The 20 best songs about friendship
The world of pop music will most likely never run out of songs about love. As long as songwriters feel that same flutter in their chest every time their lover looks their way, there will always be a reason to put pen to paper about the wonders of what romance means to them. For all of the major songs about love, there are still just as many tunes that deal with friendship as well.
Although romantic and platonic love songs have their own place in history, tunes about friendship are a bit of a tricky beast. Instead of coming up with something that sounds dopey, most of the songwriters’ tunes about friendship are about having someone in their lives they can depend on. Even when their lovers can’t confide in them, some of the greatest writers turn to the few friends that know them better than anyone else.
Granted, not every artist gets to say how much they love their friends while they are still around. While a handful of friendship tracks were written after the person passed away, it’s easy to feel that same love there, knowing they’re still connected even if they aren’t on the same plane of existence anymore.
From former writing partners to someone who helped them through thick and thin, these friendship songs celebrate the people who pick writers up even when they don’t think they’re worth it anymore. A good love song might be able to hit the listener in the stomach, but it’s a different story when the writer creates something for their spiritual brothers and sisters.
The best friendship songs:
‘All My Friends’ – LCD Soundsystem
Do you know where your friends are tonight? James Murphy would never think about writing a straightforward ode to friendship – the mercurial LCD Soundsystem mastermind didn’t always play well with others. Just look at the lineup that made ‘All My Friends’: although drummer Patrick Mahoney and bassist Tyler Pope are credited as co-writers, Murphy recorded all of the instruments himself.
It’s an appropriately isolated take on how friends aren’t always there by your side. As Murphy ploughs through the same chord over and over, he starts to get philosophical about growing old and spending your brief periods of time in the right way.
Just like everything that rattles around Murphy’s head, it’s relatable, anxiety-inducing, hilarious, and weirdly insightful. If you just want to cut loose to the never-ending disco thump, then even better.
‘You’re My Best Friend’ – Queen
The music of Queen practically feels universal at this point. Even though most people could care less about what Freddie Mercury is on about in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, it comes back to how the music makes them feel the moment those layers of harmonies kick in. Aside from the group’s anthems, one of their best songs came from the power of companionship.
Bassist John Deacon wrote ‘You’re My Best Friend’ as an ode to his wife before being given the full Queen treatment. Although it’s easy to see a lover singing about the pleasures of his lover, the tune is open enough to interpretation to be about pretty much anything, being just as applicable to a best mate, an old flame, or the average house pet depending on the circumstances.
Although most of Queen’s hits are celebrated for Freddie Mercury’s contributions, Mercury would praise Deacon for this song, saying that it reminded him of the Tamla/Motown hits that he loved listening to when he was a kid. For a genre that is somewhat afraid to have its heart on its sleeve, there isn’t one insincere bone in this song’s body.
‘Two Of Us’ – The Beatles
Quibble all you want over who this song is properly addressed to. If you ask Paul McCartney, the answer was his soon-to-be wife Linda Eastman. But for others, the nostalgic look back at burning matches and lifting latches relates more to the friendship that John Lennon shared with McCartney during their earliest days.
Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, spurned on by the natural harmony work between the two that was still as impactful as ever. Just because McCartney didn’t necessarily mean for the lyrics of ‘Two of Us’ to refer to his friendship with Lennon, it was impossible to think about anything else once the pair began singing together.
Lennon and McCartney were growing up and growing away from each other in 1969. But if you just listened to ‘Two of Us’, you would never be able to tell.
‘To Find a Friend’ – Tom Petty
Tom Petty had mentioned numerous that Wildflowers had scared him because of how good it was. After finally leaving his label and being free to make a solo record, the songs just kept coming, leading to a treasure trove album that became a career resurgence for him during the mid-90s. In the background, though, Petty was going through hell trying to sort out his personal life.
Right before a nasty divorce from his wife, ‘To Find a Friend’ is practically about the crumbling relationship before him. Draped behind a character who left his wife in the middle of his life, Petty is trying to make peace with that side of his personality, knowing how heartbreaking it is seeing him slowly grow apart from the most important person in his life.
As he sees his wife’s boyfriend take over the house, Petty’s protagonist feels like a hollow shell watching the days go by, always struggling to find some sort of friend to help him through his darkest days. Friendship might be easy to come by at first, but ‘To Find a Friend’ is a reminder from Petty about just how hard it is to keep that friendship intact as well.
‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ – The Hollies
‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ had the most interesting trajectory of any single across The Hollies’ long and storied career. By the time the song was recorded, Graham Nash had already jumped ship for California to become a part of Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
That left Allan Clarke in charge of recording lead vocals for ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’. The emotional ballad was originally written by Bob Russell and Bobby Scott, old-school pop songwriters. The track would be one of Russell’s final works before his death, with The Hollies’ version of the track coming out less than six months before he passed away.
While The Beatles were carrying that weight, The Hollies were sharing the new load that they all bore. The result was a number one hit in the UK… but only two decades later when ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ was featured in a Miller Lite commercial.
‘Lean on Me’ – Bill Withers
Bill Withers’s voice may as well be the sound of warm butter. Throughout his peak years in the ‘70s, tracks like ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ became some of the most organic soul of the era, as Withers added just the right amount of bluesy swagger to make the song come alive. Outside of writing tunes about women who did him wrong, Withers had the same blue-collar voice that spoke directly to the people on ‘Lean On Me’.
Despite his history of singing soulful cuts, this is one of the most honest looks at what friendship is really like. For all of the songs about being together until the end, it’s never that simple, and Withers hides nothing back regarding the amount of sorrow that most people have to endure every single day. The power comes from getting back up, though, and having friends to lean on during times of trouble is what keeps most people going through every nightmare they face in life.
The song would go beyond friendship altogether most of the time, becoming an anthem during times of strife in the world and during pivotal moments on TV shows. The world might be turning perfectly every single day, but Withers’s weathered voice is always a helpful companion through the tough times in life.
‘Friends’ – The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys were beginning to become more democratic by the end of the 1960s. Brian Wilson had burned out trying to make Smile happen, leaving the door open for the other band members to begin contributing to the band’s music. Carl Wilson became an integral part of the band’s sound, having already taken on lead vocals for songs like ‘God Only Knows’ and ‘Good Vibrations’.
In order to keep him in the loop, much of Friends was recorded at Brian Wilson’s home. The homespun lo-fi feeling of the album would be a glimpse into the future embraced by artists like Paul McCartney, but in 1968, it didn’t go over well with audiences who were expecting mini operas from The Beach Boys.
One of the few times that listeners could hear the genius of the band’s past work was on the kaleidoscopic title track. Written by all three Wilson brothers and guitarist Al Jardine, ‘Friends’ is a true group effort that reflects its genial title.
‘No Excuses’ – Alice in Chains
After the creation of Dirt, the foundations of Alice in Chains became increasingly fractured. During the sessions, Layne Staley was slowly starting to succumb to his heroin addiction, and Jar of Flies was the first time most fans heard him in that state, hardly contributing to a few of the album tracks. Although Jerry Cantrell takes lead vocal duties on ‘No Excuses’, it’s hard not to hear the track as a song towards his writing partner.
Throughout every verse, Cantrell talks about how hard it is to see his friend spiral downward like this, thinking Staley can’t take the pain of breaking rocks on his hands all day. Although Cantrell is hurting for his friend, he remains loyal to him in this song, never for a second willing to cut his losses and leave him by the side of the road somewhere.
Cantrell knows the grim situation, but he’s ready to stick with Staly until the end, promising to love him anyway if he eventually gives way to his vices. Sadly, it wouldn’t take long for those vices to win, with Staley only staying on for one more album before passing away from a heroin overdose in 2002. Cantrell may have been willing to get Staley the help he could, but listening to the harmonised vocals these days feels like listening to ghosts from the past.
‘Can We Still Be Friends’ – Todd Rundgren
As we’ll learn throughout this list, multiple different kinds of friends exist in the world. Some are the people close to you that you confide in. Some are the people we can’t get away from. And some sit in the in-between, where friendship isn’t actually a current proposition but instead a mark of future peace.
Todd Rundgren had read the room by the late 1970s. After trying his luck with psychedelic experimental albums like A Wizard / A True Star and his prog-rock production Utopia, Rundgren returned to singer-songwriter mode for 1978’s Hermit of Mink Hollow.
His far-reaching ambitions were still on full display, but songs like ‘Can We Still Be Friends’ took a more traditional approach to both music and broken romance. It doesn’t sound like Rundgren and his lost love have much of a chance, but that’s a specific type of friend, too: the one you can never have.
‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ – Randy Newman
Writing music meant to be enjoyed by children and adults is never easy. While there might be something you want to articulate in a song, it’s hard to intentionally stifle yourself when there are toddlers in the show’s audience. When Randy Newman was commissioned to write music for Toy Story, he made songs about companionship look easy on ‘You’ve Got a Friend In Me’.
After writing snide lyrics throughout his career on tracks like ‘Short People’, Newman is sincere here, almost writing from the perspective of Woody and Buzz patiently waiting for Andy to return home from school to play with them. The lyrics are simple, but the music is a different story, borrowing harmony from New Orleans jazz to create one of the most mesmerising tunes of the Pixar era of Disney entertainment.
Given the well-worn gruff in Newman’s voice, this feels like a song that could be sung by old friends sitting on rocking chairs, having been lucky enough to see their twilight years together and remaining chums throughout everything. The time might have gone by a little too quickly, but no amount of time can replace the years of fun that comes from true friendship.
‘Just Friends’ – Amy Winehouse
Sometimes “friends” aren’t really friends. Sometimes they’re ex-lovers, fellow addicts, or enablers. Amy Winehouse had plenty of those floating around in 2006 while she was recording her magnum opus, Back to Black.
Spurned on by the break-up between her and future husband (then ex-husband) Blake Fielder-Civil, the album had different looks at the relationship, from Winehouse’s darkest despair to her moving on.
‘Just Friends’ is the hope that you and your ex can at least be courteous to each other. Winehouse wasn’t able to keep that distance: she and Fielder-Civil married in 2007 but divorced in 2009. By that point, Winehouse had already begun delaying her potential third studio album that never saw the light of day.
‘Friend of a Friend’ – Foo Fighters
After the dissolution of Nirvana, no one would have blamed Dave Grohl if he had never wanted to talk about Kurt Cobain again. Cobain taking his own life cast a shroud over the rest of the rock scene, and Grohl often retreated into himself, feeling that playing new music would be like picking at a raw wound. Though Grohl eventually got back into the music world with Foo Fighters, it would take years before he was comfortable talking about his old friend.
With a decade under his belt as a frontman, In Your Honor was the first time that Grohl allowed his fans to see both sides of Foo Fighters, with one disc containing rock songs and the other filled with delicate acoustic material. In the middle of disc two comes ‘Friend of a Friend’, where Grohl talks about Cobain, never mentioning him by name but bringing to mind the image of an artistic friend who would always be playing some of his friend’s guitars.
Though Grohl has a different experience with Cobain than most Nirvana fans, his awareness of Cobain’s impact on the world is evident in this song, as Grohl talks about no one speaking whenever Cobain strapped on that guitar. The image of Kurt Cobain often feels larger than life these days, but this song reminds Grohl to remember his shy friend whom he loved back in the day.
‘You’ve Got a Friend’ – Carole King
The origins of ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ really do reflect friendship. Although Carole King didn’t write the song specifically for James Taylor to record, the pair were working on their respective albums Tapestry and Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon together in 1971 when King composed ‘You’ve Got a Friend’.
In a nice bit of synergy, King and Taylor both decided to record the song. King didn’t play on Taylor’s version, with Joni Mitchell stepping into her role on backing vocals. Mitchell performed on Tapestry as well, pulling together some real-life friendships for a wave of fantastic 1970s albums.
Over the years, ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ became a go-to track for any number of famous singers to come together and sing on. The best version remains King’s original, which is infused with all of the compassion and soul that King poured into Tapestry.
‘We’re Going to Be Friends’ – The White Stripes
The White Stripes’ origin was about deconstructing most modern rock acts. Whereas nu-metal bands complained about their problems or pop-punk acts complained about wanting to take the car out after hours, Jack and Meg White always felt comfortable tapping into the innocence of rock and roll, as if they were two children discovering their instruments for the first time. Since this was all about fundamentals, it’s natural that The Stripes’ love song is also about something innocent.
Instead of the usual bluesy songs about a woman leaving him, Jack penned ‘We’re Going To Be Friends’ about his time at school with his friend Suzy Lee, reminiscing on the teacher thinking that they sound funny and his memories of running through the playground with no regard for the time passing by.
The music video is as important in this context as Jack sings this gentle song on his clean electric guitar as Meg lies asleep next to him as if Jack wrote the song documenting their escapades during the day before another day of hijinx tomorrow. In a genre known for most adult-oriented songs, ‘We’re Going to Be Friends’ is as pure as they come, creating a world where nothing ever goes wrong and going to bed knowing that Jack will walk with his friend again.
‘(Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Doing) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn’t A Problem)’ – Car Seat Headrest
Friends are supposed to be comforting, right? So what happens when you’re having a bad trip and all that you can see from your friends is a scene out of a Biblical nightmare? The answer is that you have a Car Seat Headrest song.
Nobody knew how to tap into the anxiety that comes from the transition to adulthood quite like Will Toledo. After he lays out the full story of ‘(Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (But Say’s This Isn’t a Problem)’, it’s easy to wonder if he’s being facetious when he arrives at the final, titular chant of “Drugs are better with Friends / Friends are better with drugs”.
It’s biting and angry and revelatory all at once. Even though he didn’t transcend from that mushroom trip, Toledo still managed to stumble into some profound thoughts on when parties go too late and the fun has long since evaporated from a friendly get together.
‘Here Today’ – Paul McCartney
Moving on past the death of a loved one is never easy, much less a writing partner. Ever since the Beatles’ breakup, the lives of John Lennon and Paul McCartney were always kept at arm’s length until one day when a deranged fan shot Lennon outside of his Dakota apartment building. The tragedy shook most Beatles fans to their core, but Macca could always rely on music to work out his feelings.
Instead of writing a sappy tribute song, McCartney wrote ‘Here Today’ as an imaginary conversation between him and Lennon, where he lays out everything about their relationship. Although he imagines that Lennon would say that he and McCartney were worlds apart, Macca knows the true feelings of the man hidden behind those wire-rimmed glasses, talking about the warm soul who cried with him when both of them realised that there wasn’t any point in holding back tears.
Towards the song’s end, former Beatles producer George Martin brings in a subtle string quartet a la ‘Yesterday’, as McCartney thanks Lennon for coming into his life and having the chance to write so many classics with him over the years. The media might like to twist the tale of Lennon and McCartney all they want, but McCartney is the only one who can claim to have lived through that friendship.
‘Jenny Was a Friend of Mine’ – The Killers
Somehow, it’s hard to sound like you have a convincing friendship with someone when you’re being interrogated for their murder. If you pop in The Killers’ iconic 2004 debut LP Hot Fuss, the first thing you’ll hear is the sound of helicopters and police cars. Not exactly a promising start.
Did the central character of ‘Jenny Was a Friend of Mine’ actually kill the titular victim? Brandon Flowers’ frantic delivery certainly doesn’t make him sound like the most innocent of characters.
The Killers give you a front-row seat to a tale of melodrama and indie rock intrigue. ‘Jenny Was a Friend of Mine’ probably represents the lowest and most deranged form of friendship on this list, and hopefully, no one will ever find it relatable. But you never know.
‘Off He Goes’ – Pearl Jam
The Pearl Jam of the mid-90s was a very different Pearl Jam than what most fans got to know on Ten. After going through the pop music machine, Eddie Vedder wasn’t happy with his status as a grunge icon and would often spend the rest of the decade trying to minimise his celebrity status as much as possible. That meant cutting some people off, too, and Vedder was ready to take accountability on ‘Off He Goes’.
Sounding like the soundtrack to a hitchhiker’s travels, Vedder has a lot on his mind about what it means to be a good friend in this song, constantly leaving parties early and never being there for some of his friends and bandmates when he has the chance. Although he might have been trying not to cause a scene each time, Vedder is finally realising how destructive that can be to a friendship, as his friends promise to catch him on the flipside without knowing if that time will ever come.
As the music trails off towards the end, it’s almost like the listener is in the passenger seat next to Vedder, leaving some of those old friends behind and not knowing whether he will return. Pearl Jam didn’t have to struggle very much after grunge fell, but underneath all that angst was a man who started to realise how much distance he put between himself and the ones he loved.
‘Waiting on a Friend’ – The Rolling Stones
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger had been through the wringer by the early 1980s. Their biggest split, dubbed “World War III” by Richards, was still to come, but the two had already weathered their fair share of wild times and disagreements by the end of their classic period.
As he stared down middle age in real time, Jagger began to count up the most important relationships in his life. For better or for worse, he couldn’t help but recognise that Richards had been his most consistent partner throughout the most important moments in his life. That warm feeling had first crossed Jagger’s mind during the Goats Head Soup sessions.
Nearly a full decade later, ‘Waiting on a Friend’ was rescued from the vault, given some proper overdubs, and was released as a single from Tattoo You. The song’s accompanying video showed Jagger and Richards, arm and arm, sharing perhaps the most tender moment that the pair ever had on film.
‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ – The Beatles
Regarding The Beatles’ vocal hierarchy, it should surprise no one that Ringo Starr tends to come in dead last. Although his voice may have served him well on some of the Fab Four’s earliest material, it was clear that any Ringo-led tracks were meant more as a novelty than anything else. As the band prepared for the next half of their career in the studio, Starr became the perfect candidate for their song about sticking together.
After coming through the whirlwind opening of Sgt Pepper, Starr welcomes the listeners into the album by asking if they wouldn’t mind if he sang a little bit out of tune. Even though this tune was written by Lennon and McCartney, no one except Starr could have performed this, fitting the role of an insecure guy perfectly. Though he’s far from the greatest singer in the world, it doesn’t matter so long as he has the help of his friends to guide him along.
Some of that Beatles’ companionship played into getting the final take of the song as well, with the rest of the band cheering him on in the vocal booth as he sang the song from top to bottom with a fantastic high note to leave the song on. The Beatles may have left the road by the time they started working on this tune, but this was a reminder that just because there were no more concerts didn’t mean the fun had to end.
