Lots of songs have girls’ names in the title. Sometimes the names appear just in the lyrics, but people have been writing songs about girls for as long as people have been writing songs. Songs with Amy in the lyrics aren’t uncommon, and while some are obscure, many have interesting takes on all sorts of subjects.
Here are our top songs with Amy in the lyrics, even if they don’t all spell the name the same way.
“Amy” by Green Day
Song Year: 2012
Although she was a singing sensation with hits and Grammys, Amy Winehouse dealt with personal demons related to addiction and died in July 2011. Green Day frontman Billy Joe Armstrong didn’t know her personally but respected her. “Amy” is an ode to the departed singer.
“Amy” by Elton John
Song Year: 1972
The rare song in a minor key that’s upbeat, “Amy,” tells of the unrequited love of a man younger than the object of his affection— she is likely a teenager, so our narrator seems like a kid, as if Amy is his babysitter.
In addition to featuring Sir Elton’s percussive piano stylings, that’s legendary French musician Jean-Luc Ponty on that kickin’ electric violin solo.
“Amie” by Pure Prairie League
Song Year: 1975
Though “Amie” came out as a single in ‘75, the album from which it came, “Bustin’ Out,” dropped in 1972. Talk about a slow burn. That same slow burn applies to the single itself. It barely cracked the top 20 and was never a smash hit, but now, decades later, is there a single person in the world who hasn’t heard this song at least once?
“When My Amy Prays” by Vince Gill
Song Year: 2019
Recording artist Amy Grant began her career as a Christian artist, racking up huge hits in the 1980s with her breakthrough album “Age to Age.”
Her husband, country superstar Vince Gill, does not have the same connection to the spiritual world. He wrote “When My Amy Prays” in tribute to his wife. He wants a deeper connection to the sacred and finds it in observing hers.
“Amy Amy Amy” by Amy Winehouse
Song Year: 2003
Amy Winehouse’s music hearkened back to Motown, and “Amy Amy Amy” has that same feel— old soul music for the old souls.
But it also feels like a response to the Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” in which a teacher can’t keep his mind from going to taboo places. This song reads like that student’s version of the story.
“If U Seek Amy” by Britney Spears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aEnnH6t8Ts
Song Year: 2009
Not about a person named Amy, “If U Seek Amy” carries a sophomoric pun in its title and lyrics. “If” sounds like the letter F, “U” is the letter U, and “seek” is homophonous to the letter C. Get it? Clever, Britney. And classy. No, really— Shakespeare and Joyce did it first.
“Amy, I” by Jack’s Mannequin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfhaPAGvU8I
Song Year: 2011
A straight-up song about lost love, “Amy, I” depicts a narrator stuck in a metaphorical winter season. He’s shivering in the wake of the loss of his girl, and his reference to the ice under his feet about to crack tells us that he’s afraid he may not be able to make it through the experience.
He still imagines he sees her around and hears her in the house, but she’s gone.
“Amy’s Song” by Switchfoot
Song Year: 1999
Switchfoot occupies a small niche in the rock music world— they’re a band of Christians, but not a Christian band. Think U2 and King’s X. They may sing songs about faith, God, and Christianity, but they don’t sit under the contemporary Christian music umbrella.
“Amy’s Song” tells of a woman whose Christian faith was an inspiration. She’s gone now, but she inspired the narrator to live a better life.
“Amy Hit the Atmosphere” by Counting Crows
Song Year: 1999
Many songs have multiple interpretations, and “Amy Hit the Atmosphere” fits in that category. Adam Duritz sings about a woman who got out of the gutter, the implication being that she was a drug addict.
Where it gets murky is how she got out. Did she overdose and die? Did she get clean? It’s hard to tell, and maybe there’s no answer. The music is wistful enough to be a celebration or a dirge. Either way, it’s a nice listen.
“Amy Never Misses” by A Small Victory
Song Year: 2006
A collection of colors, dark imagery, and references to injuries of all sorts, “Amy Never Misses” is a crunchy-guitar piece of power pop, but past that, who knows?
Who is Amy in this song, a ghost? A lost love? A dead friend? Why are they cutting themselves with knives outside? Who’s narrating? Why are they burning stuff? Nobody knows what Amy’s aiming at, but apparently, she’s a good shot.
“Once in Love with Amy” by Sammy Davis, Jr. and Buddy Rich
Song Year: 1966
Before Broadway legend Frank Loesser wrote “Guys and Dolls,” he wrote another pretty successful show in 1948 called “Where’s Charley.” It’s a farcical comedy that hasn’t had the same staying power as that other Loesser musical despite being a better show.
This version is an iconic performance by two jazz giants.
“Amazing Amy” by Lil Wayne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa9hnBaMrg4
Song Year: 2015
Though it wasn’t part of the soundtrack of 2014’s “Gone Girl,” “Amazing Amy” certainly could have been. In the film, Amy’s mother made her bones writing children’s books about Amazing Amy. Amy grows up to be crazier than an outhouse mouse.
Lil Wayne raps about his dilemma: he loves a woman he finds debilitatingly sexy, but she’s crazy, and he fears she wants to kill him for his money.
“Amy’s Back in Austin” by Little Texas
Song Year: 1994
“Amy’s Back in Austin” was a Top Ten hit for Little Texas in the ‘90s, pioneers of the Hot Young Country movement that they were. The song weaves the tale of a young couple leaving their Texas home to make a life for themselves.
But things go wrong, and the girl leaves. The chorus finds the narrator wondering where she is. He thinks back on what might have gone wrong to drive her away.
“Miami, My Amy” by Keith Whitley
Song Year: 1985
Whitley equates Amy’s touch with an earthquake. The song was Whitley’s first country single— the first of only 12, as he died tragically in 1989.
The song tells of a man who meets Amy in Florida, falls in love, but then has to return to LA. She calls him later and confesses her love to him, and he high-tails it back to Florida.
“Has Anybody Seen Amy” by John & Audrey Wiggins
Song Year: 1994
“Has Anybody Seen Amy” is the rare song that imparts the you-can’t-go-home-again message without beating the listener over the head with it.
As the narrator looks around his old stomping grounds, he doesn’t wax nostalgic about how the record store used to be on that corner.
Instead, he merely looks for the woman he loved long ago. She’s not around, and that’s symbolic of what he lost when he grew up and moved on with his life.
“Airline Amy” by Weird Al Yankovic
Song Year: 1992
Not every Weird Al song is a parody of a song you already know. His original songs are uncommonly brilliant. Need convincing? Check out his ode to Frank Zappa, “Genius in France.”
“Airline Amy” isn’t an homage to another artist or a parody. It’s just a humorous song about a guy who falls for a cute flight attendant, forcing him to fly to all sorts of destinations he doesn’t care to go to, but he wants to be close to her.
“Chasin’ Amy” by Steve Helms Band
Song Year: 2011
What is about first loves being named Amy? “Chasin’ Amy” comes from Texas-based Steve Helms and his eponymous band.
The narrator sings about how great life was back in the old days when new love was an unfamiliar feeling and how that one summer will never leave his memory.
“Amie” by Damien Rice
Song Year: 2002
A song about the constant nature of change, “Amie” refers to love, loss, and the end of a century. There’s evidence in the lyrics that Amie has died, but even if she hasn’t, it’s clear that she’s gone, and the narrator misses her.
He refers several times to The Story of O, a novel that caused a sensation in the 1950s. Is that a clue to the narrator’s relationship with Amie? Or did they just enjoy the salacious novel together?
“Amy, Run For The Hills” by courtship.
Song Year: 2019
If you’ve ever been in a relationship that you knew was doomed to failure, then you’ve lived “Amy, Run for the Hills.” Though it’s got a definite song-of-the-summer vibe, it’s about the end of a couple’s time together, as both parties understand that this isn’t working out.
“Ma Belle Amie” by Tee-Set
Song Year: 1969
Okay, “Amie” isn’t a woman’s name here, but French for “friend.” Still, it goes on this list if for no other reason than it’s homophonic.
The lyrics are a jumble of French, Age-of-Aquarius-style mentions of birds, sky, sun, and love, and words of affirmation for the friend the narrator loves. Not the best love song of its decade, but fun.
“Amy’s Eyes” by Charley Pride
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuaR2uI3aMI
Song Year: 1989
In “Amy’s Eyes,” Charley Pride’s narrator sits down with his daughter Amy to look at a picture she drew with her crayons because that’s what you do when your kid makes a drawing.
He realizes his split with Amy’s mom has had a bigger effect on their child than he imagined. He sends the drawing to the child’s mother in hopes that she’ll realize the girl needs both parents in the house.
“Amy’s in the Attic” by Insane Clown Posse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_WUHLTvFEQ
Song Year: 2010
You’d be right to doubt that the same guys that wrote lyrics asking how magnets worked could write a rap that’s a straight-up ghost story. But ICP did it. “Amy’s in the Attic” eschews the scatological humor ICP’s songs usually contain in favor of painting a scary picture.
Amy was murdered and now haunts the house. She sometimes appears in the mirror and generally scares the crap out of our narrator. Don’t listen alone.
“She’s No Amy” by Ryan Turner
Song Year: 2005
This song is an interesting take on the lost love trope. The narrator spends most of the song extolling the virtues of his beloved— she laughs at his jokes, she loves him, and all that— but near the end, he confesses that her one flaw is that she isn’t Amy— presumably his lost true love. Poor Not-Amy.
“Amy” by Ryan Adams
Song Year: 2000
Alt-country star Ryan Adams has a knack for writing beautiful melodies like this one. It’s made more beautiful by the heart-rending subject matter— Amy is the star of the album from which this song came: “Heartbreaker.”
Whether her name was Amy in real life, a woman walked out on Adams and left him deeply hurt. The album sprang from that experience, and the loss of Amy sits at the heart of it.
“Amy” by Roy Orbison
Song Year: 1969
Many of us have sat, in the ashes of an ended relationship, wishing something along these lines:
- I wish I’d never met her/him.
- I wish I’d never been born.
- If only I could wipe the whole experience from my mind.
Those feelings make up the gist of Orbison’s “Amy,” a song in which the narrator finds himself unable to escape the memory of the woman who broke his heart. Everything he sees reminds him of her.
“Amy’s Song” by Matt Simons
Song Year: 2018
Simons co-wrote “Amy’s Song” with Any Kuney, a queer songwriter from a religious family. Her coming-out experience was harrowing, and to address the anti-LGBTQ stances of many conservatives, she began writing “Amy’s Song.”
It pointedly asks if anyone’s god cares about who they love and quietly points a finger at judgmental people.
“America (Wake Up Amy)” by Bowling for Soup
Song Year: 2009
“America (Wake Up Amy)” is one of the few songs with Amy in the lyrics that isn’t about a woman named Amy. It’s got nothing to do with love, at least not romance.
Instead, “Amy” is a nickname for America, and Bowling for Soup frontman Jaret Reddick sings about America as if instead of a country, it was a kid. He says she’s a bully, but she’s something of a blessing to the world. She’s pretty but damaged.
Songs About Amy, Final Thoughts
You can always find a song about a girl. Songs with Amy in the lyrics are nearly as common as those with other names, but these represent a wide variety of styles, and we even found one that’s a ghost story.
What “Amy” song that you love did we leave out? Let us know.