# Songs that always make you cry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419 "2006-01-31T22:32:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/81 "2006-02-02T00:35:45Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > My tear bringer, > Don McLean’s, [Vincent](http://www.don-mclean.com/articles/vincent.asp) Oh, yeah! I’ll add: Cheryl Wheeler, “Arrow” Barenaked Ladies, “War on Drugs” The theme song from the movie _Somewhere in Time_. ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/82 "2006-02-02T01:02:04Z")
I first heard Sugarland’s “Baby Girl” when my parents and I were moving my stuff from Michigan to Louisiana last year. I thought it was a cute song, but when the last verse came on: _… And there are fancy cars and diamond rings But you know that they don’t mean a thing 'Cause they all add up to nothing compared to you, Well remember me in ribbons and curls, I still love you more than anything in the world, Love your baby girl…_ … I started BAWLING, thinking about how kind it was for my parents to drive my stuff a thousand miles to help me out, when they didn’t even want me to leave home. I wanted to flag their car down and get out and hug the living daylights out of them. _sniffle_ ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/83 "2006-02-02T01:32:30Z")
“And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” was written by Eric Bogle, who is so brilliant at getting me to cry I stopped taking his albums to work. Some more of his that always do it for me are “No Man’s Land” (also called “The Green Fields of France”; my favorite recording is June Tabor’s), “What Kind of Man” and “The Gift of Years”. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/84 "2006-02-02T02:03:06Z")
> [@Bomzaway](#): > > The Waterboys - _Spirit_ and _Fisherman’s Blues_ Oh, I forgot - “The Whole of the Moon” by The Waterboys. I took that off my computer so it wouldn’t load onto my MP3 player and make me cry at a bad time. It holds a lot of meaning for me, involving a long story about a friend of mine who died a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/85 "2006-02-02T02:16:02Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > … **Bridge over Troubled Waters** and **The Boxer** by Simon and Garfunkle… [**I am a Rock**](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/simon-and-garfunkel/124809.html), it’s all tough and strong till that last line, and then I lose it, Hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries. ---
**Author:** ![Baine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Baine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baine)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/86 "2006-02-02T02:18:11Z")
“Still Fighting It” by Ben Folds chokes me up ever so slightly, for reasons I can’t quite place. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/87 "2006-02-02T02:20:10Z")
“Somebody” by Depeche Mode. DH wanted to use it as a ‘first dance’ type song at our wedding, but I think it’s a good thing the wedding/reception we wound up with wasn’t conducive to dancing. I would have been a basket case. “My Heart So Blue” by Erasure. “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes. As a kid, certain lullabys and Christmas carols got to me. “Away In A Manger” is one I remember bawling through in church one year. And nowadays, “O Holy Night” just shreds me. It was my grandmother’s favorite, and she died during the Christmas season. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/88 "2006-02-02T03:00:55Z")
Okay, I guess I’ve got the weirdest - Black Sabbath’s _Electric Funeral_. Despite the title, you really can’t call it a sad song in itself, it just reminds me of something. Many years ago my first boyfriend and I used to hang out in a greasy spoon that had two things going for it - a jukebox and an owner who liked us. One day we started having a song war. Me playing the Sabbath and him blasting Johnny Cash’s _Rock Island Line_. We made it to about six plays each before the owner finally shut us down. Fast forward to about five years ago. Boyfriend is long gone. Permanantly, having passed away in '91. I hauled out my Paranoid, thinking to crank up some tunes, hit _Electric Funeral_ and totally fell out. Bawled all over. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/89 "2006-02-02T03:18:27Z")
“The Living Years” by Mike & the Mechanics. This one reminds me of my father, who succumbed to three heart attacks in four days at the age of 50. I’d seen him the day after the first one. After I walked out into the waiting room, he had a massive one that required him being put on a ventilator for the next few days. And, as the last verse of the song starts, “I wasn’t there that morning” when my father died. For similar reasons, “Evaporated” by Ben Folds Five. Someone mentioned “our” songs, and I have to chime in with George Michael’s “Father Figure,” for that reason. One that no one’s mentioned yet, in the love-lost category, is “Nobody Knows” by the Tony Rich Project. > [@](#): > > I’m gonna unload my heart and hope > You come back to me > Said when the nights are lonely… > > The nights are lonely > The days are so sad > And I just keep thinking about > The love that we had > And I’m missing you > And nobody knows it but me ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/90 "2006-02-02T04:19:48Z")
I have it for the flute, which is where I discovered it. It’s hard to play with tears in your eyes! ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/91 "2006-02-02T04:20:55Z")
> [@Little Plastic Ninja](#): > > I liked that one so much I got the sheet music for the violin. I’ve memorized it now, at least the violin part, and I can still play it pretty well. Makes me want to pull it out from under my bed when I get home… This is the post I intended to quote, naturally. I forgot to check the little button. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/92 "2006-02-02T06:06:08Z")
Even Ostragoths get a little misty over [Kilkelly](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000005CN4/qid=1138859717/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/103-3562953-9275867?n=5174). ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/93 "2006-02-02T07:24:09Z")
**You’re Beautiful** by James Blunt - It makes me think of a girl I had a huge crush on when I was in high school. Unfortunately I was never able to tell her this. **The Breaking of the Fellowship** - Howard Shore & Fran Walsh (specifically the last 3, 3.5 minutes) **One** - U2 ---
**Author:** ![Baine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Baine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baine)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/94 "2006-02-02T07:48:08Z")
“A Long December” by Counting Crows, while it doesn’t make me cry, it reminds me of the year my oldest brother left for college. When he left the second time, after returning for Christmas break, I think the realization that things were never going to be the same really sank in. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419/95 "2006-02-02T10:09:52Z")
> [@ryobserver](#): > > “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” was written by Eric Bogle, I knew this, but it’s Shane’s singing as much as the song that make me cry. One I forgot, was Pippin’s rendition of Bilbo’s walking song from RoTK. Took something that was wistful and made it sad. Context is king, once again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-always-make-you-cry/342419.md?page=4)