Fatherhood and Pop Songs

What about George Michael's "Father Figure"?

 

Biological Didn't Bother -- Shaq

 

For two depressing songs:

Elton John's 'Father and his Son'
Mike and the Mechanics: 'The Living Years'

 

What's up Doc (Can We Rock?) -- Shaq and the Fu-Schnickens as performed on the Arsenio Hall Show.

 

"Cat's in the Cradle" is a must-have, but one I still sing to my son is "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart.

"With Arms Wide Open" is great when they're little.

 

"Drive" - Alan Jackson
"Delaney Talks to Statues" - Jimmy Buffett

 

Not a pop song- a country one. "Six White Horses" written by Bobby Bond and performed by Waylon Jennings in the early 1960s. Not to be confused by the Tommy Cash song of the same name. A totally obscure classic about a blind father whose son is serving in a war.

Come here and look through the window, Marie.
Open up the shutters tell me watch you see
Was that his knock that I heard at the door?
Or is it six white horses coming down the road?

Come here and touch me and say that it's all right
You know that to my eyes the days are as the the nights
Read again the letter that tells me where he's gone
To hell with the fighting- I want my son home.

I taught him to fish and I taught him to be strong
I taught him that killing any man is wrong
But tomorrow in battle I'd run to where he stood
If the help of a blind man could do any good.

Last night I went to his room for a while
I touched all the things that he used as a child
I rocked the cradle where he used to lay
I found his toy soldiers and threw them away.

Come here and look through the window, Marie.
Open up the shutters tell me watch you see
Was that his knock that I heard at the door?
Or is it six white horses coming down the road?

 

"You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins is a good one.

 

I'll second "Gracie" and add "Still Fighting It" by Ben Folds, which is sung from a father to a son. Great last line: "And you're so much like me.... I'm sorry."

I'll throw in a vote for "Your Dad Did" by John Hiatt.

 

"Beautiful Boy" by John Lennon, and "Living Proof" by Bruce Springsteen.

Released Nov. 17, 1980.

 

Another possibility in the country genre: I Loved Her First, By Heartland.

 

Two favorites:
Forever Young - Bob Dylan (screw the Rod Stewart remake)
Living Proof - Springsteen (which he wrote about the birth of his first kid)

Others the make the cut:
Living Years - Mike & the Mechanics
Beautiful Boy - John Lennon
Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin

not quite in the theme of the thread, but worthy of mention:
If I Had a Daughter - Terri Hendrix
http://terrihendrix.com/spirituallyrics.html#if