21 Best Songs About January

12. “You in January” by The Wonder Years

Song Year: 2015

“You in January” is another in a long line of songs about January that are also about the loss of a great love.

The Pennsylvania-based band, fronted by Dan “Soupy” Campbell, crashes through this song as the lyrics tick off all the places they visited together, and as great as they all were, they now haunt the narrator.

His favorite memory is seeing his love in the pale January light one afternoon.

13. “June in January” by Bing Crosby

Song Year: 1934

The movie industry is littered with films whose plots have been reworked for new audiences. Disney turned Hamlet into The Lion King, minus the adultery. George Lucas took Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, added lightsabers, and came up with Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Such was the case with Here Is My Heart,  a 1934 film adaptation of The Prince and the Pauper. It’s got Bing Crosby in it, and Kitty Carlisle, but it’s not very good.

What was good about it was “June in January,” sung by Crosby, a song that took our collective thoughts about June— brides, love, the leisure of summer— and used them to evoke a man’s love for a woman. It went to number one and has since become a standard.

14. “The Month of January” by June Tabor

Song Year: 1983

British folk singer June Tabor took “The Month of January,” a traditional folk song, and sang it almost entirely a capella, though a mournful cello enters on the last verse to punctuate her sorrow.

Sorrow? Yes. The song is about a woman left holding a baby. She got pregnant out of wedlock, and her father, in a fit of rage and embarrassment, bribed the baby’s father to disappear.

One cold January day, the song’s narrator meets this young woman, who then tells her the sad story of loss and longing.

15. “January February” by Barbara Dickson

Song Year: 1980

Before the 1980 release of “January February,” Barbara Dickson was a well-known Scottish folk singer. The song, with its electric guitar and bass and even a little synthesizer, represented a new direction for her career, and the deviation paid off. “January February” was a global top-twenty hit.

The song is about the narrator’s love interest who keeps deciding to leave and then changing his mind. It’s a jaunty, happy-sounding song, but there is real frustration and fear in the lyrics.

16. “Miss January” by The Procussions feat. Talib Kweli

Song Year: 2006

The Procussions and master rapper Talib Kweli weave rhymes about Miss January, who was presumably not a calendar girl of Playboy bunny, but rather the First Love, hence associating her with the first month. The narrator tells about other loves he had, but he keeps coming back to Miss January.

He had to leave her for reasons he doesn’t state, but he values the things he learned during their time together.

Adding Kweli to the mix may not have been a calculated attempt to get The Procussions’ music out to more ears, but collaborations like this one often do just that.

17. “Jan2Jan” by Rod Wave

Song Year: 2018

“Jan2Jan” is an ode to the narrator’s friends and loved ones doing time in prison. But it’s also a song about guilt.

Rod Wave raps about how, from month to month, he’s out in the world doing his thing, and during those same months, some of his running buddies are in prison, where every day is the same as every other day as time ticks away.

He refers to some of the actions that might have put him behind bars with them, but due to fate and the vagaries of the justice system, he’s out in the world. He doesn’t want to join his friend in prison, but he does feel some guilt that he’s free and they’re not.

18. “January Stars” by Sting

Song Year: 1993

As a bonus track Sting recorded with the material from 1993’s Ten Summoner’s Tales, “January Stars” is one of those songs that not many people heard, but that doesn’t make it lesser-than.

It’s a tongue-in-cheek trolling of astrology, with the narrator questioning how, exactly, the location of unfathomably large balls of flaming hydrogen and helium trillions of miles away could have any effect on his life.

It’s also the same music that backs another bonus track, “Everybody Laughed But You.” Same chords, and the same backing musician tracks, but a different melody and lyrics.

19. “January 19th” by LucianoTheLegend feat. T.Evin$

Song Year: 2022

There aren’t many more final ways to say that it’s over than the phrase “the flame is gone,” and that’s one of the key moments in “January 19th.” The song recounts the anniversary of a breakup.

When you’re still hurting a year after a split from a significant other, you know the relationship meant something to you. LucianoTheLegend commemorates the day by reflecting on the good times and how badly he has been hurting since that cold day.

20. “January’s Child” by The Alice Band

Song Year: 2002

The Alice Band was a short-lived trio (just one album) consisting of two Irish women and another from Florida.

“January’s Child” paints a vivid picture of how difficult January can be, referring obliquely to the unhoused in an unnamed city and how they struggle to survive the brutal cold nights.

For the narrator, she’s saved from her own (though metaphorical) cold nights by January’s child, the man who came in and warmed her heart and bed.

21. “January Rain” by Hunters & Collectors

Song Year: 1986

This melancholy song is the best to round up our list of songs with January in the title. Hunters & Collectors are an Australian band who first came on the scene as a rock band in the early 1980s.

“January Rain” works both as a love song and as a commentary on the banality of everyday life. The narrator feels lost in a world where everything passes them by.

The lesson of the song is that you can never take too many precautions against the world when the January rain is falling and all is not well.

Top Songs About January, Final Thoughts

Songs about January are often sad ones, but Sir Elton John sang effectively about how sad songs can say so much, and he was right. Whether you love the cold or long to escape it, January is a month related to starting over. The best songs about January can get you started on that.