Popular music is scattered with references to fathers, ranging from sweet nostalgia to complicated relationships and regret. While some pay tribute to the men who raised them, others are written from the perspective of the parent.
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It’s hard whittling the list to only five songs, but this set covers dads who are strong, patient, absent, nurturing, and one who’s a Beatle.
Consider this a Father’s Day celebration of dad songs from across the musical spectrum.
“They Don’t Make ’Em Like My Daddy” by Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn celebrated her father’s resilience, helping the family survive the Great Depression with signature songs that became country standards. “Coal Miner’s Daughter” became her defining anthem, and “They Don’t Make ’Em Like My Daddy” further salutes her hard-working dad. It’s the title track to her 24th album and became a hit for Lynn in 1974. The country star sings about her 6-foot-3 father, as big as a bear. Meanwhile, Lynn grew up to be as tough as the man she described.
They don’t make men like my daddy anymore
Guess they’ve thrown away the pattern through the years
In a great big land of freedom at a time we really need ’em
They don’t make ’em like my daddy anymore
“Color Him Father” by Linda Martell
A song for the stepfathers, Washington, D.C., soul group The Winstons released “Color Him Father” in 1969, and they scored a Top-10 hit with it. In the song, a boy whose father died in war admires his stepdad, who loves him as his own. Linda Martell recorded a country version the same year and broke barriers, becoming the first Black woman to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Beyoncé celebrated Martell on her chart-topping country album Cowboy Carter 55 years later.
There’s a man at my house, he’s so big and strong
He goes to work each day, and he stays all day long
Comes home each night looking tired and beat
He sits down at the dinner table and has a bite to eat
“Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” by The Temptations
This Motown classic follows a child who doesn’t know their dad. They hear rumors about the wandering man with a secret family and depend on their mother to learn the truth about him. Not every song has a happy ending. However, this is one of the greatest soul jams of all time. It begins with a staccato bass and high hat before creeping strings and the scratch guitar of Wah Wah Watson enters. An ominous brass section pronounces the looming despair of an abandoned family. To borrow a phrase from Marvin Gaye, The Temptations cover is an inner-city blues anthem.
Papa was a rollin’ stone
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone
“Winter” by Tori Amos
Tori Amos’s songs have many layers, and here she searches for warmth amidst a wintry backdrop. She uses the seasonal metaphor to describe a hard time, and her father tells his daughter she needs to “learn to stand up” because he won’t always be around. Then he asks when she’ll love herself as much as he loves her. “Winter” appeared on the brilliant Little Earthquakes, a cathartic and staggeringly honest album where Amos, with only a piano, shifted ground like the grunge bands and their loud guitars in 1992.
Snow can wait, I forgot my mittens
Wipe my nose, get my new boots on
I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter
I put my hands in my father’s glove
I run off where the drifts get deeper
Sleeping Beauty, it trips me with a frown
I hear a voice, “You must learn to stand up
For yourself ’cause I can’t always be around.”
“Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” by John Lennon
Paul McCartney said this is one of his favorite John Lennon songs. He wrote it for his son, Sean, and it appeared on Double Fantasy, the last album released before Lennon’s murder. It opens with Lennon comforting his son following a nightmare. Sean was only 5 years old when his father was shot outside his home at The Dakota. There’s a line where Lennon sings he “can hardly wait to see you come of age,” adding a deeper layer of sadness to his lullaby.
Close your eyes
Have no fear
The monster’s gone
He’s on the run
And your daddy’s here
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