The Best Anniversary Gift for Your Wife: A Custom Song (+ 5 to Play)

You want something for your wife that isn't flowers again, and isn't a necklace she'll politely love. You've been typing "anniversary gift ideas for my wife" into the search bar for a few nights now, hoping something lands. The thing you're circling is a gift that actually sounds like the two of you.

Five love songs for your wife, and the one gift that's only hers

Start here if you want something to play on the night. A great song sets a mood no object can. The catch is that even the best of these was written about someone else.

1. "At Last," Etta James. The slow-burn standard every anniversary playlist reaches for. James made it the title track of her 1960 debut album, and her voice is the reason it still stops a room. Put it on while dinner's cooking.

2. "The Way You Look Tonight." Jerome Kern wrote the music and Dorothy Fields the lyrics for the 1936 film Swing Time, where Fred Astaire sang it, and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year. Frank Sinatra's later recording is the version most couples know. It's warm without trying too hard, which is the whole trick of it.

3. "Songbird," Fleetwood Mac. Christine McVie wrote this one alone and sang it at the piano on Rumours in 1977. It's spare and quiet, the kind of song you play when the house is finally still. Eva Cassidy's 1997 cover is the one to cue up if you want it even barer.

4. "You Are the Best Thing," Ray LaMontagne. From his 2008 album Gossip in the Grain, this is the upbeat outlier on the list. Horns, a shuffle, a grin in his voice. Good for a kitchen dance before you've cleared the plates.

5. "Thinking Out Loud," Ed Sheeran. Sheeran wrote it with Amy Wadge for his 2014 album x, and it became the go-to first-dance song for a reason: it's built around still loving the same person as the years pile up. If your anniversary leans sentimental, this is the easy pick.

6. A custom song written for her. Here's the one the other five can't be. Every song above is beautiful, and every song above is about somebody who isn't your wife. A custom song from Penned For You has her actual name in it, the way you met, the inside jokes, the details only you would know. You tell us about her and we write and record the song. It plays like the standards on this list and belongs to exactly one person.

A custom song is the right call when you want the gift to be about her and not about the artist who happened to write a pretty song years ago. You fill out a short form, about five minutes, with her name, your story, the qualities you love, and whatever small notes make her her. We take it from there and write and record a song that's hers. It's $29.99, with 24-hour standard turnaround and 1-hour rush if the anniversary is tomorrow and you've run the clock down. Start your song and we'll have it ready to play. If you want to get moving now, write their song.

If the date is this weekend, the 1-hour rush is there for exactly this situation, so don't let the calendar talk you out of it. Head to the order form and tell us about her.