What songs can you do CPR to?

The pace of compressions during CPR is 100-120 compressions per minute (cpm). The song most traditionally associated with CPR is the 1977 song "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees, which has a tempo of 103ish beats per minute (bpm). That tempo (coupled with the obvious relevance of the title towards saving someone's life) makes it easy to remember and teach!

It's certainly very good to use, but it might not be the BEST song for a few reasons:

1. The goal is a cpm of 100-120, so teaching a song with a tempo of almost exactly 100 means if someone's a little slow it could dip below 100; using a song that's 120 could have the same problem (if they're a little fast). Therefore we should be aiming for a song around 110 bpm!
2. Young people these days might not be familiar with "Stayin' Alive," which means it's becoming less and less helpful for teaching the tempo of CPR. Therefore we should pick a song with the same relevance (something to do with saving a life) but that people today will remember.
3. What if people (looking at you, Michael Scott) accidentally mistake the 1978 song "I Will Survive" for "Stayin' Alive"? Therefore we should make sure we're not in a sitcom.

Below we've got our list of proposed "new" songs to do CPR to, and you will not believe the best choice to replace "Stayin' Alive" in terms of tempo, topic (relevant to CPR), and popularity!

Here's our list of songs to replace Stayin' Alive, from worst to best:

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"Rock Your Body" by Justin Timberlake
101 BPM - 2002
​This topic is hilariously relevant to CPR, that's really the only reason it's on this list...

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"The Imperial March" by John Williams
103 BPM - 1980
Didn't know you could do CPR and feel like Darth Vader doing it? Well now you know! Not sure it's particularly relevant to doing CPR, except that maybe at the end of Episode 6 Darth Vader does save a life (Luke's) and there's some electricity involved, kinda like an AED? There's gotta be something there, right?

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"Sorry" by Justin Beiber
100 BPM - 2015
​This one is obviously relevant ("Is it too late now to say sorry?" Yes, but only if you don't do CPR properly!), but it's only 100 BPM so it's not really much of an improvement on Stayin' Alive.

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"Baby Shark" by an evil spirt (actually Pinkfong)
100 BPM - 2016
​We just wanted to get this song stuck in your head. The topic is in no way relevant to CPR (although it is relevant to drowning), and a mother has actually used it to save a child!

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"Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepson
120 BPM - 2012
​This could work to remind people to call 9-1-1 in an emergency, but it IS at the top end of the range we're looking for with BPMs. Plus we've found that people have a tendency to speed this song up when they're singing it, which is not good. Still, many people know this song!

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"Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen
112 BPM - 1980
Okay this is a little more morbid in terms of relevance but it still works! 😂 It doesn't really solve our problem as far as being modern enough though; if someone doesn't know "Stayin' Alive" it's unlikely they'll know this song. It has got the perfect tempo though!

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"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley
113 BPM - 1987
Even though this song is from 1987, it's modern resurgence in the "Rickroll" means most kids and adults today are familiar with it! This tops our list, because it's clearly relevant to doing CPR AND has almost the perfect tempo.

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The song you use doesn't really matter if you're not CPR certified:
get fun and flexible training today so you can help family and friends when they need it!