re-visit?) which didn't get a big response - partly due, I think, that most didn't appreciate that they had to choose eight SINGLE songs/pieces of music rather than eight entire damn shows/albums.

    But your replies for your swan song requests are most interesting so far - and will continue to be.

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    1. Now being a film fan I am sure you pick an appropriate ditty

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  22. F… the swan song, the wife knows there is only one song allowed and that is Pearly Shells being played over and over while everyone blows bubbles and I want one of those fountain thingies with free flowing single malt scotch.

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  23. No funeral here, no burial either - ashes to be sprinkled wherever family chooses - so ... no song either!

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  24. Oh, what an interesting survey! For my own funeral I would choose the song 'My Immortal' by Evanescence and as the congregations files out of the church (Oh, wait, I'm an atheist. How did we ever get into the church?) the film music from the movie 'The Holiday' should dance through the air.

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    1. Oh I love my immortal
      ...a real emotional romp

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  25. My youngest daughter says she's going to get up before the music and announce that I secretly loved rap, and I wanted them to share in my love for it....then play the most obnoxious rap she can find.
    Wish I could see that......

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  26. Replies
    1. Are you just being left in an armchair?

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  27. No words - just the instrumental 'Albatross' by Fleetwood Mac.

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  28. Well, I am being cremated and my ashes scattered were my daughter's were. At the Pacific Ocean by my old home in Laguna Beach.
    No funeral, what family and friends are around, the best dinner ever at my favorite restaurant. And Cake a great big cake !
    One of my songs is Bless the Beasts and The Children. I had it played at Nicole's funeral.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. Awful.......but magnificent at the same tine gayle x

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  29. My eldest son says he'll have 'Fat Bottomed Girls' played for me! I can believe that!

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    1. Well I guess they could really pretend the coffin was heavy and ask for help from the congregation to lift it

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    2. ooooooooooooh, I like this one too!
      (cause I AM a fat bottomed girl!)

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  30. My late mother-in-law loved the Bee Gees and made us promise to play their song "How Can you Mend a Broken Heart" at her funeral, after she had a heart valve operation. This wasn't the cause of her death but we kept the promise.

    When I first saw this post, John, I immediately thought of Hush a bye Mountain from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with Dick Van Dyke singing - it always makes me blubber.

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  31. Very apt indeed and I see/know you would be smilin' at everyone in tears!!

    No funeral, no swan song for me......I wish to go very quietly the same way I come into the world, I was told.

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  32. Celine Dions version of "all by myself"

    "Dont wanna be, Alllll by MYYYYYYSellllf...anymore."

    that should give dramatic pause for the moment...

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    1. All I can think of is Brigit jones diary

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  33. Ding Dong the witch is dead?

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  34. Sorry to burst the bubble. No funeral, no gathering, no memorial, no singing, no talking, no crying, no tearful remembering. Dead, cremated, that's it. My true friends and my loved ones will know I am gone and they will remember me.....each in their own way. That's all. Goodbye. Over and out!

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  35. By the by.....When my 3 year old grandson passed we had "Somewhere Out There" played . He loved the movie "An American Tail" and sang that song all the time. Very special song for us...

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    1. OMG.l.....that will have them sobbing in thir seats

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  36. For me, "Morning has Broken". I don't know why.

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  37. It must be something by Puff Daddy, or I don't want anything at all.

    Love,
    Janie

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  38. alright now......

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  39. My husband has it all detailed in his will - no service, case of best champagne and two songs - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life followed by Wish Me Luck as You Wave me Goodbye. I have visions of them playing the Faure Requiem. The version of me singing with 824 others in a massed choir and trying to hear my squeaky part.

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    1. Love the Gracie fields song.... I may have to nick that one when the coffin gets lowered into the grave

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  40. 'I'm A Little Teapot'...with actions.... but if I was going with the Gracie Fields theme I'd have 'I Took Me Harp To A Party And Nobody Asked Me To Play'....

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  41. At my husband's funeral I played I'll Be Seeing You in All the Old Familiar Places sung by Mandy Patinkin. After 18 years I still weep just thinking about it.
    Jenny

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  42. The theme song from the 1965 movie Dr. Shivago and Amazing Grace...but since they're going to shake and bake me and plop the ashes in the ground I doubt if there'll be music other than that which Don and make when we're reunited :)

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  43. Anonymous6:43 pm

    I want my body to be shoved into the furnace accompanied by 'See you later alligator' by Bill Haley and the Comets :-)

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