# Great Breakup Songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 28, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927 "2009-05-28T14:33:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/1 "2009-05-28T14:33:56Z")
Karaoke party this weekend. Wife’s acquaintance is attending, still suffering the aftermath of a nasty breakup.
What good-to-great breakup songs or “I-dumped-that-man” songs can we try to talk her into singing?
---
### Author:  [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/2 "2009-05-28T14:41:52Z")
The mother of all breakup songs, “I Will Survive.”
---
### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/3 "2009-05-28T16:14:10Z")
“Goodbye, Earl,” by the Dixie Chicks.
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/4 "2009-05-28T16:22:00Z")
“Goodbye to You”, Scandal (but only if she’s a child of the early 80s 🙂 )
---
### Author:  [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/5 "2009-05-28T16:30:05Z")
Cry Me A River - Justin Timberlake
You Oughta Know - Alanis Morrissette
Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
---
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/6 "2009-05-28T16:32:26Z")
'Tear Stained Letter" by Richard Thompson.
“Don’t Think Twice” by Dylan is one by the breaker-upper.
---
### Author:  [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/7 "2009-05-28T16:37:43Z")
Here You Come Again by Dolly Parton
Look Away by Chicago
How Do You Like Me Now by Toby Keith
---
### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/8 "2009-05-28T17:00:45Z")
So hey, won’t you play another Somebody-Done-Somebody-Wrong-Song
And make me feel at home while I miss my baby.
So play, play for me a sad melody, so sad that it makes everybody cry.
A real hurting song about love that’s gone wrong.
So I don’t have to cry all alone.
B J Thomas at his best.
---
### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/9 "2009-05-28T17:06:32Z")
The Supersuckers’ Pretty Fucked Up is a rocking good one!
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0-F5EX3hHw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0-F5EX3hHw)
---
### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/10 "2009-05-28T17:07:21Z")
Song for the Dumped - Ben Folds Five
Unfortunately more from the perspective of a man, but still a classic breakup song IMHO.
Break Your Heart - Barenaked Ladies is pretty good too. Depends on the situation, tho.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/11 "2009-05-28T17:08:02Z")
Love Stinks, J. Giels Band
---
### Author:  [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/12 "2009-05-28T19:16:39Z")
_Harden My Heart_ by Quarterflash
---
### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/13 "2009-05-28T19:26:36Z")
What about [“The Breakup Song”](http://www.project80s.com/bandinfo/lyrics_gregkihn.htm) by Greg Kihn? The lyrics are gender-neutral.
---
### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/14 "2009-05-28T19:34:55Z")
She’d need to alter the lyrics a bit for the gender switch, but
_Drinking my Baby Goodbye_ by Charlie Daniels would work.
---
### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/15 "2009-05-28T19:54:52Z")
Pretty Pathetic - The Smoking Popes
_Great twist ending too!_
---
### Author:  [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/16 "2009-05-28T20:51:33Z")
“Don’t Ask Me Why” The Eurythmics
or post Eurythmics Annie Lennox, “Why” or “No More I Love Yous”
---
### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/17 "2009-05-28T20:54:38Z")
_I thought you should know_ by Steve Earle
---
### Author:  [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/18 "2009-05-28T21:06:18Z")
Not sure how many of these are going to be available in karaoke form…
“You’re Breaking My Heart,” Harry Nilsson
“You’re Gonna Miss Me,” The 13th Floor Elevators
“Feel A Whole Lot Better,” The Byrds
“Ain’t Nobody Home,” B.B. King
“I Hear You Knockin’,” Smiley Lewis/Dave Edmunds
“I’m Movin’ On,” Hank Snow
“When I’m Gone,” Brenda Holloway
“I Don’t Love You,” Teddy Pendergrass
“Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine),” Bob Dylan
'Positively 4th Street," Bob Dylan
---
### Author:  [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/19 "2009-05-28T21:16:54Z")
[“Every Time You Go Outside I Hope it Rains”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLhwc0SwUkE) by the Burch Sisters.
“I ain’t going to wish you all the best
I hope you’ll be lomesome, stay worried and depressed
I can sum it up so well with this refrain
Every time you go outside I hope it rains”
Also, “Thank God and Greyhound” by Roy Clark
“Thank God and Greyhound, you’re gone
That load on my mind got lighter when you got on
That shiny old bus is a beautiful sight
With the black smoke a-rollin’ up around the tail light
It may sound kinda cruel but I’ve been silent too long
Thank God and Greyhound, you’re gone.”
---
### Author:  [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927/20 "2009-05-28T21:17:24Z")
“They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Haaaaaa!”
by Napoleon XIV
(That’s definitely about a breakup!)
(A man and his dog)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-breakup-songs/497927.md?page=2)