Happy Father's Day dads! Here's hoping there's breakfast in bed, presents, and quality time coming your way. Our gift to you? We've picked ten of our favourite songs about dads, for your listening pleasure.
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10. Cat Stevens – ‘Father and Son’
What Father’s Day playlist would be complete without this classic from Yusuf/Cat Stevens? It's a dad telling his son to just calm down and stop trying to change the world.
Yusuf has recently re-recorded the track for his upcoming 50th Anniversary edition of Tea For The Tillerman. In it, the son’s verses are the original 1970 vocals sung by a 22-year-old Cat and the father’s are sung by a now 72-year-old Yusuf. Pretty cool.
9. The Temptations – ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’
This stone cold groove is about a good-for-nothing dad who was never home, never worked a day in his life, then died, leaving his family in debt. There’s potentially worse names than ‘rolling stone’ for this guy, but he definitely wasn’t gathering any moss.
8. Headless Chickens – ‘Totalling Dad’s Car’
A wonderful piece of pop weirdness from the Chickens’ 1988 debut Stunt Clown. the song comes in at just under two minutes and contains such lyrical gems as, “Do we really need a bible belt / To keep our trousers up?"
One for the dads whose kids crashed their car long enough ago that they can laugh about it now.
7. The Winstons – ‘Color Him Father’
This one goes out to all the step-dads out there. A song about a dad who’s the complete opposite of The Temptations’ rolling stone: “There's a man at my house he's so big and strong / He goes to work each day, stays all day long.”
And the chorus is such a tear-jerker: “Think I'll color this man father / I think I'll color him love / Said I'm gonna color him father / I think I'll color the man love, yes I will.” Naww, good one dad.
6. Mac Demarco – ‘My Old Man’
A lovely, bittersweet little gem from Canadian musician Mac DeMarco. It’s about that feeling when you realise you’re turning into your dad, but you’re not sure you’re happy about it.
5. Neil Young – ‘Old Man’
Another classic in the songs-about-dads canon. Although – spoiler alert – it’s not actually about Neil Young’s dad. It’s about an old bloke called Louis Avila who was caretaker at Neil’s Broken Arrow Ranch in Redwood City, California.
The story goes, when Neil purchased it in 1970 at just 25-years-old, the caretaker asked how such a young man could afford it. Neil replied, “Just lucky Louie, just real lucky."
4. Gladys Knight and the Pips – ‘Daddy Could Swear I Declare’
Here’s what we know about Gladys' Knight’s dad: He was 5’7, he couldn’t read or write, and he could swear like a sailor. At least that’s what she tells us in this Motown hit from 1973. Going out to all the sweary dads out there!
3. Anika Moa – ‘My Old Man’
Anika Moa didn’t meet her father ‘til she was 13. He was a classic rolling stone, hitchhiking around New Zealand, often homeless. He taught her to play guitar when she was at high school, and was really supportive of her musical endevours.
Anika wrote ‘My Old Man’ during his long battle with cancer. She calls it “the diamond” from her 2007 album In Swings The Tide, which she released around the time of his death.
The song took a year to write: “It was the hardest song I ever wrote … I wanted to finish it before he died,” Anika told Audioculture in 2015, “It’s quite a harsh song because I basically say he came out of my life, he came into my life, he was a bit of a shit father, he’s a bit of a broken man, and he’s f***n’ dying.”
Harsh, but beautiful.
2. Flight of the Conchords – ‘Father and Son’
A silly one! About a dad who claims his wife is dead, but she’s actually just left him for a guy called Trevor.
1. Tami Neilson – ‘The First Man’
Country/Soul powerhouse Tami Neilson’s tribute to her late father is beautiful and incredibly moving. She collaborated with her brother Jay to create it after they lost their father Ron in 2015.
“It was written out of a deep pain and grief that I had never known before,” Tami told the Herald in 2016, “It was also written out of a deep love and celebration of a man who was like no other.
“It's the song most special to me of all the songs I've written for that reason. A scrap of a music and melody that my brother Jay had played for me, just days after the funeral, kept running through my head. I used it so that he would also be a part of this song ... created for my dad by two people created by him.
“We are his legacy and he lives on through our music. I'm proud of it because I know he would be proud.”
Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there.
