50 Best Songs About Bad Father-Daughter Relationships
Songs that unravel strained father-daughter ties
There’s a type of silence that hangs heavier when it’s your dad on the other end. Not the cinematic kind, not the noble-dad-on-the-porch scene. It’s weird, lopsided, full of things that never got said at the right time or were said in the worst way. Maybe it was distance, or yelling, or worse, nothing. These tracks don’t try to patch it up with a neat chorus. They sit in the weirdness. They loop through the long ride home from a visit that ended early or the birthdays he missed and no one really talked about.
Some feel like a confrontation you never got to have. Others feel like someone else wrote down what you couldn't say when you were sixteen and still figuring out if you were angry or just numb. You can hear it in the flat way the verses land. In the little cracks that show up when the artist tries to sound tough but keeps slipping into something more tired than mad. These aren’t songs that beg for reconciliation. They're the kind that unpack the weight, throw it on the floor, and leave it there.
Not all of them come from the same world. You’ll find pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that all orbit that same off-center bond, each one carrying its own weird ache. Here’s a list that pulls together the tracks that dig into it without trying to fix it.
Top 10 Father Issues Songs
1. 'Oh Father'—Madonna
2. 'Family Portrait'—Pink
3. 'Confessions of a Broken Heart'—Lindsay Lohan
4. 'For The Love of a Daughter'—Demi Lovato
5. 'Daddy Issues'—The Neighbourhood
6. 'Because of You'—Kelly Clarkson
7. 'Cleaning Out My Closet'—Eminem
8. 'Father of Mine'—Everclear
9. 'No Son of Mine'—Genesis
10. 'Daddy's Gone'—Glasvegas
Difficult Father-Child Relationships #11—20
11. 'Hurt'—Christina Aguilera
12. 'Concrete Angel'—Martina McBride
13. 'Alyssa Lies'—Jason Michael Carroll
14. 'Daddy'—Jewel
15. 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone'—The Temptations
16. 'Poppa Was A Playa'—Nas
17. 'A Boy Named Sue'—Johnny Cash
18. 'My Tears Ricochet'—Taylor Swift
19. 'Fries'—Olivia Olson
20. 'Family Line'—Conan Gray
Songs About Abusive Fathers #21—30
21. 'Numb'—Linkin Park
22. 'Janie's Got a Gun'—Aerosmith
23. 'Head Like a Hole'—Nine Inch Nails
24. 'Dyer's Eve'—Metallica
25. 'Father and Son'—Cat Stevens
26. 'Father'—The Front Bottoms
27. 'Had a Dad'—Jane's Addiction
28. 'Oh, Mother'—Christina Aguilera
29. 'I Will Be Your Father Figure'—George Michael
30. 'Cats in the Cradle'—Harry Chapin
Songs About Absent Fathers #31—40
31. 'Styrofoam Plates'—Death Cab for Cutie
32. 'Daughters'—John Mayer
33. 'Daughter'—Loudon Wainwright III
34. 'The Last Day of Our Acquaintance'—Sinéad O'Connor
35. 'Papa'z Song'—2Pac
36. 'No Power Over Me'—Steve Siler
37. 'Fire On Babylon'—Sinéad O'Connor
38. 'That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!'—Sufjan Stevens
39. 'How to Love'—Lil Wayne
40. 'My Father's Eyes'—Eric Clapton
Songs About Complex Father Relationships #41—50
41. 'Papa Don't Preach'—Madonna
42. 'The Living Years'—Mike + The Mechanics
43. 'The End of the Line'—Slayer
44. 'Family Business'—Kanye West
45. 'Adam Raised a Cain'—Bruce Springsteen
46. 'I'm Bugged at My Ol' Man'—The Beach Boys
47. 'How Could You Leave Us'—NF
48. 'Biological Didn't Bother'—Shaquille O'Neal
49. 'A Little Soul'—Pulp
50. 'My Father'—Judy Collins
© 2025 Carson McQueen
