86 Songs About Aging and Growing Older

Author:
Elaina Baker
Updated:
Apr 20, 2024 6:25 AM EDT

A meeting of the boys' club
Pedro Ribeiro Simões via Flickr, CC-BY-SA 2.0

Aging Is Better Than the Alternative

A guy once walked straight into a telephone pole looking at me. But I can promise you that doesn't happen anymore. I'm staring down middle age like a deer caught in an 18-wheeler's high beams. And that's okay.

Being young—fresh-faced, limber, full of energy and hope—was marvelous. However, my 50s are even better. There's a sense of confidence and purpose that didn't exist before.

It turns out that the wisdom of experience is a decent trade-off for everything that isn't quite what it used to be. (Well, at least so far it is.) Besides, aging is sure better than its alternative, right (death)?

Rather than cursing what you cannot control, why not celebrate the honor of growing old with a playlist of pop, rock, country & R&B songs about aging? We have a long list to help get you started.

1. "Grow Old With Me" by Tom Odell

This 2013 indie folk tune reflects the earnest hope of a young lover who seeks to spend the rest of his days with the one he loves most in this world. He forecasts outward changes of their greying hair as well as their aging hands and bodies. However, he seeks to share all that life has to offer with her.

2. "100 Years" by Five for Fighting

In this 2003 rock release, a man describes his life extending from ages 15 to 100 as well as his relationship with the woman he loves. At 15, he feels as though he has all the time in the world to dream. However, as time passes by, he becomes more aware of his mortality. The protagonist eventually realizes that 100 years isn't all that much time after all.

3. "1985" by Bowling for Soup

This catchy 2004 rock number is a nod to the middle-agers among us who prefer the familiar 1980 pop culture of our youth to that of today. The song describes Debbie, a woman who once had like, righteous dreams of being a Hollywood actress and dancing seductively on Whitesnake's car—in a half shirt and big hair, no doubt. (And if you don't remember who Whitesnake was, you slept through the 1980's.)

But poor Debbie is like doomed to an average life in suburbia, married at age 24 to a CPA, her dreams up in flames. Now, she's wearing mom jeans and raising two bratty teenagers who tell her how big time uncool she is. (Like even! If they only knew her back in the day!)

4. "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen

When you were in high school, you probably had no idea that those were the good years, the glory days that you'd look back on one day and reminisce about. In this 1985 rock classic, a man who was a baseball player and a woman who could really turn the young guys' heads talk about their lives in the good old days.

Tell the young whippersnappers you know to live it up right so that when their days pass them by, at least they'll have their stories. And they can share them over and over and over just like us older folks do now.

5. "Stop This Train" by John Mayer

This touching 2006 rock ditty describes an adult's realization that someday his parents will be gone and he'll be on his own. He seeks the comfort and security that he knew at an earlier age, but time won't slow down for anything or anyone:

Don't know how else to say it
I don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own.
Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in.

6. "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart

They say that you're only as young as you feel, and in this rousing 1988 rock track, the narrator provides earnest good wishes to a parting friend that they'll always feel youthful. How old do you feel? Does your inside age match what you see in the mirror?

7. "Grow Old With Me" by Mary Chapin Carpenter

In this 1995 country pop remake of a John Lennon song, the narrator shares a simple request to her lover to make their life's journey together:

Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love.

8. "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair" by George Jones

This Grammy-nominated country tune from 1992 was the Possum at his spunkiest. He declared that his body was old but ain't impaired ... so you can keep that rockin' chair. You can also keep your Geritol, Medicare, and forget about retirement.

Of course, you can only hide from old age and the Grim Reaper for so long. Death eventually caught up with ole' George in 2013; the legendary country star died at the age of 81.

9. "Cherry Bomb" by John Cougar Mellencamp

In this 1987 rock track, a 35-year-old man takes a nostalgic look back at his youth: friends, girlfriends and a teen club called "Cherry Bomb." Back then, life was less complicated. But teenagers need years of life experience to appreciate just how good they had it.

10. "22" by Lily Allen

Not everyone has a partner to grow old with ... or wants one.

The woman in this 2009 pop release has the unfortunate impression that at 30 and still unmarried, her life is all but over. (Oh, puh-leez!) Whereas at 22 she was full of confidence and hope, now she subsists desperately on one-night stands and broken dreams of Prince Charming.

Get over yourself, 'Lil Missy! At 30, you still have your whole life ahead of you, whether you have a husband or not!

“Those who love deeply never grow old, they may die of old age, but they die young.” —Benjamin Franklin, American Founding father and inventor

"Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French Jesuit priest

“Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.” – Anonymous

“It’s a great thing, getting older. You are who you are; you say what you mean.” —Reese Witherspoon, American actress

"The mere process of growing old together will make the slightest acquaintance seem a bosom friend." - Ed Koch, American politician

“There are six myths about old age: 1. That it’s a disease, a disaster. 2. That we are mindless. 3. That we are sexless. 4. That we are useless. 5. That we are powerless. 6. That we are all alike.” – Maggie Kuhn, American activist

“Gravity and wrinkles are fine with me. They’re a small price to pay for the new wisdom inside my head and my heart.” —Drew Barrymore, American actress

“Getting older is fine. There is nothing you can do to stop it, so you might as well stay on the bus.”—John Byrne, British-American writer

“We don’t grow older, we grow riper.” —Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor

“At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.” – Ann Landers, American advice columnist

“Those who love deeply never grow old, they may die of old age, but they die young.” —Benjamin Franklin, American Founding father and inventor

You Know You're Getting Old When . . .


your arms are getting too short to read the paper	the birthday candles cost more than the cake	you get to second base with a TSA screener
"getting any?" means sleep	you’ve been there and done that, but don’t remember what “it” was	everything either hurts or doesn't work
you can cough, sneeze, fart and pee at the same time	you eat supper at 5 p.m. and are in bed by 8 p.m.	your children start looking middle-aged
it takes longer to rest than it did to get tired	the only thing that gets hard is your arteries	you enjoy hearing about other people's surgeries
getting lucky means you found your car in the parking lot	you hear snap, crackle and pop at the breakfast table, but you're not eating cereal	you and your teeth don't sleep together
you hear your favorite song in an elevator	it takes two tries to get up from the couch	friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you aren't wearing any . . . you're barefoot.

16. "Time Marches On" by Tracy Lawrence

The narrator in this 1996 country number smartly observes that "the only thing that stays the same is everything changes, everything changes."

He traces the changes in his father, mother, sister and brother throughout the years from when the children are babies, up through their teens, and into their older years. By the end of the song, the sister is a single grandmother, the brother is on a diet for his cholesterol, the father has died, and the mother has dementia. And time marches on.

The swing set crew is young at heart.
Viola Ng via Flickr, CC-BY-SA 2.0

11. "7 Years" by Lukas Graham

The narrator in this touching 2015 pop song describes lessons he's picked up along the way in his 60 years of living so far. Although he finds fame and travels the world, his life centers on relationships: making and keeping lifelong friends, finding a quality partner in life, and having children and grandchildren to keep the loneliness at bay as he ages.

Looks like love is in bloom. To everything there is a season.
MFer Photography via Flickr, CC-BY-SA 2.0

12. "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)" by The Byrds

Ah, the circle of life! The seasonality of life is expressed in this classic 1965 rock number, as expressed in Ecclesiastes 3. In fact, except for "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and the final two lines the entire song's lyrics are borrowed word for word from the Bible. No other Top 40's song can claim that, can it?