Vinyl Countdown: 5 Great Father’s Day songs

With our recent hot weather spell, I had already compiled and written about 5 great “heat” songs, when I realized this is Father’s Day weekend!  The heat wave will still be around next week, but for now, let’s celebrate Dads!

5.  “Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder:  This may be the definitive song about the joys of fatherhood.  Stevie never sounded happier.  He even says it, loud and clear: “Oh, I’m so happy, we have been heaven blessed. I can’t believe what God has done, through us he’s given life to one.”  This song was included on Stevie’s 1976 double album, “Songs In The Key Of Life,” but it was never released as a single.  Stevie says the song was very personal, and he didn’t intend for it to be a commercial project.  He couldn’t keep deejays like me from playing it on the radio, though.  We wanted to share it with everyone.  Forty years later, it’s still one of his most enduring song, and perfect for Father’s Day:

4.  “Everything I Own” by Bread:  This 1972 ballad was among a string of hits by the soft-rock group Bread, featuring singer-songwriter David Gates.  When we heard this on the radio, it sounded like a guy who was just couldn’t get over a broken romance.  “I would give anything I own, give up my life, my heart, my home, I would give everything I own, just to have you back again.”  Years later, the truth came out: the song was about Gates’ father.  He had written it as a tribute to his Dad, who had passed away a few years earlier.  Listen again, and the song takes on a whole new meaning.  If you’re like me, and you’ve lost your father, these words are quite special, especially this weekend.  “Is there someone you know, you’re loving them so, but taking them all for granted.  You may lose them one day, someone takes them away, and they don’t hear the words you long to say.”

3.  “Color Him Father” by The Winstons: I wasn’t even a teenager when this song hit the top 5 in 1969, but it still packed an emotional punch.  Many of my friends had lost their dad, for one reason or another, but some of the luckier ones had a great stepfather.  Those wonderful men should be celebrated this weekend too.  Like all great songs, this one tells a story.  In the first verse, the singer tells us about a great dad that he counts on each day: “There’s a man at my house he’s so big and strong, he goes to work each day, stays all day long.  He comes home each night, looking tired and beat, he sits down at the dinner table, and has a bite to eat.”
As the story continues, we learn more about the mom, and why this man is so special: “My real old man he got killed in the war, and she knows she and seven kids could’nt have got very far. She said she thought she could never love again, and then there he stood with that big wide grin.  He married my mother, and he took us in, and now we belong to the man with that big wide grin.  I’m gonna color him father, color him love.”  The story still rings so true today.  If only we had more such men, willing to take children in.

2.  “Dance With My Father” by Luther Vandross:  This song won the 2004 Grammy Award for Song of the Year, and it had special meaning to the artist and his fans.  Luther lost his dad at the age of 7, but he always remembered dancing with his parents: “If I could get another chance, another walk, another dance with him, I’d play a song that would never end, how I’d love, love, love to dance with my father again.” By the time the song was released, Luther was seriously ill, and would not recover.  He died in 2005 at the age of 54, but left us many great songs.  In my opinion, this was among his best, with these powerful words on loving, and losing a father: “I know I’m praying for much too much, but could you send back the only man she loved? I know you don’t do it usually, but dear Lord, she’s dying to dance with my father again.  Every night I fall asleep, and this is all I ever dream.”

1.  “Cat’s In The Cradle” by Harry Chapin:  “A child arrived, just the other day, he came to the world in the usual way. But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.  He learned to walk while I was away.”  I was a long way from fatherhood when this song came out in 1974, but I never forgot it.  Other than my own father, my parenting style was most influenced by “The Andy Griffith Show,” (was there ever a better TV dad than Sheriff Andy Taylor?) and this song. Harry Chapin’s songs were poignant slices of life, and in this one, he takes on the role of an aged father, regretting time spent away from his son.  In the end, he notes that his now grown-up son is too busy to visit dear old Dad.  Yes, the boy had always vowed to be just like his father, and indeed he did: “He’d grown up just like me.  My boy was just like me.” Harry died far too young, in a car accident at the age of 38.  But trust me, he left some great music and messages behind, including this haunting song.  It taught a lot of us to spend more time with our kids.  The career should take a back seat to family.

Okay, one more.  I usually limit my stories to top-40 pop hits from my “radio days” era, but I’ll make an exception here.  As we celebrate fathers, here’s a more recent favorite from the country catalog.  Alan Jackson, the father of three daughters, did a song called “Drive” in 2002.  It is dedicated to his own father, Eugene, who had died two years earlier.  The video is an award-winner, and the song speaks for itself.  Happy Father’s Day!