32 Songs About Family

Last Updated on August 1, 2026 by Black Sunshine Media

When I consider songs about family, I’m drawn to oddball perspectives and appalled by the populist feelgood drivel of “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge and “Daughters” by John Mayer.

However, having a 14-year-old son is a daily reminder that some people didn’t grow up watching All in the Family and Different Strokes, so these people generally don’t share my warped sense of “family” and filial piety for Archie Bunker and Mr. Drummond.

With few exceptions, my listicles are created with clear parameters, sometimes terms and conditions, and published with a disclaimer of sorts. In some cases, I tell you upfront that you’re not going to find certain no-brainer songs. This unique songs about family post has parameters, terms and conditions, and a double disclaimer.

First disclaimer: Similar to the warnings in 25 Songs About New York and 25 Songs About California, you’re gonna be disappointed if you clicked to see songs like “Father and Son” by Cat Stevens, “Mother and Child Reunion” by Paul Simon or “Cats in the Cradle” by Gordon Lightfoot.

Parameters

All songs must be rock music, rock music-adjacent or within earshot of any rock genre or subgenre except the pantheon of disco and/or electronic dance music (EDM).

Terms & Conditions

• The song must be SPECIFICALLY ABOUT OR REFERENCING the family member. Songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen and “Renegade” by Styx are self-centered and tangential narratives. Elton John’s “Daniel” speaks directly to the subject about the relationship. That’s what we’re looking for.
  
• Likewise, just mentioning a family member doesn’t count; for example, “Graceland” by Paul Simon mentions his “nine-year-old son, the child of my first marriage.” The song is about Simon’s ‘pilgrimage’ after divorcing the kid’s mom, which is technically a “family song,” but Simon is talking mainly about himself, which is not what we’re going for here today.
  
• The song must be something I would listen to.
  
• Unlike Songs About Sex, depictions of sexual abuse are fair game.

Second Disclaimer

These selections are idiosyncratic to my sense of humor and taste in music. Clearly, I’m a family man. Please don’t take anything personally.

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Songs About Family (General)

“Synchronicity II” by the Police

Another suburban family morning
Grandmother screaming at the wall
We have to shout above the din of our rice crispies
Can’t hear anything at all
Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration
But we all know her suicides are fake
Daddy only stares into the distance
There’s only so much more he can take

It’s remarkable that “Synchronicity II” was in heavy rotation on the radio and MTV, and it’s not even the darkest cut on Synchronicity (1983). The album topped the Billboard 200 and ultimately spent 17 nonconsecutive weeks at #1, disturbing the chart dominance of Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982), albeit temporarily.

Sting never says what happens when “something crawls to the surface of a dark Scottish loch,” so we’re left to assume or postulate that Daddy succumbed to the dark side, and something really bad is gonna happen. It’s our ending to write, really.

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“Country Death Song” by Violent Femmes

I gave her a push, I gave her a shove
I pushed with all my might, I pushed with all my love
I threw my child into a bottomless pit
She was screaming as she fell, but I never heard her hit
She was screaming as she fell, but I never heard her hit

A gruesome country rock tune based loosely on the first half of a German fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel. Due to famines and lack of birth control in medieval Europe, it was common to abandon unwanted children in front of churches or in the forest. Meanwhile, the youngest child was usually the first to go because many children died in childhood anyway and were the least overall help to the family.

In Gordon Gano’s tale from Violent Femmes excellent second album, Hallowed Ground (1984), what sounds like an Appalachian family is on hard times and facing starvation, so the father decides to kill the youngest child to save the rest of the family. At the end of the song, the father can’t live with himself and commits suicide.

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“Thankful Heart” by The Muppets

No comment. Just gonna leave this lighthearted Christmas song with actor Michael Caine on lead vocal.

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Songs About Mom & Dad

“Surrender” by Cheap Trick

Father says, “Your mother’s right, she’s really up on things”
“Before we married, Mommy served in the WACS in the Philippines”
Now, I had heard the WACS recruited old maids for the war
But mommy isn’t one of those, I’ve known her all these years

Mommy’s alright, Daddy’s alright, they just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender
But don’t give yourself away

Everything about Cheap Trick gets funneled through a filter of wry and sometimes facetious humor they borrowed from bands like the Move and Slade. Written from the perspective of a questioning teenager, “Surrender” ends with Mom and Dad smoking pot and listening to Kiss records. If that doesn’t sound like fun, I don’t know the meaning of anything anymore.

The studio version of “Surrender” appears on Heaven Tonight (1978) and the live version comes from Cheap Trick at Budokan (1979).

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“Whatever” by Hüsker Dü

Mom and dad, I’m sorry
Mom and dad, don’t worry
I’m not the son you wanted
But what did you expect
I’ve made my life of happiness
To combat your neglect

You’ve probably never heard this song unless you’re a big Hüsker Dü fan who’s listened to Zen Arcade (1984) more than a few times. The track is buried near the end of side 3 on a double album, and, according to setlist.fm’s database, the band never played “Whatever” live. I saw them once in 1987 and they didn’t play it…

Anyway, in totality, the lyrics of “Whatever” represent the psychological zeitgeist of the average white male American teenager in the 1980s with better accuracy and context than 500 hardcore punk rock songs combined.

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Songs About Mother

“Mother” by Danzig

Tell your children not to walk my way
Tell your children not to hear my words
What they mean
What they say
Mother

This one is dangerously near the edge of our parameters, but Glenn Danzig is one of the most unintentionally hilarious characters in rock music. How often do we see big, beefy, goth muscleheads with a campy, horror punk aesthetic? Apparently, once in a lifetime.

Danzig also talks to “Father”, and the best part of the song is when Danzig cries, “Father!” just before the chorus.

I’m convinced that actor Matt Berry borrowed that bit for the funeral scene in “Return of the Golden Child” (Season 2, Episode 2 of the brilliant British comedy show, The IT Crowd), when Berry’s character Douglas Denholm bursts through the church doors and dramatically cries, “Father!” It’s the same pitch, intonation, everything.

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“Then She Did” by Jane’s Addiction

Will you say hello to my ma?
Will you pay a visit to her?
She was an artist just as you were
I’d have introduced you to her
She would take me out on Sundays
We’d go laughing through the garbage
She repaired legs like a doctor
On the kitchen chairs we sat on
She was unhappy just as you were
Unhappy just as you were
Unhappy just as you were
Unhappy just as you were…

Perry Farrell’s mother died by suicide when he was 3. This song is mainly about his young girlfriend, Xiola Blue, who died of a heroin overdose. He’s asking her to pay a visit to his mother in heaven.

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“Judith” by A Perfect Circle

Not like you killed someone
It’s not like you drove a spiteful spear into his side
Talk to Jesus Christ as if he knows the reasons why
He did it all for you
Did it all for you
He did it all for you

This gut-wrenching song is about vocalist Maynard Keenan’s mother, who had a stroke and relegated a wheelchair for much of her life yet maintained her Christian faith. Keenan found it incomprehensible that she could still maintain her belief in God despite her suffering.

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“True Colors” by Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem

But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And thats why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow

Songwriter Billy Steinberg wrote the song for his mother. That’s Janice on lead vocals.

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Songs About Father

“Had a Dad” by Jane’s Addiction

I had a dad, big and strong, I turned around, found my daddy gone
He was the one made me what I am today
It’s up to me now, my daddy has gone away…that’s right

The song from Nothing’s Shocking (1988) about an absentee father, apparently, written by bassist Eric Avery, so it might be from experience. I dunno.

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“Me and My Dad” by Wall of Voodoo

Me and my dad
We’ve got a good thing going
Fishing trips, the hard way’s the best
Man-to-man talks, when the going gets tough
The tough get going

From the band’s debut studio album, Dark Continent (1981), and the album before “Mexican Radio” made them MTV darlings and somewhat of a household name. It sure sounds a lot like “Mexican Radio” without a hook.

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“Rooster” by Alice in Chains

Walkin’ tall machine gun man
They spit on me in my home land
Gloria sent me pictures of my boy
Got my pills ‘gainst mosquito death
My buddy’s breathin’ his dyin’ breath
Oh god please won’t you help me make it through

This spooky song was written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell for his father, Jerry Cantrell Sr., a U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran. “Rooster” was a childhood nickname given to Cantrell Sr. by his great-grandfather because of his “cocky” attitude and his hair, which resembled a rooster’s comb.

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Songs About Daughters

“She’s Leaving Home” by the Beatles

She (We gave her most of our lives)
Is leaving (Sacrificed most of our lives)
Home (We gave her everything money could buy)
She’s leaving home after living alone
For so many years
Bye, bye

Paul McCartney was inspired to write the song after reading a newspaper article about a 17-year-old runaway girl from Stamford Hill.

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Songs About Sons

“Kooks” by David Bowie

We bought a lot of things to keep you warm and dry
And a funny old crib on which the paint won’t dry
I bought you a pair of shoes
A trumpet you can blow
And a book of rules
On what to say to people when they pick on you
‘Cause if you stay with us you’re gonna be pretty Kookie too

From Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory, written about newborn son Duncan Jones.

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Songs About Grandmother

“Grandmother’s Song” by Steve Martin

Be courteous, kind and forgiving
Be gentle and peaceful each day
Be warm and human and grateful
And have a good thing to say

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“Hey Grandma” by Moby Grape

Hey Grandma, you’re so young
Your old man’s just a boy
Been a long time this time (pow-pow-pow)
Been a long time this time (pow-pow-pow)
Been a long time this time round, this time round
Everything is upside down, upside down
Sure looking good
You’re looking so good
You’re sure looking good

Super fun uptempo toe-tapper from the debut album of the under-appreciated late ’60s San Francisco psychedelic power pop country rock quintet. Moby Grape was one of the first American bands in which all members were lead vocalists and songwriters.

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Songs About Grandfather

“Ooh La La” by The Faces

Poor old granddad
I laughed at all his words
I Thought he was a bitter man
He spoke of women’s ways
They’ll trap use and abuse you before you even know
But love is blind and you’re far to kind
Don’t ever let it show
I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger

From the Faces’ fourth and final studio album, Ooh La La (1973), famously featured at the end of Wes Anderson’s film Rushmore (1998), and subsequently in other Hollywood films. The song was written by bassist Ronnie Lane and guitarist Ronnie Wood, with a lead vocal by Wood, an oddity in the band’s history. Vocalist Rod Stewart and Lane also recorded versions on vocals, but both fell flat, and Wood’s version was chosen for the album.

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Songs About Sisters

“You and Your Sister” by Chris Bell

Your sister says that I’m no good
I’d reassure her if I could

A sweet and fragile love ballad for a girl whose sister disapproves of the boy. One of the great unknown love songs from the 1970s, outstanding in its sincerity and emotional innocence.

One-time co-leader of the pioneering power pop band Big Star, Chris Bell (1951–1978) left the band after the release of #1 Record (1972), but continued to record in Memphis with his friends. However, he never released an album during his lifetime. “You and Your Sister” is the B-side to the debut solo single he released in 1978, shortly before his death.

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“My Sister” by Juliana Hatfield Three

I miss my sister, why’d she go?
She’s the one who would have taken me
To my first all-ages show
It was the Violent Femmes and the Del Fuegos
Before they had a record out, before they went gold
And started to grow

The biggest hit of Juliana Hatfield’s career is a delightfully existential indie rock song about a sister she never had.

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Songs About Brothers

“Highway Patrolman” by Bruce Springsteen

My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
I’m a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain’t no good

I was quite bedeviled by the ending of this cut because I really thought the cop would be morally compelled shoot his brother, and it would break his heart. The Boss isn’t known for storybook endings. I sat there thinking, You mean you’re just gonna let him go? After he probably killed that kid in the bar? It took a few minutes before it started to make sense.

Sean Penn based the screenplay of his 1991 directorial debut The Indian Runner on the song’s story.

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“My Little Brother” by Art Brut

My little brother just discovered rock & roll
My little brother just discovered rock & roll
My little brother just discovered rock & roll
There’s a noise in his head and he’s out of control
He no longer listens to A-sides
He made me a tape of bootlegs and B-sides
And every song on that tape, every single song on that tape
Says exactly the same thing
Why don’t our parents worry about us?
Why don’t our parents worry about us?

The subversive “My Little Brother” is from the English indie art rock band’s debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll (2005), one of the most enthusiastic and humorous indie rock albums of the decade.

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Songs About Aunts

“Your Auntie Grizelda” by The Monkees

You can’t begrudge her style, your Auntie Grizelda
She couldn’t budge a smile and do it for free
So righteous making fudge, your Auntie Grizelda
So proper judging others over her tea
You look just like her you do
I know by looking at you
That you’ve been listening to your Auntie Grizelda

Grizelda sounds like a fun lady. The song appeared on both the TV series and the 1967 album More of the Monkees.

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“Gigolo Aunt” by Syd Barrett

Heading down with the light, the dust in your way
She was angrier than, than her water ouzel male
Life to this love to me, heading me down to me
Thunderbird shale
Seems to be all and it’s rosy, it’s a beautiful day!
Will you please keep on the track
‘Cause I almost want you back
‘Cause I know what you are
You are a gigolo aunt

Honestly, it’s anybody’s guess what Syd Barrett is talking about here.

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Songs About Uncles

“Third Uncle” by Brian Eno

I’ll
Burn my fingers
Burn my toes
Burn my uncle
Burn his books
Burn his shoes
Cook the leather
Does it fit me
Or you?
It looks tight on you

Breaking one of the main rules of the list because this song could be about many things, and given what I know about Brian Eno, it’s probably not about an uncle. But it’s my list, nobody cares, and I can do what I want.

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“Uncle Remus” by Frank Zappa

Just keep yer nose
(Keep yer nose)
To the grindstone, they say
Will that redeem us
(Will redeem us)
Uncle Remus
(Uncle Remus)

A sharp, satirical commentary on racism and the failures of the civil rights movement in the U.S., “Uncle Remus” appears on Zappa’s album Apostrophe (‘)(1974).

The song is based on the fictional title character and narrator of a controversial collection of African-American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in 1881. Harris produced seven Uncle Remus books, weaving anecdotal tales in the plantation context. The stories were narrated in an interpretation of the Deep South African-American language of the time. Harris was white, and Santa Claus isn’t real. Hence, the controversy.

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“Red Barchetta” by Rush

My uncle has a country place that no one knows about
He’s says it used to be a farm before the Motor Law
On Sundays, I elude the eyes and hop the turbine freight
To far outside the Wire, where my white-haired uncle waits

On the surface, “Red Barchetta” might be the most wholesome song about uncles or family ever written. But it’s neither entirely original nor wholesome.

The song’s lyrics, written by drummer Neil Peart, were inspired by “A Nice Morning Drive”, a futuristic short story written by Richard Foster and published in the November 1973 issue of Road & Track magazine. The story describes a future in which increasingly restrictive safety regulations have all but eliminated sports cars.

“Red Barchetta” is likewise set in a future where many classes of vehicles have been banned by a “Motor Law.” The narrator’s uncle has kept a now-illegal 1948 red Ferrari 166MM ‘Barchetta’ in pristine condition for roughly 50 years, hidden away at his secret country home “outside the Wire,” which had been “a farm before the Motor Law.”

Every Sunday, the narrator commits a “weekly crime” of sneaking out to his uncle’s crib and taking the Ferrari for spin in the countryside. It’s really touching if you give a shit about cars and the automotive industry.

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“Fiddle About” by the Who

I’m your wicked Uncle Ernie
I’m glad you won’t see or hear me
As I fiddle about
Fiddle about
Fiddle about!
Your mother left me here to mind you
Now I’m doing what I want to
Fiddling about
Fiddling about
Fiddle about!
Down with the bedclothes
Up with your nightshirt!
Fiddle about
Fiddle about
Fiddle about!

Sometimes, I approach these lists with a predetermined twist; for example, knowing in advance that Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem are gonna make an appearance. Other times, the subversion of context unfolds during the process. This is one of those other times.

“Fiddle About” is one of three songs by the Who on the list and surprisingly, all three written by bassist John Entwistle. I think it’s common knowledge that Pete Townshend was the Who’s chief songwriter; however, Entwistle made significant contributions to the band’s catalog, beginning with “Boris the Spider” on the band’s second studio album, A Quick One (1966).

At Townshend’s request for ‘nasty songs,’ Entwistle wrote “Cousin Kevin” and “Fiddle About” for the Who’s fourth studio album Tommy (1969). “Fiddle About” is the uncommonly graphic vignette of Tommy’s sexual molestation perpetrated by Uncle Ernie (salaciously portrayed by Keith Moon in the 1975 film adaptation).

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Songs About Cousins

“Cousin Kevin” by the Who

We’re on our own, cousin
All alone, cousin
Let’s think of a game to play
Now the grown-ups have all gone away
You won’t be much fun
Being blind, deaf and dumb
But I’ve no-one to play with today
Do you know how to play hide-and-seek?
To find me it would take you a week
But tied to that chair
You won’t go anywhere
There’s a lot I can do with a freak
How would you feel if I
Turned on the bath
Ducked your head under
And started to laugh?
What would you do if I shut you outside
To stand in the rain

In case you’re not up to speed on the Who’s rock opera, Tommy, the lead character is a “deaf, dumb, and blind boy” who is chronically under-supervised by his parents, which opens the door to sexual abuse from Uncle Ernie and sadistic torture from Cousin Kevin.

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“Cousin Dupree” by Steely Dan

Honey how you’ve grown
Like a rose
Well we used to play
When we were three
How about a kiss for your cousin Dupree

Greasy.

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“Mexican Cousin” by Phish

Oh tequila, I turn to you like a long lost friend
I want to kiss my Mexican cousin once again
Oh cover every emotion from happiness to sorrow
And the conversations I forget will tell me about tomorrow
When the phone calls come
Am I in bed or in a hearse
The things you tell me about myself can make me feel any worse
Well I’m awful sorry you got pissed
Just have to cross you off the list, of my true friends
And tequila is where it starts and where it ends

More kissing of cousins. To be honest, I put this here to troll my Phish-loving friend if he should ever read it. It’s easily one of the worst things I’ve ever heard.

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Songs About Wives

“My Wife” by the Who

My life’s in jeopardy
Murdered in cold blood is what I’m gonna be
I haven’t been home since Friday night and now my wife
Is comin’ after me

Meanwhile, “My Wife”, Entwistle’s driving, sardonic tale of marital strife from Who’s Next (1971), also became a popular stage number for the band.

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Songs About Husbands

“Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac

Something’s happening
Happening to me
My friends say I’m acting peculiarly
C’mon baby
We better make a start
You better make it soon
Before you break my heart
Oh I…
I want to be with you everywhere

I spent 15 minutes looking for anything about husbands that isn’t a country song, and this is pretty much all I’ve got. Joni Mitchell has been married twice; to Chuck Mitchell in 1965 (div. 1967), and bassist Larry Klein in 1982 (div. 1994), so there’s probably something in her catalog. I just can’t be bothered to look any harder. And that’s the burden of being a husband. We always get the scraps.

Christine McVie is my favorite of all Fleetwood Mac songwriters, so I’ll listen to pretty much anything she does. I think she wrote this cut about her new husband, Portugeuse keyboardist Eddy Quintela, whom she married in 1986, a year before “Everywhere” was released as the fourth single from Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night (1987).

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