Graduation songs for the slideshow, the walk and the party

Slideshow due Friday. Two hundred photos, and not one song picked.

So start with the ending. "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day (1997) goes under the last photo, and the whole room goes quiet for two and a half minutes.

It began life as a breakup song. Nobody in the gym needs to know that.

Past that one, these graduation songs follow the day in order. Slideshow first, then the walk, the high school and college picks, the backyard party and the parents.

Graduation songs for the slideshow

Never trust the gym laptop. You want one full run-through on it the week before, with the speakers on.

The slideshow that crashes is always the one that only ever played at home, on the good Wi-Fi. Keep a second copy on a thumb drive in your actual pocket.

Whoever's running sound should fade each song out instead of letting it stop dead. A hard stop in a quiet gym sounds like the power just went out.

Pick songs for graduation slideshows the way you'd pick the photos. One for each stretch of their life, roughly in order, so the music grows up with them.

Making it for a son? Grab a couple from these songs about sons as well.

"The Show" by Lenka (2008). Plinky and sweet, from an Australian singer. Baby photos only.
"Fireflies" by Owl City (2009). Bedroom synth-pop that sounds like a night light. Toddler years.
"Island in the Sun" by Weezer (2001). Beach trips and sunburns, with an easy hip-hip chorus on top.
"Changes" by David Bowie (1971). Save it for middle school, the braces and the haircut they'd rather you skipped.
"Story of My Life" by One Direction (2013). In the video, all five recreate old family photos with their own families. Copy that idea for the final slide.
"The Nights" by Avicii (2014). Built on advice the singer's dad gave him as a kid. Put it under the team photos and the away-game bus selfies.
"Long Live" by Taylor Swift (2010). All crowns and trophies in the lyrics. Use it for the friend-group pictures.
"Graduation (Friends Forever)" by Vitamin C (1999). Cheesy on purpose, and it borrows Pachelbel's Canon. Anyone who finished school around 2000 knows every word.
"Forever Young" by Alphaville (1984). The synths build slowly, so give it the senior portraits and let it run.
"Good Life" by OneRepublic (2009). It opens with a guy waking up in London with new photos on his phone. Slideshow logic.

Walking in or walking out

The band plays the same slow march on repeat until the last kid in the alphabet sits down.

Walk-in music usually belongs to the school. For the walk out, a senior class sometimes gets a vote, so show up with a list.

Quick reality check. Ask the class adviser early, because the program might already be printed.

You want something that kicks in fast. A 40-second intro feels like a week while a whole class shuffles toward the doors.

And have it cued before the caps go up. One of them is landing three rows back, probably on somebody's grandpa.

If your school sticks to the march both ways, save these for the parking lot.

"The Final Countdown" by Europe (1986). Swedish hair metal for the walk in, if your class has a sense of humor. That synth riff sounds like a rocket launch.
"Hall of Fame" by The Script (2012). The Irish band brought in will.i.am for it. One verse is a list of things you could become, students and teachers included.
"Beautiful Day" by U2 (2000). Slow to get going, then huge. Start it at the chorus.
"Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield (1970). Horns from the first second. The album version runs nearly nine minutes, so ask for the single edit.
"On Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons (2012). Bright and stompy. Good for the last row of chairs.
"Reach" by S Club 7 (2000). British pop at its cheesiest. The UK parents in the crowd will sing it louder than the class.
"Footloose" by Kenny Loggins (1984). In the movie, a town's teenagers fight a ban on dancing so they can have a prom. Good exit music for people who just won something.

High school graduation songs for the yearbook signing

Somebody will sign their yearbook "stay cool, have a great summer." Possibly everybody.

High school graduation songs are allowed to be dramatic. They're 17 or 18, and every day this month is the last something.

Play these during the yearbook signing or on the last drive to school, when the car's quieter than usual. Teachers sit through every one of these ceremonies, so there's a thank-you for them in here too.

Some of them turn 18 the same week they graduate, which means two cards. These 18th birthday wishes cover the second one.

"The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World (2001). For the kid who got the rejection email in March. It's a pep talk with loud guitars.
"As It Was" by Harry Styles (2022). They were in middle school when it came out. To them, it's already a throwback.
"Letter to Me" by Brad Paisley (2007). Paisley writes to himself at 17. Gentle country, and funnier than you'd expect.
"Fight Song" by Rachel Platten (2015). Earnest, sure. That's fine for whoever had to work twice as hard to get here.
"Never Forget" by Take That (1995). A big British boy band song about remembering where you started. It builds and builds.
"Wide Open Spaces" by Dixie Chicks (1998). Natalie Maines sings about a girl leaving home with room to make her own mistakes. The band is called The Chicks now.
"To Sir with Love" by Lulu (1967). The crayons-to-perfume song. Send it to the teacher who wrote the recommendation letter.
"Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne (2006). Canadian pop-rock from the Eragon soundtrack, for the friends who got each other through junior year.
"Here's to the Night" by Eve 6 (2000). A goodbye song, nothing fancy. Their parents' prom probably played it.

College graduation songs, four years (or five) later

Last night in the apartment. Half the furniture's on the curb, and somebody's asleep on the only chair left.

Tomorrow the family flies in, and there's a dinner reservation for nine at 7 p.m. that nobody under 25 asked for.

By the way, the diploma cover from the ceremony is often empty. The real one tends to show up in the mail weeks later.

College graduation songs can run a little quieter than the high school ones. Most are for the people you lived with, and if the night's really about them, there are more songs about friendship to pull from.

If they're the first in the family to finish a degree, play one of these at that dinner and let a grandparent choose the next.

Somebody at the table will ask what's next. Hit play instead of answering.

"Float On" by Modest Mouse (2004). Bad things keep happening, and he floats on anyway. The senior year that went sideways needs it.
"Titanium" by David Guetta (2011). Sia sings it like nothing could dent her. Thesis survivors only.
"Feeling Good" by Nina Simone (1965). Big brass and a brand-new day. Play it as the gowns come off in the parking lot.
"New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini (2006). A Scottish singer fixes a bad morning with new shoes. Job interview season, basically.
"Live Forever" by Oasis (1994). Manchester rock for the kitchen at 2 a.m., with everyone shouting the chorus.
"The Times They Are a-Changin'" by Bob Dylan (1964). One verse tells parents to stop judging what they don't get. Try it at the family dinner and watch.
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears (1985). Business majors, this one's yours. Don't overthink the lyrics.
"It's My Life" by Bon Jovi (2000). Hand it to whoever's ignoring all the career advice at the party.

Funny ones for the rented tent

Every backyard party has one uncle who wants the aux cord. Let him have it, as long as he sticks to this list.

Some of these are jokes about school ending. The rest are about money and jobs, which stay funny for roughly one more summer.

Wait until the food's out and the speeches are done. Hungry people don't laugh at anything.

Once the cake's cut, switch to the walk-out songs and see who dances. Keep the speaker away from the food table, though, because nobody wants Pink Floyd at full blast while they're choosing a burger bun.

"Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" by Pink Floyd (1979). Real London schoolkids sing the chorus about not needing school. At a graduation party, that's a choice.
"Money (That's What I Want)" by Barrett Strong (1959). Cue it the second they start opening cards.
"Bills, Bills, Bills" by Destiny's Child (1999). Student loan jokes, set to late-'90s R&B. Know your crowd.
"Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy (1981). Canadian rock, and a gentle warning about the job that starts in June.
"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (1978). Dedicate it to whoever passed chemistry by two points.
"Gangnam Style" by PSY (2012). The little cousins will do the horse dance. So will one grandparent, eventually.
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam (1969). Sports crowds chant it at the losing team. Wave it at the school instead.

For the parents in the folding chairs

Bring the big box of tissues. The travel pack won't make it past the baby photos.

These are for you. The graduate can have the rest of the page.

Save them for the morning after, when their room is suspiciously quiet and the tent's still in the yard. A few are older than you are, so ask the grandparents to sing along.

If the whole childhood is flashing by at once, the list of songs about growing up goes further back, to first steps and first days of school.

"Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce (1972). Croce wrote it after finding out he was going to be a dad. Quiet, and sneakily devastating.
"Blackbird" by The Beatles (1968). Just Paul McCartney and an acoustic guitar. Play it the first morning their bed's still made at noon.
"I Wish" by Stevie Wonder (1976). A grown man wishing he could be a kid in trouble again. Nostalgia you can dance to, for once.
"Oh Very Young" by Cat Stevens (1974). Dreams fading like a dad's best jeans. Gentle enough for the drive home, when nobody's talking.
"She Used to Be Mine" by Sara Bareilles (2015). From the musical Waitress. For the mom who barely remembers who she was before the car seats.
"Wonder" by Natalie Merchant (1995). Sung as a child the doctors couldn't explain, who grows up just fine. Parents of the one who had a hard start will feel it first.
"Proud" by Heather Small (2000). The chorus asks what you did today to feel proud. For once, the answer's easy.
"Hit the Road Jack" by Ray Charles (1961). Play it once the car's packed for college and you've measured their bedroom for a treadmill. Kidding, mostly.

A song that knows their name

Tomas has 600 songs on his phone. Not one of them says Tomas.

That's the gap a HeartCraft song card fills. Hand over a few memories, maybe the bobby pin that held his cap on or the yearbook he lost for a week, and they end up in the lines, with his name sung in the chorus.

The odd details beat the big ones. "Proud of you" is in every card already.

Give it about 10 minutes. Then a link turns up on your WhatsApp or email, so send it his way or play it for him before the gown comes off.

Pick a language and a feel for it, then make one for a graduate.

Last questions before the ceremony

What's the slow march they play at graduations?

It's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" by the English composer Edward Elgar, first performed in 1901. Graduations use the slow middle section, which the UK knows as "Land of Hope and Glory."

What songs work for a kindergarten graduation?

Short ones they already shout in the car. "Try Everything" by Shakira, from Zootopia, and "Roar" by Katy Perry both have big, simple choruses five-year-olds can't resist. Skip anything with a long intro, since half the class will be waving at their parents by the first verse.

Can you play a sad song at the graduation party?

One, late, once everyone's full and sitting down. Play two in a row and the backyard turns into a group therapy session. Follow it with something from the funny list to pull everyone back.

What if the graduate hates every song you picked?

Let them have the walk out and the party, and keep the slideshow for yourself. You did scan 2,000 baby photos, after all.

Slideshow due Friday. Two hundred photos, and not one song picked.

So start with the ending. "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day (1997) goes under the last photo, and the whole room goes quiet for two and a half minutes.

It began life as a breakup song. Nobody in the gym needs to know that.

Past that one, these graduation songs follow the day in order. Slideshow first, then the walk, the high school and college picks, the backyard party and the parents.

Graduation songs for the slideshow

Never trust the gym laptop. You want one full run-through on it the week before, with the speakers on.

The slideshow that crashes is always the one that only ever played at home, on the good Wi-Fi. Keep a second copy on a thumb drive in your actual pocket.

Whoever's running sound should fade each song out instead of letting it stop dead. A hard stop in a quiet gym sounds like the power just went out.

Pick songs for graduation slideshows the way you'd pick the photos. One for each stretch of their life, roughly in order, so the music grows up with them.

Making it for a son? Grab a couple from these songs about sons as well.

"The Show" by Lenka (2008). Plinky and sweet, from an Australian singer. Baby photos only.
"Fireflies" by Owl City (2009). Bedroom synth-pop that sounds like a night light. Toddler years.
"Island in the Sun" by Weezer (2001). Beach trips and sunburns, with an easy hip-hip chorus on top.
"Changes" by David Bowie (1971). Save it for middle school, the braces and the haircut they'd rather you skipped.
"Story of My Life" by One Direction (2013). In the video, all five recreate old family photos with their own families. Copy that idea for the final slide.
"The Nights" by Avicii (2014). Built on advice the singer's dad gave him as a kid. Put it under the team photos and the away-game bus selfies.
"Long Live" by Taylor Swift (2010). All crowns and trophies in the lyrics. Use it for the friend-group pictures.
"Graduation (Friends Forever)" by Vitamin C (1999). Cheesy on purpose, and it borrows Pachelbel's Canon. Anyone who finished school around 2000 knows every word.
"Forever Young" by Alphaville (1984). The synths build slowly, so give it the senior portraits and let it run.
"Good Life" by OneRepublic (2009). It opens with a guy waking up in London with new photos on his phone. Slideshow logic.

Walking in or walking out

The band plays the same slow march on repeat until the last kid in the alphabet sits down.

Walk-in music usually belongs to the school. For the walk out, a senior class sometimes gets a vote, so show up with a list.

Quick reality check. Ask the class adviser early, because the program might already be printed.

You want something that kicks in fast. A 40-second intro feels like a week while a whole class shuffles toward the doors.

And have it cued before the caps go up. One of them is landing three rows back, probably on somebody's grandpa.

If your school sticks to the march both ways, save these for the parking lot.

"The Final Countdown" by Europe (1986). Swedish hair metal for the walk in, if your class has a sense of humor. That synth riff sounds like a rocket launch.
"Hall of Fame" by The Script (2012). The Irish band brought in will.i.am for it. One verse is a list of things you could become, students and teachers included.
"Beautiful Day" by U2 (2000). Slow to get going, then huge. Start it at the chorus.
"Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield (1970). Horns from the first second. The album version runs nearly nine minutes, so ask for the single edit.
"On Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons (2012). Bright and stompy. Good for the last row of chairs.
"Reach" by S Club 7 (2000). British pop at its cheesiest. The UK parents in the crowd will sing it louder than the class.
"Footloose" by Kenny Loggins (1984). In the movie, a town's teenagers fight a ban on dancing so they can have a prom. Good exit music for people who just won something.

High school graduation songs for the yearbook signing

Somebody will sign their yearbook "stay cool, have a great summer." Possibly everybody.

High school graduation songs are allowed to be dramatic. They're 17 or 18, and every day this month is the last something.

Some of them turn 18 the same week they graduate, which means two cards. These 18th birthday wishes cover the second one.

"The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World (2001). For the kid who got the rejection email in March. It's a pep talk with loud guitars.
"As It Was" by Harry Styles (2022). They were in middle school when it came out. To them, it's already a throwback.
"Letter to Me" by Brad Paisley (2007). Paisley writes to himself at 17. Gentle country, and funnier than you'd expect.
"Fight Song" by Rachel Platten (2015). Earnest, sure. That's fine for whoever had to work twice as hard to get here.
"Never Forget" by Take That (1995). A big British boy band song about remembering where you started. It builds and builds.
"Wide Open Spaces" by Dixie Chicks (1998). Natalie Maines sings about a girl leaving home with room to make her own mistakes. The band is called The Chicks now.
"To Sir with Love" by Lulu (1967). The crayons-to-perfume song. Send it to the teacher who wrote the recommendation letter.
"Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne (2006). Canadian pop-rock from the Eragon soundtrack, for the friends who got each other through junior year.
"Here's to the Night" by Eve 6 (2000). A goodbye song, nothing fancy. Their parents' prom probably played it.

College graduation songs, four years (or five) later

Last night in the apartment. Half the furniture's on the curb, and somebody's asleep on the only chair left.

Tomorrow the family flies in, and there's a dinner reservation for nine at 7 p.m. that nobody under 25 asked for.

By the way, the diploma cover from the ceremony is often empty. The real one tends to show up in the mail weeks later.

If they're the first in the family to finish a degree, play one of these at that dinner and let a grandparent choose the next.

Somebody at the table will ask what's next. Hit play instead of answering.

"Float On" by Modest Mouse (2004). Bad things keep happening, and he floats on anyway. The senior year that went sideways needs it.
"Titanium" by David Guetta (2011). Sia sings it like nothing could dent her. Thesis survivors only.
"Feeling Good" by Nina Simone (1965). Big brass and a brand-new day. Play it as the gowns come off in the parking lot.
"New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini (2006). A Scottish singer fixes a bad morning with new shoes. Job interview season, basically.
"Live Forever" by Oasis (1994). Manchester rock for the kitchen at 2 a.m., with everyone shouting the chorus.
"The Times They Are a-Changin'" by Bob Dylan (1964). One verse tells parents to stop judging what they don't get. Try it at the family dinner and watch.
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears (1985). Business majors, this one's yours. Don't overthink the lyrics.
"It's My Life" by Bon Jovi (2000). Hand it to whoever's ignoring all the career advice at the party.

Funny ones for the rented tent

Every backyard party has one uncle who wants the aux cord. Let him have it, as long as he sticks to this list.

Some of these are jokes about school ending. The rest are about money and jobs, which stay funny for roughly one more summer.

Wait until the food's out and the speeches are done. Hungry people don't laugh at anything.

"Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" by Pink Floyd (1979). Real London schoolkids sing the chorus about not needing school. At a graduation party, that's a choice.
"Money (That's What I Want)" by Barrett Strong (1959). Cue it the second they start opening cards.
"Bills, Bills, Bills" by Destiny's Child (1999). Student loan jokes, set to late-'90s R&B. Know your crowd.
"Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy (1981). Canadian rock, and a gentle warning about the job that starts in June.
"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor (1978). Dedicate it to whoever passed chemistry by two points.
"Gangnam Style" by PSY (2012). The little cousins will do the horse dance. So will one grandparent, eventually.
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam (1969). Sports crowds chant it at the losing team. Wave it at the school instead.

For the parents in the folding chairs

Bring the big box of tissues. The travel pack won't make it past the baby photos.

These are for you. The graduate can have the rest of the page.

Save them for the morning after, when their room is suspiciously quiet and the tent's still in the yard. A few are older than you are, so ask the grandparents to sing along.

If the whole childhood is flashing by at once, the list of songs about growing up goes further back, to first steps and first days of school.

"Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce (1972). Croce wrote it after finding out he was going to be a dad. Quiet, and sneakily devastating.
"Blackbird" by The Beatles (1968). Just Paul McCartney and an acoustic guitar. Play it the first morning their bed's still made at noon.
"I Wish" by Stevie Wonder (1976). A grown man wishing he could be a kid in trouble again. Nostalgia you can dance to, for once.
"Oh Very Young" by Cat Stevens (1974). Dreams fading like a dad's best jeans. Gentle enough for the drive home, when nobody's talking.
"She Used to Be Mine" by Sara Bareilles (2015). From the musical Waitress. For the mom who barely remembers who she was before the car seats.
"Wonder" by Natalie Merchant (1995). Sung as a child the doctors couldn't explain, who grows up just fine. Parents of the one who had a hard start will feel it first.
"Proud" by Heather Small (2000). The chorus asks what you did today to feel proud. For once, the answer's easy.
"Hit the Road Jack" by Ray Charles (1961). Play it once the car's packed for college and you've measured their bedroom for a treadmill. Kidding, mostly.

A song that knows their name

Tomas has 600 songs on his phone. Not one of them says Tomas.

The odd details beat the big ones. "Proud of you" is in every card already.

Give it about 10 minutes. Then a link turns up on your WhatsApp or email, so send it his way or play it for him before the gown comes off.

Pick a language and a feel for it, then make one for a graduate.

Last questions before the ceremony

What's the slow march they play at graduations?

It's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" by the English composer Edward Elgar, first performed in 1901. Graduations use the slow middle section, which the UK knows as "Land of Hope and Glory."

What songs work for a kindergarten graduation?

Can you play a sad song at the graduation party?

One, late, once everyone's full and sitting down. Play two in a row and the backyard turns into a group therapy session. Follow it with something from the funny list to pull everyone back.

What if the graduate hates every song you picked?

Let them have the walk out and the party, and keep the slideshow for yourself. You did scan 2,000 baby photos, after all.