Does Thanksgiving Music Exist?

You can almost hear the turkeys singing

If you’re reading this from the United States, I hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. If you are outside the U.S., I hope you take some time today to be thankful for something, even if that something is this newsletter or a good song. Speaking of songs, I want to turn our attention to a silly little debate that I’ve been having: Is there such thing as Thanksgiving music?

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Does Thanksgiving Music Exist?

By Chris Dalla Riva

Some people get together with family for Thanksgiving. Others watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. My friend? He listens to Arlo Guthrie’s 18-minute epic “Alice’s Restaurant.” On the surface, this seems like a strange tradition. Why listen to a talking blues written in protest of the Vietnam War on the final Thursday of November? Well, Guthrie’s ridiculously-long piece of satire partially takes place on Thanksgiving Day.

For the record, my friend isn’t the only one who celebrates this tradition. Many classic rock stations will play the song at some point on Thanksgiving. Some even play it for hours on end. A popular holiday where everyone is busy might be the only time when you can get away with something like that.

Each year when my friend inevitably texts me that he’s about to give “Alice’s Restaurant” a spin, I briefly wonder if there are any other Thanksgiving classics. This thought is usually short-lived. My mind is quickly consumed by an onslaught of food and wine. But this year, I decided to be proactive and determine if there is a true Thanksgiving musical canon.

To do this, I scraped 31,000 songs from over 400 playlists on Spotify with “Thanksgiving” in the title. After aggregating the data, here were the most popular songs for the holiday.

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Some of these songs are just associated with generic people and places that crop up during many holidays, like Phillip Philip’s “Home.” Others are simply focused on the time of year, like Ella Fitzgerald’s “Autumn In New York.” Nevertheless, with scores of songs about turkeys and potatoes and blessings, I’m happy to report that there is a legitimate musical tradition associated with Thanksgiving Day.

It didn’t shock me that like Christmas music, the musical canon of Thanksgiving is filled with older songs. I guess there’s just something about Bing Crosby’s croon that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy. Still, there are contemporary artists trying to add to the canon. Ben Rector, for example, released the somewhat popular “Thanksgiving Song” in 2020. Here’s how he described it to American Songwriter:

It’s weird to me that there’s an entire genre that is just Christmas music, and you can bring up an entire palette of sounds around this one holiday. I love Christmas, but everybody in America, for the most part, celebrates Thanksgiving, and there’s no music around that.

I didn’t want to just make it sound like a Christmas song, but I definitely wanted it to feel classic. Part of that was in the writing process and trying to imagine a Thanksgiving song. Then, in production I was trying to shape some of the sounds and some of the parts and ended up sounding like something out of a Billy Joel-era, which I love.

It seems like Rector’s process paid off. His song is among the most frequently added to Thanksgiving playlists. I hope other artists follow suit. Just as we are beginning to see Halloween develop a more robust musical tradition, it would be fun if Thanksgiving joined the mix. Happy Thanksgiving!

A New One
"ROCKMAN" by Mk.gee
2024 - Electronic Rock

Earlier this year, a YouTuber asked Eric Clapton about current guitarists that excite him. The legend quickly mentioned Mk.gee. “He has found things to do on the guitar that are like nobody else,” Clapton said. “And he can do it live.” Mk.gee is indeed worth the hype. On “ROCKMAN,” you can hear why. Mk.gee has tasty guitar tones and hypnotic rhythms that could keep you entranced for days.

An Old One
"Autumn in New York" by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
1957 - Jazz

Ella Fitzgerald might be the queen of holiday music. And I’m not just talking about Christmas. Of course, her versions of “Sleigh Ride” and “Frosty the Snowman” are December favorites, but Fitzgerald has made contributions to some other holidays. Her “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” — which was recommended in this newsletter two years ago — is one of a handful of classics associated with the change from December 31st to January 1st. But if you trust our Thanksgiving data, then she also has a turkey-time classic, namely “Autumn in New York.” I need the First Lady of Jazz to release a Presidents’ Day classic from beyond the grave.

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