What songs for a retirement village or nursing home?

[Mr.Woody]

I'm looking at trying to start doing these types of gigs after some encouragement from a local musician. Anyone have experience doing this? if so, what songs have you found went over the best?

I'm guessing that i'd be looking at 40's-50's type stuff right? Maybe some crooner-type stuff as well?

Thanks,
Mr.Woody

[henryp]

How about "When I'm 64" by the Beatles? :-)

[Mycroft]

I'd guess popular songs from the 1940s through the 1960s, given the age ranges that you might see. Ask your musician friend who pushed for you to do it what THEY play?

[aknow]

"Spirit in the Sky". Norman Greenbaum

[birdsong]

I've done a bunch of these with different musician friends over the years. There are differences between "retirement", "Nursing home", and "Memory Care" homes. Thus there are what I call "local" considerations. So I agree with Mycroft - one thing to do is speak your contacts, both musician and the "home" staff.

Yes, 40's/50's tunes work but, I was impressed with the breadth of songs the folks knew. Don't restrict yourself, pending what you can can find out about each place you intend to visit/perform at. We did stuff from the 1800's (e.g. civil war stuff), early 1900's, and on up. Show tunes work well. But not everyone likes them. It's really a microcosm of any "typical" audience. And thus, some of them will even know more contemporary tunes.

Nursing and Memory Care homes often have family present when you perform. Our performances at least were kind of a big deal in those places and advertised well in advance, and families came out to be with their loved ones and enjoy the hour. Those younger folks then also know tunes and enjoy hearing something of "their vintage". If there are young children around, you can do a couple for them as well - they can sometimes get their grandparent(s) to join in.

So, you have a lot of options. This has come up before on this forum and folks sent some set lists; you might be able to find that thread in the archives. You can also browse the index of various fake books (a 30's, a 40's, etc) and get ideas.

And then seasonal stuff works. In general, we found a lot of the older material to be written in flat keys so did a lot of transposing for guitar (well really for the other stringed instruments that can't take a capo).

The occasional risque song goes over well (sans young children). What surprised me most perhaps, were the requests for Good Night Irene. I never would have guessed folks in a nursing home would request that one. But they did, more than once. Times change and that happened over a decade ago. Point is, you never know. We got a lot of ideas from Rise Up Singing since there are 1200 to choose from, that span many decades and topics.

It's a great thing to do - I hope to get back to it soon. They are so appreciative. The Memory Care units were a bit bittersweet - but again all involved (families, nurses) were so thankful for our efforts.

Joh

[Brent Hahn]

I've done a few of those, and the tunes they seem to respond to the most are the Great American Songbook ones. I guess nobody else plays 'em because they're well, hard.

You haven't lived until you've seen a bunch of 85-year-olds snap their fingers and sing along with "I've Got You Under My Skin."

But the song that might be the most thematically appropriate is Lynyrd Skynyrd's "What's Your Name?"

[Jim]

Yes, call ahead and find out two things: 1) what is the age range of the majority of the old folks then work backwards to see what date range they would have been when they were between 12 years old and 40 years old and play top 10 hits from those eras. Also ask what kind of music the home plays at the parties and events that go on in the home and that get the most reaction from the folks living there. 2) Only play happy songs - do not try to sing things like Ralph Stanley's "O Death" or the like. Try to include some easy to sing-along with tunes and have some copies of lyrics you can pass out. Maybe invite some willing members of the audience to come up and sing backup with you - get them involved.

[jaymarsch]

A friend of mine plays for a number of nursing homes with memory care units and she is originally from France so she plays some French folk tunes as well as some 40s and 50s jazz standards and 60s folk standards. She received a lot of requests for songs by John Denver and Glenn Campbell so she learned a few of those and added them to her song list. She said that the French songs end up being a hit in the memory care unit because they don't get so frustrated about not remembering the English lyrics so they just relax and enjoy the music.

Anything that has a simple, singable chorus is usually a big hit.

Best,
Jayne

[zeeway]

I play/sing with a group that does the retirement/rehab/memory circuit one to two times a week. We play mostly Christian songs with a few secular ones thrown in.

I would guess the average age is 80, which means they were born in 1939-ish...and so were teenagers in the mid 50's. So that means 40's music is way too old, unless it is a super standard. Since most of this age group in the USA was a church going bunch in their youth, they appreciate the standard popular hymns. (Guess in twenty years they'll be asking for rap).

We have about 140 songs in our book, and we lend books to the audience so they can sing along. We start off with one or two, and then play whatever is requested from our songbook. We play for about an hour with two or three breaks for short inspirational messages (and so we can rest).

Here are some of the more popular songs:
1. Amazing Grace
2. America the Beautiful
3. Blowin in the Wind
4. Do Lord Remember Me
5. Give Me That Old Time Religion
6. God Bless America
7. Green, Green
8. He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
9. Here I Am Lord
10. How Great thou Art
11. I Saw The Light
12. If I Had A Hammer
13. I Will Follow Him
14. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
15. Lean On Me
16. Peace In The Valley
17. Ring Of Fire
18. This Little Light Of Mine
19. Will The Circle Be Unbroken
20. Why Me Lord?
21. When The Saints Go Marching In

Hope this helps. The people we play for seem to enjoy it, but I believe we get more out of it than they do.

[rokdog49]

We play at six different AssistedLiving / Care Facilties.To be perfectly honest, Lee and I play some older tunes, but the residents like anything if it's good.
They just want to hear some music. We do a variety of stuff. They love it.
Eagles, James Taylor, CSNY, Chris Stapleton, America, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Clapton, Jim Croce, John Denver, John Hiatt, Bob Seger, Neil Young, Cat Stevens,Beatles, you name it.

[Caddy]

Hey, you are talking my age group to some extent (I'm nearly 72 and been retired for 12 years).

I really like the 50's stuff, rock and roll and pop songs, as well as songs from The Great American Songbook (I thank my dad for that). Might throw in some early 60's songs as well.

One that always works well for a lot of ages is 'Take Out To The Ballgame'. They will sing along with that one.

[gfspencer]

I'm 72. I like zeeway's lists.

[Pitar]

Originally Posted by Mr.Woody

I'm looking at trying to start doing these types of gigs after some encouragement from a local musician. Anyone have experience doing this? if so, what songs have you found went over the best?

I'm guessing that i'd be looking at 40's-50's type stuff right? Maybe some crooner-type stuff as well?

Thanks,
Mr.Woody

I think you need to ask the members of the retirement home, not this board. The people living there will no doubt have an eclectic ear and volunteer your answers. The last time I did that I got the whole genre scope and favorites of each of them.

Leave an email at the home requesting responses and you'll be surprised at how prompt they are. And, when you do sift through the responses and arrange a sampling of them in your repertoire, as you play them at the home you can address the responses by requester's name. In this, they feel much closer to you as your audience.

[Tico]

Music that was new and popular when the residents were age 15 to 25.

If that average age is 70, then 50 years prior it would be 1964 - 1974.

[Tube Sound]

You mentioned crooner and this is where I would lean. I've spent a lot of time around elderly and they love these classics. Like....

Nat King Cole "Unforgettable"
Johnny Mathis "Chances Are"
Sinatra "Fly Me To The Moon"
Tony Bennett "I Left My Heart In San Francisco"
Andy Williams "Moon River"
Dean Martin "That's Amore"
Perry Como "It's Impossible"
Vic Damone "Stardust"