79 Songs to Give You Strength (When you don’t feel strong)

Year-end is a joyful time for some, a struggle for others. For most of us, it’s a mixed bag of both! To help bring out the best in all of us, over the past few weeks we’ve been asking this question at Facebook:

What songs give you instant strength when you are feeling less than strong?

To bring out the best in all of us this year, we’ve compiled all the answers people shared. Songs to lean on. Songs to help you fight back. Songs to help you regain your strength and come back to who you are at the core.

Please add into the comments your own favorites for giving you strength when you need it. (And please add the embed codes from YouTube, so we can listen right here in the blog – click “share” in YouTube, then click “embed” to get that code). 

We invite you to join us at Facebook, where we ask these sorts of questions all the time.
• You can follow our posts here.
• You can join a community of people who are experimenting with Catalytic Thinking in their own lives – that is here.
• And if your work is consulting to social change groups, let us know if you’d like to join a community of others who do that work (due to Facebook’s systems, that group is by invitation only – not our preference, but just how it is). Let us know here.

Many thanks to Ann Vermel, Arsal Shaikh, Christy Williams and Annette Sandberg, for tracking down the embed codes for all these videos. You guys rock!!!

* Disclaimer: We’re adding songs as we think of them ourselves. What started as 79 songs may not be accurate when you see this post.
** Warning: Some of these are not safe for work. Or for small children who like to sing along…

Gimme Shelter
Playing for Change

Paper Planes
M.I.A

In My Mind
Amanda Palmer

Rise Up
Audra Day

Rise Up
Parachute Club

Coffee Song
Hoops and Yoyo

Get Back
Ludacris

Walk On
U2

Three Little Birds
Bob Marley

Rockin’ in the Free World
Neil Young

Wicked Girls
Seanan McGuire

Congratulations You Made It This Far
Deborah Henson-Conant

Great Big Sea
Mari Mac

Don’t Stop Me Now
Queen

Proud
Heather Small

Whatever Gets You Through the Night
John Lennon

NOTE: The video may not be available in the US

Lemonade
Alex Boye

Joyful Sound
The String Cheese Incident

Golden
Jill Scott

I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’
Scissor Sisters

I’m Alive
Johnny Thunder

I Won’t Back Down
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers

The Middle
Jimmy Eat World

RISE (Katy Perry Cover)
SUPERFRUIT, Mary Lambert, Brian Justin Crum, Mario Jose

Smells Like Teen Spirit
Nirvana

Fuck This Town
Robbie Fulks

I Will Not Be Broken
Bonnie Raitt

Don’t Give Up
Peter Gabriel (Feat. Kate Bush)

Peace Train
Cat Stevens

Rock Me Gently
Andy Kim

Feelin’ Stronger Every Day
Chicago

Dig Down Deep
Jana Alayra

Thinking Like a Mountain
Libby Roderick

Ella’s Song
Ella Baker

Good Morning
Mandisa

Rise up Singing
Daisy May

Shine On
Seth Bernard & Daisy May

Edelweiss
Rogers and Hammerstein

Eye of the Tiger
Survivor

The Final Countdown
Europe

The Walker
Fitz and The Tantrums

Wonderful Place
NERD

N.E.R.D “Wonderful Place” from Pulse Media on Vimeo.

Make You Feel That Way
Blackalicious

Green Lights
Aloe Balcc

New Way Home
Foo Fighters

Don’t Get Me Wrong
The Pretenders

Upside Down & Inside Out
OK Go

Breathing Underwater
Metric

Fantasy
Aldo Nova

Formation
Beyoncé

Freedom
Beyoncé

My Prerogative
Bobby Brown

Look What We’ve Become
Grace Potter

Alive
Krewella

Talkin’ bout a Revolution
Tracy Chapman

Talkin’ Bout a Revolution
Fetsum (Cover)

Dancing on the Ruins of Multinational Corporations
Casey Neil

Fight the Power
Public Enemy

The Mary Ellen Carter
Stan Rogers

Up & Up
Coldplay

I’m a Bitch
Meredith Brooks

Hymn for the Weekend
Coldplay

Hollow Moon
Awolnation

Unwritten
Natasha Bedingfield

Great Leap Forward
Billy Bragg

Freedom at Woodstock
Richie Havens

With a Little Help from My Friends
Joe Cocker

Fight Song
Rachel Platten

Send Me On My Way
Rusted Root

I Will Survive
Gloria Gaynor

Defying Gravity
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth

I Am What I Am
John Barrowman

Get Back Up Again
Anna Kendrick

You & Me
Dave Matthews

Happy
Pharrell Williams

Me Too
Meghan Trainor

I Lived
One Republic

Thunder Road
Bruce Springsteen