# Songs that choke you up (or make you cry) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929 "2015-03-13T18:42:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/41 "2015-03-14T03:47:24Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > I’m a sucker for sentimentality. Heck, I tear up for _The Flying Purple People Eater Meets Santa Claus_, just 'cause he saves Christmas. This reminded me of another one that gets me every time - Kermit singing _Rainbow Connection._ ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/42 "2015-03-14T03:50:43Z")
A pair of World War I songs: [Ich Hatte Einen Kameraden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdnkV-KWYnI) [Green Fields of France](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqba0IUdiBk) ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/43 "2015-03-14T03:54:47Z")
[Your Long Journey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTkbSWbfiGk) by Robert Plant & Allison Krauss [The Dutchman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg3HXhVO3HE), here by Steve Goodman [Old Brown Dog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Gke9qekJo) by Ralph McTell The last segment of [American City Suite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xETXRxnGO7A) by Cashman & West (starting around 3:30) Then there’s pretty much all the father/daughter songs, like “[I Loved Her First](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fV6fmBerRg)” and “[Turn Around](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTL-fwRsEdc)” and “[Scarlet Ribbons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCPKbU8ISKo)”. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/44 "2015-03-14T04:08:27Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#): > > “Feed the Birds” chokes me up every time I hear it, and has ever since I first saw the movie at a drive in theater when I was 12. I’ve never been able to understand why. Here’s another vote for that. If “He Stopped Loving Her Today” doesn’t get you, then you have no heart. A lot of Les Miz, Godspell…etc… ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/45 "2015-03-14T04:12:09Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Ooh, yeah, great song. Also, another vote for Dan Fogelberg’s _Same Old Lange Syne_. > > I can’t stand musicals, as a whole, but Yvonne Ellison’s _I Don’t Know How To Love Him_, from _Jesus Christ, Superstar_ - the version from the album or from the film, either one - always gets me. As does _Gethsemane_: “Tie me to your cross and break me/bleed me, beat me, kill me, take me now./Before I change my mind”. > > _JC Superstar_ is numero uno! > > Last one, and this is really gonna earn me some scorn: _You Light Up My Life_ by Debby Boone. Yes, I know, I know, pure schmaltz; but her hesitant, awkwardly sincere voice gets me every time. > > Is it obvious that I grew up in the late '70’s/early '80’s? No scorn; you probably know that song is about her relationship with God, so it deserves a lot of slack being cut. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/46 "2015-03-14T04:43:45Z")
I have never heard it again, and I can not find a recording of it, but I once heard Frederica Von Stade Sing Shubert’s Ave Maris with a full choir behind her. I was driving an had to pull over until the song was done… ---
**Author:** ![FatOrangeCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@FatOrangeCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatOrangeCat)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/47 "2015-03-14T04:45:31Z")
Stan Roger’s “Field Behind the Plow”- my father was a farmer and it makes me miss him acutely. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/48 "2015-03-14T04:55:04Z")
And, of course the ever popular “[And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq0fF6oY6I4)” ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/49 "2015-03-14T07:07:44Z")
I saw _Mary Poppins_ in the theater when I was seven and _Feed the Birds_had a similar effect on me. Part of it was that, even at that age, I knew the old woman in the song needed to sell crumbs not just to feed the birds, but to feed herself. _For from the Home I Love_ from _Fiddler on the Roof_ usually gets to me. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/50 "2015-03-14T07:31:53Z")
There are many songs that choke me up but the one that is closer to what the OP is looking for is **Jeanette** ’s _Porque te vas_. It came out when I was extremely young, perhaps 3 or 4 so it’s one my earliest musical memories. Everytime I hear it, it brings me back to the house where I grew up. Specifically, the living room. I’m sitting on the carpet, next to the sliding glass door that led to our garden. The sun is shining, of course. By that time I had already heard plenty of songs in French or English so discovering one in Spanish was weird to me. Then, there’s the complete disconnect between her voice (sad, soft and lonely) and the marching music (upbeat and swinging) that accompanies it. I couldn’t make sense of it. I don’t speak Spanish but I looked up the words I didn’t understand in a dictionary (since French’s my mother tongue, I could understand some of it anyway). It turns out it _is_ a sad song. But even now, the emotions that this song conjures up have nothing to do with the lyrics. It’s a mixture of chilhood nostalgia, exoticism and paradox. That’s what makes it special to me. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLxrrE6wC5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLxrrE6wC5I) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/51 "2015-03-14T08:45:18Z")
_Landslide_, by Stevie Nicks ---
**Author:** ![alted315](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cc9497/32.png) [@alted315](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alted315)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/52 "2015-03-14T13:24:58Z")
I hope I don’t fall in love with you by Tom Waits closer to fine by the Indigo Girls ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/53 "2015-03-14T13:30:13Z")
Several of the songs mentioned always put something in my eye… One not previously mentioned, Roxy Music’s “[More than This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEKXBZWk6B8)”. The melancholy music plus the lyrics. It’s also a favorite song. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/54 "2015-03-14T13:52:13Z")
The last verse of Don Henley’s _Boys of Summer_ for reasons I’m not sure of. But it does just about every time I hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/55 "2015-03-14T13:57:44Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > I’m a sucker for sentimentality. Heck, I tear up for _The Flying Purple People Eater Meets Santa Claus_, just 'cause he saves Christmas. Pretty much this for me, too. Virtually anything by Dan Fogelberg, but especially this one: [Leader of the Band](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQmkoMZyvOQ). Gets me every time. Years before he died, I introduced my husband to this song and he asked me to play it at his memorial service. Little did we realize how soon that would be, but of course I did as he asked. It always made me tear up and now I can hardly listen to it: [Dante’s Prayer, Loreena McKennitt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDw3CyOmj20). And I’m a damn atheist. Someone shared this awhile ago and it’s another one that yanks me apart emotionally: [Colder Weather, Zac Brown Band](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oouFE51HcqM) Here’s another: [Digging Shelters, Neil Halstead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da7gMOY8bTA) And another: [Shotgun Down the Avalanche, Shawn Colvin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DbxN0ukCyU) Ok, I’ll stop now. My list would be a long one, and the older I am, the worse it gets!! ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/56 "2015-03-14T14:16:21Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > No scorn; you probably know that song is about her relationship with God, so it deserves a lot of slack being cut. No, I didn’t. Well, it’s still a good song. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/57 "2015-03-14T14:16:49Z")
The two worst ones for me are Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” and Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.” I can’t believe I’m the first one to mention those. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/58 "2015-03-14T14:17:09Z")
I couldn’t imagine a song making my choke up or cry. But there are some sad songs that sorta “move me,” I suppose. _Tears in Heaven_ by Eric Clapton _Solitude_ by Black Sabbath _Changes_ by Black Sabbath And the album _ **Blue** _ by Joni Mitchell. Yea, the whole album. Especially the song _Little Green_. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/59 "2015-03-14T14:18:12Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > The two worst ones for me are Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” and Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.” > > I can’t believe I’m the first one to mention those. What a coincidence… we had the same thought at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2015, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929/60 "2015-03-14T14:45:39Z")
REM - **Everybody Hurts**. The song is beautiful and Michael Stipe’s voice is awesome in that song. The Beatles - **Let It Be**. It was played at a funeral I attended years ago. A young dad died (30’s), just dropped dead. He was a huge Beatles fan and they played that song as the coffin was being carried out of the church, with his sons aged 4 and 6 and his wife walking behind. Everyone in the church was sobbing, bawling. Every time I hear it, I’m back in that church. Simon and Garfunkel - **Bridge Over Troubled Water**. I don’t know why it makes me tear up every time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-choke-you-up-or-make-you-cry/714929.md?page=4)