The 15 best songs about family (2024)

Disco deities Sister Sledge created the ultimate ode to female friendship with this ’70s classic written and produced by Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. The lyric ‘I got all my sisters with me’ just screams powerful women unite! The video isn’t too shabby, either – think drunk aunt at a wedding meets red glitter goodness.

Here, country singer Kacey Musgraves lists all the things your family do to piss you off, before rounding it off with a big ol’ ‘they're still your family, kids.’ She’s not wrong, obviously, and this family song also shows off her super-hooky and infectious songwriting style.

Thrashing drum beats, smooth strings, brass – has Drake joined the school choir? Not quite, but he’s heartbroken and getting all reflective again. This song’s narrative may be romantic, but the subtext is definitely family-based. He’s no longer close with someonespecial so finds himself thinking ‘guess I should have tried to keep my family closer, much closer.’ Maybe you should have, Drake.

For all the doom and gloom associated with the Man in Black, Johnny Cash could be a big, joyful softie… especially when it came to family. This rousing number – about a traveling family band – incorporates some southern-revival Gospel flair in the middle, and is extra vibrant in the live versions, when Cash’s beloved June Carter chimes in with the iconic ‘mama sang tenor,’ thus completing the family circle.

Kate Bush is the antithesis of convention, and 'Breathing' ranks among her most weird and wonderful tracks. It's not the most immediately obvious family song, but actually, Bush is writing from the perspective of a child in the womb. Enhanced by her almost child-like soprano vocals, thisis an otherworldly ode to maternity and birth on which Bush's foetus sings about 'breathing her mother in'as she anticipates her birth into a polluted world. Nearly four decades after its release, it feels more relevant than ever.

This 2004 track hints at a past Kanyewho was calmer, family orientated and less materialistic. Yes, really! But whether you believethe sentiment or not, it's a definitely a super-groovy slab of old-schoolYeezy complete with his customary soul samples.

Singer-songwriter Torres is well versed in melancholy, and clocking in at just under eight minutes, ‘The Exchange’ is an epic tale of woe. Her choked-up vocals sit almost uncomfortably atop a barely audible guitar line as she sings hauntingly about the fear of losing her parents. Definitely get the tissues out for this one.

Lyrically this Lindsey Buckingham-sung song is far from complex, but its 80s production and classic Mac melodies are definitely infectious – it's taken from the band's 1987 comeback albumTango in the Night,home to the huge hitsEverywhereand Little Lies. So give it a listenwhether you consider yourself a family (wo)man or not.

Let’s face it – in-lawscan be problematic, and Ernie K-Doe knows. So, back in 1961 he kind of created a mother-in-law diss tack so you don't have to. Grit your teeth and smile knowingly as he sings that ‘sin should be her name.’ Calm down, Ernie – you love her daughter, remember!

Maybe it's because he‘s one of the most influential and enigmatic pop stars ever, but sometimes it's easy to forget David Bowie had a private life. Written for son Zowie (now film director Duncan Jones), ‘Kooks’ is a humorous yet comprehensive list of advice on how to be a child. When he sings, ‘If the homework brings you down, we’ll throw it on the fire,’ your inner child will BEAM.

Mums are bloody great, aren’t they, and this well-raisedUS soul group definitely agree. The tune, a real Mothers' Day anthem, is over six minutes long and completely irresistible. If you never need to hear the Spice Girls’ ‘Mama’ again, this song is your alternative.

This slick San Fran soulband were made up of two brothers,a sister and various other talented members – so it makes sense that they’d pen a track like ‘Family Affair’. A US Number One hit in 1971, it's gone down in history as an absolute classic funk banger and one of the best songs about family.

The late, great Vandross is the epitome of silky-voiced goodness,so it’s no surprise this serenade to his lost father is a real tear-jerker. Simple production carried by an oh-so-’80s piano line (even though the song dropped in 2003) makes this both a weeper and a keeper. Nostalgia personified.

Pop’s somewhat unsung hero, Pink has been launching belters into the charts since the late ’90s. This 2001 R&B tune is a deeply personal exploration of her unhappy family life growing up. ‘Can we work it out, can we be a family?’ Pink pleads. It’s kind of harrowing, but also catchy enough to do the business at a noughties-themed club night.

Croydon-raised Stormzy is a firm London favourite and this track shows off his sense of loyalty. ‘Wedon't do friends round here,’ he raps. ‘Round here, it’s brotherhood.’ It's a welcome reminder that family isn't just the folks you're related to by blood.