Twenty-five years is a long time to love one person, and most of the famous love songs are about the first year, not the twenty-fifth. If you are putting together music for a silver anniversary, this is a list of real songs that actually fit a long marriage, plus one we wrote for a single couple's 25 years so you can hear what a song made for one story sounds like.
Listen: "Twenty-Five Octobers"
What makes a 25th anniversary song land
The best 25th anniversary songs are about endurance, not first sight. A song for a quarter-century of marriage works when it names the long middle: the years that were hard, the ordinary days, the choosing-again. The 25th is the silver anniversary, a tradition that goes back to medieval Europe, where a husband gave his wife a silver wreath after 25 years. Silver was chosen because it holds its shine and takes wear without breaking, which is a fair description of a marriage that makes it this far. So when you pick a song, look for lyrics about staying, weathering, and growing old, not the rush of a brand-new crush.
8 songs for a 25th (silver) anniversary
These are real, well-known songs that fit a milestone marriage. Each note says who it is for and why.
- "Through the Years" — Kenny Rogers. The closest thing to a 25th-anniversary anthem. It is built entirely around looking back over a long marriage and the loyalty inside it. For the couple who wants the slow dance everyone expects, done well.
- "Grow Old With Me" — John Lennon. Lennon's quiet song about caring and commitment rather than passion, written in his last years. For a couple who reads aging together as the whole point, not the downside.
- "You're Still the One" — Shania Twain. Written about a relationship people doubted, it is openly about making it despite the naysayers. For the couple who heard "it won't last" and proved everyone wrong.
- "Forever and Ever, Amen" — Randy Travis. A plain-spoken country promise to keep loving "till the rivers all run dry." For a couple who likes their devotion stated simply, with a wink and warmth.
- "Annie's Song" — John Denver. Denver wrote it for his wife after they nearly split and got back together. For the couple whose 25 years included a hard patch they came through.
- "In My Life" — The Beatles. A song about looking back on everyone you have known and finding that no one compares to the person beside you now. For the reflective couple at a smaller, quieter gathering.
- "When I'm Sixty-Four" — The Beatles. A lighter, music-hall song about wanting to still be needed and fed in old age. For a couple who wants to laugh on the dance floor instead of cry.
- "The Way You Look Tonight" — Frank Sinatra (and many others). A 1936 standard, written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, that has carried weddings and anniversaries for generations. For the couple who wants something timeless and a little dressed up.
The lyrics
The leaves are turning again
Right on schedule
Like they know what month it is for us
Folding chairs in your uncle's yard
A borrowed suit a half-size wide at the shoulders
You wore your mother's pearls and trembled once
And steadied me, the bolder of the two of us
The maples dropped their colors like confetti
Twenty-five Octobers gone — who's counting? I am. Always ready.
We were too young to know
What we were promising
Twenty-five Octobers, my love, and the answer's still the same
The yes I said in a borrowed suit, I'd say again today
Through the house we painted twice, the girl we raised down the hall
You hum at the sink like it's nothing at all —
It's everything. It always was.
Twenty-five Octobers, and I'd do every one because of you. Just because.
Remember the winter the furnace quit
We slept in coats and laughed till the pipes thawed out
The smell of paint that whole first summer —
Robin's-egg blue, then the gray you talked me out of doubting
Our girl learned to dance on the kitchen tile
Standing on my shoes while you clapped the time
Nobody warned me
The ordinary would be the treasure
Twenty-five Octobers, my love, and the answer's still the same
The yes I said in a borrowed suit, I'd say again today
Through the house we painted twice, the girl we raised down the hall
You hum at the sink like it's nothing at all —
It's everything. It always was.
Twenty-five Octobers, and I'd do every one because of you. Just because.
Someday our girl will stand in some October
Folding chairs, somebody trembling at her side
And I'll lean over and tell you what I'm telling you tonight:
It goes fast. Hold on. You're the luck of my whole life.
Twenty-five Octobers, my love, and I'm not done counting yet
Give me twenty-five more and I still won't pay the debt
The house, the girl, the gray we picked, the hymn you hum unaware —
I'd take the long way through it all as long as you were there
It's everything. It always was.
Twenty-five Octobers — marry me again, just because.
The leaves are turning, love
Put on your coat
Let's go count them
Questions people ask about 25th anniversary songs
What is the traditional symbol for a 25th wedding anniversary?
Silver. The 25th is the silver anniversary, a tradition that traces back to medieval Europe, when a husband would crown his wife with a silver wreath after 25 years of marriage. Silver was chosen because it keeps its shine and takes wear without breaking, which is why it became the symbol for a marriage that lasts a quarter of a century.
What is the most popular song for a 25th anniversary slow dance?
"Through the Years" by Kenny Rogers is the most common pick, because the whole song is about looking back over a long marriage. "Grow Old With Me" by John Lennon is the close second for couples who want something quieter. Both fit a 25-year story better than newer love songs about falling in love for the first time.
Is it better to play a famous song or have one written?
A famous song carries shared meaning that the whole room already feels, which is why the list above is worth keeping. A custom song does something a famous one cannot: it names your actual 25 years, the people and places only you two know. Many couples do both, a familiar song for the dance and a written one for the moment they give the gift.
One song, written for your 25 years
If you want a song that is only about your marriage, that is what we do. "Twenty-Five Octobers" above was written for one couple, about the borrowed suit at their wedding, the house they painted twice, and the daughter who once danced on his shoes. Songbond writes an original anniversary song from your story for $39.90, delivered in 24 to 48 hours with unlimited revisions. You send the details; a songwriter turns your 25 years into one song that did not exist before.
From the same series: anniversary song for husband, anniversary song for wife, and custom song anniversary gift ideas.
