Recommended songs about mountains: classic and popular tracks for mountaineering and mountain songs
Mountains are popular spots that people of all ages—from children to seniors—can enjoy through activities like climbing and hiking.
When you take in the majestic scenery and beautiful nature, your mind and body feel refreshed, and everyday worries and stress can start to seem small—you might even wonder, “Why was I so worried in the first place?”
In this article, we’ll introduce songs themed around mountains.
It’s packed with tracks you’ll want to sing with friends in the mountains and songs you’ll want to listen to before a hike.
By listening, you might get a sense of why so many people are so captivated by mountains.
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Recommended songs about mountains: classic and popular tracks for mountaineering and mountain songs (21–30)
Mount TsurugiKitayama Takeshi
This is a single by Takeshi Kitayama released in January 2009.
It centers on Mount Tsurugi in Tokushima Prefecture, the highest peak in the prefecture and one of Japan’s 100 famous mountains.
The song conveys the grandeur of the mountain.
Kitayama performed it at the 60th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen later that same year.
The mountain is smiling.Hashiri Yusuke
In 2016, a new national holiday called Mountain Day was established for the first time in 20 years.
To commemorate this, “Yama ga, Warattera” (The Mountains Are Smiling) by HAYASHI Yusuke, an enka singer from Hokkaido, was produced and released as the “Song of Mountain Day.” With its bold, rock-style electric guitar sound and powerful vocals, the track conveys a sense of the mountains’ grandeur.
Mountain DelicaciesŌsutoria min’yō
When we were little, many of us probably sang this song in kindergarten or elementary school.
It’s a classic about mountains that brings back the fun of picnics.
Even if you don’t know the song by name, I think many people would recognize it when they hear the yodeling in the chorus and go, “Oh, that song!” It’s the kind of tune you can’t help but hum along to.
Shane / The Call of the Faraway HillsYukimura Izumi
Shane is an American Western film set in the mountains, released in 1953.
The film’s theme song, The Call for Far-away Hills, has a Japanese version performed by Izumi Yukimura titled Harukanaru Yama no Yobigoe (The Call of the Far-off Mountains).
Hearing the lyric “the mountains are calling” makes you want to go climbing, doesn’t it? Inspired by this song, director Yoji Yamada also made a film with the same title, Harukanaru Yama no Yobigoe.
Mountain MusiciansDoitsu min’yō
It’s a famous children’s song in which various mountain animals play musical instruments like musicians.
Among well-known children’s songs with Japanese lyrics, many are based on European and American folk tunes to which Japanese words were later added, and this is one of them.
It originally comes from a German folk song, and in fact it isn’t animals who play the instruments in the original.
Still, the familiar Japanese lyrics with animals performing make for a very cheerful, delightful song.
Mount IwakiMiyama Hiroshi
Enka has many famous songs set in real place names, and one such piece set on Mount Iwaki—the highest peak in Aomori Prefecture—is O Iwakisan, a song by enka singer Hiroshi Miyama, who debuted in 2009.
It’s a refreshing song that expresses a man’s feelings as he sends thoughts he can’t share with others toward the mountain.
Mount Iwaki is home to many alpine plants and is also recommended as a hiking destination.
Kiso is in the mountains.Katsuragi Yuki
It’s a single released by Yuki Katsuragi in 1974, which won the Grand Prize at the 7th Yamaha Popular Song Contest held the same year.
The song is about Mount Ena, located at the southern end of the Central Alps and counted among Japan’s One Hundred Famous Mountains.