# songs/singers that make you bawl, or, i feel their pain **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 12, 2001, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255 "2001-07-12T19:24:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Potter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Potter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Potter)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/21 "2001-07-15T18:53:32Z")
‘My Funny Valentine’ makes me bawl. Someone I am in love with just sent me a version by Bobby Darin. When it gets to _Don’t change a hair for me, not if you care for me_ . . wahhh! ---
**Author:** ![Welfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e56c9b/32.png) [@Welfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Welfy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/22 "2001-07-15T20:57:06Z")
Almost anything by the Smashing Pumpkins makes me cry. Especially “Crestfallen” and “Soothe”. “River” by Joni Mitchell. Any version of Pachebel’s Canon can make me cry, but that is probably because it is usually played at weddings. When one of my best friends, **Turpentine** , sent me a tape of “100,000 Fireflies” by the Magnetic Fields, she told me that it would make me cry. It did. That has to be one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. “You won’t be happy with me, but give me one more chance…you won’t be happy anyway…” with a girl’s ethereal voice and a piano…yikes. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/23 "2001-07-15T22:59:54Z")
“Cat’s in the Cradle” always depresses me, and I don’t listen to it by choice. ---
**Author:** ![Eo\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@Eo\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eo_Echo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2001, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/24 "2001-07-16T05:37:26Z")
“It Makes no Difference” by the Band. No matter what kind of mood I’m in, that song always causes me to choke up. ---
**Author:** ![Skerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Skerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skerri)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/25 "2001-07-17T02:33:53Z")
Ooh… the songs… Right now, the worst one for me is **“Best I Ever Had”** by Vertical Horizon. So appropriate. Here is a short list of songs that kill me every time. **"The Rainbow Connection"** done by anyone. And only because they kept playing it when Jim Henson died. (And on that really good episode of “Ally McBeal” where the kid wanted to sue the church… that KILLED ME!) **"All I Ask of You"** from **Phantom of the Opera**. **"Romeo and Juliet"** by **Dire Straits**. **"Friend is a Four-Letter Word"** by **Cake**. **"Tell Her This"** by **Del Amitri**. And last but not least, **“Bad Day”** by **Fuel**. Don’t know why, but it’s just killing me lately. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/26 "2001-07-17T02:53:20Z")
Everyone’s been hearing of it too much already, but it has to be said. _A Tout Le Monde_ by Megadeth. It’s so unlike anything else they ever did. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/27 "2001-07-17T03:24:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Welfy \* > \*\*When one of my best friends, **Turpentine** , sent me a tape of “100,000 Fireflies” by the Magnetic Fields, she told me that it would make me cry. It did. That has to be one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. “You won’t be happy with me, but give me one more chance…you won’t be happy anyway…” with a girl’s ethereal voice and a piano…yikes. \*\* I’ve heard Superchunk’s version of the song. I think Mac McGaughan’s thin yelp is well-suited for the song – he sounds lonely and desperate. My favorite part is the simple declaration, “This is the worst night I’ve ever had.” Another song I find moving is the Kinks’ “Death of A Clown.” It describes a circus in complete disarray: The fortune teller is dead, the flea circus has been destroyed, the clown is in a bar drinking himself into a stupor and even the animals are too depressed to work. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/28 "2001-07-17T03:36:11Z")
I second Del Amitri’s “Tell Her This.” “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls always makes me tear up, as does “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain and “Shimmer” by Fuel. Stabbing Westward makes me cry a great deal. “The Rainbow Connection,” “Music of the Night,” and “Old Man River” all make me sob. Especially the last. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/29 "2001-07-17T22:26:37Z")
As has been previously noted, my musical tastes are all over the map, but most of the ones that mist me up are country/post country. “Three verses” by Confederate Railroad: More than misting up, I sob my eyes out every damn time “We Dared the Lightning” by the Bellamy Brothers “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straights “Forever Young” both the Bob Dylan and (gods help me) Rod Stewart versions “Misguided Angel” Cowboy Junkies “Captain and the Kid” Jimmy Buffett “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” Trans-Siberian Orchestra “Love, Me” by ??? ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/30 "2001-07-17T23:07:29Z")
I believe in you - Amanda Marshall ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/31 "2001-07-17T23:13:11Z")
I believe in you - Amanda Marshall ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/32 "2001-07-18T00:39:33Z")
“Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman “See, my old man got a problem He live with the bottle that’s the way it is Says “This body’s too old for working” His body’s too young to look like his My Momma went off and left him She wanted more from life than he could give I said “Somebody’s got to take care of him” So I quit school and that’s what I did.” and “The Heart of the Matter” by Don Henly “I’ve been trying to get down to the heart of the matter But the flesh will get weak And my thoughts seem to scatter but but I’m thinking about Forgiveness Even if you don’t love me anymore…” Just typing it makes me mist over a little ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/33 "2001-07-18T00:45:05Z")
I’ve always liked…Er, more recently liked… _Hey Hey My My (Out of the Blue)_ by Neil Young. _Turn the Page_ by Metallica _No Quarter_ by Led Zeppelin ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/34 "2001-07-18T01:29:09Z")
yeah, snoooopy, that one, and ‘get back in line’, too. real poignant stuff. i loves me some kinks, man. ---
**Author:** ![gooti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gooti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gooti)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/35 "2001-07-18T02:42:19Z")
_Brick_ by Ben folds Five…I’ve never been in that situation, but just thinking about it makes me want to bawl. ---
**Author:** ![Xixox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/13edae/32.png) [@Xixox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xixox)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/36 "2001-07-18T03:17:30Z")
From Ben Folds Five: _Cigarette_ and _Boxing_, both get a tear going for me. Something about getting old and all the frailties involved. Tori Amos’s version of _Losing My Religion_, _Winter_, and _Angie_ work in such haunting chords, they get me every time. _Ventura Highway_ from America… the lead-in guitar riffs make me shiver. Placebo’s _My Sweet Prince_ And Jude’s _I Know_ I’ve got these all burned on one CD for my “poor me” days. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2001, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/37 "2001-07-18T21:15:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bobkitty \* > \*\* > > Lorenna McKennet’s ‘Highwayman’. (yes, I spelled her name wrong. Brain still not up and functioning, too lazy to get out CD.) Actually, most of her stuff affects me that way… so do Clannad and Anuna. > \*\* Well, technically speaking, Alfred Noye’s ‘Highwayman’. I do like Lorenna McKennitt’s version of it. But my damned practical side prevents me from really enjoying it. I can’t get around how pissed off the spirit of Bess, the Landlord’s lovely black-eyed daughter must have been after the highwayman went riding, riding, riding like a dumbass back to get himself killed. Sheesh. I mean if he was gonna die anyways, she might as well have kept her finger off the trigger and married that nice blacksmith down the road aways. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255/38 "2001-07-19T05:13:08Z")
The songs that have the most emotional impact on me tend to come from opera, like “Un Bel Di” from _Madama Butterfly_; “Vissi di Arte” from _Tosca_; “Viens, Mallika” from _Lakme_; and the haunting “Mild und Leise” from _Tristan und Isolde_. One song that always makes me cry is “You Could Never Shame Me” from _Kiss of the Spider Woman_, a song sung by a mother to her gay son, telling him that she is proud of him no matter what, which gets me for obvious reasons. Other songs that make me sniffle: “Forever Autumn” from the 70’s concept album, _War of the Worlds_ “The Time of My Life” by Green Day “Wise Up” by Aimee Mann “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails “Brokedown Palace” by The Grateful Dead “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake “I Dreamed a Dream” from _Les Miserables_ and Cheryl Barnes’s soul-stirring rendition of “Easy To Be Hard” from the film version of _Hair_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-singers-that-make-you-bawl-or-i-feel-their-pain/72255.md?page=1)