Listed chronologically by the age mentioned in the song
I’ve always looked up songs that mention the age I’m turning before my birthday every year since I was a teenager. When I turned 25 I even made a whole mix dedicated to only songs mentioning being 25 or songs that came out in the year I was born. For some reason there are a lot of good songs mentioning being 25. It’s been downhill since then unfortunately. 🙁
Also: There are a lot of songs out there mentioning ages, so the list only contains the ones that mean something to me.
But if you think of one that you think is good please go ahead and tell me. Maybe I forgot or just don’t know about some good ones.
(I didn’t forget about the Beatles)
- Kimya Dawson – All I could do: ages 12 and 15
“And I thought back to when I was 15
How I was squeaky clean and I wanted to die
I was feeding the homeless while combating loneliness
All I could do was keep living a lie
Then I think back to that 12 year old poet
How she didn’t know it was what she would be
All she could do was hide under her bed
Scared to death that somebody might read her diary”
- The Smiths – Half a Person: age 16
“Sixteen, clumsy and shy
That’s the story of my life”
- Janis Ian – At Seventeen: age 17
“I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
who married young and then retired”
(fun fact: Tina Fey apparently loves this song. I get it btw, I do too. Not only is it featured in an episode of 30 rock where Liz Lemon sings it at karaoke. One of the main characters in Mean Girls was also named after Janis Ian, who’s mainly known for this one song)
- The Smiths – Never Had No One Ever: age 20
“I had a really bad dream
It lasted 20 years, 7 months and 27 days”
- Garbage – Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!): age 21
“She gave you everything she had
But she was young and dumb
She’d just turned twenty-one”
- Daniel Johnston – I Am a Baby (In My Universe): age 22
“I am a baby in my universe
I’ll live forever
Ooh, I’m only twenty-two
I’ll live forever”
- Mitski – First Love/Late Spring: age 25
“And I was so young when I behaved twenty-five
Yet now, I find I’ve grown into a tall child”
- 4 Non Blondes – What’s Up?: age 25
“25 years and my life is still
tryin’ to get up that great big hill of hope
for a destination”
- Kanye West – We don’t care: age 25/26(?)
“We wasn’t supposed to make it past twenty-five
Joke’s on you, we still alive”
- SZA – 20 something: age 20s
“How could it be? Twenty-something
All alone, still not a thing in my name
Ain’t got nothing, runnin’ from love, only know fear
That’s me, Ms. Twenty-Something”
- Soko – Happy Hippie Birthday: ages 22 and 35
“Thirty-five candles blown away
That I picture in my head
Thirty-five years old
and I’m twenty-two
and I remember how you used to say
That I was young, but you didn’t care at all”
- Blumentopf – Manfred Mustermann: ages 46 and (close to) 60
“Jetzt ist mein Leben doch schon aus mit 46
Ist doch kein Wunder dass man dauernd deprimiert ist”
“Auch wenn ich bald 60 bin fühl ich mich immer noch jung”
(Fun fact: when my sister was a teenager she made our mom a mix CD for her 46th birthday and put that song on it just because of that one line. I still think that’s hilarious.)
- Jeffrey Lewis – Back when I was 4: ages 4, 6, 8, 12, 15, 16, 22, 27, 31, 40, 50, 63, 74, 87, 106, 128
Basically the whole song is just lyrics about being a specific age. If you’re interested I’ll link the lyrics here:
https://genius.com/Jeffrey-lewis-back-when-i-was-4-lyrics
Honorable Mention: “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” by Broken Social Scene
Great song, but the age doesn’t get mentioned once in the song besides in the title. So it felt to me like it doesn’t quite count.
