Walter Blevins, Bobbot, and BarkingLot have posted some great thoughts on songs to play at their funerals.  I have some ideas of my own on the subject.

In my past life I sang.  (I won't say I was a singer, only that I sang and I loved it.)  I sang with quartets, with choirs, with a little band, did demos for songwriters, and sang at weddings and a lot of funerals.  I loved singing at weddings. 

I hated singing at funerals. I was asked to sing hymns, mournful songs, and Southern Gospel songs that were meaningful to the loved ones or the dearly departed.  Some were accompanied by others or just a piano, sometimes I sang accapella.  It just depended upon the song, the message, and the moment.  I learned that each funeral, each service, is its own journey and music either adds to the distress of those in attendance or puts them at ease.  Such is the transformative power of music. 

Sometimes, after you've heard a song at a funeral service you can never quite listen to it in the same way again.  For example, one of my sister's favorite songs was "Wind Beneath My Wings", the Bette Midler version.  Beautiful song.  It was sung at her funeral by her friends to honor her and although their sentiment was pure, it nearly destroyed me.  I simply can't hear the song anymore; I break down into a crumbled, weepy heap.

So, after all the funerals I've been a part of and been to I know what I don't want my life's last farewell to be - sullen, sad, and sorry.  I want it be happy, beautiful, and celebratory.  (PLEASE!) No preaching and no  pulpit pounding - only laughter, life stories (even if they're not in the best of taste), and love.  And music, lots of music. The actual list of possibilities is long but I'll share two with you that I love in particular.  Two completely opposite choices in the musical world - Barry White and Lucianno Pavarotti.

Pavarotti was amazing.  I honestly believe you don't have to be an opera lover to appreciate the power and purity of his voice. This is a live performance of Puccini's "Nessun Dorma", one of the most beautiful arias ever written.  (Nessun Dorma means none shall sleep.)  At the end of the aria, when Pavarotti reaches into his heart to bring the last few notes to life, it always feels to me as if my own soul is leaping to life.

No one does it like Barry.  Living or dead, who doesn't love him?  I want everyone to smile, to dance, and to remember that I love them. I'll be there, dancing with them, if only in spirit.  Dance! Dance!