# Songs that make you cry
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 5, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208 "2005-09-05T15:47:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Giant\_Spongess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giant_Spongess)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/1 "2005-09-05T15:47:09Z")
I wish I could claim that I’m tough as nails, that nothing can make me cry etc etc. But really, lots of things can make me blubber. Like certain songs. Like “Edelweiss” which inevitably makes me break up like a depressed housewife watching her favorite soap opera.
How about you?
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/2 "2005-09-05T16:09:29Z")
“The Living Years” by **Mike and the Mechanics** (a one-hit wonder from the 80s)
“So In Love” by **k.d. lang** (orginally a Cole Porter ballad, she turns it into a mourning dirge for a lover dead of AIDS in _Red, Hot + Blue_)
“Star Wars Cantina” by **Weird Al Yankovic** (tears of laughter for this sendup of Barry Manilow’s _Copacabana_)
“Wendy” by **The Association** (tears of: _Please… For the love of God… change the station_)
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### Author:  [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/3 "2005-09-05T17:03:32Z")
“Kyrie Elyson” from Mister Mister.
“Cat’s Cradle.”
“The Man I Love” because world champion pairs figure skaters Godeeva and Grinkov used to do a lovely routine to it before he died a few years ago.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/4 "2005-09-05T17:07:55Z")
Listening to a song hardly ever makes me cry, but singing certain songs does:
“Everything I Own” by **Bread**
“Leader of the Band” by **Dan Fogelberg** (when the time comes, I plan to sing this at my father’s funeral)
“Scarecow” by **Melissa Etheridge** (I’m always fine until “I can forgive, but I will not forget”)
“Emily Remembers” by **[Suede](http://www.suedewave.com/)** (about an Alzheimer’s patient and her elderly husband who remembers everything for her … including that she loves him)
“American Child” by **Phil Vassar** (“in '45 he fell down beside an American child” kills me every time)
Cripes, now I need to go listen to some Will Smith or something! 😉
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/5 "2005-09-05T17:12:29Z")
What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
Lightning Crashes by Live
There are others that sometimes make me teary-eyed, but these two always do.
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### Author:  [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/6 "2005-09-05T17:14:47Z")
_Quick Silver Daydreams (Of Maria)_ by Townes Van Zandt. And quite a few more of his.
Making Pies by Patty Griffin. And again, many of her other songs.
And Dolly Parton’s _Jolene_. No really, it does sometimes. That horrid feeling is just so damn recognisable.
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### Author:  [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/7 "2005-09-05T17:27:53Z")
“Letter Home”, Forrester Sisters. I just start crying if I’m singing along to it.
“Travellin’ Soldier”, Dixie Chicks. And then the drumming at the end…
That one also makes my husband cry, so I know I’m not alone.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/8 "2005-09-05T17:34:46Z")
> [@Misnomer](#):
>
> “Scarecow” by **Melissa Etheridge**
Um, yeah, that was supposed to be “Scarec **r** ow.” :smack:
Although the idea of a scarecow is making me giggle…
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/9 "2005-09-05T17:39:30Z")
Cat’s Cradle, Harry Chapin
Teddy Bear, Red Sovine
Don’t Take the Girl, Tim McGraw
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/10 "2005-09-05T17:53:06Z")
“All I want is you” by **U2**
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### Author:  [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/11 "2005-09-05T18:22:39Z")
This would fit better in **Cafe Society**.
Movin’ it on over…
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/12 "2005-09-05T18:28:44Z")
About a month ago, I was telling a friend that I can’t think of any song that has ever made me cry. I will cry at movies at the drop of a hat, and I admit that the music playing in the background often is a factor, but I couldn’t think of a song and a song alone that has ever made me shed a tear.
And then I discovered a website linked to my public library that plays classical music. I went through the Tchiachovksy listings and spotted “Serenade for Strings”. “Hey”, I said. “I remember when we played this in high school orchestra.”
Two seconds into the piece, I went all blubber mouth and broke out into painful goosepimples. Without fail, whenever I think of a specific phrase in the first movement, I get misty-eyed. Shit, it’s happening now. :sniff:
Damn Romantic period.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/13 "2005-09-05T18:37:13Z")
Ooh, Child (Things Are Going To Get Easier) - The 5 Stairsteps.
It’s So Hard (To Say Goodbye) - Boys II Men
(only when I see the video) Brian McKnight - Back at One
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/14 "2005-09-05T18:38:22Z")
I’d just like to qualify these _are_ manly tears.
Carry on.
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### Author:  [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/15 "2005-09-05T18:39:13Z")
“Baby Grand” by Billy Joel & Ray Charles (and not because Ray isn’t with us anymore)
“I’m Carrying” by Paul McCartney
“Wanderin’” by James Taylor
“Until You Come Back To Me” by Aretha Franklin
There are more, but I can’t think of them at the moment. Some songs just push my buttons with their incredible excellence. They don’t even have to be sad.
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/16 "2005-09-05T18:46:02Z")
Godspell’s “By My Side”- Jesus’s girls are pledging to walk with him to the very end while Judas is planning to betray him.
I would love to play Judas someday because I know I’d be near sobbing while saying my lines & it would be a dramatic masterpiece!
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### Author:  [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/17 "2005-09-05T19:41:06Z")
_Letting the Cable Sleep_ by **Bush**
_Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)_ by **Green Day**
_Walk Away_ by **Ben Harper**
_Stellar_ by **Incubus**
_Upward Over the Mountain_ by **Iron and Wine**
_Not an Addict_ by **K’s Choice**
_Into Dust_ by **Mazzy Star**
_Angel_ by **Sarah McLachlan**
_Uninvited_ by **Alanis Morissette**
_Everything in it’s Place_ by **Radiohead**
_I Could Have Lied_ by **Red Hot Chili Peppers**
_Mayonnaise_ by **Smashing Pumpkins**
And more I’m sure (almost anything by **Low** or **Songs: Ohia** ). Most of them have some special significance or association with a time period or specific person.
I’m a big crybaby, so what? [reassert manliness] You got a problem with that?[/RM]
And yeah, they’re listed alphabetically by artist. I just went down my list o’ mp3’s.
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### Author:  [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/18 "2005-09-05T19:59:10Z")
Seeing as how I’m a total weepy girly baby at movies and even some TV shows, it’s kind of surprising that music doesn’t actually make me cry. But some make me come awfully close:
> [@Rhiannon8404](#):
>
> What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
I second that one. The line “I see friends walking by saying ‘How do you do?’/What they’re really saying is ‘I love you’” is what does it.
**Starálfur** by Sigur Ros. Only because it was used in the jaguar shark scene of _The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou_, which always has me blubbering.
**Llorando** by Rebekah Del Rio from the _Mulholland Drive_ soundtrack.
**Leeds** by the Indigo Girls. The line – which sounds dirty out of context, but isn’t – “Find the open hole and press your fingers there with all your might, before the last ounce of my spirit bleeds on the pristine sheets of this hotel bed in Leeds.”
**Sweet Thing** by Van Morrison. The line “And I will raise my hand into the nighttime sky, and count the stars that’s shining in your eye.”
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/19 "2005-09-05T20:10:04Z")
I don’t remember the name of the singer, but it’s a country song titled
_If You Get There Before I Do_
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/320208/20 "2005-09-05T20:12:38Z")
I have to say that video killed Back to One for me. It’s such a hopeful song about the beginning of a strong love and then that video. . . stupid, melodramatic, make-me-weep video.
Also, from Warren Zevon’s last CD Keep Me in Your Heart. But he cheated because he was dying when he recorded it.
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