Throughout the decades, “Mama” has always held a dear place in the annals of country music. Heck, “Mama” is even included as a requirement for the perfect country and western song in David Allen Coe’s “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” While there are countless songs out there celebrating “Mom,” where are all of the songs about “Dad?”
Cole Swindell recently reached #1 on the charts with “You Should Be Here,” a song dedicated to his father whom he lost in 2013. In recent years we’ve heard songs about being a dad, in Rodney Atkins’ “Watching You” and “He’s Mine” along with other singles by Darius Rucker and Trace Adkins. With Father’s Day right around the corner, let’s take a look back at some of the best songs about “Dad” from the past 25 years.
George Strait has recorded a handful of songs about “Dad” over the decades, but nothing comes to mind quicker than “Love Without End, Amen.” This could in fact be the best song about “dad” even beyond the past quarter century, that has ever been recorded. In 2000, Strait hit the top of the charts once again with “The Best Day,” relaying a father’s reflecting on the best days of his son’s life, that he also had the pleasure of being involved in.
A heavy theme throughout country music songs about “dad” is the learning of life lessons from one’s father. Whether it be the early instructions of operating an automobile in Alan Jackson’s “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” and Ricky Van Shelton’s “Keep It Between The Lines,” appreciating what you have in Confederate Railroad’s “Daddy Never Was The Cadillac Kind” or life in general, in Sawyer Brown’s “The Walk,” “dad” always had words of advice to pass along.
There have even been great songs about men who may not have been “dad” in the traditional sense, but a father figure, nonetheless. Randy Travis released “He Walked On Water” to radio in 1990, about a boy being in complete awe of his great-grandfather. In 1999, Brad Paisley’s first number 1 hit single, “He Didn’t Have To Be,” put the spotlight on the fantastic step-fathers of the world.
These are our choices for the Top 10 “Songs About Dad” in country music from the past 25 years. Did your favorite make the cut?
By Arthur Born
10. Rodney Atkins – “He’s Mine”
9. Randy Travis – “He Walked On Water”
8. Gary Allan – “Tough Little Boys”
7. Sawyer Brown – “The Walk”
6. Aaron Tippin – “You’ve Got To Stand For Something”
5. Confederate Railroad – “Daddy Never Was The Cadillac Kind”
4. Trace Adkins – “Just Fishin'”
3. Brad Paisley – “He Didn’t Have To Be”
2. Alan Jackson – “Drive (For Daddy Gene)”
1. George Strait – “Love Without End, Amen”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwOT6hjyexQ
