Meaning a song that explicitly thanks a person, God, their lucky stars or whatever.
For me this would include:
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) – Sly and the Family Stone
I Thank You - ZZ Top
Thank God For You - Sawyer Brown
“Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto…”
::d&r::
We Gather Together To Ask The Lord’s Blessing - hymn
Come, Ye Thankful People, Come - hymn
Thank You For Being A Friend - Andrew Gold
Thank You Very Much - The Scaffold
Thank You Very Much - Scrooge soundtrack
Thank You - Led Zeppelin
You Made Me So Very Happy - David Clayton-Thomas
(there’s at least one Thank You, Girl in there IIRC)
Thank God I’m a Country Boy - John Denver
Natalie Merchant – Kind and Generous
I want to thank you
For your generosity
The love and the honesty
That you gave me
Thanks for the Pepperoni George Harrison
I Thank My Lucky Stars - Eddy Arnold
The Beatles’ “Thank You Girl.”
Wayne Newton’s Danke Schoen!
No explicit “thanks”, but I’ve long associated “Simple Gifts” w/ the holiday.
Seconding “We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing.” I sang it in an Episcopalian choir a lifetime ago, and it still chokes me up.
When I was teaching English as a Foreign Language, I would also have my students learn “Over the River and Through the Woods” each Thanksgiving.
Does “For the Beauty of the Earth” count?