20 Most Uplifting Songs Of All Time

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When I’m not feeling so good, maybe a little down, a little worn out or maybe just even a little depressed, there are two things that I usually turn to that helps get me out of my blues. Those things are music and movies. Sure, there are other things like food, which can get me into even more trouble, or talking to a good friend, but a good song or a good movie can always rescue me. So here’s a list of uplifting songs that not only help me, but hopefully can help you.

# 20 – Keeping The Faith – Billy Joel

When I was 22 years old, I went through a horrible breakup. A girl ripped my heart apart and left me very depressed. And then I heard this song. Talk about being rescued. There was just this wonderful message of hope wrapped up in some of the song’s lines that just brought me back to life. Thanks Billy

# 19 – Wild Heart – Stevie Nicks

Not every song has to have that Rocky theme to be uplifting. What this song does is it tells you you’re not alone with your issues. Stevie explains it’s not logic; it’s about feelings you can’t control, and somehow hearing her say what you’re feeling makes you feel no longer alone.

# 18 – Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel

For a song to be uplifting, there has to be something about the music and/or lyrics. Sometimes you don’t even really have to understand exactly what the point of the song is, but there’s something about it that just makes you feel good. This song is a perfect example.

# 17 – Day By Day – Godspell

Do you remember when this one came out? The movie was a bit controversial, but everybody embraced this song. The words, the groove, the melody, the singing; it’s just a bunch of happy people trying to make everybody happy. It made me happy, and it still does. Does it make you happy?

# 16 – Out In The Country – Three Dog Night

I wish today’s youth would discover Three Dog Night. I write about them a lot on this site, and that’s one of my goals. Anyone in their 60s and older remembers how big this band was. They had so many great songs, but this one was always special. Paul Williams wrote this one, and it just makes you feel good.

# 15 – Good Times – Chic

If you’re in a nightclub sitting at a table and this song comes on, chances are you won’t be sitting for too much longer. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards released one of the greatest tracks of the disco era with this one in 1979. Even if you were not a fan of disco, which most of us rockers were not, you couldn’t help but be lifted up by this song.

# 14 – Like A Rock – Bob Seger

Sometimes all it takes is that belief in yourself, that somehow you’re the one to rescue others, that you are the one that others need to be strong to be supportive to be like a rock. This is the song that reminds you of just how strong you are, or you need to be. This song was released in 1986 on Bob Seger’s album also titled Like a Rock. Yes, I know a lot of people relate this to the Chevrolet commercial, but commercials fade; songs live on forever.

# 13 – I Found Love – Lone Justice

The joy of finding love is one of the most uplifting experiences of human existence. In fact, it’s probably the one most important element besides food that we live for. It’s tough to go through life without love. Sadly, many people do. But if you find it especially if you find it when you’re young or even when you’re old, let it lift you up, and hopefully never let you down. And if there’s one person you’re going to believe in this song, it’s Mariah McKee because when she sings that she’s found love, you definitely believe it

# 12 – Saturday In The Park – Chicago

Every time I hear that piano in the song’s introduction, it just puts a smile on my face. This is one of the all-time great songs Chicago released. It captures that wonderful, happy day off when you’re hanging out with your friends and family, enjoying life in its simplest forms. When you’re a kid, whether you’re living in the country or the city, you always love going to the park. You always love getting on those swings. The park always had its great choices, and this song just reminds you of those good old days.

# 11 – Lazy Day – Spanky And Our Gang

One of the biggest mistakes somebody can make in life is just working too hard. Of course, most of us don’t have a choice; there are bills to pay, food to put on the table, kids to raise; it’s not easy to survive. Yet sometimes we really just have to take a step back, take a day off, let it be a lazy day like the song says, just to hold that special someone and enjoy the simplicity of life for a moment. There’s nothing more uplifting than that. And don’t you just love Spanky and Our Gang?

# 10 – O-O-H Child – Five Stairsteps

It’s funny, but I noticed a pattern in the songs I’m picking for this list. A lot of them come from the late 60s and early 70s. And I think that’s just because there was so much turmoil during the 60s because of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement that it was up to musical artists and filmmakers, writers, or anyone in the arts, to offer hope that things will get better, that there was a brighter future. You could hear it in almost every one of these songs. This is an old one that a lot of people have forgotten, but I bet you haven’t.

# 9 – Dancing Days – Led Zeppelin

Yes, I just had to get some Led Zeppelin on this list. While Physical Graffiti is definitely my favorite Led Zeppelin album, I think that the album that got the most plays on my turntable was Houses of the Holy. I just never get bored with any of the tracks on the album. “Dancing Days” and “The Ocean” were always my favorites. With “Dancing Days,” it was just the sound of Jimmy Page’s licks and Robert Plant’s vocals, and of course, Bonham and Jones locking in step, that just made you feel the power of this band and put you in such a good mood when you heard it.

# 8 – Hot Fun In The Summertime – Sly & The Family Stone

This song takes me back to the Bronx in the 1960s. Hanging out on the streets playing stickball, waiting for the ice cream truck, and ignoring my mom yelling out the window that it was time for supper. If you grew up in the city, you know what I’m talking about. Sometimes the most uplifting songs are the ones that bring back such sweet memories.

# 7 – Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

Well most of the songs on this list are from the late sixties and seventies we got one that’s not that old. I have to tell you that Bruno Mars is probably my favorite musical artist of the 21st Century. Probably because he’s a throwback to the 70s and 60s. But it’s not just that the dude delivers great music; this is one of his best. Yes, it’s a Mark Ronson production, but it’s Bruno Mars up front making it all happen. This one is just so good. It makes me want to kiss myself.

# 6 – And You And I – Yes

You can’t get more dramatically different in musical style than you can between song number five and song number six on this list. And that’s kind of the point because, as dramatically different as the music of Yes and Progressive music of the ’70s is compared to 2020s hip hop and soul, they both do the same thing: they lift your spirits high. If you are a Yes fan, which I’m going to imagine most of the people who are reading this list are, you know that this is one of the band’s most popular songs.

# 5 – Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys

Somehow this song just always ends up at the top of many of these musical lists. Whether it be a song about summer, a song about the Beach Boys, or a song about feeling good, this is just such a classic song. It’s actually a masterpiece, quite possibly one of the greatest songs ever written. And in the end, no matter how brilliant this piece is, it just lifts you up, baby.

# 4 – What The World Needs Now Is Love – Jackie DeShannon

This song was released in 1965 in the middle of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. The ’60s were a political and social disaster. Full of hate, full of pain, yet it was a time when music artists tried to bring us all together. We need that now again.

# 3 – Darkness On The Edge Of Town – Bruce Springsteen

One may ask how a song with the word darkness in its title can be an uplifting song? It’s a fair question. But if you know this song, you know the answer. This is about a man facing tremendous odds, things not going right, as the lyric says: he’s lost his money, he’s lost his wife, and he’s staring into the abyss. Yet it’s at that moment, he stands tall, he stands on that Hill, and he says it doesn’t matter, he’s not going to stop. This song saved my life.

# 2 – Up Where We Belong – Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes

It’s interesting how the top two songs on this list were both from movies. It can’t be denied that the impact of the movie had a lot to do with the music, and vice versa; the music in these songs had a tremendous effect on the movie. In the end, they had a tremendous effect on us. If you’ve seen An Officer and a Gentleman you’ll never forget the closing scene.

# 1 – Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine

I saw the movie Hair in 1979, the year I graduated high school. Now, being 17 at the time probably has a lot to do with how I fell in love with the message of peace that the movie and, of course, the play were written for. The movie had a huge impact on me. It changed me, or maybe it just brought something out of me that was still learning to be celebrated. Whenever I’m feeling down, whenever I’ve kind of lost hope, I put on the movie Hair or I listen to this song and it does exactly what this article is all about, it lifts me up and it keeps me there for a long time.

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