A custom song for a retirement
Forty years of work, and someone finally put it into something other than a plaque.
Lyrics and music made with La Ritournelle AI
A retirement is not a leaving do. Someone is closing thirty or forty years and the standard response is a cake in a meeting room, a card, and possibly an engraved item they will put in a drawer. The scale is completely wrong. This person has spent more waking hours in this building than in their own house.
A retirement song has the room for it. The year they started, the technology that has changed three times since, the people they trained who now run the place, and what happens on Monday when there is nowhere to be. It works at the office party and it works at the family dinner, and it is one of the very few gifts that gets played more than once.
How to write your brief
Ideas to include
The whole career
The year they started, the job title that no longer exists, the three restructures they survived. Give us the arc, not a job description.
From the people they trained
Half the department learned it from them. That is the real legacy and it belongs in the song more than any sales figure.
What comes next
The boat, the garden, the grandkids, the plan they have been describing since 2019. End the song on Monday morning, not on the last day.
Perfect for
- A colleague retiring after decades on the same team
- A whole department marking the end of a career
- A parent or grandparent retiring, from the family
- A boss or mentor who trained half the people in the room
Tone ideas
- Warm and celebratory, a career worth a proper send off
- Funny and fond, running on decades of office legend
- Reflective and unhurried, for a quieter family dinner
- Set in the music of the year they started, whatever that turns out to be
Message example
Thirty two years, Dave. A plaque was never going to cover it, so we had La Ritournelle turn the whole career into a retirement song. Sit down before you press play.
Brief examples
The whole career
Name: Dave. Bond: colleague, thirty two years at the same firm. Occasion: Retirement. Tone: funny and fond. Anecdote: he started when the office had one computer and he was not allowed to touch it, to adapt with a real memory. Delivery: played at the retirement party. Indicative example, exact lyrics not promised.
From the people they trained
Name: Angela. Bond: manager, from a team she largely built. Occasion: Retirement. Tone: warm and celebratory. Anecdote: four of the six people in the room were hired and trained by her, to adapt with a real memory. Delivery: played at the office send off. Indicative example, exact lyrics not promised.
What comes next
Name: Grandad Bill. Bond: father and grandfather, retiring at sixty six. Occasion: Retirement. Tone: reflective and unhurried. Anecdote: he has been describing the boat he is going to buy since 2019 and has still not bought it, to adapt with a real memory. Delivery: played at the family dinner that weekend. Indicative example, exact lyrics not promised.
How it works
You tell us
Their name, the year they started, the stories from across the decades, and what they are retiring into.
We compose
We write the lyrics for your review, then produce a fully sung, studio quality track.
You gift it
Play it at the retirement party, or save it for the family dinner that weekend.
Why La Ritournelle
- A whole career in the lyrics, not a job title on an engraved plate
- You read and approve every line before a single note is sung
- Studio quality audio, ready in minutes, even if the party is today
- 7,99 €, and the collection can go on something they actually chose
Frequently asked questions
How do you fit forty years into one song?
The retirement do is tomorrow. Can we still do this?
Can we use it at the family dinner too?
They are retiring reluctantly. Should we avoid the subject?
Other occasions
Ready to write their song?
Tell us the story, we handle the rest. Your song is ready in minutes.