SunLife's ‘Cost of Dying’ 2024 report found that the average cost of a funeral in 2024 is £4,141 (up 4.7% on 2023). In the report, it found that at 53%, a cremation with a service is the most popular type of funeral, while burials stood at 27% with direct cremations coming in last with 20%
This got us thinking about funerals and the songs that we choose to play when saying goodbye to our loved ones. Read on to find out more…
Using Google Suggest and Spotify Data
Just over 50 songs were chosen for the research using Google’s top suggestions for the search term “funeral songs”. Then the number of plays for each song was collated using Spotify (for the song’s top result) before ordering the songs by most to least plays to allocate each song’s final ranking position.
As of 14/10/2024, the data showed that:
Rank | Song name | Artist | Year | Spotify plays 14/10/2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Another One Bites the Dust | Queen | 1980 | 1,986,533,326 |
2 | See You Again | Wiz Khalifa | 2015 | 1,982,891,173 |
3 | Highway to Hell | AC/DC | 1979 | 1,722,938,344 |
4 | Stand by Me | Ben E. King | 1961 | 1,188,084,611 |
5 | Bittersweet Symphony | The Verve | 1997 | 1,123,459,225 |
6 | Three Little Birds | Bob Marley and the Wailers | 1977 | 1,072,434,854 |
7 | Stairway to Heaven | Led Zeppelin | 1971 | 1,025,123,589 |
8 | Knockin' on Heaven's Door | Guns N' Roses | 1991 | 769,890,357 |
9 | Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) | Green Day | 1997 | 766,503,120 |
10 | Wish You Were Here | Pink Floyd | 1975 | 758,191,968 |
The analysis found that the classic Queen song, 'Another One Bites the Dust', took the top spot, with 1,986,533,326 plays. 'See You Again' by Wiz Khalifa claimed the silver. Interestingly, Stand by Me (Ben E. King), Highway to Hell (AC/DC) and Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) also featured in the top 5.
Looking at the wider top 50, Queen, Westlife, Josh Groban, and Sarah McLachlan appeared multiple times. Mariah Carey, Elton John, The Beatles, and Celine Dion also featured.
Click here to see the rest of the top funeral songs of 2024 according to our research...
11 | Supermarket Flowers | Ed Sheeran | 2017 | 744,523,693 |
12 | Free Bird | Lynyrd Skynyrd | 1973 | 695,777,882 |
13 | Take Me Home, Country Roads | John Denver | 1971 | 610,849,898 |
14 | Lay Me Down | Sam Smith | 2014 | 597,040,548 |
15 | My Heart Will Go On | Celine Dion | 1997 | 572,079,657 |
16 | Angels | Robbie Williams | 1997 | 561,136,685 |
17 | My Immortal | Evanescence | 2003 | 549,501,501 |
18 | Spirit in the Sky | Norman Greenbaum | 1969 | 533,100,773 |
19 | My Way | Frank Sinatra | 1969 | 502,673,202 |
20 | (I've Had) The Time of My Life | Bill Medley | 1987 | 484,395,036 |
21 | In My Life | The Beatles | 1965 | 445,312,654 |
22 | Over the Rainbow | Israel Kamakawiwo'ole | 1990 | 426,242,891 |
23 | Broken Halos | Chris Stapleton | 2017 | 425,917,119 |
24 | Nothing Compares to You | Sinead O'Connor | 1990 | 401,485,224 |
25 | If I Die Young | The Band Perry | 2010 | 351,188,558 |
26 | The Best | Tina Turner | 1989 | 312,417,614 |
27 | Live Forever | Oasis | 1994 | 292,689,037 |
28 | Bridge Over Troubled Water | Simon and Garfunkel | 1970 | 287,895,011 |
29 | Angel | Sarah McLachlan | 1997 | 216,383,869 |
30 | One Sweet Day | Mariah Carey | 1995 | 204,626,293 |
31 | Tears in Heaven | Eric Clapton | 1992 | 202,263,342 |
32 | Candle in the Wind | Elton John | 1973 | 192,443,809 |
33 | You Raise Me Up | Josh Groban | 2003 | 130,099,665 |
34 | Who Wants to Live Forever | Queen | 1986 | 124,192,593 |
35 | I'll Be Seeing You | Billie Holiday | 1944 | 112,080,085 |
36 | You Raise Me Up | Westlife | 2005 | 111,791,235 |
37 | You'll Never Walk Alone | Gerry & The Pacemakers | 1963 | 108,380,312 |
38 | Wind Beneath My Wings | Bette Midler | 1988 | 103,703,540 |
39 | Dance with My Father | Luther Vandross | 2003 | 78,884,065 |
40 | We'll Meet Again | Vera Lynn | 1943 | 78,158,288 |
41 | I'm Already There | Lonestar | 2001 | 66,329,106 |
42 | When I Get Where I'm Going | Brad Paisley | 2005 | 56,159,116 |
43 | Always Look on the Bright Side of Life | Monty Python | 1989 | 49,863,816 |
44 | Go Rest High on That Mountain | Vince Gill | 1994 | 43,892,848 |
45 | To Where You Are | Josh Groban | 2001 | 34,004,547 |
46 | Keep Me in Your Heart | Warren Zevon | 2003 | 28,658,515 |
47 | I Will Remember You | Sarah McLachlan | 1993 | 20,462,129 |
48 | Jealous of the Angels | Donna Taggart | 2013 | 20,814,882 |
49 | Who You'd Be Today | Kenny Chesney | 2005 | 16,723,071 |
50 | Mama | Il Divo | 2004 | 12,865,767 |
51 | I'll See You Again | Westlife | 2009 | 12,855,850 |
52 | Goodbye's (The Saddest Word) | Celine Dion | 2002 | 10,445,745 |
53 | Heaven Was Needing a Hero | Jo Dee Messina | 2010 | 7,871,731 |
54 | Bring Me Sunshine | Morecambe and Wise | 1969 | 5,892,080 |
Lyric Analysis
To gather more insight into the topic, we also analysed the lyrics of the top 10 songs to discover which specific words featured most regularly. 53 words were repeated 5 times or more amongst the 10 songs, with “one” (39), “door” (27), and “heaven” (26) as the most common words used.
The top 10 words included:
- One – 39
- Door – 27
- Heaven – 26
- Another – 24
- See - 22
- Highway – 20
- Dust – 19
- Time – 15
- Again – 13
- Heart – 12
“Highway” and “dust” appeared due to heavy repetition in the respective songs ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘Another One Bites the Dust’.
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Disclaimer: Cavendish Online are not liable or responsible for the accuracy of the advice provided by third party experts, nor for the content or operation of any third-party websites, webpages, or resources which have been linked to within this article. *Information correct as of 14/10/2024
