Wish You Were Here by Delta Goodrem. (It’s not a Pink Floyd cover)
Delta was reacting to the death of a very close friend in 2007. It took a couple years to write about the loss.
Delta survived Hodgkin lymphoma at 18.
Tracey Thorn’s “Joy.”
Here’s To Life, Shirley Horn. Now that I’m older and have lost family and friends, it’s especially poignant for me.
I was going to cite “No-One But You (Only the Good Die Young)” from the We Will Rock You musical, but the song apparently goes back to 1997.
Then, these two always elicit a strong reaction from me…
Not so much because of the song itself, but because I always associate that song with one of the most emotional scenes from Scrubs .
Another Scrubs moment that absolutely laid me out, devastated:
This song came out about the time my wife left me. (In some ways I was happy she was gone, and I’m certainly happy now–everything turned out great in the long run) But it triggers all the old feelings for some reason.
The other songs that choke me up are older.
(Bob Dylan’s Forever Young, for example)
O.k. If other people are mentioning songs older than the last 20 years, I’m going with All I Left Behind – Emmylou Harris. I love the harmonizing voices.
More than 20 years old, but “I Still Can’t Say Good-bye”, by Chet Atkins is a wonderful remembrance of a deceased father.
Big Thief’s “Masterpiece” and Sufijan Stevens “Pulaski day” does it for me.
Something that might be just a little bit different for most, is Off to Sleep, which is actually a beautiful song from a video game soundtrack (2014).
Bronte, by Gotye. It’s about losing a pet dog.
Meanwhile the Miyazaki-esque animation has its own sad beauty as it tells a different story.
From The Secret Of Kells is Aisling’s Song, aka Pangur Ban. Not actually a sad sentiment (she’s using the cat’s spirit to steal a key), just heartbreakingly sung by Christen Mooney.
Just squeaks in. Mad World by Gary Jules.
Mad World, oh god, YES.
If I can pick something more than 20 years old, “Winter” by Tori Amos.
If I can’t, 30KFT by Assemblage 23.
Absolutely. This was the first thing I thought of. It’s such a sad song intrinsically, but especially in view of losing so many loved ones over the past 2 years.
I found this song, Everything I own by Bread on the 46th anniversary of my father’s death. Yeah, it’s not within the last 20 years (but it was posted to Youtube in 2009, is that okay?). I don’t think I’ve cried harder than hearing the words to this song. Dad may be gone, but he is still and always will be in my heart.
It’s not a sad song, but my dad’s been gone for 12 years now and I still miss him. This song makes me think of him.
Gah, I just sobbed at the end o that movie.