Gosh, I wish I liked Father’s Day like so many others do.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the love. It’s not that I don’t treasure the handmade cards from my children when they were young—or now, the FaceTime calls from our grandchildren. It’s just that Father’s Day has always felt a little... manufactured. Commercialized. A “holiday” that tries to compress the complexity of fatherhood into a necktie and a greeting card.

But here’s the twist: My wife and I were married on Father’s Day. That was 54 years ago. What a gift I must’ve been to my father-in-law—walking into his family and taking his daughter’s hand in marriage on his day. We joked about it over the years. What a gift I gave my father on Father's Day... a remarkable daughter-in-law. Now both father and father-in-law are gone. But that moment, like many in life, holds layers. Music, memory, family, and time all swirl together.

When I think back to that day in 1971, the music is what I remember most vividly. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” had just been released. "Let It Be" by the Beatles was on the radio. And at our wedding, we played “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof. It was corny. It was perfect. We were young and in love, and the music gave shape to the feelings we couldn’t quite put into words. To this day, our first song together, "Something" by the Beatles, makes me want to dance, slowly.

This isn’t just nostalgia talking. There’s science behind why these songs still hit so hard.

Research in music

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