National Grandparents Day is the second Sunday in September, and it is one of the few holidays where a song says more than a card. Below are eight real songs about grandparents and a long life together, plus one more idea: an original song written about your own grandparents, for $39.90, delivered in 24 to 48 hours. We start with that one, because it is the example.
Listen: "Two Chairs, One Story"
What makes a Grandparents Day song actually land
The best songs about grandparents name one small, true thing rather than saying "I love you" in general. Grandparents are usually loved for specifics. The garden. The card table. The way two people who have been married fifty years still finish each other's sentences. "Two Chairs, One Story" is about a couple who have sat in the same two chairs for decades, one story between them. That is the move: pick the detail only your family would recognize and let the song rest on it.
This matters for two reasons. A specific detail tells your grandparents you were paying attention, which is the whole gift. And a specific detail is something no famous song can give you, because the songwriter never met them.
8 Grandparents Day songs worth playing
Here is a short rule for choosing: a famous song is best when it already sounds like your family, and a written song is best when you want their real names and years in the words. These eight are real, well known, and work for grandparents or for a long life shared.
- "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days)" — The Judds. A granddaughter asks her grandfather about simpler times. It won two Grammys in 1987 and is close to the top of any grandfather list. For the grandpa with the stories.
- "Grandma's Hands" — Bill Withers. Withers wrote it in 1971 about his grandmother, Lula, who raised and steadied him. Plain, warm, and specific about the hands that clapped in church and held a grandchild. For grandma.
- "When I'm Sixty-Four" — The Beatles. McCartney wrote it as a young man imagining growing old with someone, and partly as a nod to his own father. Light and hopeful. The right pick when the song is for both grandparents together.
- "Unforgettable" — Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole. The 1991 duet stitched Natalie's voice to her late father's 1951 recording, a daughter singing with a parent across the years. For a family that reaches across generations.
- "The Living Years" — Mike + The Mechanics. A 1988 song about a son, his father, and the grandson who never met his grandfather. It is about saying the thing while there is still time. Tender, and a nudge to play it this year.
- "In My Life" — The Beatles. Lennon's meditation on the people and places he remembers, "some are dead and some are living." Good when you want to honor grandparents who have passed alongside the ones still here.
- "Forever Young" — Bob Dylan. Written as a blessing for his son, borrowing from an old benediction. It reads just as well from grandparents to grandchildren, or the other way. For the family that passes down more than photos.
- "I Hope You Dance" — Lee Ann Womack. A 2000 hit built as an older voice wishing a younger one a full life. It has become a graduation and milestone standard. For the grandparent who always told you to go for it.
The lyrics
The lyrics
Two Chairs, One Story
Two chairs on a porch,
worn smooth in all the right places.
Her coffee, his tea, six in the morning,
wind chimes she hung in 'eighty-five,
crossword half-done between the two of you,
arguing five-across, so alive.
The whole street knows you by the porch light —
first on at dusk, last off at night —
sixty years of keeping watch
over everybody's lives.
Every road we drive
bends back to that porch.
Two chairs, one story —
the one the whole family is from.
Every name at every table
started with the two of you, young.
Happy Grandparents Day — sit down, stay there.
Let us bring the coffee for once.
Grandma keeps the birthdays in a notebook,
Grandpa keeps the cars all running right,
between them they have caught every falling kid
this family ever dropped mid-flight.
The kitchen smells like cinnamon and engine grease —
somehow that's exactly love —
two people who decided once
and never once gave up.
Every road we drive
bends back to that porch.
Two chairs, one story —
the one the whole family is from.
Every name at every table
started with the two of you, young.
Happy Grandparents Day — sit down, stay there.
Let us bring the coffee for once.
The grandkids' grandkids will hear about
the porch, the chimes, the light —
how two chairs held a dynasty
and a crossword every night.
Two chairs, one story —
the one the whole family is from.
Every name at every table
started with the two of you, young.
Happy Grandparents Day — sit down, stay there.
Let us bring the coffee for once.
Two chairs on a porch.
Don't you move a thing.
Common questions
What is a good song for Grandparents Day?
For a song about grandparents, "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days)" by The Judds and "Grandma's Hands" by Bill Withers are two of the most fitting choices. Both name a grandparent with real warmth rather than a general one. If you want the lyrics to name your own grandparents, a custom song is the most personal route.
What song is good for both grandparents together?
For a song about both of them, pick one about a long life shared, like "When I'm Sixty-Four" by The Beatles. It imagines two people growing old side by side. A custom song can go further and name both grandparents, the years they have been married, and the small things they still do for each other.
How do I make a custom song for my grandparents?
You fill out a short questionnaire about your grandparents. Their names, how long they have been together, a habit or a phrase that is theirs. Songbond turns those details into an original song for $39.90, delivered in 24 to 48 hours, with unlimited revisions, so you can get it right before their day.
Give them the song that is only about them
A famous song says how love feels. A song about your own grandparents says what it looks like on their porch, in their two chairs, in the story only they share. If you want the second kind, have a custom Grandparents Day song written for $39.90, delivered in 24 to 48 hours, revised until it is right. Tell us their names, their years, the small thing they still do. We will write the rest.
From the same series: Father's Day songs for grandpa and Mother's Day songs for grandma.
