50th birthday
Half a century of them. Old friends are flying in. Somebody has to give the speech, and you would rather sing it.
A 50th birthday song for half a century of them
Fifty is often the birthday with the biggest party, the one where old friends fly in and the kids give a speech. A song made from the stories those people tell about them is the part of the night that lasts after the decorations come down.
Hear the second a name lands
Claire, you make the season feel so bright,
You wrote“She makes hot chocolate with way too many marshmallows.”
The song singsNow you make cocoa with marshmallows piled high,
From a real song made here: “Sweeter Than Cocoa”, for Claire, from what her husband typed.
The moment you give it
Instead of a speech, you raise your phone. The song moves through the decades of their life, and each old friend gets a line they recognize. Someone asks to hear it twice.
Fiftieth · the big party
Fifty years of them
Back garden, a long table, people from every decade
Speeches limited to two minutes. This one is a song.
Start with one memory
Pick a question. The form opens with your first line already started.
A milestone birthday song we made
This one was a 40th; a fiftieth works the same way with ten more years of stories.
What you get for $12.99
You hear it first, free. You pay once, only if you keep it.
- Free preview
- The first 60 seconds, ready in about two minutes after you enter your email. No card.
- The song
- The full song, about two minutes long, as an MP3 to download and keep.
- Lyrics
- Every line is on the preview page before you pay. Unlocking adds the lyric sheet, to print or save as a PDF.
- Their link
- A private link that plays the whole song without an account, with your name and a short note. Switch it off any time.
- Photo video
- Free: a vertical 9:16 photo video of your photos with the lyrics on screen, plus 15- and 30-second cuts. Made in your browser.
- The name
- Unusual name? Type how to say it (SEER-sha for Saoirse) and the singer says it that way.
- Re-record
- One free re-record per song: change a line, the style or the voice and record it again.
- Name sung wrong?
- After you pay, a free remake with the name fixed, once per song.
- Languages
- Sung in English, German, French, Spanish or Japanese.
- Teaser
- Before you pay, a 15-second teaser link that tells them a song is on its way.
- For this song
- Posting it? The 15-second cut fits an Instagram story and the 30-second cut a Reel, with the lyrics already on screen.
- Want a nudge next year? Opt in and we email you three weeks and one week before the date.
Fifty years, five places to look
- Their oldest friend's favorite story about them.
- Childhood: the hometown, the street, the thing they were always getting caught doing.
- Their twenties: the move, the band, the first real job.
- Family: the partner, the kids, the people they look after.
- Work: what they built, fixed or taught.
- Now: what they do on a perfect Saturday.
For example
A daughter writing for her mom's fiftieth might type:
- Mom grew up above her parents' bakery in Queens and still wakes up at five.
- She went back to school at 42 and became a nurse practitioner.
- Every Sunday she calls all three of us, in birth order.
Fitting it into the party
- Play it again at the end of the night for whoever missed it the first time.
- Play it right after the speeches, so the room is already quiet and listening.
- Choose upbeat pop for a dance party or acoustic pop for a sit-down dinner with family.
- Give the MP3 to the DJ or whoever controls the speaker before the night starts.
- Send the file to the guests afterwards so the out-of-towners have it too.
More song ideas
Questions
Half a century deserves a chorus.
Type their first name and the hometown they still talk about.