Songs for Mom
Thirty-four songs for a mother. Most lists of these thank her for the work — the sacrifices, the sleepless years, the job. That is worth saying once a year and it is not the same as celebrating the person, so the groups below are sorted by which of those you are doing.
Updated September 202634 songs
Ten written about a real mother
- A Song for MamaBoyz II Men · 1997
A straight thank-you sung by four sons. The most direct song here and the easiest to give.
- The Best DayTaylor Swift · 2008
Written about her own mother and given to her as a Christmas present. Specific in a way almost nothing else is.
- Coat of Many ColorsDolly Parton · 1971
For a mother who made things by hand and made you feel rich when the family was not.
- Mama TriedMerle Haggard · 1968
A mother who did everything right and a son who did not. Funny or painful depending on the family.
- Slipping Through My FingersABBA · 1981
A mother watching a daughter leave for school. Written from her side, which is rare.
- MotherJohn Lennon · 1970
Raw, unpleasant and completely honest about a mother who left. Do not use it as a compliment.
- Wind Beneath My WingsBette Midler · 1989
For a mother who did the unglamorous half of everything. Obvious, and still effective.
- In My LifeThe Beatles · 1965
Gentle and short. Looks back without sounding like a eulogy, which for a living mother matters.
- Simple ManLynyrd Skynyrd · 1973
A mother’s advice to a son. Playing it back to her closes the loop, and works better than it should.
- Ribbon in the SkyStevie Wonder · 1982
Warm and grand without being about motherhood at all, which some mothers much prefer.
Thanking her is not the same as celebrating her
Nearly every song about mothers is about the labour: the sacrifices, the worry, the years given up. Those are real and they deserve saying. But a woman who only ever gets thanked for her work is being told her value is the work, and most mothers were people first and would like to be reminded of it. Decide which of the two you are doing before you choose.
If you are celebrating the person, go to her own music rather than to the mother songbook. What was on when she was nineteen. What she sings badly in the car. What she played after your father left, or when the house was finally empty. If you cannot answer that, it is worth finding out for reasons well beyond the song.
Get the decade right, and go earlier than instinct says. A mother turning sixty in 2026 was young in the mid-1980s. People consistently choose ten years late, because they are thinking of what she played when they themselves were children — which is already a decade after her own formative period.
One caution: “Mother” by John Lennon and “Mama Tried” are not compliments and get used as ones. Lennon’s is about abandonment. Haggard’s is about a son in prison. Both are great and both need a family that will hear them correctly.
By what you are actually saying
Thank you for the work
The labour, the years, the things she gave up. Worth saying, and worth saying deliberately rather than by default.
- You Raise Me UpJosh Groban · 2003
Big and unambiguous. Best with a live singer; a recording can feel like a broadcast.
- Because You Loved MeCéline Dion · 1996
A straight thank-you set to music. Sincere rather than clever, which is the point.
- Hey MamaKanye West · 2005
A son itemising what she did for him. More specific than most of this category.
- Dear Mama2Pac · 1995
The most honest song in this group — it thanks her and admits the difficulty in the same verse.
- Bridge Over Troubled WaterSimon & Garfunkel · 1970
The largest thank-you available. Slow to start, so put the old photographs in the first verse.
- MamaSpice Girls · 1997
About realising too late that she was right. Unfashionable and precisely accurate.
- Thank YouDido · 2000
About one person making an otherwise terrible day bearable. Quiet enough to send without ceremony.
- The Perfect FanBackstreet Boys · 1999
For a mother who was at every match, concert and school play. She will remember being the only parent there.
For the woman, not the mother
Her own music, from when she was young. This is the group that surprises people and the one they remember.
- Dancing QueenABBA · 1976
For a mother who was seventeen somewhere near 1976 and will tell you about it.
- RespectAretha Franklin · 1967
For a mother who ran everything and was thanked for none of it. Play it loud.
- DreamsFleetwood Mac · 1977
Cool rather than sentimental. A good choice for a mother who dislikes fuss.
- I Wanna Dance with SomebodyWhitney Houston · 1987
Pure joy, and a whole generation of mothers has a specific memory attached.
- Girls Just Want to Have FunCyndi Lauper · 1983
For a mother who was in her twenties in the eighties. She knows the video shot for shot.
- What a Diff’rence a Day MakesDinah Washington · 1959
For a mother born in the 1930s or 1940s, with more style than sentiment.
- Feeling GoodNina Simone · 1965
For a mother starting something at sixty. It is a song about a new day, not about the past.
- The BestTina Turner · 1989
Unsubtle and completely sincere. For a sixtieth, loudly, with the whole room in.
When it is complicated
Distance, estrangement, an illness, a mother who was not what she should have been. These do not pretend.
- MotherJohn Lennon · 1970
About abandonment, and one of the most exposed vocals ever recorded. Not for a card.
- The Living YearsMike + The Mechanics · 1988
Written about a father and it fits either. Say the thing while it can still be heard.
- Both Sides NowJoni Mitchell · 1969
For two women who have both changed a great deal. Her 2000 recording is the one.
- I’ll Stand by YouThe Pretenders · 1994
The promise going the other way, for a year when she is the one who needs holding.
- True ColorsCyndi Lauper · 1986
For a mother who has spent a very long time being what everyone else needed.
- LandslideFleetwood Mac · 1975
About change and being frightened of it. For a mother facing something.
- Fire and RainJames Taylor · 1970
For a loss that is not finished. Quiet enough to leave on alone.
- Somewhere Only We KnowKeane · 2004
About a place that no longer exists. For a family home that has been sold.
Three demonstration songs
What a song about your mother sounds like
We wrote these from made-up answers to the same five questions you would fill in. They are not customer work. The test of a good one is whether it could only be about her — the street, the saying, the year she was impossible.
Start her 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
- Danny On The RiverAcoustic · to a brother, after eleven months of silence3:15
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 the best song for a mother?
- “A Song for Mama” if you want to thank her, “The Best Day” if you want it specific, and something from her own twenties if you want to celebrate her rather than her work. The third option is the one almost nobody takes.
- What song should a daughter send her mother?
- “Both Sides Now” or “True Colors” treat her as an equal, which is usually what a grown daughter wants to convey. “Slipping Through My Fingers” is the one written from a mother’s side and it will undo her.
- What should a son send?
- “A Song for Mama” or “Dear Mama”. Both are sons thanking mothers directly, which is rarer and lands harder than the equivalent from a daughter. Send it privately rather than playing it at a lunch.
- How do I find the music she actually loves?
- Go back to when she was between sixteen and twenty-two, which is usually a decade earlier than the music you associate with her. Her sister or an old friend will name it in five seconds.
- Can I get a song written about my mum?
- Yes. Answer five questions about her — her name, the occasion, three things only your family knows, the feeling you want and the music she likes — and you will hear a 30-second preview in about two minutes. The full song is $19.