Pep Talk Song

A song that contains encouragement, advice, and maybe a little tough love, generally meant to lift the listener's spirits.

Related to You Are Not Alone.

Examples of Pep Talk Song include:

Film

• "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's Life of Brian is a darkly humorous twist on this, given that it's sung at the finale of the film by dying, crucified prisoners.
• "Never Say Never" from An American Tail
  • "The Girl You Left Behind" from Fievel Goes West warns the listener that leaving their lovers behind will "cause their heart to wander".
  • "Get the Facts" and "Who Will" from the 4th movie, Mystery of the Night Monster.
• "It's Easy Mmm'kay" from the South Park movie.
• "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid
• "Take the First Step" from The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
• "Dig a Little Deeper" from The Princess and the Frog.
• "Marry the Mole" from Thumbelina is a strange pseudo-example. While Miss Field Mouse thinks she's giving Thumbelina good advice and encouragement, she's also telling her to marry someone for their money and that love is over-rated.
  • "Follow Your Heart" from the same film is a more straight example, as Jacquimo encourages Thumbelina to not just say things are impossible and instead keep trying to achieve her goals.
• "Big And Loud" from Cats Don't Dance is one. But not the Dark Reprise.
• "The Worry Song" from Anchors Aweigh, sung by Gene Kelly and Jerry.
• "Learn to Do It" from Anastasia: "If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it."
• "The Bare Necessities" from Disney's The Jungle Book.
• "One Last Hope" in Hercules has aspects of this as well as Training Montage, with lines like "It takes more than sinew, comes down to what's in you!"
• "Friends to the End" from Tom and Jerry: The Movie.

Live Action TV

• In New Girl, one of Jess's quirks is her tendency to give herself songs meant to boost her own confidence.

Jess: "She's goin' out to find a rebound... Who's that girl? It's Jess!" Nick: "Wait, did you make up a theme song for yourself?"

• Pajanimals:
  • One instance was the song "Happy Thoughts" when the other Pajanimals sing this song when they cheer another Pajanimal when they're nervous about school or scared of going to the dentist.
  • Another instance was the Baths Are Fun musical number, known as "Bathtime Boogie" from The Not So Great Outdoors, where the other Pajanimals cheer up Squacky from all those bad itchy things on his feathers.
• Bear in the Big Blue House:
  • "Thanksgiving With My Friends" shows Bear cheering up Ojo after the ruined Thanksgiving celebration.
  • "Go to Bed Sleepyhead" shows Bear cheering up Ojo from a bad nightmare during the sleepover at Bear’s house. Also occurred in the episode "Wish You Were Here".
  • "The Grandma Mambo" is not only a Pep Talk Song, but also a Pep Talk Dance
  • "What Kind of Mouse Am I?" from It’s All About You
• Sesame Street: Elmo's World has a few examples:
  • "I Get a Kick Out of You" has The Computer singing this song to cheer up Mouse.
  • "The Family Song" is sometimes a pep talk song when someone in the song is feeling worried, sad or nervous
  • "Stick Out Your Hand and Say Hello" has this trope as a famous example, in which someone is feeling sad and when someone will cheer him/her up by saying Hello.

Music

• The Frank Sinatra classic "That's Life"
• Sly & the Family Stone did a few, including "Stand" and "You Can Make It If You Try"
• "You Can Get It If You Really Want" by Jimmy Cliff
• The clearest 21st century example may be "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World.
• Madonna, "Express Yourself"
• Billy Joel: "Second Wind", "Tell Her About It"
• REO Speedwagon: "One Lonely Night", "Don't Let Him Go"
• Bobby McFarrin, "Don't Worry Be Happy",
• The Eagles' "Get Over It" is a bit harsher than most, probably tongue-in-cheek
• Phil Collins / Phillip Bailey, "Easy Lover"
• Stratovarius, "Hold Onto Your Dreams", "Season of Faith's Perfection","Find Your Own Voice"
• Charles O'Flynn, "Smile Darn Ya Smile!", which has been performed by many since, famous for appearing in an episode of Looney Tunes and in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
• Oasis, "Don't Look Back in Anger", "Roll With It", "Supersonic" ("You need to be yourself, you can't be no one else.")
• D'Mite, "Read A Book", is a foul-mouthed parody of one.
• Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's "Don't Give Up".
• Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Fight Like a Brave".
• The Novas' "The Crusher" (covered by The Cramps) is essentially a Pep Talk from a wrestling coach.
• The All-American Rejects, "Move Along"
• Cab Calloway, "Wake Up And Live"
• Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray, formerly of Helloween) is in love with this trope. Notable songs in this vein include "I'm Alive", "Lust for Life", "Heaven Can Wait", and "Salvation's Calling".
• Lost Horizon does it in "Sworn in the Metal Wind", and again in "Welcome Back":

"Now is really the time to wake up, you old jade Such as Phoenix spreads his fire wings I will help you remember by KICKING YOUR ASS! And the will shall return And again hearts shall burn All the horns now will sing Leading you back to the metal wind!"

• "Guilty of Being Tight" by Municipal Waste definitely qualifies.
• "Innocent" by Voltaire
• "Survive" by Rise Against.

Theatre

• "Heart" from Damn Yankees.
• "On The Right Track" from Pippin, which the Leading Player steps in to sing when Pippin is starting to sense that Failure Is the Only Option. The finale (well, the first part) also counts as this, in a cruelly twisted way.
• Another twisted example: "Everybody's Got The Right" from Stephen Sondheim's Assassins.

Western Animation

• Pinkie Pie's "Giggle At the Ghostly" song from the second episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
  • She also tries to sing to Fluttershy to encourage her to make a jump in "Dragonshy" ("You can make it if you try/with a hop, skip, and jump!")
  • "You Gotta Share", also by Pinkie Pie, from "Over a Barrel".
• Applejack sings "Raise This Barn" in the episode "Apple Family Reunion" to encourage the members of her family while they build a replacement for the barn destroyed earlier in the day.
• The first My Little Pony TV special, "Rescue at Midnight Castle," has "Dancing on Air," in which Firefly insists (over Megan's protests) that the other little ponies will be overjoyed that Megan is coming to help them against Tirac.
• In the Wartime Cartoon "Scrap Happy Daffy", the ghosts of Daffy Duck's ancestors sing him a song of patriotic encouragement after he gets beaten up by a Nazi goat.
• "Wonderful Ways to Say No" from the anti-drug PSA Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
• Shimmer and Shine has The Mistake Song when someone makes a mistake and gets worried
• Jay Jay the Jet Plane:
  • Big Jake's song "You Are Unique" from "Hide and Seek".
  • "Watch and Listen", by Jay Jay and Tracy, in "Big Jake's Team". Gets a Triumphant Reprise in the end.
  • "You Can Count On Me" in "Dog Gone Doggy" has Jay Jay singing to Brenda's dog that he promised to watch him and hopes he'll listen to him.
  • "You Can Do It" from the mystery miniseries. 
• "Even a Miracle Needs a Hand" from Twas the Night Before Christmas.
  • The South Park episode "A Very Crappy Christmas" had Kyle sing the song as a shout-out to the special.