Birthday songs that aren't Happy Birthday, for parties and toasts

You've got the cake, a pile of paper crowns and a Bluetooth speaker on the counter, and nobody wants the candle song twice. Put on "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang (1980) first. It works at a 6-year-old's party and at a 60th, and every age at the table knows the chorus. The rest of these birthday songs are sorted by job (the party, the toast, the slideshow, the big round numbers), so you can grab what you need and get back to looking for the cake knife.

With birthday right there in the title

A few of these happy birthday songs aren't happy at all. One is really a campaign for a public holiday and another is sung to an ex, so read the line under each before anything goes to your boss. The newer ones are mostly shiny pop, and the older ones have the better stories.

• "Birthday" by The Beatles (1968). It opens side three of the White Album, and it'll open a party just as well. Loud from the first bar.
• "Happy Birthday" by Stevie Wonder (1980). Written to push for a national holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., so the verses are about him, while the chorus works for anybody at the table.
• "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" by The Tune Weavers (1957). Gorgeous doo-wop sung to an ex who's moved on. Maybe don't dedicate it to your husband.
• "Happy Birthday" by Altered Images (1981). Scottish new wave, giddy and quick. Of everything in this group, send this one.
• "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" by Neil Sedaka (1961). Obvious for a 16th. A grandparent who was 16 when it came out will like it even more.
• "Birthday" by Katy Perry (2013). Cheeky. The double meanings sail past the kids, but it's an odd pick for a work party.
• "Birthday" by Selena Gomez (2013). The teenagers will shout it from the far end of the room, usually over whatever the adults are saying.
• "It's My Birthday" by will.i.am and Cody Wise (2014). For the friend who makes the whole day about themselves and would like you to notice.
• "Birthday" by Jeon Somi (2019). Her first solo single. Glossy, fast K-pop that suits the last hour of a teen party.
• "Birthday" by Red Velvet (2022). Send it to the K-pop fan in the group chat, who'll know it already and be pleased that you do too.

Songs for a birthday party in a small apartment

Never trust shuffle.

Build the birthday song playlist in order, with songs the parents know in the first hour and the newer stuff after the cake. A party that opens on something nobody over 25 recognizes takes ages to warm up (and the neighbor who bangs on the wall will bang either way). Keep the volume low until the food's out, then turn it up a notch every hour.

Planning a surprise? Sort that first with these birthday surprise ideas, then come back for the music.

• "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire (1978). If the birthday is September 21, the choice is made. For everyone else, it fills the floor by the second chorus.
• "Dancing Queen" by ABBA (1976). That piano sweep at the start gets people standing before the first verse. If the party gets one ABBA song, it's this one.
• "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" by Whitney Houston (1987). Put it third or fourth, once the room is warm. It's too good to waste on an empty kitchen.
• "Valerie" by Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse (2007). A cover of a 2006 song by The Zutons, and the version everyone sings. It belongs right after the cake.
• "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen (1978). Opens slow, with Freddie Mercury and a piano, then takes off. Don't trim the intro.
• "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! (1984). Bubblegum pop at its brightest. Anyone over 40 will sing every word, wrong ones included.
• "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" by Shakira and Freshlyground (2010). The official song of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and a safe bet with a mixed crowd.
• "Jerusalema" by Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode (2019). South African house, and somebody will start the dance. Let them.
• "Dynamite" by BTS (2020). Their first song sung all in English, clean enough for grandparents and bright enough for teens.
• "Levitating" by Dua Lipa (2020). Disco for the under-30s, who'll sing the chorus back at you. Follow it with something older so the parents stay up.
• "Shout" by The Isley Brothers (1959). Late-night only. The part where everyone sinks lower and lower was built for a small room with the furniture pushed back.

Birthday songs for adults who've stopped counting

If you're planning a 35th or a 40th around a long dinner table, you want songs people can talk over until dessert and then sing once the plates are cleared. These lean older. A few joke about age, which goes down well at 45 and less well at 39. Put the speaker at the far end of the table, away from whoever's giving the toast.

• "Ooh La La" by Faces (1973). Ronnie Wood sings lead instead of Rod Stewart, and the song is about wishing you'd known all this when you were younger. Right for anyone past 35.
• "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen (1984). Old high school stars retelling their best years over a drink. Funnier than people remember.
• "Golden Years" by David Bowie (1975). Smooth and a bit odd, and Bowie was 28 when it came out. It fits a 45th dinner better than you'd guess.
• "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone (1965). Her voice starts almost alone, then the brass crashes in like a door kicked open. Play it as people sit down.
• "I'm Still Standing" by Elton John (1983). The friend who had a rough year and made it to the cake anyway gets this one.
• "Thank You for Being a Friend" by Andrew Gold (1978). Yes, the Golden Girls one. Gold's original came first (the show used another singer), and it makes a sweet toast to someone you've known for decades.
• "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond (1969). Everyone over 30 knows where the shouting goes. It works best after people have stopped being polite.
• "When I'm Sixty-Four" by The Beatles (1967). A song about getting old, sung by a 24-year-old. Fine at 64, funnier at 46.
• "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers (1977). Wait for the long note Withers holds near the end. Nothing else here beats it.

For a room full of kids under ten

Clean versions only.

Turn on the explicit filter in your music app before the first guest arrives, and charge the karaoke mic the night before (a dead battery five minutes in means a dozen kids yelling instead). Songs they already know beat anything new, because a 7-year-old won't wait out an intro. A two-hour party needs about an hour of music, since games and cake take the rest. Keep one slow song ready for whoever cries over a popped balloon.

• "Golden" by HUNTR/X (2025). Expect this request first (it's from KPop Demon Hunters, sung by EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami). Every kid will try the high note.
• "Happy" by Pharrell Williams (2013). It came out of Despicable Me 2, so the minion fans already know it.
• "Can't Stop the Feeling!" by Justin Timberlake (2016). The Trolls song, and long enough for two rounds of freeze dance.
• "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel (2013). You'll hear it at full volume whether you play it or not.
• "You've Got a Friend in Me" by Randy Newman (1995). Slower, so play it while the cake is cut and everyone has to sit.
• "Baby Shark" by Pinkfong (2016). Under-fives only. Their parents will forgive you once.
• "Who Let the Dogs Out" by Baha Men (2000). A cover, oddly enough (Anslem Douglas from Trinidad recorded it first), and the barking turns into a game by itself.
• "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I (2019). From Australia. It suits a dance-off in a bowling alley party room.

Slow ones for the toast and the slideshow

The Kinks wrote the best toast song on this page. Most of the others lean toward the slideshow, which wants a slow start with room for the first photo, while a toast needs something short enough that whoever's speaking can finish before the ice cream melts. Pick the song first, then time the photos to it. Forty photos at five seconds each run 3 minutes and 20 seconds, which is about one song.

• "Photograph" by Ed Sheeran (2014). A song about keeping someone in a photo, which is almost too on the nose for a slideshow. Let the first picture sit through the quiet opening.
• "Seasons of Love" by the original Broadway cast of Rent (1996). The whole song asks how you measure a year. Use it for a first birthday or a 90th.
• "Days" by The Kinks (1968). Ray Davies thanking someone for the days they gave him. Kirsty MacColl's 1989 cover is lovely too, if you'd like a woman's voice.
• "The Story" by Brandi Carlile (2007). Her voice cracks wide open in the chorus. Best at a 40th or 50th, when the photos go back decades.
• "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac (1975). The line about snow-covered hills gets the older guests every time. Put it near the end of a parent's 60th, after the toasts.
• "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder (1976). Written for his newborn daughter, Aisha, and you can hear her on the recording. Hard to beat for a daughter's slideshow.
• "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (1967). Grandparent's 80th, best photos only, since it's barely over two minutes. Put the wedding photo last.

When they turn 18, 21, 30, 40 or 50

Eighteen and fifty need different songs. An 18th can take hope without any irony, but by 50 most people would rather laugh, so the later picks lean on jokes. Thirty and forty are trickier, which is why the songs for them come at the subject sideways. For an 18th that needs more than two, there's a longer list of songs about growing up.

• "Forever Young" by Alphaville (1984). Several songs share this title. For an 18th, take this German synth one over Bob Dylan's or Rod Stewart's.
• "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield (2004). Corny, and it works anyway. Better still if graduation is the same month.
• "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World (2001). A 21st for someone who has no idea what's next. The song tells them that's fine.
• "22" by Taylor Swift (2012). Technically next year's song, but the chorus is easy to shout at 11:40 p.m. Play it at the 21st anyway.
• "Vienna" by Billy Joel (1977). Billy Joel telling someone young to slow down. A 30th is the right age to hear it.
• "40" by U2 (1983). Built on Psalm 40, so it has nothing to do with midlife. It closes War, and the music nerds at a 40th will get the joke.
• "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi (1986). For a 50th, the line about being halfway there writes the toast for you.
• "The Best" by Tina Turner (1989). One version note. Bonnie Tyler recorded it first, in 1988, but Tina's is the one to raise a glass to at a 50th.

If you want their name in the chorus

Diego's name isn't in a single song above. A HeartCraft song card is a song made for one person. You tell HeartCraft who it's for and share a few memories, and their name is sung in the chorus while your stories go into the lines. The language and the feel of the song are your call. It's ready in about 10 minutes and arrives on your WhatsApp or email as a link you can forward to them or play out loud right after the candles. To try it, start a birthday song with their name in it. And if you'd like something for them to open too, the HeartCraft birthday card starts with balloons and a candlelit cake, then shows your photos and a letter.

Quick answers before the candles

What should play when the candles come out?

Nothing, at first. Sing the old one live and a little out of tune, then hit play the second the last candle goes out (there's always one that won't stay lit).

How many songs does a three-hour party need?

About 50. Most pop songs run three to four minutes, so 50 covers three hours with room for the ones people skip. Put the ones you'd hate to miss in the first hour.

What do you write when you text someone a song?

One short line, then the song. If you want a laugh with it, borrow something from these funny birthday wishes and paste the song underneath. Skip the long paragraph, since they'll be listening instead of reading.

Are there birthday songs in other languages?

Lots. In Mexico it's "Las Mañanitas", which is traditionally sung in the morning, and in Poland it's "Sto lat", a wish for a hundred years. If the birthday person grew up with one of them, sing that one too.