Tribute Songs for Remembering
Thirty-four songs for remembering someone, which is a different job from burying them. A celebration of life wants music that lets people be glad. A memorial video needs a shape. An anniversary, a year on, wants something you can be alone with. Sorted that way.
Updated September 202634 songs
Ten that fit almost any tribute
- See You AgainWiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth · 2015
Written for Paul Walker after he died, and it has since become the default over a montage. Familiar to anyone under forty.
- What a Wonderful WorldLouis Armstrong · 1967
Two minutes, warm the whole way through, and it ends properly. Nobody has ever objected to it.
- Three Little BirdsBob Marley & The Wailers · 1977
For a person who genuinely was not a worrier, and for a room that needs permission to cheer up.
- Always Look on the Bright Side of LifeEric Idle · 1979
One of the most-played songs at British funerals, which surprises people who have not been to one. Only if they would have found it funny.
- Here Comes the SunThe Beatles · 1969
Short and hopeful without being about death at all. Good for the moment people walk back outside.
- My WayFrank Sinatra · 1969
For someone who did things their own way and irritated people doing it. Best at the end.
- (I’ve Had) The Time of My LifeBill Medley & Jennifer Warnes · 1987
Only at a celebration of life, and only late. It will get people up, which is sometimes the point.
- Lean on MeBill Withers · 1972
A room can sing it without rehearsal. For someone who held a family or a community together.
- Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful WorldIsrael Kamakawiwoʻole · 1993
Slow enough for a long slideshow and familiar enough that nobody has to be told how to feel.
- Forever YoungBob Dylan · 1974
A blessing rather than a farewell. The right last song of almost any day like this.
A tribute is not a funeral
A celebration of life usually happens weeks or months after the death, when the shock has passed and people can actually enjoy each other. That changes the music completely. Funeral music is designed to hold a room that is barely holding; tribute music is allowed to be loud, funny, and danceable. If you programme a celebration of life like a funeral, you will get a second funeral.
For a memorial video, choose the song before you cut the photographs. Three to four minutes is about sixty images at a pace people can read. A song that outlasts the pictures leaves everyone watching a black screen through the last chorus, and a video that outlasts the song ends in silence — both are avoidable and both happen constantly.
The anniversary is a private occasion even when other people are there. A year on, the songs that help are usually not the ones from the funeral, because those are now attached to the worst day. Pick something that was theirs rather than something that was the day’s.
One thing worth saying out loud to whoever is organising: the person who chooses the music does not get to enjoy it. If you are the one running the slideshow, ask somebody else to press play so you can watch it once like everyone else.
By what you are actually doing
For a celebration of life
A party with a reason. These are meant to get people talking, eating and eventually dancing.
- Sweet CarolineNeil Diamond · 1969
Three generations know the words and the shouted part. Unbeatable for getting a quiet room started.
- Don’t Stop Me NowQueen · 1978
Relentlessly alive. For someone who was exhausting in the best way.
- SeptemberEarth, Wind & Fire · 1978
The reliable choice when three generations are in the room and agree on nothing else.
- Dancing QueenABBA · 1976
For someone who danced. It will get the aunts up before the chorus.
- Walking on SunshineKatrina and the Waves · 1983
Loud, silly, and impossible to be sad through. Good early, while people are still arriving.
- Lovely DayBill Withers · 1977
Warm without being sentimental. The best background music on this page.
- CelebrationKool & The Gang · 1980
On the nose, and nobody minds. It has been doing this job at every kind of gathering since 1980.
- Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)Green Day · 1997
Written as a bitter break-up song and adopted as a farewell anyway. For anyone who left school between 1998 and 2010.
For a memorial video
Songs with a real shape — a beginning, a build and an ending — so the photographs can be cut to them. Check the running time of the exact recording.
- Time to Say GoodbyeAndrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman · 1996
Enormous. Use it only if the pictures can match it; it will overwhelm a modest slideshow.
- HallelujahJeff Buckley · 1994
Nearly seven minutes, which is two minutes more than most people plan for. Beautiful if you have the images.
- LandslideFleetwood Mac · 1975
About getting older and being afraid of it. Short enough not to outstay itself.
- PhotographEd Sheeran · 2015
Literally about keeping someone in a picture. The most on-theme song here, and it does not overplay it.
- The Show Must Go OnQueen · 1991
Mercury recorded it while very ill, and everyone in the room will know that. Use it deliberately or not at all.
- Wish You Were HerePink Floyd · 1975
Says the thing without any of the vocabulary of grief. For a family that would rather not be handled.
- Both Sides NowJoni Mitchell · 1969
About looking at the same life from two ages. Her 2000 recording is the one to use if you can find it.
- VincentDon McLean · 1971
About loving someone the world found difficult. Quiet, and it builds without ever getting loud.
For the anniversary
A year on, or five. Private, usually solitary, and not the songs from the funeral — those belong to the worst day now.
- I’ll Be Seeing YouBillie Holiday · 1944
About finding someone in ordinary places. Exactly what an anniversary feels like.
- Fire and RainJames Taylor · 1970
About losing someone and going on anyway. Quiet enough to leave on in a car.
- The Night We MetLord Huron · 2015
About wanting to go back to before. The wrong song for the funeral and the right one for later.
- Supermarket FlowersEd Sheeran · 2017
Written after his grandmother’s funeral, about clearing a room. It is really about the week after, not the day.
- To Build a HomeThe Cinematic Orchestra · 2007
About a house that outlasts the people in it. For anyone still living somewhere they used to live together.
- Casimir Pulaski DaySufjan Stevens · 2005
The most specific grief song in modern American music. It gives you permission to still be angry.
- Everybody HurtsR.E.M. · 1992
Blunt and unfashionable, and it has talked a lot of people through worse. No shame in it.
- Tears in HeavenEric Clapton · 1992
Clapton wrote it after his son died. For a loss you are not expected to be over and are not.
Three demonstration songs
What a song about your person sounds like
We wrote these from made-up answers to the same five questions you would fill in. They are not customer work. A tribute song can be funny, which is something families rarely allow themselves and almost always want.
Start their song- Vera in AugustFolk · read out at a memorial, dahlias and all3:07
- Ruth’s Yellow KitchenCountry · a grandmother who fed everyone who came to the door3:39
- Biscuit Tin ElaineAcoustic · a mother who worked eleven years of night shifts2:50
How it works
Three steps. The first one is the only hard part.
- 1Tell the storyFive questions. Who it’s for, the occasion, three details only you two know, the feeling you want, and the names that have to be in it.
- 2Pick the soundCountry, pop, acoustic, R&B, gospel or rock. A man’s voice or a woman’s.
- 3Listen, then unlockA 30-second preview in about two minutes. Pay only if you love it. You get the full song, the lyrics, and a page you can send.
Common questions
- What is a good song for a celebration of life?
- Something they liked that other people can sing. “Sweet Caroline”, “Three Little Birds” and “September” all get a room going without anyone having to decide to enjoy themselves first. Save the sad one for late in the evening, if at all.
- How long should a memorial video be?
- One song, three to four minutes, about sixty photographs. Choose the song first and cut the pictures to it. Two songs is already too long for a room that is standing.
- What do you play on the anniversary of someone’s death?
- Not the funeral music — that belongs to the worst day now. Something that was theirs: the record they put on, the song from their wedding, the one they sang badly. It should sound like them, not like grief.
- Is it disrespectful to play a funny song at a memorial?
- No, and Britain has been doing it for decades — “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” is genuinely among the most-played funeral songs there. The only test is whether they would have laughed. If they would, the room will too, and it helps.
- Can I get a song written about someone who died?
- Yes. Answer five questions about them — their name, what the occasion is, three things only your family knows, the feeling you want and the music they liked — and you will hear a 30-second preview in about two minutes. The full song is $19.