Seven Comforting Songs For Times of Worry

The Beatles – Let It Be

Written by Paul McCartney, who came up with the idea for the song after he had a dream about his mother during a tense period surrounding the sessions for The Beatles’ White Album. It’s commonly thought that Paul wrote “Mother Mary” in reference to the biblical ‘Mary’, the mother of Jesus Christ, but in interviews he stated that this isn’t the case. His own mother, who died when he was just fourteen, was the inspiration for the lyric. In his dream, he described how his mother had told him the comforting words, "It will be all right, just let it be." A beautiful, timeless, uplifting classic.

Labi Siffre – Something Inside So Strong

British singer-songwriter, Labi, wrote this in 1987 after being inspired by a television documentary about Apartheid. He originally wrote it with the intention of giving the song to another artist to record, but struggled to find anyone suitable and was convinced to release it himself. The song had such an impact; it won an Ivor Novello award and has been used on various campaigns to this day, including famously, Amnesty International.

R.E.M – Nightswimming

No one is really sure about the meaning behind this track – even the band members disagree on its origins between themselves! Written in 1992 and released on their eighth album ‘Automatic For The People’, it’s one of R.E.M’s more sombre pieces and evokes a feeling of blissful innocence that’s difficult to place. Incidentally, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who performed the track with Michael Stipe on a US music program called ‘Austin City Limits’, said during that broadcast that he regards Nightswimming to be the best song ever written.

Randy Newman – You’ve Got A Friend In Me

Uplifting, and guaranteed to make you smile as soon as you hear its opening bars, this wonderful original piece of music was written for the first ‘Toy Story’ movie back in 1996 and has stayed in our hearts ever since!

Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah

Jeff Buckley’s beautifully raw, emotional version of this song, from his only complete studio album, ‘Grace’ was released in 1994, a full decade after it was originally written by Leonard Cohen. One of the most powerful songs on our list, we don’t really have much else we can say. This one speaks for itself...

Sadly, Jeff Buckley died in 1997, after a freak accident, drowning in a river whilst in Memphis recording his new album.

John Lennon – Imagine

John Lennon’s 1971 masterpiece encourages us to imagine a world at peace, without the barriers of borders or the divisions of religion and nationality and to consider the possibility that the whole of humanity would live unattached to material possessions. Powerful stuff, and just as relevant today as ever.

Louis Armstrong – What A Wonderful World

Widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians in the history of Jazz, Louis Armstrong’s 1967, UK chart topping single paints beautiful images of colourful rainbows, blue skies, and flowers in bloom. A truly stunning song, it’s impossible not to feel just a little bit more positive simply by listening to these wonderful lyrics! The song was covered in 2007 by Eva Cassidy and Katie Melua.

So there you have it! It’s difficult to predict just how long this uncertain, unprecedented period in human history will take us all to get past. But one thing is for certain – if we all look out for each other, talk, and escape into music or whatever it is that makes us happy, we will get through the worst together!