Revisiting five songs that make dads of daughters cry

NOTE: This is recycled content, but unless you're a really longtime fan of this blog, you won't have read it. It originally ran on April 6, 2012. I posted it again back on February 27, 2015. It is far, far, far and away the most widely read thing I've written here. Whereas a typical post on this blog nowadays garners 100 to 200 page views, this one has 24,654 views at the time of this writing. Apparently people really care about their daddy-daughter songs...

Inside every father of a daughter is a big softie. No matter how hard and tough the guy may seem, I guarantee he has a tender place in his heart for that little girl.

The music industry knows this and has, on more than one occasion, taken advantage of it by producing songs designed solely to make us cry. I hate them for it.

There are actually relatively few things that will make me cry. If a Cleveland sports team ever wins a championship, I will cry (NOTE: This was written before the Cavs won a title in 2016. And for the record, I did mist up a bit.) This is silly, I know, but I won't deny it. If it ever happens in my lifetime, I will cry.

I mist up at most Hallmark movies, too, though I usually deny it and blame it on dust in the room or something.

And anything sentimental to do with my kids – particularly my girls –  will make me cry. I'm no different than most other dads in this respect.

So here, then, is one man's list of the Top Five Daddy-Daughter Songs Designed to Make Grown Men Weep. We'll go in reverse order:

#5 - "Daddy's Little Girl" - The Mills Brothers

No list of this kind would be complete without the most requested father-daughter dance song of all time. From the very first verse, The Mills Brothers go for the heartstrings: "You're the end of the rainbow / My pot of gold / You're daddy's little girl / To have and to hold." If any of my daughters make me dance to this song at their wedding, I will collapse into a sobbing heap right then and there. That's it, just four lines into the song and I'll be done. I'll telling them this now so they can be prepared for major embarrassment on their big day.

#4 - "Stealing Cinderella" - Chuck Wicks

Country singers are experts at exploiting the daddy-daughter relationship. We could actually have filled this list with nothing but country tunes, but for my money, this one is the best. It tells the story of a guy going to his girlfriend's father to ask for her hand in marriage. It's obvious to him the dad worships his daughter, and that "To him I'm just some fella / Riding in and stealing Cinderella." Note that the Cinderella figure will play a major role later on. For now, if you're not familiar with "Stealing Cinderella," check out the video.

#3 - "When She Loved Me" - Sarah McLachlan

Kind of a surprise entry. On the surface, this isn't necessarily a daddy-daughter song. It's from the "Toy Story 2" soundtrack, and it's sung from the perspective of a doll whose owner has grown up and doesn't play with her anymore. But the song has always reminded me of my daughters, and sometimes specifically of Elissa and the two years or so when I worked nights and was with her every day while Terry was at work. "Through the summer and the fall / We had each other, that was all / Just she and I together / Like it was meant to be." Excuse me for a second, someone must have emptied the vacuum cleaner bag because it's getting really dusty in here...

#2 - "Butterfly Kisses" - Bob Carlisle

Darn you, Bob Carlisle. You're an evil, evil man. This song is terrible, and by that I mean it's awesome. What makes it terrible is that it's one of those "let's follow the little girl as she grows up and becomes a woman and end on her wedding day as her father walks her down the aisle" songs. Which of course makes you realize that time passes impossibly fast and that you're probably not making the most of it. Every time I hear this song, I go looking for Melanie to see if she wants to play a board game or go outside or just do anything except grow up like her rotten sisters are doing.

#1 - "Cinderella" - Steven Curtis Chapman

You want to feel guilty? You want to feel terrible? You don't even have to listen to the song itself. Just listen to Steven Curtis Chapman explain the inspiration for it. That's enough right there to make you feel like the worst parent in the world. And then consider how he must feel every time he sings it and has to think about his 5-year-old daughter who was killed when her brother accidentally ran her over in his SUV as she was playing in the family driveway. Sometimes when I listen to this song, I don't know whether to feel terrible, inspired, or both. I lean toward "inspired," but it's hard not to feel guilty about the amount of time you spend with your little girls when he sings, "'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight / And she'll be gone." Wow.

Five songs that make dads of daughters start blubbering - BLOG RERUN

NOTE: This post originally ran on my old blog, "They Still Call Me Daddy," on April 6, 2012, and it was far, far, far and away the most widely read thing I had ever written. Back then, my typical post earned about 200 page views. This one has more than 23,000 and counting. It's a subject that apparently resonates with people...

Inside every father of a daughter is a big softie. No matter how hard and tough the guy may seem, I guarantee you he has a tender place in his heart for that little girl.

The music industry knows this and has, on more than one occasion, taken advantage of it by producing songs designed solely to make us cry. I hate them for it.

There are actually relatively few things that will make me cry. If a Cleveland sports team ever wins a championship, I will cry. This is silly, I know, but I won't deny it. If it ever happens in my lifetime, I will cry.

I mist up at most Hallmark movies, too, though I usually deny it and blame it on dust in the room or something.

And anything sentimental to do with my kids – particularly my girls –  will make me cry. I'm no different than most other dads in this respect.

So here, then, is one man's list of the Top Five Daddy-Daughter Songs Designed to Make Grown Men Weep. We'll go in reverse order...

#5 - "Daddy's Little Girl" - The Mills Brothers
(EDITOR'S NOTE: I originally listed the artist as Al Martino, but as a commenter below correctly pointed out, The Mills Brothers' version is the most widely known.) No list of this kind would be complete without the most requested Father-Daughter Dance song of all time. From the very first verse, The Mills Brothers go for the heartstrings: "You're the end of the rainbow / My pot of gold / You're daddy's little girl / To have and to hold." If any of my daughters make me dance to this song at their wedding, I will collapse into a sobbing heap right then and there. That's it, just four lines into the song and I'll be done. I'll telling them this now so they can be prepared for major embarrassment on their big day.

#4 - "Stealing Cinderella" - Chuck Wicks
Country singers are experts at exploiting the daddy-daughter relationship. We could actually have filled this list with nothing but country tunes, but for my money, this one is the best. It tells the story of a guy going to his girlfriend's father to ask for her hand in marriage. It's obvious to him the dad worships his daughter, and that "To him I'm just some fella / Riding in and stealing Cinderella." Note that the Cinderella figure will play a major role later on. For now, if you're not familiar with "Stealing Cinderella," check out the video.

#3 - "When She Loved Me" - Sarah McLachlan
Kind of a surprise entry. On the surface, this isn't necessarily a daddy-daughter song. It's from the "Toy Story 2" soundtrack, and it's sung from the perspective of a doll whose owner has grown up and doesn't play with her anymore. But the song has always reminded me of my daughters, and sometimes specifically of Elissa and the two years or so when I worked nights and was with her every day while Terry was at work. "Through the summer and the fall / We had each other, that was all / Just she and I together / Like it was meant to be." Excuse me for a second, someone must have emptied the vacuum cleaner bag because it's getting really dusty in here...

#2 - "Butterfly Kisses" - Bob Carlisle
Darn you, Bob Carlisle. You're an evil, evil man. This song is terrible, and by that I mean it's awesome. What makes it terrible is that it's one of those "let's follow the little girl as she grows up and becomes a woman and end on her wedding day as her father walks her down the aisle" songs. Which of course makes you realize that time passes impossibly fast and that you're probably not making the most of it. Every time I hear this song, I go looking for Melanie to see if she wants to play a board game or go outside or just do anything except grow up like her rotten sisters are doing.

#1 - "Cinderella" - Steven Curtis Chapman
You want to feel guilty? You want to feel terrible? You don't even have to listen to the song itself. Just listen to Steven Curtis Chapman explain the inspiration for it. That's enough right there to make you feel like the worst parent in the world. And then consider how he must feel every time he sings it and has to think about his 5-year-old daughter who was killed when her brother accidentally ran her over in his SUV as she was playing in the family driveway. I have "Cinderella" on my iPod, and sometimes when I listen to it I don't know whether to feel terrible, inspired, or both. I lean toward "inspired," but it's hard not to feel guilty about the amount of time you spend with your little girls when he sings, "'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight / And she'll be gone." Wow.

What Daddy's Little Girl wants, Daddy's Little Girl gets

One of the long-accepted tenets of parenting is that fathers will do virtually anything their daughters ask them to do.

This is absolutely true.

Every daughter is, in one way or another, Daddy's Little Girl. Or at least that's how Daddy sees it. So usually when they want something, and especially when they use that deadly "Oh Daddy You're So Wonderful and I Love You" voice, we cave in.

We can't help it, it's how we're wired.

At least two of my daughters understand this dynamic, and I think the third is catching onto it.

The other day, one of my daughters whom I will only identify as "Chloe" asked me to go outside to her (locked) car and retrieve her baritone horn and her music for her so she could practice. It was cold and snowy, and it was clear that "Chloe" was perfectly capable of putting on her shoes and doing this herself.

"But," she said, "it's so cold outside and you're so big and strong, Daddy, and I just..." OK FINE I'LL DO IT JUST STOP LAYING ON THE DAUGHTER GUILT.

The right parenting move here, of course, would have been to make her do it herself, since the world doesn't cater to our whims and Daddy won't be around to do every little thing for you.

But I was in no way capable of resisting her pleas. It's like girls emanate Waves of Persuasion and we just bend to their will. Even when we know we shouldn't.

So I put on my shoes, traipsed outside in single-digit temperatures, unlocked her car, grabbed the large brass instrument and sheet music and brought it all back in for "Chloe," who thanked me and headed upstairs to practice.

As a rule, moms are not subject to the reverse effect with their sons. No matter the gender of the child asking, they're able to say "no" to any and all unreasonable requests. This is why kids, being essentially evil, know it's best to go to Dad when they really want something and expect resistance from Mom.

We don't raise them to be evil, of course, but it's in their nature. And some of us never grow out of it.

What it comes down to is that fathers, no matter how much they see themselves as stern disciplinarians, generally regard their daughters as precious little flowers. This leads to many things, including the bizarre popularity of daddy-daughter songs as sung by male country music artists (that link will take you to a post on this topic I wrote a couple of years ago).

It also leads to dads blubbering on the dance floor at their little girls' weddings when it's time for the Father-Daughter Dance.

If these young women were even smarter and more evil than they already are, they would ask their daddies for $10,000 right in the middle of this dance. They would be rich in no time.

People sure do love their daddy-daughter songs...

I find this amazing:

The second-most-read post in the history of this blog is, for reasons I cannot fathom, one titled "Street Walking," which I wrote last year after I walked 17 miles to work. It has received 837 page views, meaning that particular page has been viewed 837 separate times.

OK, fine.

What, then, is the most-read post in the history of this blog? That would be one headlined "Five Songs That Make Dads of Daughters Start Blubbering," which appeared here a little over a year ago on April 6, 2012. That was one where I listed five of the top daddy-daughter songs that are sure to bring on the tears. Fun, a little sentimental, but certainly nothing special.

Or at least I thought so.

How many page views has that daddy-daughter post received? In a little more than a year, that one post has been viewed 9,319 times. Yes, 9,319 (or 11 times more frequently than the second-most-read post).

I cannot begin to explain this. Or I suppose I can. But it would be a total guess.

For one thing, the daddy-daughter bond is a sacred one. Dads love their sons, no doubt, but their love for their daughters is, while no more intense than what they feel for their boys, different. It's just different.

It's a clinging, protective bond, and our society encourages it. It expects dads to hate their daughters' boyfriends. It expects them to put their little princesses on a pedestal. It expects them always to look on their daughters as "Daddy's Little Girl."

I'm not sure if this is all good or bad. But I do know that people are interested in getting ideas for daddy-daughter songs, and I can only assume it's to play at weddings or other special family events. I mean, really, why else do you need a daddy-daughter song?

Other than to start crying randomly as you're driving along and, say, Bob Carlisle's "Butterfly Kisses" comes on the radio. Or at least that's what I've heard. From a friend.

Go to Google and search for any of the following phrases, and you'll see this little blog appear on the first page of results for all of them (or at least the last time I checked it did):

• "daddy daughter songs"
• "songs about daughters"
• "songs about dads and daughters"
• "songs about fathers and daughters"
• "songs about daughters and dads"
• "songs about daughters growing up"
• "songs for dads from daughters"
• "songs from daughters to fathers"
• "songs for dads and daughters"

Like many webmasters and bloggers, I use Google's popular Analytics tool to keep track of visitors to "They Still Call Me Daddy." It tells me how long you all spend on the blog, what you read most, where you live, what operating systems you're using, what links or websites brought you here, etc.

I don't even bother checking the section of Analytics that tells me which search engine keywords bring the most traffic to my blog. Because it's always (always) those phrases above.

I would like to think that sometime in the past year, a wedding has taken place somewhere in the world that featured one of the five songs from my list. And that the bride and groom secretly thank me for making their special day perfect with the ideal Father-Daughter Dance song.

I will, in the interest of making their joy complete, accept a cash donation in return for this service. It's the least I can do.

10 Reasons I Enjoy Having Daughters

My wife and I have three girls and two boys. I love 'em all, but this is what I like specifically about having daughters:

(1) The house always smell nice: Girls use all kinds of nice-smelling lotions, perfumes and shampoos, and the residual fragrance makes our house smell better. It's a nice perk, actually.

(2) If there's a delicate subject to be broached with them, it automatically falls to my wife: Not that I can't talk to my girls about anything, but really, when the subject is the three-letter word that starts with "S" and ends with "EX," or is anything to do with feminine hygiene, those are things best handled by Terry. And this is fine by me.

(3) They talk: And in some cases, they talk and talk and talk and talk, ad infinitum. But my point is, they communicate. My son Jared is a good kid, but his preferred method of communication is the Universal Grunt System. The girls use actual words, which as a marketing/PR professional I prefer.

(4) I have an excuse to watch girly shows: I kind of like "Dancing With the Stars." And "Pretty Little Liars." And just about any other show that's geared toward women (which is to say, 85% of television content these days). When someone calls me on it, I can just say, "Eh, Terry and the girls had control of the TV so I had to watch it."

(5) I can do a ponytail and operate a barrette: Well, sort of. I'm no expert, but my work in this area is passable. These are skills I obviously wouldn't have picked up had we had five sons.

(6) I get the opportunity to coach girls sports: That sounds kind of creepy on the surface, but what I mean is that I like coaching girls. They tend to be a little more compliant and coachable than boys, especially at older ages. Give me a team of 12-year-old female soccer players over their male counterparts any day (though if Jack keeps playing, I'll probably have a boys team to coach in just a couple of years).

(7) They like to cook and bake: I realize a lot of boys enjoy this, too (Jack being one of them). But generally speaking, girls get into this more than boys. The result is a variety of excellent desserts and other concoctions that I get to sample.

(8) Easier diaper changing: At least for me. My experience is that it's easier to clean and change a baby girl than it is a baby boy. And that's all I'll say about that.

(9) I learn new things all the time: Boy stuff I already know. I've been experiencing boy stuff for 42 years. But there's always something new to learn about girls. They surprise and fascinate me all the time.

(10) They really are Daddy's Little Girls: My wife has always said that our girls have me wrapped around their little fingers. She is, as is so often the case, exactly right. Maybe this is a bad thing, but I do enjoy spoiling my daughters when I get the chance.

COMING TOMORROW: 10 Reasons I Enjoy Having Sons