Feeling Lucky Playlist: 51 Songs About Luck and Chance

What are the chances?

• My husband and I have found a $50 or $100 bill simply lying on the ground with no one around in sight ... three times.
• My aunt has two rare diseases, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. (Unfortunately, she's not one to flourish anyway.)
• Just to be nice, my husband bought a charity raffle ticket for $5. He ended up winning a brand new Toyota Camry. (We felt really fortunate until tax time rolled around.)

Sometimes we make our luck and at other times life just happens. Whether you're lucky in love, just plain lucky, or in need of better luck, why not celebrate the role that luck and chance play in your life with a playlist of rock, pop, and country songs? We have a long list to start you out with.

This chipper country song from 1992 features a narrator who is super positive (or perhaps just deluded) that she is going to win the lottery today. She therefore calls in sick to work and proceeds to take all kinds of crazy chances.

Our lucky lady hits the local bar to celebrate her upcoming lotto win and treats everyone there to a round, while the waitress gets a car. I think I want what she's on, don't you?

I feel lucky.
Think I'll flip a coin I'm a winner either way.
Mmmmm I feel lucky today.

This 2008 pop song is a declaration of love between two people who feel fortunate to have found love with their best friend. They don't like being apart and feel lucky to be coming home to one another. If they still feel this way 30 years from now, then they'll really be lucky.

The poor narrator in this 1984 rock song is down on his luck because all of his friends are married while he remains a lonely bachelor with an ex-girlfriend whose memory still haunts him. He looks at couples snuggling and wishes he had someone to share those awkward public displays of affection.

Sheesh. Leave it to Madonna to sexualize the words of an old nursery rhyme. She's always been classy this way. "Come on, shine your heavenly body tonight" somehow gives the "Starlight, star bright" rhyme a bit of an ick factor.

Regardless, this 1983 rock song was Madge back in her heyday, thrusting and twisting as she sang how lucky she was to know her bright shiny lover.

In this 1977 pop hit, the protagonist is asking for just a chance, one chance, any desperate chance for her love interest to notice her and give a relationship a whirl. She's confident it will work out. Although she's already been rejected by him, she promises:

If you change your mind, I'm the first in line
Honey I'm still free, take a chance on me
If you need me, Let me know
Gonna be around.

Do you really want to be the last one standing, the last viable option for someone? Tell him his luck just ran out!

This R&B song from 2010 portrays an extra lucky day in which the protagonist gets green lights throughout. There are no stop signs, no red lights, and no traffic lights to slow him down. He's on his way, and nothing will stop him.

In this 2011 pop song a narrator recognizes that his girl is scared to fall in love. She's tentative to try again after having her heart broken.

However, he says he's someone she can trust, and he can satisfy her needs. He wants her to take a chance on love with him. Will they both get lucky?

The lady narrator in this 2001 country bluegrass hit sings about an easygoing man who doesn't know bad luck. Everyone loves him, and he has not care in the world. Mr. Lucky sounds like he's getting his share of action, too:

Give you a song and a one night stand
And you'll be looking at a happy man
'Cause you're the lucky one.

If he keeps this risky behavior up, his luck just might run out.

If you've ever bet on love knowing you'll probably lose, then this 2009 rock song should resonate. The guy tells his beloved that "No act of God can pull me away from you," yet he's also realistic because he knows that their relationship may take them different places.

He's willing to lay it on the line and take a chance, hoping that luck will be on their side.

Like the most negative of Nellies, Alanis Morissette needs an attitude change, some happy pills, or both. She highlights a laundry list of very unlucky situations. If you listen to this 1995 song too much, you may risk becoming equally bummed.

Some of her unlucky scenarios:

• A 98-year old man who won the lottery, then died the following day
• A death row pardon a minute too late
• Rain on your wedding day
• A free ride when you've already paid.

Ease up, Alanis. We often make our own luck, you know.

A male friend of mine divides his life into two segments: life before he met his lovely wife and life afterwards. He reminds me of the man in this moving 2001 song who is absolutely smitten with his beloved. The narrator explains how is the luckiest man to have known and loved her.

Someone's hoping for a party in their pants. In this fun 2013 pop song about getting your sexual chemistry fix, the narrator has one thing on his mind when it comes to his lady friend: getting lucky.

She's up all night to the sun
I'm up all night to get some
She's up all night for good fun
I'm up all night to get lucky.

Feeling vulnerable, lost and lonely, the narrator in this 2007 pop song wants to take a chance on love (or something remotely like it) with someone she barely knows. This could turn south quickly (as in finding herself in a body bag), or on the bright side, they could both find themselves lucky in love. Seems to me like she's playing Russian roulette with her heart.

Maybe Britney foresaw some of the tough times she had ahead of her when she recorded this pop song in 2000. It's about a Hollywood girl whom everyone assumes has it all. However, she's lost in an image and finds herself crying at night.

In the coming decade, the real Britney, of course:

• broke Justin Timberlake's heart and he wrote a bitter song about her
• married and divorced dancer Kevin Federline
• lost custody of her two kids
• experienced substance and psychiatric difficulties
• famously shaved her head with electric clippers and
• then made a come back.

With all that has happened to her, isn't she a lucky lady to have made it through?

I used to conduct hourly hiring at a manufacturing plant and sometimes was faced with ex-cons looking for employment. This 2006 country song tells the story from their perspective, how once they've paid for their transgressions, it's hard to find someone to give you a second chance to earn a living. Be sure to watch the video for a real perspective-changer.

This 1980 pop song is a lot drearier than I recall. Its message is that we make our own luck. The narrator says that it's all on you and prompts you to take the chances that come your way because

Don't you know by now
No one gives you anything?
Don't you wonder how you keep on moving
One more day?

The guy in this 1990 song has been hurt before, so he has walled his emotions off to protect himself. However, it looks like he's found love again and he's ready to risk getting hurt again in order to experience the joy that love has to offer.

The real Barry Manilow was married briefly to a woman in the 1960s, but it lasted only a year before their marriage was annulled. In 2015, Manilow finally took a chance again by marrying his longtime manager, Garry Kief.

This 2008 rock song is Shinedown's most successful single. Lead vocalist Brent Smith has explained its meaning this way:

"When I grew up, everyone was okay with being in a bubble. They were cool in their circle. That's fine. But no one should discourage someone if they have a dream, if they want something more [...] This song was difficult for me to write the lyrics to because it's about my mother and my father, and about the day I said goodbye to them, because I had to go try, and I'm still trying, every day, to become a man. So, this song is about that. It's about the moment that you wake up and you decide you want to go for every single dream you ever want."

This 1978 pop song reminds us that with a little luck and a lot of teamwork, anything is possible.

If you've ever bet it all on love, then this 1993 country song should strike a chord. The narrator likens winning the affections of his love interest to a high stakes gamble. He's been to the table and lost it all on a good run of bad luck, but he's hoping for a windfall this time.