Songs About Family Memories
Thirty-four songs about family memories. Almost everyone looking for these is making something — a slideshow, a reunion video, a montage for an anniversary — so they are sorted by what you are making rather than by mood, and the running times matter.
Updated September 202634 songs
Ten about looking back at a family
- In My LifeThe Beatles · 1965
Two and a half minutes about places and people that have gone. The most useful song on this page.
- PhotographEd Sheeran · 2015
Literally about keeping someone in a picture. Made for a montage and it does not overplay it.
- The Way We WereBarbra Streisand · 1973
The original memory song. For a family with a lot of older members in the room.
- Somewhere Only We KnowKeane · 2004
About a place that no longer exists. For a house that has been sold.
- We Are FamilySister Sledge · 1979
Recorded by four actual sisters. The reunion song, and it needs no explaining to anybody.
- 7 YearsLukas Graham · 2015
Ages a person through a whole life in four minutes. Built for exactly this kind of video.
- Rivers and RoadsThe Head and the Heart · 2011
About a family scattering across a country. The last minute will finish people off.
- LandslideFleetwood Mac · 1975
About change and being frightened of it. Short, which for a montage is a feature.
- Both Sides NowJoni Mitchell · 1969
About looking at the same life from two ages. Her 2000 recording for a room of adults.
- Old Friends / BookendsSimon & Garfunkel · 1968
Ninety seconds, and one of the most concentrated pieces of writing about memory anybody has done.
If you are making a video, read this first
Choose the song before you choose the photographs. Everybody does it the other way round and everybody regrets it. Three to four minutes is roughly sixty images at a pace people can actually read, and once you have the song you can cut to it. A montage that runs out before the music ends leaves the room staring at a black screen through the last chorus.
Check the running time of the exact recording rather than the song. “Hallelujah” ranges from four minutes to nearly seven depending on who is singing. “In My Life” is two and a half. Getting this wrong is the single commonest failure in family slideshows and it is entirely avoidable.
Watch for songs that turn. Several standards on this page are about a relationship ending rather than a family remembering, and a room of aunts will hear the second verse even if nobody noticed it on the playlist. Read to the end, every time.
One thing worth doing while you have everybody in a room: record them. A phone on a table catching people telling the same story badly is worth more in ten years than any montage, and nobody ever regrets having done it.
By what you are making
For a slideshow or a memorial video
Songs with a real ending so the pictures can be cut to them. Check the running time of the exact recording.
- What a Wonderful WorldLouis Armstrong · 1967
Two minutes, warm the whole way, and it finishes properly. Almost purpose-built for a montage.
- Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful WorldIsrael Kamakawiwoʻole · 1993
The ukulele medley. Slow enough to carry a long slideshow without becoming heavy.
- The Best DayTaylor Swift · 2008
Written about her own mother and given as a Christmas present. Right for a parent-made video.
- Slipping Through My FingersABBA · 1981
A mother watching a daughter grow up. The most quietly devastating thing here.
- Time to Say GoodbyeAndrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman · 1996
Enormous. Use it only if your pictures can carry it; it will overwhelm a modest montage.
- VincentDon McLean · 1971
Quiet and it builds without ever getting loud. Good for a video about one person.
- Wish You Were HerePink Floyd · 1975
For a family video with somebody missing from the second half of it.
- Bookends ThemeSimon & Garfunkel · 1968
Under ninety seconds. Perfect for a short opening or a closing card.
For a reunion or a big lunch
A room of people who all know each other. Warm, singable, and nothing that stops the conversation.
- We Are FamilySister Sledge · 1979
The reunion song. Put it on when the last car arrives.
- Lean on MeBill Withers · 1972
A room can sing it without rehearsal, which is the whole requirement here.
- SeptemberEarth, Wind & Fire · 1978
The reliable choice when three generations are present and agree on nothing else.
- Sweet CarolineNeil Diamond · 1969
The shouted part means nobody has to know the verses. Late in the afternoon.
- Ain’t No Mountain High EnoughMarvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell · 1967
Gets everybody in the kitchen moving, including the ones who claim they do not dance.
- Twist and ShoutThe Beatles · 1963
For a room spanning eighty years of age. Two and a half minutes and everybody is in.
- Lovely DayBill Withers · 1977
The best background record for a room full of people talking over food.
- Everyday PeopleSly and the Family Stone · 1968
For a family that is not all the same and is fine about it.
For a house being sold, or a family changing
The quieter version of this search. A move, a divorce, the last Christmas somewhere.
- Our HouseCrosby, Stills, Nash & Young · 1970
Two and a half minutes about a specific house being a good place. Play it once and stop.
- To Build a HomeThe Cinematic Orchestra · 2007
About a house that outlasts the people in it. For the last walk round before the keys go.
- Take Me Home, Country RoadsJohn Denver · 1971
For anyone in the family who is homesick and would not use the word.
- HomeEdward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros · 2009
About a person being a place, which is the useful thing to believe when the building goes.
- The Night We MetLord Huron · 2015
About wanting to go back to before. For a change nobody chose.
- Fire and RainJames Taylor · 1970
For a family that has lost somebody and is still working out the shape of it.
- Both Sides NowJoni Mitchell · 1969
For anyone looking back at a version of the family that no longer exists.
- In My LifeThe Beatles · 1965
The right last song for almost any occasion on this page.
Three demonstration songs
What a song about your family sounds like
We wrote these from made-up answers to the same five questions you would fill in. They are not customer work. Every song above is about somebody else’s family; the only one that can name the house, the road and the cousins is one written for yours.
Start the song- Biscuit Tin ElaineAcoustic · a mother who worked eleven years of night shifts2:50
- Ray at Sixty-OneCountry · thirty-one years at the plant, same truck since nineteen3:29
- Marguerite at the StopFolk · forty years from a bus stop in the rain2:19
How it works
Three steps. The first one is the only hard part.
- 1Tell the storyFive questions. Who it’s for, the occasion, three details only you two know, the feeling you want, and the names that have to be in it.
- 2Pick the soundCountry, pop, acoustic, R&B, gospel or rock. A man’s voice or a woman’s.
- 3Listen, then unlockA 30-second preview in about two minutes. Pay only if you love it. You get the full song, the lyrics, and a page you can send.
Common questions
- What is a good song for a family slideshow?
- “In My Life” at two and a half minutes, “Photograph” at four, “7 Years” if you want a whole life in one song. Choose the song first, then cut the photographs to it — about sixty images to three or four minutes.
- What should play at a family reunion?
- “We Are Family” when the last car arrives, “September” once everyone is eating, “Sweet Caroline” at the end. Nothing that stops the conversation, because the conversation is the reunion.
- What song suits a family home being sold?
- “Our House” for the good version and “To Build a Home” for the difficult one. Both are about a specific building rather than about families in general, which is what makes them work.
- How long should a family video be?
- One song. Three to four minutes, about sixty photographs. Two songs is already too long for a room that is standing, and a video that outlasts its music ends in silence.
- Can I get a song written about my family?
- Yes, and it is one of the better uses for it — a song can name the house, the road and the cousins, which no record can. Answer five questions and you will hear a 30-second preview in about two minutes. The full song is $19.