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Funeral Music: The Songs Which Leave All Others In Their Wake ["Jealous of the Angels"- Jenn Bostic]
Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | April 04, 2013 | Thomas H Green

Posted on 04/07/2013 6:44:40 PM PDT by Steelfish

Funeral Music: The Songs Which Leave All Others In Their Wake

By Thomas H Green 04 Apr 2013 It was not so long ago that music played at a funeral would be sedate, reflective and sombre, perhaps a hymn or two and a soothing piece of classical music. Times have changed. Nowadays, rather than pews full of lowered heads as Debussy’s Clair de lune raises the odd tear, it’s quite possible the send-off for the departed may involve Eric Idle advising us to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, from Monty Python’s thoroughly irreligious Life of Brian.

Such changes are reflected in one of the more curious music charts in existence, the Co-operative Funeralcare’s Top 30 of music played at funerals. It consists largely of emotive, often uplifting ballads such as Bette Midler singing Wind Beneath My Wings; Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli’s Time To Say Goodbye; and Robbie Williams’s Angels. As Wayne Hector, the successful songwriter behind hits for everyone from JLS to Susan Boyle, explains of his own Top 30 entry, Westlife’s Flying Without Wings, “At a funeral you want a certain amount of joy, a song about hope rather than a sad song. As much as you’re lamenting someone’s passing, you’re celebrating their life. Songs such as this talk to the aspects that connect all humans.”

The list is only produced every two or three years so it takes a while for new songs to make an appearance. Right now, however, there’s one song that’s shooting up the chart, Jenn Bostic’s Jealous of the Angels.

“It’s comfortably the most requested new song at funerals,” says Co-operative operations director David Collingwood. “It’s massively up-and-coming in our chart.”

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: funeralmusic
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1 posted on 04/07/2013 6:44:40 PM PDT by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

Spirit in the Sky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6TFW1F6oY0&feature=youtube_gdata_player


2 posted on 04/07/2013 6:50:29 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Obama is the Chicken Little of politics)
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To: Steelfish

Westlife? That’s likely a funeral soundtrack for women under 35 who have died questionably untimely deaths.


3 posted on 04/07/2013 6:52:08 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: Steelfish

At my cousin’s recent funeral they sang “When they ring those golden bells for you and me”, which I thought was very appropriate.

At my Mother’s funeral I asked that her favorite song be sung. Is was “Beautiful Dreamer” and the words seemed so appropriate for Mother. Our Cousin has a great tenor voice and he really outdid himself singing it.


4 posted on 04/07/2013 6:53:44 PM PDT by yarddog (Truth, Justice, and what was once the American Way.)
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To: windcliff

Ping


5 posted on 04/07/2013 7:03:22 PM PDT by stylecouncilor (Bazinga!)
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To: Steelfish
Sarah McLachlan - Angel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1GmxMTwUgs
6 posted on 04/07/2013 7:04:33 PM PDT by Bronzy
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To: Steelfish

Vince Gill/Alison Krauss/Ricky Skaggs -
Go Rest High On That Mountain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwFiWCUkk4M


7 posted on 04/07/2013 7:04:55 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad & lived with his parents most his life.)
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To: Steelfish

Into the West, of course.


8 posted on 04/07/2013 7:13:02 PM PDT by Chickensoup (200 million unarmed " people killed in the 20th century by Leftist Totalitarian Fascists)
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To: Steelfish

Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings


9 posted on 04/07/2013 7:13:45 PM PDT by ItsForTheChildren
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin
I should want this at my funeral...from the soundtrack of the True Grit remake: Iris Demint - Leaning On The Everlasting Arms
10 posted on 04/07/2013 7:17:15 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Steelfish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nVVWDSFFhc

Into the West


11 posted on 04/07/2013 7:17:56 PM PDT by Chickensoup (200 million unarmed " people killed in the 20th century by Leftist Totalitarian Fascists)
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin

Learning to Fly Pink Floyd (minus Roger Waters)

Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd

Hghway to Hell AC|DC (Just a thought !!!)


12 posted on 04/07/2013 7:17:56 PM PDT by RightWingNut
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To: RightWingNut

I was going to have the organist play “All Those Endearing Young Charms” at my wife’s funeral, but I couldn’t have handled it. It’s an Irish thing.


13 posted on 04/07/2013 7:24:23 PM PDT by Ax
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To: RightWingNut

Old and Wise - Alan Parsons Project


14 posted on 04/07/2013 7:25:36 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Steelfish

She’s dancing with the angels by Monk & Neagel.


15 posted on 04/07/2013 7:26:14 PM PDT by Linda Frances (Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness)
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To: Steelfish

At my daughter’s funeral two of her friends who had beautiful voices were asked to sing - one chose Dolly Parton’s Let Her Fly, the other one chose Celine Deon’s I’m Your Angel. While we were putting the program together we received a call from a young Black man who sang regularly with the choir at one of the larger churches in our city and although he had had limited contact with my daughter, seemed very saddened by her sudden death and asked if he could sing a tribute to her during the service. He had an awesome baritone voice and chose Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Very moving service.


16 posted on 04/07/2013 7:28:12 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: Steelfish

When The River Meets The Sea - John Denver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuqxa6TM2i8

When the mountain touches the valley

All the clouds are taught to fly

As our souls will leave this land most peacefully

Though our minds be filled with questions

In our hearts we’ll understand

When the river meets the sea

Like a flower that has blossomed

In the dry & barren sand

We are born & born again most gracefully

Thus the winds of time will take us

With a sure and steady hand

When the river meets the sea

Patience, my brother and patience, my son

In that sweet and final hour

Truth and justice will be done

Like a baby when it is sleeping

In its loving mother’s arms

What a newborn baby dreams is a mystery

But his life will find a purpose

And in time he’ll understand

When the river meets the sea

When the river meets the almighty sea!!


17 posted on 04/07/2013 7:32:02 PM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: Steelfish

I lived in the UK for a time and found their funerals to be slightly different than ones in the US. We buried two friends.

The funerals were held, mostly, at the funeral parlor instead of a church. In one instance, the body came back to the family home to ‘be with them’. (In the old days, even in the US, they would lay in ‘the parlor’ for the family to grieve). The deceased (and family of them) had secular music selections played on the sound system before the service. One of our friends chose “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life”.

At graveside, the casket was lowered into the ground for all to see and each who were attending (in order) grabbed dirt and threw it into the hole on top of the casket. (Quite sobering, really.)

Then there was a wake at a local pub. Everyone would get ripped in remembrance.....knocking back pints of ‘bitter’.

Quite different than what I grew up with.


18 posted on 04/07/2013 7:32:41 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Great vid by ShorelineMike! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZjJk6nbD4&feature=plcp)
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To: Steelfish
The Reagan Hymn - "Mansions of the Lord"
19 posted on 04/07/2013 7:32:42 PM PDT by Old Sarge (We are officially over the precipice, we just havent struck the ground yet...)
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To: Steelfish

I went to a funeral yesterday and the last song played was “The Aggie War Hymn.”


20 posted on 04/07/2013 7:52:26 PM PDT by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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