This music’s unforgettable.
A list of hits going back to the 1930s has been chosen as the top songs to play for people with dementia to keep them calm — and even get them dancing, a new report claims.
The playlist includes artists as diverse as the electronic band New Order and the late pop king Michael Jackson — and has a long list of performers that older people would remember from Louis Armstrong to Chuck Berry.
Lottie, a website that connects people to home health care, has come up with two playlists of offerings they say benefit people with dementia – one for up-tempo songs and another for calming tunes.
Only two songs recorded since 1980 cracked either list’s top 10: New Order’s “Blue Monday” and Rick James’ “Super Freak,” which were No. 3 and No. 10 on Lottie’s “Ultimate Upbeat Dementia Playlist.”
Other songs go back as far as World War II or earlier, with the Andrew Sisters’ 1944 “Rum and Coca-Cola” being a good upbeat song for people with dementia and Tommy Dorsey’s “Marie” being a good calming song.
“We were interested in finding out if we could use musical variables to analyze a set of songs and reveal what songs might be favorable to people with dementia, allowing them to reconnect and enjoy later life through nostalgia,” a spokesperson for Lottie told The Post in an email.
They ranked 600 songs with scores in categories like “danceability,” lyrics and other categories — with the upbeat list aimed at encouraging dancing and activity while the calming list aims for relaxation.
The group didn’t analyze if genre had an effect on the scoring, or why certain choices seemed slightly out of place based on the other picks but “it could be an interesting future development we could take with the date,” the spokesperson said.
“Regarding the high tempo playlist, we can assume some jazz and pop would rank higher due to their higher tempo,” the rep added.
The highest-ranked upbeat tunes were country songs “The Battle of New Orleans” from 1959 and “Pistol Packin’ Mama” from 1943, followed by “Blue Monday,” the King of Pop’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You get Enough” and “Rum and Coca Cola” by the Andrews Sisters.
Classic rock cuts and soul standards like the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” and James Brown’s “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” fell just short on the top 10.
The calming list was topped by Dinah Shore’s “Buttons and Bows” (1948), Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963), Tommy Dorsey’s “Marie” (1937), Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy” (1948) and “One O’Clock Jump” by Count Basie (1937).