# Songs that make you cry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582 "2014-08-15T03:33:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/41 "2014-08-16T22:25:24Z")
I had to remove Sia’s “Breathe me” from my Sansa player: Great song, but I just can't take it if it comes on when I'm driving and can't reach it to change it. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/42 "2014-08-16T22:31:25Z")
Warren Zevon’s [Keep Me In Your Heart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMTKb-pgxGI) I saw him perform it live on David Letterman just before he died. He sounded terrible and I cried and cried. I still choke up a bit whenever I hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/43 "2014-08-16T23:24:15Z")
[Calling All Angels - Jane Siberry](http://youtu.be/KRUErh47sao) - my Mom wants it played at her funeral [In My Daughter’s Eyes - Martina McBride](http://youtu.be/eLS0Y40WwlA) [You’ll Be in my Heart - Phil Collins](http://youtu.be/XkokofW_3u8) Because I sang both to my daughter and they remind me that her “little” time was and is too short [In My Life - The Beatles](http://youtu.be/Zicw_dVwhfM) [The Farmer’s Song - Murray McLaughlin](http://youtu.be/HTMvtII8Elk)because both were played at my Step-father’s funeral. IOW- I am a HUGE sap ---
**Author:** ![moldmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@moldmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/44 "2014-08-16T23:34:28Z")
Randall Knife by Guy Clark gets me every time now that Dad has passed. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/45 "2014-08-17T00:25:49Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > I had to remove Sia’s “Breathe me” from my Sansa player: > > Great song, but I just can't take it if it comes on when I'm driving and can't reach it to change it. Oh yes. That one. I was going to post it. Gets me every single time. Best song ever from the ending of a series. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/46 "2014-08-17T01:35:55Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > [Kilkelly Ireland](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N76kAivCb20) You had to remind me of the existence of that song. ☹ I’ll see your Killkelly Ireland and raise you [Hush Hush Hush](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQOW95Iaxhc) by Paula Cole. It’s about a father comforting his 20-year-old gay son as he dies of AIDS. It’s exactly as depressing as it sounds. If you want to make it even worse, read _And the Band Played On_ first. That shit _happened_, folks. _Hush hush hush says your Daddy’s touch Sleep sleep sleep says the hundredth sheep Peace Peace Peace may you go in peace_ I’m pregnant right now so basically every song I hear on the radio makes me cry. It doesn’t have to be sad. I’ll make it sad. Back when I had dignity, tear-inducing songs included: - ‘‘[Silent All These Years](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvvCpxddcwc)’’ by Tori Amos - (Really we’ll just say the entire album _Little Earthquakes_ is a sobfest. The album is a masterpiece, it’s really too bad listening to it will plunge you into an existentialist hell.) -‘‘[The Cowboy Song](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/garthbrooks/thecowboysong.html)’’ by Garth Brooks - A gentle ballad. Probably one of the most realistic songs about what it meant to be a cowboy. \*You worked hot and tired and nasty Rode your pony’s head too low And there were all the nights you couldn’t sleep Cuz it was too damned cold and we sang ‘‘Strawberry Roan’’ and ‘‘Little Joe’’ I whistled out to Bonner, I seen the terror in his eyes And he rode for all his horse would ride And I know he done his best But he crossed over Jordan ridin’ Dunny to his death And we sang “Bringing in the Sheaves” and “The Rugged Cross”\* And here’s one that’s maybe not so predictable -‘‘[Freedom '90](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diYAc7gB-0A)’’ by George Michael. This song was pretty specifically his coming out song, but it has a different meaning to me. It was on the radio as I drove away from the courthouse after being granted a legal emancipation at the age of 17. It’s deep to me. \*All we have to do now is take these lies and make them true somehow All we have to see is that I don’t belong to you, and you don’t belong to me Well it looks like the road to heaven, but it feels like the road to hell I knew which side my bread was buttered, I took the knife as well\* (Also: coolest video ever - Supermodels! Flaming jackets! Exploding guitars! Sexxy George. If you bothered to watch the AIDS song video, cheer yourself up by watching this one.) ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/47 "2014-08-17T02:07:30Z")
[The Mountain Goats - Lakeside View Apartments Suite](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BaHlMamvFM) There’s a lot of powerful emotional stuff in The Mountain Goats, but it’s usually a little more bittersweet or optimistic or wistful or angry. This one one…just so sad. I don’t think I ever get to the line “I don’t even bother trying to read them any more” without tearing up. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/48 "2014-08-17T02:26:48Z")
[Desperado - The Eagles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDNtqy0zjJA) Desperado, oh, you ain’t gettin’ no younger Your pain and your hunger, they’re drivin’ you home And freedom, oh freedom well, that’s just some people talkin’ Your prison is walking through this world all alone ---
**Author:** ![Weftover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Weftover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weftover)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/49 "2014-08-17T02:43:20Z")
Linda Ronstadt doing "Long Long Time, “Love Has No Pride,” and “I Still Miss Someone;” that man has been dead these last twenty years, but he’s still the one that got away, and the one I will always regret and love. Tears every time. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/50 "2014-08-17T03:22:04Z")
> [@rsa](#): > > [Desperado - The Eagles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDNtqy0zjJA) > > Desperado, oh, you ain’t gettin’ no younger > Your pain and your hunger, they’re drivin’ you home > And freedom, oh freedom well, that’s just some people talkin’ > Your prison is walking through this world all alone Good one! It might seem clishe to some but that is a really beautiful song. I’ll add [Let it Die](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63NiS3uZaTA) by the Foo Fighters. _In too deep and lost in time Why’d you have to go and let it die? Beautiful veins and bloodshot eyes Why’d you have to go and let it die?_ About 6 years ago my uncle, who was 30 years old at the time, died of a heroine overdose. Possible suicide. Left behind two children aged 10 and 7. I never got along with him growing up but he was like my shitty older brother, family for better or worse. I heard that song not long after his death and have never been able to hear it since without thinking of him. And man, it just pisses me off. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/51 "2014-08-17T05:01:53Z")
_You Are So Beautiful_ by Joe Cocker. It was playing on the radio all the time while my angry, bald mother was dying of cancer. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/52 "2014-08-17T06:54:22Z")
I want to know when I got so emotionally invested that just about any track from _Les Mis_ can leave me with tears streaming down my face. Oh and damn me if some of the songs from _Frozen_ (you know the ones) don’t do the same, as well. Musical Movie nights in our house are a barrel of laughs, I can tell you. I hate being seriously middle-aged… ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/53 "2014-08-17T10:49:33Z")
> [@PapSett](#): > > Run for the Roses by Dan Fogleburg does too. > > . Dear god - I got choked up just reading the title! Walking In Memphis (Marc Cohn) always gets me for some reason. And for sappy songs that I hate to admit that I love even though they make me cry, Kathy Mattea’s Where’ve You Been? is guaranteed to bring me to floods. Very handy when I need a stress-relief cry. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/54 "2014-08-17T10:56:22Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > [Kilkelly Ireland](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N76kAivCb20) Dear god, that was so beautiful and so sad. I’m going to go write to my mother now. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/55 "2014-08-17T11:10:15Z")
Forgot one - Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt. It’s even more powerful watching the video: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go) ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/56 "2014-08-17T11:38:27Z")
[Harry Chapin Cats in the Cradle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s5r2spPJ8g) ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/57 "2014-08-17T11:51:53Z")
Bette Midler’s [The Rose](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxSTzSEiZ2c) and Terry Jacks’ [Seasons in the Sun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tPcc1ftj8E) for theme, and anything by Miley Cyrus for utter awfulness. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/58 "2014-08-17T12:31:34Z")
Speaking of "breathing’ songs I really like the melody and the tone of Anna Nalick’s voice, as well as the lyrical sentiment, of her [“Breathe.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M491t7LaRiA) There’s also a connection to the same reason I’m not telling you why Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” get’s me going. Fine - it was my divorce. Sue me. Also, not-for-nothing, but I’ve always considered [“Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OyytKqYjkE) to be the most beautiful and poignant love song I’ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![pojimba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@pojimba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pojimba)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/59 "2014-08-17T12:51:54Z")
> [@3trew](#): > > For me, it would be because the guy who wrote it isn’t in a small bare concrete room with me so I can ask him to explain exactly what some of the phrases mean, and hit him until he comes up with something coherent. This is something that happens with every Train song I have ever heard. > > The Men They Couldn’t Hang’s version of “The Green Fields of France” has about a 50% success rate at bringing the tears. Stan Rogers singing “The Mary Ellen Carter” will do it every time. I am okay with that. > > What I am not okay with is the two ridiculously obvious tearjerkers that I can’t seem to get an immune response to. Red Sovine, you can take your “Teddy Bear” and the two of you can rot in hell. Meryn Cadell, be aware that “Cat Carol” actually caused me to have to pull over to the side of the highway because I couldn’t see to drive. That’s not safe, dude. Came in to mention “Green Fields of France”, but the version by Liam Clancy. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582/60 "2014-08-17T13:41:48Z")
[Casimir Pulaski Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EzeW5KoPUI) by Sufjan Stevens. > [@](#): > > In the morning in the winter shade > On the first of March on the holiday > I thought I saw you breathing I test myself on this song periodically for some damned reason. The above lyric is the furthest I can get, on a good day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-cry/695582.md?page=4)