Guests will be thankful for this turkey day playlist

Thanksgiving gets the short end of the wishbone when it comes to music.

Most every love song can be co-opted for Valentine’s Day, and there are plenty of spooky tunes for Halloween. And don’t get us started on Christmas, which has almost as many carols as there are gift ideas. But there simply aren’t that many Thanksgiving songs.

Despite the dearth of Turkey Day ditties, there are enough choices to get you through a morning of cooking, Thanksgiving family dinner or football pregame hour.

We’ve picked a baker’s dozen of Thanksgiving-appropriate tunes to download. They include songs about giving thanks regardless of the season, and one about the glorious nature of food.

I Want to Thank You

Otis Redding, 1965

Before Redding died at the painfully young age of 26, he left a rich catalog of music, including such hits as (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay and Try a Little Tenderness. Lesser known but definitely worth a listen is I Want to Thank You, a sweet, melancholy breakup song. All romantic relationships should end this tenderly, not to mention this thankfully.

Alice’s Restaurant

Arlo Guthrie, 1967

Loosely based on a true story, Alice’s Restaurant begins “two Thanksgivings ago” (1965) when Guthrie and a friend got arrested in connection with littering. In the song, Guthrie is declared ineligible to serve in Vietnam because of his littering arrest. In reality, his number simply didn’t come up. Regardless, this is an epic anti-war folk classic, weighing in at 18 minutes and change. Some radio stations still play it once a year, on Thanksgiving Day.

Food, Glorious Food

The cast of Oliver!, 1968

Many of us take food for granted, sometimes snacking when we’re not even hungry. However, the gruel-eating orphan boys in Oliver!, a film based on the stage play of the same name (and on the Dickens novel Oliver Twist), know that food is truly glorious, especially such delicacies as “hot sausage and mustard” and “cold jelly and custard.” If you enjoy a good boys’ choir song, you’ll like this musical number.

Thanksgiving Theme

Vince Guaraldi Trio, 1973

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving isn’t as iconic or as heartwarming as A Charlie Brown Christmas, but watching it each year is a fun holiday tradition in many homes, thanks in part to its upbeat, uplifting theme song. Even if you recoil at the thought of the Peanuts gang’s Thanksgiving meal of buttered toast, pretzel sticks, popcorn, jelly beans and ice cream sundaes, you should relish this lively tune.

I Thank You

ZZ Top, 1979

Cover tunes are a mixed bag. Some are pointless, like Street Fighting Man by Rod Stewart, while others are brilliant, like Guns N’ Roses’ Live and Let Die. With I Thank You, Texas rockers ZZ Top took the 1968 Sam & Dave song and made it their own, changing it from an R&B standard to a bluesy Southern rock classic.

Give Thanks & Praises

Bob Marley and the Wailers, 1983

People give thanks for what they have in different ways. In this reggae song, released after Marley’s death in 1981, the singer praises Jah, the Rastafarian name of God. And he does so in such relaxing, day-at-the-beach fashion that you may very well fall asleep after eating all that turkey.

The Thanksgiving Song

Adam Sandler, 1992

One of the funniest holiday ditties ever recorded, The Thanksgiving Song is Sandler at his best. The former Saturday Night Live comedian’s boyish charm and oddly amusing falsetto voice are perfect for delivering such non sequiturs as “Turkey in the oven/And the buns in the toaster/I’ll never take down/My Cheryl Tiegs poster.” Sandler followed in 1995 with the equally great The Chanukah Song.

Thanksgiving Prayer

Johnny Cash, 1994

Written by show producer Josef Anderson for the “Thanksgiving” episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Thanksgiving Prayer is a down-to-earth, spiritual tear-jerker sung with sincerity by the late, great Man in Black, who certainly sang his fair share of gospel songs during his long career. The meta-casting has Cash singing to his real-life wife, June Carter Cash.

Thank You

The Descendents, 1996

Performed by the Descendents, a band that is so gosh-darned punk rock it spells its name wrong, Thank You is on the band’s Everything Sucks album. Unlike the title track of that record, which bemoans everything from a flat tire to a girlfriend moving in, Thank You expresses appreciation for some unnamed musician or band. When Descendents frontman Milo Aukerman sings “Thank you for playing the way you play,” you can imagine the band’s fans feeling the same way about it.

Thank U

Alanis Morissette, 1998

Inspired by time she spent in India after the runaway success of 1995’s Jagged Little Pill, Morissette penned Thank U, a self-help song that suggests “no longer being masochistic” and “not equating death with stopping.” One of her recommendations — to stop eating “when I’m full up” — will be hard to follow on Thanksgiving, what with all the turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie lying around. Also, beware of playing the official music video with Grandma or Aunt Suzie in the room — Morissette is nude throughout, complete with Lady Godiva-style hair.

Thank You

Dido, 1998

Featured on the soundtrack to Sliding Doors, the 1998 British-American rom-com, Thank You was released as a single in 2000, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It’s a smooth, melancholy number, sung in Dido’s inimitable style and given street cred by Eminem, who sampled it for his hit song Stan. Dido wrote it for her then-boyfriend, entertainment lawyer Bob Page, thanking him for “giving me the best day of my life.”

Thanksgiving Song

Mary Chapin Carpenter, 2008

Carpenter’s lilting voice alternates between bold and breathless in Thanksgiving Song, a beautiful number with acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment. The song is featured on Carpenter’s Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas, a fine soundtrack to anyone’s holiday season.

Thanksgiving Overture

American Greetings/Gioachino Rossini, 2010

Sung to the tune of Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Thanksgiving Overture is a quickly paced run-through of all the traditional Thanksgiving festivities, including cooking the turkey, baking pies, greeting guests, watching football and slipping away into a food coma. And then it’s time to get ready for Christmas. This novelty song is funny, and kids, if they can keep up, will enjoy singing along to the animated, subtitled music video.

This story was originally published November 22, 2016 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Guests will be thankful for this turkey day playlist."