A study at the University of Illinois medical school had success using “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees to maintain the proper 100 compressions per minute.

Yuk. Way too cute. And listening to that song would sap my will to live.

My CPR instructor (USCG Retired) suggested any Sousa march. March tempo is around 110-120 and you’ll be slowing down, so that tempo helps keep you moving. Given the low success rate of bystander CPR (~5%), I’d really rather send someone out to “The Stars and Stripes Forever” than to disco. After all, that duck may be be somebody’s mother.

For the emo or contrarian rescuer, an alternative is Queen‘s “Another One Bites The Dust”. Whatever keeps you going.