Songs About Sisters
Thirty-four songs about sisters. This is one of the few relationships with a genuine songbook of its own rather than a shelf of borrowed love songs, so the real ones come first. Then picks for whichever kind of sisterhood yours is.
Updated September 202634 songs
Ten actually about sisters
- We Are FamilySister Sledge · 1979
Written for and recorded by four actual sisters. Nothing else on this list can claim that.
- SistersIrving Berlin, from White Christmas · 1954
The original, and knowingly ridiculous. If your family watches the film every December it is already yours.
Included for completeness and absolutely not for a birthday. Read it before you go anywhere near it.
- For GoodFrom Wicked, by Stephen Schwartz · 2003
Two women saying they changed each other. Not about sisters and used at every sisterly occasion anyway.
- I’ll Stand by YouThe Pretenders · 1994
The promise sisters make without ever announcing it. Sits low enough that most people can sing it.
- LandslideFleetwood Mac · 1975
The song women send each other at every turning point. Short, and it does not overstay.
- True ColorsCyndi Lauper · 1986
For a sister who has been hiding something, or has just stopped hiding it.
- You’ve Got a FriendCarole King · 1971
For a sister who is also the person you call first. Plain and unembarrassed.
- DreamsFleetwood Mac · 1977
Cool rather than sentimental, which a lot of sisters would much rather receive.
- Ribbon in the SkyStevie Wonder · 1982
Grand and warm without being romantic. For when you want to be serious for once.
Sisterhood is not one relationship
There is the sister who has been your best friend since you were eight. There is the one you competed with for twenty years and now love properly. There is the one four time zones away you speak to twice a year and would still take a bullet for. And there is the one you are not speaking to. A song that suits any of those will be actively wrong for the others, which is why this page splits.
If yours is the competitive kind, lean into it rather than around it. A funny song about the two of you does more than a sincere one, because sincerity between siblings who spent a decade fighting reads as suspicious. Keep the sincere song in reserve for a year when she needs it — she will remember it for a decade.
Age gap matters. A sister eight years older was partly a parent, and songs about mothers will often fit her better than songs about sisters. A much younger sister did not experience the same family, and building a song around a memory she does not have is the commonest way this goes wrong.
Unlike brothers, sisters generally do not deflect. You can be sentimental, in public, on the day, and it will land. This is one of the very few relationships on this site where that is safe, so if you want to be direct, be direct.
By what the two of you are like
If she is your best friend
The one you talk to daily. Be as sincere as you like — she will not flinch and she will not make a joke.
- Count on MeBruno Mars · 2010
Simple and warm, and short enough to send with nothing attached.
- You’re My Best FriendQueen · 1975
Two and a half minutes and relentlessly cheerful. Written about a wife and borrowed constantly.
- Lean on MeBill Withers · 1972
For the sister everyone in the family calls first, including you.
- Thank You for Being a FriendAndrew Gold · 1978
The full-length original is warmer and odder than the theme tune everybody knows.
- That’s What Friends Are ForDionne Warwick and Friends · 1985
Recorded as an AIDS benefit single. Sincere past the point of fashion, which between sisters is fine.
- Bridge Over Troubled WaterSimon & Garfunkel · 1970
The largest thing you can say. Save it for a year when you turned up and it mattered.
- HomeEdward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros · 2009
About a person being a place. For a sister who is the only bit of the family home still standing.
- Rivers and RoadsThe Head and the Heart · 2011
About people scattering and staying attached anyway. Play the last minute.
If you spent twenty years fighting
The joke is the affection. Funny does more work here than sincere ever will.
- SistersIrving Berlin, from White Christmas · 1954
The line about anyone who comes between them is the whole gag. Send it with no comment.
- You Oughta KnowAlanis Morissette · 1995
Wildly disproportionate to any occasion, which is why it is funny. She has to have a sense of humour about herself.
- I’m Still StandingElton John · 1983
For a sister who has survived a chaotic year of her own making.
- Bye Bye ByeNSYNC · 2000
If she has just left a job, a city or a person. The choreography is the point.
- The BestTina Turner · 1989
Unsubtle to the point of being funny, and completely sincere underneath. Both at once.
- Good as HellLizzo · 2016
Cheerful, loud, and it will be taken exactly as intended.
- Old ManNeil Young · 1972
For a sister being dramatic about a birthday. Deniable, because it is a great song.
- Never Gonna Give You UpRick Astley · 1987
The oldest joke available. Exactly one kind of sister still finds it funny and you know if yours does.
If you have lost touch
Distance, a falling-out, or just years. These say something without demanding a conversation.
- Somewhere Only We KnowKeane · 2004
About a place only two people remember. For sisters whose shared world was a house that got sold.
- Both Sides NowJoni Mitchell · 1969
For two women who have both changed a great deal. Her 2000 recording is the one.
- PhotographEd Sheeran · 2015
Send it with an old picture attached. That is the whole move and it works every time.
- The Night We MetLord Huron · 2015
About wanting to go back to before. For a rift you are not ready to name.
- Take Me Home, Country RoadsJohn Denver · 1971
For a sister who is homesick and would never say so. Works in any country.
- The Living YearsMike + The Mechanics · 1988
About saying it before it is too late. Send it if that is the actual message.
- I Will Follow You into the DarkDeath Cab for Cutie · 2005
One voice and one guitar. For a relationship that does not need decorating.
- Time of Your LifeGreen Day · 1997
Under its other name it is the graduation song. For a sister you only see at weddings now.
Three demonstration songs
What a song about your sister sounds like
We wrote these from made-up answers to the same five questions you would fill in. They are not customer work. Between sisters, the specific old grievance usually lands better than the compliment, and the form has room for both.
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
- Marcus at FortyPop · written to be funny, at a friend’s request3:00
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 are the best songs about sisters?
- “We Are Family” is the obvious one and it is obvious because four actual sisters recorded it. “Sisters” from White Christmas if your family would find it funny, “I’ll Stand by You” if you want to be serious.
- What song should a brother send his sister?
- Something warm rather than something sentimental. “Count on Me” and “Lean on Me” both work from a brother without either of you having to have a conversation about it afterwards.
- What if we are not close any more?
- Do not send the sincere one — it reads as a demand for a bigger relationship than you have. Something light and specific to a shared memory says you remember without asking her for anything.
- Is there a good song for a sister who has died?
- “Landslide”, “Both Sides Now” and “Photograph” all get used, and none is about a sister. That gap is real, and it is one of the clearer cases for having something written instead.
- Can I get a song written about my sister?
- Yes. Answer five questions about her — her name, the occasion, three things only the two of you know, the tone you want and the music she likes — and you will hear a 30-second preview in about two minutes. The full song is $19.