Songs about fathers and fatherhood range in tone from joy and celebration to absence, tension and grief. For Father’s Day, we asked 11 experts to share their favourite tracks and albums about fatherhood.
1. Teeth of Time by Joshua Burnside (2025)
Joshua Burnside’s album Teeth of Time is an, at times, gut-wrenching exploration of early fatherhood. The nihilism of some of the lyrics – “but don’t think on the soil above me / or the worms wriggling in my skull” – is contrasted with a warm sonic landscape that includes an array of found sounds and samples. The latter are brilliantly arranged to reflect the brain-scrambling exhaustion that many of us feel when trying to juggle childcare with work and maintaining a semblance of your old social life.
Marching Round the Ladies is a highlight. The track was recomposed from a children’s street song to form an upbeat singalong moment that has the irreverence of Belfast life at its core.
Teeth of Time is a rare album about being a dad which goes to reassure the rest of us that we are all feeling the same things – even if we can’t express them as profoundly as Burnside.
Conor Caldwell is an associate professor at the Irish World Academy of Music & Dance
2. When the Tigers Broke Free by Pink Floyd (1982)
Originally pitched for inclusion on The Wall album (1979) by Pink Floyd’s principal songwriter Roger Waters, When the Tigers Broke Free was ultimately rejected by the rest of the band for being “too personal”. It was instead released on the soundtrack for The Wall film (1982) a couple of years later.
Working under the title Anzio ‘44, the song is a tribute to Waters’s father, Eric Fletcher Waters, who was killed during a brutal second world war battle. But it’s also a pointed critique of royalty and military leadership, whom Waters sings “took my daddy from me”.
The result is a haunting yet deeply moving song about bravery, loss and the lasting impact fathers can have on their children. Even when, as in Waters’ case, they never had the chance to meet.
Glenn Fosbraey is an associate dean in the faculty of of humanities and social sciences
3. First of the Birds by Admiral Fallow (2025)
The paradox of feral male ego versus the domestic sensitivity of fatherhood is played out most effectively in the world of rock music. Indie Scottish band Admiral Fallow’s album First of the Birds embraces contrast through a clever and complex set of songs. The album captures the joy of sleepless nights while reflecting the shifting priorities that come with fatherhood.
From the very first track, First Names – a lullaby contrasting the longevity of climate catastrophe with parental love (“When we run out of first names for all the storms, there’ll still be you …”) – the album sets its tone. The first single, Avalanche, explores maternity hospital experience from the male perspective.
The album shows how songwriter Louis Abbott’s life has been transformed by the arrival of his two young children. I can also say as a slightly older father, that the opening line of The Shortest Night (“return your mother’s calls”) is both accurate and prophetic.
Niall Keegan is an associate professor at the the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance
4. Song for My Father by Horace Silver (1965)
Jazz pianist and bandleader Horace Silver was a leading proponent of the hard bop style (a sub-genre of jazz that emerged in the mid-1950s). In 1964 Silver dedicated his most popular album and song to his dad, John Tavares Silva, who appears on the record sleeve looking cool and distinguished.
Silver’s band drew on the Brazilian rhythms and Portuguese folk songs of Silva’s native Cape Verde. About seven minutes long, the track is a perfect balance of traditional melody and modern style, with a vivacious funky solo from Silver himself and a brilliantly escalating tenor break from Joe Henderson.
It pays tribute to family roots and looks to the future with adventure and optimism. Jazz is known to be the music of dads and Song for My Father is one of the lightest, happiest jazz standards ever.
Mike Bradshaw is dean of Humanities and Social Sciences
Read more:
Hard bopper Horace Silver was central to the evolution of modern jazz
5. Praying for Time by George Michael (1990)
An obvious George Michael choice for Father’s Day would be Father Figure (1987). However, I’ve chosen Praying for Time, a song that remains as relevant today as when it was released in 1990. It is a powerful reflection on a world struggling with inequality, indifference and a lack of compassion.
The lyrics challenge us as listeners to look beyond ourselves and consider the needs of others, encouraging empathy in a society that can often reward selfishness. The song explores how having courage when standing up for what is right comes at a cost. Above all, Michael sings that he wants the world to be a better place for future generations.
For many in the LGBTQ+ community, Father’s Day can be complicated and painful. Yet Michael became a father figure of sorts to many in the gay community. Through his visibility and influence, he helped break down barriers for gay people. Many of us are grateful that he left behind a world more accepting of LGBTQ+ people than the one he found, and his kindness and philanthropic nature showed the world that there are many different forms of fatherhood.
Joel Gray is associate dean and lecturer in media, art and communication
Read more:
Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: George Michael’s music, artistry and drama
6. Father to Son by Queen (1974)
Queen’s second album, Queen II (1974), was where their distinctive vocal and guitar harmonies really clicked into place. Guitarist Brian May called it their “single biggest leap”.
Father to Son, an anthemic prog-rock opening statement, also shows the band starting to flex its pop muscles, with vocal interludes occasionally reminiscent of the Beach Boys. The lyrics – in the form of a letter – are from a parent’s perspective years before May became a father himself, yet still carrying biographical poignancy.
It arrived amid a rift between May and his own father, who was “mortified” at his son’s decision to pursue music over doctoral studies. The two didn’t speak for nearly two years, reconciling when May flew his parents to a New York gig on Concorde, which his father had worked on as an engineer, but not been able to afford as a passenger.
May Senior’s presence haunted the record nonetheless, through the guitar the two had built together when May was a teenager. The instrument is a key element of his signature sound – proof that, as the song suggests, what passes between across generations involves sounds as well as words.
Adam Behr is a reader in music, politics and society
7. Brown-Eyed Women by Grateful Dead (1970)
This song, never released on a studio album by the Dead but played extensively live, is told by the son of a man called Gentle Jack Jones. It tells the story of his father’s life. Jack Jones may have “drank to the dregs of the whisky jar”, but the family’s real problems came in 1930 “when the wall caved in”. The father turns to bootlegging to support his family (“daddy made whisky and he made it well”) but the family’s position on the fringes of society leads to tragedy.
His mother is killed when the roof of their shack collapses, potentially with a number of the speaker’s brothers. “And gentle Jack Jones never was the same again.” The speaker and his father then fall deeper into their moonshining work, as he reflects on the long path that led them both there.
I love the way the speaker strives to see the best in his father, nostalgically referring to him as “daddy”, and striving to believe in his essential goodness; “the bottles are dusty but the liquor is clean”.
Max Bowden is a PhD candidate in literature, film and theatre studies
8. Chosen Family by Rina Sawayama (2021)
For some people, Father’s Day can be incredibly difficult. Especially if you had a father who didn’t accept you. In 2023 it was reported that almost half of LGBT+ young adults in the UK are estranged from at least one family member because of their sexuality or gender identity.
One way the LGBTQ+ community have dealt with estrangement is to create close friendships in the community akin to a family. This is what Rina Sawayama celebrates in her anthem, Chosen Family.
She sings: “We don’t need to share genes or a surname, you are my chosen family”, showing not only gratitude to those in her life who have supported her pansexual identity, but a recognition that she has forged a connection beyond friendship and close to blood ties.
Samuel Murray is a lecturer in music management
9. Ready To Go Home by 10cc (1995)
Ready To Go Home is a poignant song inspired by 10cc singer and musician Graham Gouldman’s father, Hyman, who passed away in 1991. Gouldman often collaborated with his father, who was a poet and playwright. He described him as someone who “loved words” and influenced his own writing.
Gouldman’s bandmate Kevin Godley affectionately referred to him as “Hyme the Rhyme,” and one of Hyman’s catchphrases inspired the band’s 1976 hit Art for Art’s Sake. In the liner notes for his 2000 solo album, And Another Thing…, Gouldman stated that Ready To Go Home captured his reflections on his father’s passing, framing it in a positive light.
The song serves as a remembrance of “all the things we had done together and his artistic legacy to me”. Although written four years after Hyman’s death, Gouldman said that it often takes time to process such traumatic events before they can be expressed.
Hussein Boon is a principal lecturer and chair of the Black Music Research Unit
10. GIRLDAD by KwolleM ft. Joe James (2023)
This grime track by British rappers KwolleM and Joe James is about making time for music amid new commitments as a father. The verses document James’s plan to “go ten times harder” on his music, but the choruses outline the mainstays of his daughter’s world that are waiting for him to return:
I’ve got a few Barbies on ice right now
Lilo and Stitch teddy on ice right now
Disney Plus membership on ice right now
bedtime story on ice right now.
The track bounces along at grime’s signature 140bpm tempo, assuring us this isn’t someone caught between a rock and a hard place, but someone who is spoilt for choice. James is excited and fulfilled by both parts of his life.
Some critics have argued that this kind of “mellow grime”, which substitutes icy percussion for soulful samples, divorces the genre from street-level social realism. But, here, the duo extend grime’s remit to new subjects, retaining its distinctly British blend of playfulness and wholehearted commitment.
Ellis Jones is a lecturer in music and management
11. Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting by Charles Mingus (1959)
I grew up in Dublin in the 1960s with a father who loved literature, theatre, film and in particular, music: modern classical and modern jazz. Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane were the soundtrack to my childhood. He was evangelical in exposing his eight children to this music. As a boy I was particularly intrigued by the Charles Mingus song Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, an evocation of a Baptist prayer meeting.
One day, when I was around 12, I had the house to myself. I daringly took my father’s Mingus LP, turned it up to 11 and sat in front of the speakers. The music hit me with a physical intensity: goosebumps, hair standing up on the back of the neck, ganglions vibrating. It was both shocking and exhilarating – my first visceral experience with music.
In retrospect, it was the moment that made me want to have a life in music. Which I did. Although my father had passed away by then, his taste in, and love of, music – and that recording, on that day – decided what I would do with my life.
Ronan Guilfoyle is the director of the Centre for Jazz Performance Studies
What is your favourite song or album about fathers or fatherhood? Let us know in the comments below.
