Singalongs and iPod playlists, music has calming effect on nursing-home residents


(Photo Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

It was the third Monday of the month, so residents of Legacy Nursing and Rehab sang along with classics such as “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during music hour.

Preston Cooper, 85, really perked up when he heard “America the Beautiful.”

Cooper, a resident of Legacy for the past eight years, was sporting an orange Giants cap. But his favorite music? The blues.

“My uncle loved the blues,” the Texas native and retired laborer said. “I grew up on the blues.” So a few years ago when the nursing home began to use iPods as a way to engage its residents, someone made him a blues playlist that includes songs by Lightnin’ Hopkins, Robert Cray and B.B. King.

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