Singing about Fatherly Love: Mighty Girl Songs for Father's Day

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

The love between fathers and daughters can be the inspiration for some incredible music. As part of our celebration of the wonderful Dads out there raising Mighty Girls, we wanted to share our top five father-daughter songs. Whether the song is in the father’s voice, wondering at this amazing girl in his life, or in the daughter’s voice, reflecting on the strength her father gives her, these songs are sure to be a hit this Father’s Day!

We will describe each song here, but for more details, including information for parents  about content in the lyrics or video, and to preview songs via embedded YouTube videos, please click on the links to view the full entries. Most of these songs, like the majority of the titles featured in A Mighty Girl’s music section, are available through Amazon.com’s MP3 download service, via the links on each song's page. By using the links on A Mighty Girl, you also help to support the site at no added cost to you, and can have your Father’s Day playlist set up in no time!

For Mighty Girl books that celebrate the father-daughter relationship, please also check out our first Father’s Day blog, A Father’s Love: A Mighty Girl Celebrates Father’s Day.

MUSIC CELEBRATING DADS AND DAUGHTERS

Father and Daughter, by Paul Simon (The Essential Paul Simon); all ages

“I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you.”

Singer-songwriter Paul Simon wrote this song for The Wild Thornberrys Movie and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. In this lovely song, Simon promises his growing daughter that he will protect and love her for her whole life, and encourages her to use his support as a springboard to go out into the world to do great things for all of humanity. Whether his daughter is two or twenty, this song is sure to capture how Dad feels about her.

Daddy, by Beyonce (Dangerously In Love); all ages

“Because you loved me I overcome
And I'm so proud of what you've become...
There is no one else like my daddy
And I thank you for loving me.”

Beyonce Knowles, American singer, dancer, and actress, has a particularly close relationship with her father, Matthew Knowles, who is also her manager. This song, from her first solo album, pays tribute to all of the support and love that he gave her over the years, even through the all the challenges of growing up (first dates, a tattoo, and broken hearts), and celebrates that he continues to give her the same now. She hopes that her future husband and son will be like her father: kind, loving, and devoted. While the song is suitable for all ages, it will probably have particular meaning for older daughters and their fathers, as they discover that, although their relationship is changing, their love will always be there.

Butterfly Kisses, by Bob Carlisle (Shades of Grace/Butterfly Kisses); all ages

“Oh, with all that I've done wrong,
I must have done something right
To deserve a hug every morning and butterfly kisses at night.”

This song, which won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1997, is now singer Bob Carlisle’s best known single; in fact, Shades of Grace, the album where it first appeared, was re-released as Butterfly Kisses after the single became enormously popular. Carlisle wrote this song for his daughter’s sixteenth birthday. In it, he celebrates the love he and his daughter have shared, from infancy to adulthood, and marvels and how special it makes him feel to know that she will always love him. This single is now also a tremendously popular wedding song for father-daughter dances, but it’s sure to speak to any father who looks at his little (or not-so-little) girl and wonders at how lucky he is.

Skipping, by Eddie Vedder (Every Mother Counts 2012); all ages

“All of my life from beginning to end,
What I remember is holding your hand
And all that I’ll cherish is that time that we’ve spent,
Me and you skipping throughout the land.”

Eddie Vedder is an American singer-songwriter who is best known for his work in the band Pearl Jam; however, he also has a well-established reputation as an independent artist. Vedder wrote this song for the charitable album Every Mother Counts 2012, which was released by CARE, the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, in conjunction with Christy Turlington Burns’ Every Mother Counts initiative to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for women around the globe. This gentle song, featuring a cameo acoustic guitar performance from Vedder’s daughter, Olivia, describes how their relationship supports each of them: he protects her, and she lifts his spirits and urges him to carry on. This song is perfect for fathers and daughters who know how much their relationship means to one another.

Please note: Since this album was released in limited edition for charity, it is not available for download. However, CDs of the album are available through Amazon.com.

Gracie, by Ben Folds (Songs for Silverman); all ages

"you will always have a part of me
nobody else is ever going to see
Gracie girl"

Ben Folds, American singer-songwriter and pianist, wrote this song for his daughter Gracie, and says, "I write songs for a very small audience. In that case it was for one....It's just for Gracie." As a result, he treats Gracie very seriously and even famously refused to continue the song if it was interrupted with a cheer at a concert in 2007; he started and stopped the song 11 times before he felt the audience was treating it, and his love for his daughter, appropriately. The song celebrates the special part of himself that only Gracie sees, but also makes tongue-in-cheek reference to his role as the father of a younger child, saying, "You'll be a lady soon but until then / You gotta do what I say." This song, while intensely personal, still captures the universal feeling of the special tie between father and daughter.

I Loved Her First, by Heartland (I Loved Her First); all ages

" I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers....
I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it's still hard to give her away,
I loved her first."

This single was the lead for Heartland's album of the same name in 2006, and it rapidly shot to the top of the Billboard Hot Country chart. Now, nine years later, a viral video of a father singing it to his daughter at her wedding has renewed interested in this sweet song. In it, a narrating father speaks to the man who is marrying his daughter. The father knows that the two of them are right for one another, and yet he regrets knowing that her wedding marks a major move for her, away from him and towards the husband who will be the focus of her adult life. This emotional song is sure to touch any father who finds separation from his adult daughter both wonderful and bittersweet.

My Little Girl, by Tim McGraw (Flicka Motion Picture Soundtrack); all ages

“You're beautiful baby from the outside in.
Chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again.
Go on, take on this whole world,
But to me, you know, you'll always be my little girl.”

Tim McGraw is a country singer-songwriter and actor and this song appeared in the end credits for the movie Flicka in which he played his first lead role. Both the movie and this song were very popular, with My Little Girl becoming a standard father-daughter song for birthdays, weddings, and other celebrations. McGraw follows his daughter from infancy, as a tiny bundle in a soft blanket, to a woman on her wedding day, and promises her that he will always love and support her whenever she needs it. This beautiful song is sure to have meaning for any father at every stage of his daughter's life..

A father’s love has the power to nurture all of his daughter’s hopes and dreams. We wish all the Mighty Fathers raising Mighty Girls out there a very happy Father’s Day!

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

• For books celebrating the father-daughter relationship, visit our first Father’s Day blog, A Father’s Love: A Mighty Girl Celebrates Father’s Day or our father-daughter section in Relationships.
• For more great songs celebrating parenthood, visit our Parent / Child themed music.
• For our recommendations celebrating mothers, visit our reading recommendations post at  Celebrating Mighty Moms and Their Daughters and our music recommendations one at Celebrating Mom in Music.