One Last Song

You're gonna die. And the last thing you will hear will be this song. Maybe you just got killed by a Musical Assassin, or the Brown Note ended your life. This trope applies whenever a character can hear a song during his last moments, whether said song killed him, was sung by his killer, or by a relative at the dying man's demand.

Compare Death Song (where the dying character is the one singing).

This is a Death Trope, beware of spoilers.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• D.Gray-Man: "The Millenium Earl he's looking for, for his precious heart..."
• One Piece:
  • Talleran the Spider Monkey dies a few seconds after Brook stops humming "Bink's Sake", which was also Brook's (and his entire crew's) Death Song.
  • Scratchman Apoo's powers allow him to turn his body parts into instruments...and somehow cut peoples to pieces with their sound.
• In The Legend of Koizumi, Georges Bush dies while his son W. sings a Tear Jerker rendition of "Take me out to the ball game".

Film — Animated

• The Brave Little Toaster: The appliances get caught in quicksand and start sinking. Radio, the last one to sink, decides to play an appropriate tune and settles on Al Jolson's "Mammy".
• In The Great Mouse Detective, Ratigan specially recorded the song "Goodbye So Soon" for the death trap he puts Basil of Baker Street into.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas: "'Cause this may be the last time you hear the Boogie song!"
• The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie manages to make the ridiculous Goofy Goober theme song a Tear Jerker, having SpongeBob and Patrick sing it while being dried in Shell City. That is, until their Swiss-Army Tears save them.

Film — Live Action

• Titanic: "Gentlemen, it was a pleasure to play with you tonight." The string quartet goes for one last song before the boat sinks, the last musical piece heard by most passengers.

Literature

• In Hunters of Gor Tarl has Marlenus and his underlings, all of whom are at that point prisoners of the forces of Tyros, sing the National Anthem of Ar as he goes into battle against 55 warriors from Tyros. It's the last thing that most of them hear.
  "Let me hear again, now," said I, "the anthem of Ar."
  The strains of the great song of Ar's victories broke from the Ubar's collared throat, and, too, from the throats of the men of Ar beside him.
  "Silence!" cried Sarus.
  He turned to face me, wildly. He saw that my blade was now drawn.
  "You are not of Ar!" he cried.
  "It would be better for you," said I, "if I were."
• Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby has the Brown Note version.
• The Dresden Files had a ghost singing a lullaby while smothering newborn babies in a hospital.
• In The Hunger Games Katniss sings Rue a lullaby as she is dying after taking a career's spear to the chest.
• Near the end of Robert Munsch's Love You Forever, the now-adult son sings the titular song to his now-dying mother.

Music

• Enter The Haggis' One Last Drink, which is half-Death Song, half this. (Part of it is sang from Ol'John POV)
• Jonathan Coulton's RE:Your brains. (The target of the song is stuck in a mall, alone against a horde of zombies)
• Andrew W.K.'s Ready to Die
• The Black Parade.
• "And The Radio Played On" by The Delta Mirror. It's a Death Song involving a couple's last moments together as the man is dying from some (unspecified) disease. The man just wants his last experience to be listening to the radio with his wife/girlfriend.
  She flips through the stations knowing wherever that she lands
  Will forever be the song that returns her to this moment
  He said this isn't the one that she should try to find
  Anything will do, but we're running out of time
• Trickywi's "Perish Song" (a reference to the Pokemon move described below) is all about this; the lyrics heavily imply the song itself is actually an ancient egyptian curse passed down through the singer's family. Depending on how you interpret the lyrics, she either doesn't believe the stories, or is offering False Reassurance to the audience to keep them from interrupting.
  Momma warned me not to sing this old tune
  For it will lead to my doom
  But I really should have known, gotta chill in my bones, this tale could not be true
  What exactly is the worst that can happen?
  My friends are coming soon
  Once they're here we can sing together, and see what the song can do

Video Games

• Infocom's Planetfall has this for your Robot Buddy Floyd. As Floyd dies, the hero cradles him in their lap and quietly sings his favorite song.
• The Pokémon move Perish Song causes any Pokemon who hears it to faint in 3 turns.
• Total Annihilation: "YOU ARE DEAD! DEAD! DEAD!" (Also known as "Death by Guitar Warrior")

Web Original

• Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog song "Slipping" was supposed to be this to Captain Hammer... It indeed was the last song for someone...Too bad it was his Morality Chain, Penny.

Western Animation

• Tangled: The Series: The chant associated with the Moonstone has the effect of causing everything in the vicinity to wither and die, human beings included.
  Rapunzel: "Wither and decay. End this destiny. Break these earthly chains, and set the spirit free."

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