Our Top 10 All-Time Favorite New Year’s Songs

There are certain songs this season that help us reminisce on the past, celebrate the present and look forward to the coming year. We’ve compiled our 10 favorite New Year’s songs whose sheet music will help you make the new year even more musical!

1. “What Are You doing New Year’s Eve?” by Frank Loesser

A classic among New Year’s songs, “What Are You Doing…” was written by Frank Loesser, the songwriter behind Broadway’s ‘Guys and Dolls‘ and ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,’ in 1947. The song has since been covered by scores of artists, including Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and even Idina Menzel on this year’s ‘Holiday Wishes’ album.

2. “1999” by Prince

The title track of Prince’s 1982 album peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983. Prince centered the song around The Mamas & The Papas’s “Monday, Monday” riff. Although 1999 has long come and gone, the song is still a favorite at year-end parties.

3. “Happy New Year” by ABBA

Nothing says “let’s celebrate” like 1980s Swedish pop music, and ABBA’s “Happy New Year” ballad is the a musical version of a tall glass of bubbly.

4. “New Year’s Day” by U2

Covering a less-sparkling and much more serious subject matter, U2’s “New Year’s Day” was inspired by the changing Polish political landscape in the early 1980s. The heavy-hitting rock song became U2’s first international hit, and was listed as one of Rolling Stone’s ‘500 Greatest Rock Songs’ in 2010.

5. “Next Year, Baby” by Jamie Cullum

Still looking for a new year’s resolution? Play/sing Jamie Cullum’s “Next Year, Baby” for inspiration! Come to think of it, one of our resolutions for 2015 is to play more of Jamie Cullum’s beautiful modern jazz/pop sheet music.

6. “This Is the New Year” by A Great Big World

Before “Say Something” propelled Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino, also known as A Great Big World, onto the bestsellers charts, the duo scored a slightly less colossal hit with “This Is the New Year.” The inspirational lyrics and energizing piano-driven melody were featured on a number of television shows in 2013, including ‘Glee‘ and ‘The Amazing Race.’

7. “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer

ABBA’s bringing the bubbly, Cullum’s got our resolutions covered, but the one essential piece of New Year’s Eve still missing is the traditional midnight kiss. “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer will turn that magical moment right into a scene from a 1990s teen dramedy.

8. “A Long December” by Counting Crows

Maybe your month has flown by, or maybe, like that of the Counting Crows’s Adam Duritz in 1996, it’s been a bit of a drag. Either way “A Long December” is about the promise of things looking up, and that’s something we can always get behind.

9. “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg

An autobiographical song that took place one holiday in his hometown of Peoria, Illinois, Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne” is about reconnecting with an old flame after many years have passed. The tune hit #9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1981, although Fogelberg’s flame didn’t come forward until after the singer/songwriter’s death in 2007.

10. “Auld Lang Syne” by Robert Burns

It’s not officially New Year’s Eve until “Auld Lang Syne” is played. The song sets Scottish author Rober Burns’s 1788 poem to traditional folk music, and has been a New Year’s mainstay since Guy Lombardo’s band happened to use it as a segue between two live radio programs on December 31, 1929, at which time the clock just happened to strike midnight. So, this New Year’s Eve and Day, celebrate “times gone by” (the modern English translation of “Auld Lang Syne”) and reminisce about friends past with nearly 30 arrangements of the classic.

Do you have a favorite song to play on New Year’s Eve or Day? What traditions help you ring in the new year? We’d love to hear about your celebrations in the comments section.