James Blunt? Robbie Williams? Well, it’s your funeral

What are your favourite funeral songs? Have your say at the bottom of this article

Choosing the soundtrack for your own funeral is every modern music fan’s dilemma. How much simpler things used to be when religious and classical pieces defined the standard playlist. Tradition ruled. Black was always the new black.

But in our more scrambled and secular age, attitudes to death and its musical trimmings have shifted hugely. New research by Co-operative Funeralcare, Britain’s biggest funeral provider, shows hymns in steady decline while contemporary pop now accounts for more than half of last requests. The X Factor winner Alexandra Burke’s ostentatious version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and Westlife’s syrupy You Raise Me Up are new additions to Britain’s post-mortem Top 30 alongside easy-listening evergreens such as Frank Sinatra’s My Way, Bette Midler’s Wind Beneath My Wings and Angels by Robbie Williams.

“Today’s tear-jerking chart topper is extremely unlikely to be tomorrow’s funeral classic,” explains Lorinda Sheasby, of Co-operative Funeralcare, “but it’s quite possible that it will figure highly in the months or even years to come. As more people choose nonreligious funerals, so they incline towards contemporary songs with which they identify closely.”

As well as reflecting more quirky personal choice, our funeral playlist has also become increasingly ironic and humorous. More than a quarter of funeral homes surveyed by the Co-op reported offbeat requests including AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust and the theme from Top Gear.

Waggish departing souls now aim to leave loved ones laughing as well as crying. We might now hear Prodigy’s Firestarter or Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire played at cremations. Regular funeral favourites now include Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Elvis Presley’s Return to Sender, and even Ding Dong the Witch is Dead from The Wizard of Oz.

This trade-off between solemnity and levity became clear when The Times asked a range of celebrities to nominate their own funeral soundtrack. The comedian Russell Brand chose Asleep, a suicide ballad by the Smiths. “Or anything by Chaka Demus & Pliers. Their music would surely capture the mood of tragedy that will hang heavy in the air.”

Phill Jupitus was torn between Enjoy Yourself by the Specials and Dorothy by Dr John, both emphatically jaunty numbers. The Charlatans singer Tim Burgess requested the theme from Benny Hill’s TV show because “people would be laughing and then crying, and it would create some drama”. The former Slade frontman Noddy Holder opted for the bittersweet Maybe This Time from Cabaret. But the artist Tracey Emin favours “something that makes people really, really cry. David Bowie’s Young Americans would be fine.”

Changing tastes in funeral music are certainly evident on Final Song #01, a macabre compilation album released last month, on which 13 DJs and electronic musicians chose their own send-off soundtrack. Gilles Peterson, David Holmes, Coldcut and others nominated an eclectic range of last requests, both funny and sad — from Erik Satie to Radiohead, Brian Eno to the Beach Boys. There are no hymns but plenty of ambient jazz and left-field pop.

One of the album’s highlights is Peggy Lee’s definitive version of Lieber and Stoller’s much-covered classic Is That All There Is?, chosen by the DJ and record producer Ewan Pearson. Inspired by Thomas Mann’s 1896 short story Disillusionment, the sardonic lyric implores listeners to “break out the booze and have a ball” as an antidote to life’s bitter disappointments.

“I like the fact that it manages to combine dark humour with a vaguely philosophical message about making the most of things,” Pearson explains. “Or maybe I just like the existential justification for a life spent boozing in nightclubs. Maybe I’m thinking too much like a DJ but you have to consider it from the point of view of the people there. Obviously I want people to be devastated and desperately unhappy when I die, ha! But at the same time I’d quite like them to have a laugh too.” jamesbluntfan.com