Only a few Thanksgiving songs are actually about the holiday, led by Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" and Adam Sandler's "The Thanksgiving Song." That's why the best Thanksgiving playlists mix them with songs about being thankful, like Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," plus a hymn for grace and something silly for the kids' table.
Below are 58 picks for hosts, families and church musicians, grouped by theme and by the part of the day they suit. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26 this year, according to the federal holiday calendar, so there's time to build the playlist. If you'd rather thank the host with a song nobody else has, MusicWave can write one from your family's stories.
Quick picks for Thanksgiving Day
Start with these ten if you're short on time. Each one gets a fuller write-up below.
| Song | Artist | Year | Best moment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | George Winston | 1982 | Early-morning prep |
| Alice's Restaurant Massacree | Arlo Guthrie | 1967 | Peeling and chopping |
| Green Onions | Booker T. & the M.G.'s | 1962 | Cooking |
| Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) | Sly and the Family Stone | 1969 | Cooking |
| Over the River and Through the Wood | Lydia Maria Child | 1844 | The drive over |
| We Gather Together | Adrianus Valerius and Theodore Baker | 1894 | Grace |
| Autumn Leaves | Cannonball Adderley | 1958 | Dinner |
| Thank God | Kane Brown & Katelyn Brown | 2022 | Dinner |
| The Thanksgiving Song | Adam Sandler | 1993 | Kids' table |
| Before I Let Go | Maze featuring Frankie Beverly | 1981 | After dinner |
Songs that are actually about Thanksgiving
For purists who want the holiday itself in the song. There aren't many, which is why the same few come back every November.
Alice's Restaurant Massacree — Arlo Guthrie (1967)
Guthrie's mostly true story of Thanksgiving 1965, when he was arrested for dumping a friend's holiday trash and that littering record later came up at his draft physical. Rock stations still play it every Thanksgiving, and it covers a lot of potato peeling. Listen on YouTube
I've Got Plenty to Be Thankful For — Bing Crosby (1942)
Irving Berlin wrote it for the Thanksgiving segment of Holiday Inn, the same film that introduced "White Christmas". The film also shows a cartoon turkey hopping between two Thursdays, a jab at President Roosevelt moving Thanksgiving a week earlier to stretch the shopping season. Listen on YouTube
Thanksgiving Theme — Vince Guaraldi (1973)
The jazzy opening music from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which first aired on CBS two days before Thanksgiving in 1973. The full soundtrack finally came out in 2023 for the special's 50th anniversary. Listen on YouTube
Thanksgiving Song — Mary Chapin Carpenter (2008)
From her holiday album Come Darkness, Come Light, it's one of the few modern songs written for the day itself. It's a plea for kindness and coming together, which is a fine thing to have playing while the gravy goes around. Listen on YouTube
What I'm Thankful For (The Thanksgiving Song) — Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood with James Taylor (2016)
Garth and Trisha wrote it together and saved it for the very last track of their album Christmas Together, as if to say the holidays start here. Listen on YouTube
The Thanksgiving Song — Ben Rector (2020)
Rector debuted it in November 2020, and it's a nostalgic look at time passing and the family moments you'll want to hold on to. Play it once everyone has finally sat down. Listen on YouTube
Songs about being thankful: pop, soul and reggae
For the spirit of the day without a single turkey reference. These are songs about saying thank you.
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) — Sly and the Family Stone (1969)
The odd spelling is Sly Stone's playful way of thanking someone for letting him be himself again. It topped the Hot 100 for two weeks, and that bass line will keep whoever's on mashed-potato duty moving. Listen on YouTube
What a Wonderful World — Louis Armstrong (1967)
Armstrong's ode to everyday beauty barely sold in the US at first, even as it went to number one in the UK. It's the easiest grace-before-dinner song for a table that doesn't do hymns. Listen on YouTube
Gratitude — Earth, Wind & Fire (1975)
The title track of a mostly live album that went to number one, though this song is one of its few new studio cuts. Expect big horns and bigger harmonies. Listen on YouTube
Give Thanks and Praises — Bob Marley & the Wailers (1983)
From Confrontation, released two years after Marley died, this is the band at its most gentle and hymn-like. A good pick for the quiet stretch just before everyone sits down. Listen on YouTube
Thank U — Alanis Morissette (1998)
Morissette wrote it after a trip to India in 1997, and it thanks everything, the hard parts of life included. It's gratitude for grown-ups who've had a complicated year. Listen on YouTube
Thank You — Dido (1998)
First heard over the end credits of Sliding Doors, it's about how one person can rescue a terrible day. Eminem sampled it for "Stan" in 2000, which helped turn it into a top-three US hit. Listen on YouTube
Thank God I Do — Lauren Daigle (2023)
Daigle wrote it coming out of the pandemic lockdowns, about the people who kept her afloat. It's a quiet, grateful pick for the year someone at your table really showed up for you. Listen on YouTube
Beautiful Things — Benson Boone (2024)
A number-two hit about being grateful for the good things in your life and nervous about how fragile they are. It's one of the newest songs here, and the one the teenagers will know. Listen on YouTube
Country Thanksgiving songs about gratitude
Country music has been saying thank you out loud for decades, and these six cover everyone from grandparents to newlyweds. For the man carving the turkey, our best songs for Dad list goes further.
Thank God I'm a Country Boy — John Denver (1975)
John Sommers wrote it, but Denver's live version, taped at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, topped both the pop and country charts. That fiddle is pure kitchen energy. Listen on YouTube
Thank God for Kids — The Oak Ridge Boys (1982)
Eddy Raven wrote it after his son asked to help him write a song about Mickey Mouse or Big Bird, and both characters made it in. Play it when the cousins come crashing through the kitchen. Listen on YouTube
Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days) — The Judds (1986)
Wynonna asks her grandfather whether life was better in his day, and the song never gives his answer. That's your cue to ask your own grandparents over dinner. Listen on YouTube
Blessed — Martina McBride (2001)
A chart-topping country hit in which McBride simply counts the ways her life has turned out well. It's short and sincere, and it suits a room full of different tastes. Listen on YouTube
Humble and Kind — Tim McGraw (2016)
Lori McKenna wrote it as a checklist of things she wanted to be sure she'd told her husband and five kids. It won the Grammy for Best Country Song, and it works as a grace for families who don't pray out loud. Listen on YouTube
Thank God — Kane Brown & Katelyn Brown (2022)
A married couple singing about how grateful they are for each other, and only the second husband-and-wife duet to top Country Airplay, after Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Save it for newlyweds hosting their first Thanksgiving. Listen on YouTube
Family songs for the Thanksgiving dinner table
For the table itself: songs about the people around it, from grandparents to the friends who turned into family. If your sister is hosting this year, our songs for your sister list has more like these.
Grandma's Hands — Bill Withers (1971)
Withers wrote it about his grandmother and the way her hands looked after everyone. Play it for whoever has been making the pies for 40 years. Listen on YouTube
Lean on Me — Bill Withers (1972)
He wrote it in Los Angeles, homesick for the neighbors-helping-neighbors spirit of Slab Fork, the West Virginia coal town he grew up in. It spent three weeks at the top of the Hot 100, and nobody at the table will need the words. Listen on YouTube
Thank You for Being a Friend — Andrew Gold (1978)
Gold said it took him about an hour to write, and years later Cindy Fee's version became the theme of The Golden Girls. It's the Friendsgiving anthem, no contest. Listen on YouTube
We Are Family — Sister Sledge (1979)
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards wrote it, and the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates adopted it as their theme on the way to winning the World Series. It still gets three generations singing the chorus. Listen on YouTube
Before I Let Go — Maze featuring Frankie Beverly (1981)
Beverly wrote it about a complicated love, but it became a staple at Black gatherings and parties, and Beyoncé covered it in 2019. Play it the second the plates are cleared. Listen on YouTube
Our House — Madness (1982)
A cheerful, nostalgic snapshot of a crowded family home that reached the US top ten. It's the one to play when every bed in the house is taken. Listen on YouTube
Home — Phillip Phillips (2012)
Greg Holden and Drew Pearson wrote it about standing by a friend through a hard time, and it became the American Idol winner's first single. It plays like a welcome for everyone walking in with a casserole. Listen on YouTube
Thanksgiving songs for kids
For the kids' table, the classroom and anyone under ten. Most are short, and one is an actual turkey dance.
Over the River and Through the Wood — Lydia Maria Child (1844)
Child's poem was first called "The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day," and the trip was originally to grandfather's house, not grandmother's. Nobody knows who wrote the tune. Listen on YouTube
Let's Turkey Trot — Little Eva (1963)
Little Eva tried to revive the turkey trot, a dance that had been a fad about 50 years earlier, and the song reached the top 20. Kids will happily flap along. Listen on YouTube
Linus and Lucy — Vince Guaraldi Trio (1964)
The Peanuts theme everyone can hum, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving gave it a funkier makeover in 1973. Put the special on after dinner and the kids will hum it for a week. Listen on YouTube
Shake My Sillies Out — Raffi (1977)
A wiggle song from More Singable Songs for the moment the kids have been at the table ten minutes too long. Listen on YouTube
Thanks a Lot — Raffi (1980)
A two-and-a-half-minute gratitude song from the Baby Beluga album, later turned into a board book. Toddlers can learn it before the pie comes out. Listen on YouTube
Be Our Guest — Jerry Orbach & Angela Lansbury (1991)
The castle staff in Beauty and the Beast throw Belle an entire dinner show, which makes it the most on-theme Disney song for a feast. It was nominated for the Oscar and lost to the film's own title song. Listen on YouTube
Kids can also make up their own turkey song. Give our AI lyrics generator their names and a few silly details, and it drafts verses they can perform between courses (you can try it free).
Thanksgiving hymns and worship songs for church
For church services, a sung grace or the family that always says a blessing. For the hymns, the year is when the English words most churches sing first appeared.
We Gather Together — Adrianus Valerius, translated by Theodore Baker (1894)
Valerius wrote the Dutch original in 1597 to celebrate a victory over Spain, and with Baker's English words it became the hymn Americans tie to Thanksgiving. It's the safe choice if your church sings just one. Listen on YouTube
Now Thank We All Our God — Martin Rinkart, translated by Catherine Winkworth (1858)
Rinkart first published the German original in 1636 as a short prayer for the table, in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, and in the plague year that followed he led more than 4,000 funerals, his wife's among them. Gratitude doesn't come more hard-won than that. Listen on YouTube
Come, Ye Thankful People, Come — Henry Alford (1844)
An English harvest hymn first titled "After Harvest" that crossed the Atlantic and became part of American Thanksgiving. It's usually sung to George Elvey's tune, first paired with it in 1858. Listen on YouTube
For the Beauty of the Earth — Folliott S. Pierpoint (1864)
Pierpoint wrote it at 29, inspired by the countryside around him, and many American churches sing it during Thanksgiving week. It's sung to the same tune as the carol "As with Gladness Men of Old." Listen on YouTube
Count Your Blessings — Johnson Oatman Jr. (1897)
Oatman's words and Edwin Excell's tune have been a hymnal standard for well over a century. The title is the whole sermon, which is why it works as a sung grace. Listen on YouTube
10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) — Matt Redman (2011)
Redman and Jonas Myrin built it on Psalm 103, and it spent 13 weeks at the top of Billboard's Christian Songs chart. It also won two Grammys in 2013. Listen on YouTube
Gratitude — Brandon Lake (2020)
Lake wrote it in Sydney after a conversation about having nothing impressive to offer God, and the 2022 radio single went all the way to the top of Hot Christian Songs. It also won Worship Recorded Song of the Year at the 2023 Dove Awards. Listen on YouTube
God I'm Just Grateful — Elevation Worship featuring Chandler Moore (2025)
The newest song on this list is a Thanksgiving-themed worship song built on Psalm 107:1, recorded live at Elevation Church and released in November 2025. It's a good choice if your church wants something new this year. Listen on YouTube
Funny Thanksgiving songs
For the dessert lull and the uncle who thinks he's a comedian. Some of these are more about food than gratitude, which is the point.
The Thanksgiving Song — Adam Sandler (1993)
Sandler debuted it on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update in 1992, then put a live version on his first album the next year. It's mostly goofy rhymes for "turkey," and the radio edit drops the one crude verse. Listen on YouTube
Mashed Potato Time — Dee Dee Sharp (1962)
A number-two hit built around the Mashed Potato, an early-'60s dance craze, and Sharp followed it that same year with "Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)." Play both back to back while someone mashes. Listen on YouTube
Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie — Jay & the Techniques (1967)
It first came out as "Ready or Not" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs before this version went top ten. The title is the only Thanksgiving thing about it, and that's enough when the pies come out. Listen on YouTube
Eat It — "Weird Al" Yankovic (1984)
Yankovic's "Beat It" parody is about a parent begging a picky kid to finish dinner, and it won the Grammy for Best Comedy Recording. Aim it squarely at the kids' table. Listen on YouTube
Thank U, Next — Ariana Grande (2018)
A breakup song that's really a thank-you note to her exes for what each one taught her, and her first US number one. It's the cheekiest gratitude song you can play at Friendsgiving. Listen on YouTube
We Don't Talk About Bruno — Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz and the cast of Encanto (2021)
Lin-Manuel Miranda's song about a family gossiping over the relative nobody mentions spent five weeks at the top of the Hot 100. Every Thanksgiving table has a Bruno, so read the room. Listen on YouTube
A Thanksgiving playlist for cooking and dinner
For the hours in the kitchen and the meal itself. Start upbeat while you cook, then turn things down once people are eating.
Thanksgiving — George Winston (1982)
The solo piano piece that opens December, an album that went triple platinum. Play it early, while the coffee brews and the turkey goes in. Listen on YouTube
Autumn Leaves — Cannonball Adderley (1958)
Nearly 11 minutes of unhurried jazz with Miles Davis on trumpet, from the album Somethin' Else. It's the best dinner background here because nobody has to stop talking to enjoy it. Listen on YouTube
Green Onions — Booker T. & the M.G.'s (1962)
Their 17-year-old organist improvised that organ line in the studio, and guitarist Steve Cropper says the title came from a cat. It's an instrumental with exactly the right swagger for chopping celery. Listen on YouTube
Pass the Peas — The J.B.'s (1972)
James Brown's backing band at full strut, and about as on-the-nose as a dinner song gets. It's a funk instrumental, so it never fights the conversation. Listen on YouTube
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) — James Taylor (1975)
Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland team wrote it for Marvin Gaye in 1964, and Taylor's laid-back cover was a top-five hit a decade later. Cue it up as the pies hit the table. Listen on YouTube
Harvest Moon — Neil Young (1992)
A slow, swaying song about love that lasts, and its video shows Young dancing with his wife. Play it late, when the grandparents get up for a slow dance in the kitchen. Listen on YouTube
Gentle songs for a first Thanksgiving after a loss
If someone's chair is empty this year, these five songs make room for missing them. They're sad, so keep them for a quiet moment rather than the main playlist.
Holes in the Floor of Heaven — Steve Wariner (1998)
A man remembers his grandmother and his young wife, and every rain feels like them watching over the family. It won Song of the Year from both the CMA and the ACM. Listen on YouTube
Go Rest High on That Mountain — Vince Gill (1995)
Gill started it after Keith Whitley died in 1989 and finished it after his own brother died in 1993, with Ricky Skaggs and Patty Loveless singing harmony. It won the CMA's Song of the Year and two Grammys. Listen on YouTube
Dance with My Father — Luther Vandross (2003)
Vandross wrote it with Richard Marx about his father, who died when Luther was eight, and it won the Grammy for Song of the Year. Keep the tissues close. Listen on YouTube
Supermarket Flowers — Ed Sheeran (2017)
Sheeran wrote it about his grandmother, who died while he was in the studio making his album Divide. It's a quiet song for remembering someone, not for background noise. Listen on YouTube
Marjorie — Taylor Swift (2020)
Swift's tribute to her grandmother, the opera singer Marjorie Finlay, whose own soprano is woven into the track. It's a tender pick for anyone who still hears a grandparent's voice in their head. Listen on YouTube
How to build your Thanksgiving playlist
A few habits make the whole day sound better.
- Plan about 15 songs an hour. Most songs run three to four minutes, so five hours from prep to pie needs around 75.
- Sort by moment. Go upbeat for cooking, low and mostly instrumental for dinner, then save the singalongs for after the plates are cleared.
- Keep dinner quiet. Instrumentals like "Autumn Leaves" and "Thanksgiving" fill the silence without competing with conversation.
- Check the clean versions. Use the radio edit of Adam Sandler's song, and preview "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" before young kids hear it, because the ending has language you may not want at the kids' table.
- Download it before you leave. The Wi-Fi at Grandma's is rarely as good as yours.
- Switch to Christmas on Friday. Once the pie is gone, our list of Christmas songs for the whole family picks up where this one ends.
Thanksgiving songs FAQ
What songs are about Thanksgiving?
Fewer than you'd think: "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," Bing Crosby's "I've Got Plenty to Be Thankful For," Adam Sandler's "The Thanksgiving Song," "Over the River and Through the Wood," and newer ones from Mary Chapin Carpenter, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, and Ben Rector. That shortage is why most Thanksgiving playlists lean on gratitude songs.
What music should you play at Thanksgiving dinner?
Keep it low and familiar so people can talk: jazz instrumentals like "Autumn Leaves," soft soul like Bill Withers, or gentle country. Save the singalongs, like "We Are Family" and "Before I Let Go," for after the plates are cleared.
Why is "Alice's Restaurant" played on Thanksgiving?
It tells the mostly true story of Thanksgiving 1965, when Guthrie was arrested for dumping trash after a holiday dinner at Alice Brock's. Guthrie suspected the radio tradition began with DJs who used its 18-minute running time to take a break, and Cleveland's WMMS made it a yearly fixture starting in 1974. Alice Brock, the Alice in the title, died in November 2024.
What is the most popular Thanksgiving hymn?
In American churches, it's usually "We Gather Together," a Dutch hymn from 1597 that Theodore Baker translated in 1894. Many churches pair it with "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" and "For the Beauty of the Earth," and "Now Thank We All Our God" began life as a prayer said at the table.
When is Thanksgiving in 2026, and when is Canadian Thanksgiving?
US Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026, per the federal holiday calendar. Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday in October, a date Parliament fixed in 1957, so this year it was October 12.
Give the host a song of their own
Every song above was written for somebody else's family. If you want one about yours, MusicWave can write a thank-you song for the host or the grandparents from the details you give it: their names, your memories, the dish they always make. You get a share link and an MP3 to play at the table, they don't need an account to hear it, and it's ready in minutes.
