Best Father’s Day Songs: 20 Tracks That Show Love For Dads

19: XTC: Hold Me My Daddy (1989)

It’s certainly not always the case, but some fathers and sons (and, indeed, mothers and daughters) struggle to get along – even when they love each other. It’s a subject examined with feeling on the excellent Hold Me My Daddy, from XTC’s ninth album, Oranges And Lemons, in which a clearly emotional Andy Partridge sings, “Well, these are the right words to say/They’re difficult but still true/Well, then, hold me, my daddy/I forgot to say, ‘I love you.’”

Expounding further on these feelings in an interview, the XTC frontman said, “Most boys/men can’t talk to their fathers or show affection. It’s not what we’re supposed to do. It’s OK to say, ‘Love you, mum,’ but it’s taboo, or at least it’s not easy, to say it to your dad. I played [Hold Me My Daddy] for my father and he wondered what the hell it was about. It was a bit touchy. Maybe he was embarrassed. It was a very difficult song to write.”

18: Cole Swindell: You Should Be Here (2015)

After signing a record deal with Warner Nashville, Cole Swindell’s career breakthrough was marred by tragedy when his father died unexpectedly. Written in response to the loss, You Should Be Here emerged as a poignant reflection on the heartbreak of losing a parent. “Although I don’t like the circumstances of why I had to write the song, I know for a fact if my dad knew leaving this world a little early would inspire a song that would help so many, he would’ve had no problem with it,” Swindell told The Huffington Post. Released in December 2015 as the first single from Swindell’s second album, also titled You Should Be Here, the song saw the singer deliver a beautiful eulogy to his old man, imagining him “crackin’ a cold beer” as they share one last moment together (“They say now you’re in a better place/And I would be, too, if I could see your face”).

17: James Blunt: Monsters (2019)

A song in which a male singer-songwriter certainly does express his feelings, James Blunt’s emotionally charged piano ballad Monsters was written in tribute to his father, Charles, who – at the time – had just been diagnosed with stage 4 chronic kidney disease.

Making for one of the best James Blunt songs, the nakedly vulnerable lyrics (“I’m not your son, you’re not my father/We’re just two grown men saying goodbye/No need to forgive, no need to forget/I know your mistakes and you know mine”) relate to the way traditional father-son roles can reverse over time, and the song’s video – which features Blunt and his father seated side-by-side – is also extremely moving. Though only a minor hit on release, Monsters is nonetheless one of the Best Father’s Day songs out there, and it shows exactly why it’s right for boys to cry, too.

16: Boney M: Daddy Cool (1976)

Boney M’s record label, Hansa Records, originally wanted the disco troupe’s cover of Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry for the A-side of their second single. However, after producer/mastermind Frank Farian road-tested both the Marley cover and the song’s intended B-side – the self-penned Daddy Cool – at a hip German discotheque, the latter attracted far greater dancefloor action, forcing Hansa to allow the band to flip the songs for single release.

The label never regretted the decision, for Daddy Cool duly notched up the first of ten Top 20 UK hits for Boney M, and it remains one of the Euro-Caribbean act’s key tracks. Sure, it’s light-hearted compared with much of the material found among the best Father’s Day songs, but it’s none the worse for that. A floor-filler to this day, Daddy Cool still struts its stuff in style, and it’s the ideal salute to all the hippest daddies out there.

15: Paul Simon: Father And Daughter (2002)

Many musician fathers have famous children, and though Paul Simon’s Father And Daughter fits neatly among the best Father’s Day songs, it’s also something of a family affair. Written to order for the 2002 animated movie The Wild Thornberrys, the song is ostensibly a tribute to the film’s lead character, Eliza – a little girl on a mission to save an African cheetah cub from ruthless poachers – but it was inspired by Simon’s then seven-year-old daughter, Lulu, and also featured backing vocals from his young son, Adrian.

The lyrics feature a typical Simon-esque quirk or two (“And though I can’t guarantee there’s nothing scary hiding under your bed/I’m gonna stand guard like a postcard of a golden retriever/And never leave till I leave you with a sweet dream in your head”), but this heart-melting ode to a father’s love for his daughter was still one of the straightest pop songs this masterful singer-songwriter had put his name to in years – and it rewarded him with Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

14: Neil Young: Prairie Wind (2005)

An album written partly in response to the recent death of his father, Scott, and ruminations on his own mortality, Neil Young’s 26th studio set, Prairie Wind, found the prolific singer-songwriter returning to the rootsy, semi-acoustic sound that afforded him mainstream success with 1972’s Harvest album and its latter-day successor, Harvest Moon. Nominated for two Grammy Awards, the record was greeted with widespread acclaim and it features several excellent, heartfelt moments worthy of a place among the best Father’s Day songs. Arguably the best of them, Prairie Wind’s title track matches ruminative lyrics (“Trying to remember what daddy said/Before too much time took away his head”) to a low-riding groove that hooks you in within seconds.

13: Zac Brown Band: My Old Man (2017)

Beautifully capturing the bond between father and son to devastating effect, Zac Brown Band’s 2017 single My Old Man can turn even the most stoic of souls into a blubbering wreck. As Brown himself admitted in an interview on Ty, Kelly And Chuck: “I have to not think about my dad and my son when I’m playing it, or I’m a mess halfway through!” Lyrically reflecting upon the guidance and support provided by a dependable father figure, My Old Man eloquently muses on how a loving dad can shapes one’s own journey into fatherhood (“I can still remember every lesson he taught me/Growing up learning how to be/Like my old man”). By celebrating the profound impact our dads can have – even from the next life – this song is a poignant ode to paternal love that truly earns its place on our list of the best Father’s Day songs.

12: David Bowie: Kooks (1971)

Many of the best Father’s Day songs are written by younger performers in salute to their dads, but David Bowie flipped the script with the Hunky Dory classic Kooks, and paid tribute to his newborn son, Duncan Jones. Bowie freely admitted that Kooks was written under the influence of Neil Young – whose music he was listening to when he received the news of Duncan’s birth – but this delightful song’s stripped-back, semi-acoustic vibe is in keeping with the majority of the Hunky Dory material, even if its suitably childlike lyric (“I bought you a pair of shoes/A trumpet you can blow and a book of rules/On what to say to people when they pick on you”) is more in keeping with Bowie’s pre-Space Oddity catalogue.

11: Reba Mcentire: The Greatest Man I Ever Knew (1991)

Sadly, not all of us have been blessed with close relationships with our fathers, but that doesn’t mean the love isn’t there. Offering a touching perspective on a father-daughter relationship grown distant, Reba McEntire’s single The Greatest Man I Ever Knew appears to tell the story of a hardworking father who struggles to outwardly express his love (“Oh, he was good at bus’ness but there was bus’ness left to do/He never said he loved me, guess he thought I knew”). Both bittersweet and melancholic, this song stands out among the best Father’s Day songs for reminding us to not let work destroy our relationships, so that we can make the most of the time we have. Despite conveying the tragic fallout of emotional estrangement, The Greatest Man I Never Knew does recognise the sacrifices parents make provide for their family, which lends the song weight as a relatable ode to flawed fathers whose love is felt through actions rather than words.

10: Coldplay: Daddy (2019)

Singing from the perspective of a child, Coldplay songwriter Chris Martin wrote Daddy for the group’s 2019 album, Everyday Life, in an attempt to reconcile the sad reality of absent fatherhood with his own feelings about being apart from his children while on tour (“Daddy, are you out there?/Daddy, won’t you come and play?”). “I have many people in my life whose dads fuck off, which is sad and confusing,” Martin told The Sunday Times. “If you empathise as a dad, you wonder, what was he feeling that he thought that would be best?” With simplicity and emotional directness, Daddy is a beautiful and moving piano ballad that ranks among the best Father’s Day songs for navigating the pain of parental separation. With words used only sparingly to convey feelings of guilt, regret and, finally, forgiveness and acceptance, Daddy cleverly voices a child’s innermost thoughts to remind us why it’s so important that we don’t let any of these questions go unanswered.

9: Eric Clapton: My Father’s Eyes (1998)

It’s often the case that songwriters pay tribute to the father figures who have played a vital role in raising them, but Eric Clapton never knew his real father, Edward Fryer, who died of leukaemia in 1985. Nonetheless, with My Father’s Eyes, the legendary guitarist – who had previously mourned the loss of his own son, Conor, on the heartbreaking Tears In Heaven – came up with a dignified tribute that any father would be proud of. Based around an easy, lilting rhythm allowing Clapton plenty of room to solo, My Father’s Eyes had a universal appeal which led to it going Top 20 in numerous territories and rewarding its creator with a Grammy Award in 1999.

8: Bread: Everything I Own (1972)

Peaking at No.5 in the US, Everything I Own was mistakenly embraced as a straightforward love song. In However, it was actually written by Bread frontman David Gates as a tribute to his late father. Citing his dad as “my greatest influence”, Gates went into more detail about the song in the book 1000 UK Number One Hits: “I decided to write and record Everything I Own about him. If you listen to the words, ‘You sheltered me from harm, kept me warm, gave my life to me, set me free,’ it says it all.” As one of the best Father’s Day songs ever written, Everything I Own is far deeper than anyone assumed, standing the test of time as a heartfelt commemoration of paternal love and how much we miss it when it’s gone (“I would give everything I own/Just to have you back again”).

7: Tori Amos: Winter (1992)

One of the most nakedly personal of all the songs on her intimate and widely acclaimed debut album, Little Earthquakes, the luminescent Winter is a tribute to not just the one, but the two father figures in Tori Amos’ life. The singer-songwriter has said that when she started writing the song, “there was a picture of my mother’s father, Papa, and then a picture of my father, in the snow”, and the song duly honours both men – her loving, yet formidable father, the Reverend Dr Edison McKinley Amos, and her maternal grandfather, Calvin Clinton “CC” Copeland.

Both were significant – and positive – role models in Amos’ early life, and she repays their feelings in kind on Winter. One of the best Tori Amos songs, it includes numerous lines (“I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter/I put my hand in my father’s glove”) relating to the depth of paternal love at its most unconditional.

6: Billy Joel: Vienna (1977)

Rooted in Billy Joel’s memories of visiting his father in the Austrian capital at the age of 23, Vienna acts as an ode to mindful living. Inspired by the life lessons Joel’s dad would teach him, the song ranks among the very best Father’s Day to speak of embracing the present and appreciating life’s journey, rather than rushing towards an uncertain future. “When I wrote ‘Vienna waits for you’, I meant that it is a place where you close the circle. By going to Vienna, suddenly things started to make sense in the world for me,” Joel later said. “Which is really what the song is about: Slow down, look around you and have some gratitude for the good things in your life. That’s what Vienna represented to me.” Thanks to his father’s connection to the city, Joel wrote Vienna to capture those paternal words of wisdom as a way of reminding himself to find contentment in the simple joys that often get overlooked amid the ambitious world of showbiz.

5: Luther Vandross: Dance With My Father (2003)

Given that Luther Vandross’ father died when he was just eight years old, it came as a surprise to his mother just how vividly her son remembered his dad on the 2003 single Dance With My Father. From being lifted up as they danced to laughing at his father’s antics, Vandross recalls many treasured childhood memories to prove that the life-long bond between father and son is unbreakable. Even though their relationship was tragically cut short, the mixture of heartache and gratitude in Vandross’ soulful voice is as pure as it gets, making this nostalgic reminiscence all the more painful given the knowledge that Vandross himself died just two months after the song was released. Easily one of the best Father’s Day songs, Dance With My Father is a timeless R&B ballad that still resonates deeply with those mourning the loss of their own fathers.

4: Yusuf/Cat Stevens: Father And Son (1970)

In true countercultural style, Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ coming-of-age folk ballad Father And Son is rare among the best Father’s Day songs, in that it paints the idea of a generation gap in a more nuanced light. There are times, of course, when fathers and sons do not see eye to eye, so beginning with a lecture (“You’re still young, that’s your fault/There’s so much you have to know”), only to be met with dismissiveness from his son (“From the moment I could talk/I was ordered to listen”), is something we can all relate to at some point in our lives. As the son leaves to find his own path in life, rather than accept his father’s word as gospel, it’s clear Father And Son was based upon Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ relationship with his own father. “He was running a restaurant and I was a pop star, so I wasn’t following the path that he laid out,” the singer-songwriter said on The Chris Isaak Hour. “But we certainly didn’t have any antagonism between us. I loved him and he loved me.” In the end, it’s that love that counts most, with Father And Son poetically expressing the ways in which we can agree to disagree with equal parts wisdom and understanding.

3: Mike + The Mechanics: The Living Years (1988)

Tempestuous relationships between fathers and sons can sometimes provide the catalyst for the best Father’s Day songs. However, while many tunes of this nature enjoy a lasting legacy, few have the universal appeal of Mike + The Mechanics’ signature hit, The Living Years.

A superior soft-rock ballad written by Genesis guitarist and Mechanics founder Mike Rutherford with Scottish singer-songwriter BA Robertson, The Living Years was inspired by a son’s sadness brought on by unresolved conflict with his now-deceased father. The lyrics are loaded with regret (“It’s too late when we die/To admit we don’t see eye to eye”) but the song’s X factor is provided by Paul Carrack’s ultra-poignant vocal, which still somehow transcends place and time. The Living Years’ broad appeal was borne out when it became a global hit, and its subsequent accolades – an Ivor Novello Award and numerous Grammy nominations – have secured its reputation as a classic.

2: Harry Chapin: Cats In The Cradle (1974)

Serving as a cautionary tale, Harry Chaplin’s folk ballad Cats In The Cradle ranks among the best Father’s Day songs for the way it melancholically reflects upon the cyclical nature of absentee fatherhood. Lyrically depicting a father constantly preoccupied with work who misses out on precious moments with his young son, we ultimately see the roles reverse as the years pass, with the son growing up to be equally distant when the father longs for his attention. Still capable of reducing people to tears with its warning to not take our loved ones for granted, Cats In The Cradle will leave dads wanting to prioritise quality time with their children before it’s too late. Stressing the need to be more present-minded and break the cycle of inattentiveness, this song remains a gut-punching and sobering masterclass that spells out why it’s so important to be an actively engaged parent.

1: Madonna: Papa Don’t Preach (1986)

Most of the best Father’s Day songs are passionately written, which is usually why they’re capable of resonating down the decades. For our pick of the bunch, however, we have a Madonna hit which matched commitment with controversy when it was released as a single from her 1986 album, True Blue.

Superficially, Papa Don’t Preach is about paternal guidance – albeit control exercised with tolerance – but the lyrical allusions to teenage pregnancy (“But I’ve made up my mind/I’m keeping my baby”) stirred up something of a hornet’s nest at the time. Madonna herself believed Papa Don’t Preach worked so well because it started conversations (“There were so many opinions – that’s why I thought it was so great,” she told Rolling Stone magazine), but you could argue that it became another in her groundbreaking run of US and UK No.1 hits simply because it was a great song brilliantly executed. Certainly, that’s why it tops this list of the best Father’s Day songs.

Looking for more parental praise? Check out the best Mother’s Day songs.

Original article: 18 June 2023

Updated: 16 June 2024