50 Best Songs About Memory
Songs That Hold On to What Fades
There’s a strange kind of ache that memory leaves behind. Not sharp enough to sting, but heavy in the chest, like an echo you can’t trace. You might be cleaning out your room, scrolling through old photos, or stuck in traffic when a song slips through and everything folds in on itself. The right lyric hits, and suddenly you’re back in some dim corner of a past you didn’t plan to revisit. These tracks catch that strange weight of remembering-the soft collapse between who you were and who you’re trying to be.
It’s not all nostalgia and slow ballads either. Some memories show up with swagger, layered in synths or fuzzed-out guitar riffs that sound like old footage taped over new ones. A few pop, rock, country, and R&B songs here don’t even deal directly with memory, but they feel like they could. They carry that tug of recall in the melody, that unspoken familiarity that makes you stop mid-sentence and just listen. They hold the pulse of moments that won’t settle down quietly, even when you’ve moved past them.
Sometimes remembering feels like replaying a glitch, looping through a feeling until it starts to blur. The songs that fit this mood don’t promise closure. They linger, sometimes uncomfortably, in the space between the past and now. They remind you that holding on and letting go can happen in the same breath. Here are the best songs about memory for reels and stories.
Top 10 Memory Songs
1. 'Photograph' by Ed Sheeran
2. 'When We Were Young' by Adele
3. 'In My Life' by The Beatles
4. 'Glory Days' by Bruce Springsteen
5. 'Memories' by Maroon 5
6. 'The Way We Were' by Barbra Streisand
7. 'I Will Remember You' by Sarah McLachlan
8. 'Summer of '69' by Bryan Adams
9. 'Memory' by Barbra Streisand
10. 'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' by Green Day
Best Nostalgia and Past Reflection Songs #11 to 20
11. 'Yesterday' by The Beatles
12. 'Remember When' by Alan Jackson
13. 'Time After Time' by Cyndi Lauper
14. 'Reminiscing' by Little River Band
15. 'Fire and Rain' by James Taylor
16. 'The Song Remembers When' by Trisha Yearwood
17. 'Landslide' by Fleetwood Mac
18. 'I Go Back' by Kenny Chesney
19. 'Yesterday Once More' by Carpenters
20. 'Castle on the Hill' by Ed Sheeran
Finding Comfort in Old Memories Songs #21 to 30
21. 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives' by Queen
22. 'Don't You Forget About Me' by Simple Minds
23. 'Do You Remember' by Jay Sean
24. 'Every Mile a Memory' by Dierks Bentley
25. 'Through the Years' by Kenny Rogers
26. 'Only Words' by The Wanted
27. 'The Dance' by Garth Brooks
28. 'Time Passages' by Al Stewart
29. 'Forever Young' by Alphaville
30. 'Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout The Good Old Days)' by The Judds
Memories of Love and Loss Songs #31 to 40
31. 'I Remember You' by Skid Row
32. 'Back to December' by Taylor Swift
33. 'Tears in Heaven' by Eric Clapton
34. 'The Night We Met' by Lord Huron
35. 'Memories Can’t Wait' by Talking Heads
36. 'Amnesia' by 5 Seconds of Summer
37. 'New Year's Day' by Taylor Swift
38. 'I Forgot to Remember to Forget' by Elvis Presley
39. 'My Favorite Memory' by Merle Haggard
40. 'Photographs and Memories' by Jim Croce
Cherishing the Past and Future Songs #41 to 50
41. 'You'll Think of Me' by Keith Urban
42. 'Good Old Days' by Macklemore ft. Kesha
43. 'Try to Remember' by Ed Ames
44. '19 Somethin'' by Mark Wills
45. 'A Place in This World' by Taylor Swift
46. 'I'm Not the Only One' by Sam Smith
47. 'See You Again' by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth
48. 'The House That Built Me' by Miranda Lambert
49. 'A Different World' by Bucky Covington
50. 'These Memories' by Hollow Coves
© 2025 Carson McQueen
