# Songs that make you embarrassingly weepy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187 "2008-09-12T00:11:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/121 "2008-09-19T20:15:20Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Also, **MadPansy64** , the song you’re thinking of is “If You Get There Before I Do” by Collin Raye I went to read the lyrics just to see and I teared up at that. Damn poor building circulation- damn allergies at work… ---
**Author:** ![Connecting\_Rod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@Connecting\_Rod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Connecting_Rod)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/122 "2008-09-19T20:54:59Z")
[quote=“DooWahDiddy, post:10, topic:463187”] I defy any grown man to listen to “Cat’s in the Cradle” without tearing up. And some grown women too. Second for Eric Clapton’s “Tears from Heaven” Plus: James Taylor: Fire and Rain “Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.” Silly Wizard: “The Highland Clearances” Strangely enough it’s the penny whistle (?) solo at the end that gets me. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/123 "2008-09-19T21:48:30Z")
“Rainbow Connection” gives me a lump, but the song is hopeful enough that I can sing it through without a problem. The one that gets me lately is “I Loved Her First”, by Heartland. I first heard the song watching [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B0dHt24Ov0) someone made with “The Sims 2”, and cheesy though it may be, I’m now reduced to a watery-eyed heap whenever I hear it. The song’s about a father giving away his daughter on her wedding day. What gets me the most is the images of the father putting the little girl to sleep in her crib…probably because that’s just what I’ve been doing just about every night for the last year and a half. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/124 "2008-09-20T01:39:06Z")
Dione Warrick’s _That’s What Friends Are For._ I always liked that song, but ever since it was played for a very good friend’s funeral, I associate it with him, and I can’t listen to it anymore. ---
**Author:** ![BrynSublime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@BrynSublime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrynSublime)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/125 "2008-09-20T03:55:22Z")
I just thought of another one that makes me sob… not tear up, mind you, I’m talking bawl like a little baby: Pearl Jam’s versons of “Last Kiss”. The original is great, but something in Eddie Vedder’s voice just makes it so heart-and-gut wrenching. When he sings this verse I just fall apart: “When I woke up the rain was pourin down. There were people standin’ all around. Something warm flowing through my eyes, but somehow I found my baby that night. I lifted her head, she looked at me and said, ‘Hold me darling, just a little while.’” Wow, I just realized that my two saddest songs (this one and “A Little Fall of Rain” from Les Mis) are about a woman dying in the man’s she loves arms. Hmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Sparrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/126 "2008-09-20T07:48:23Z")
I never used to be sentimental about songs at all, but as I get older I find myself sniffling often at a song on the radio. Latest was Elvis - “In the Ghetto”. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/127 "2008-09-20T07:55:01Z")
“One” by U2 gets me every time. “Danny Boy” because someone I loved dearly had it sung at their funeral. “Sunshine On My Shoulders” by John Denver because my mother has told us that she wants it played at HER funeral. Even though she’s happy and healthy, just thinking of it makes me cry when I hear that song. ---
**Author:** ![JollyGoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dec6dc/32.png) [@JollyGoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JollyGoon)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/128 "2008-09-20T13:50:26Z")
‘wish you were here’ - pink floyd a great song made eternally sad for me since it was played at a great friends funeral… iirc: how I wish how I wish you were here we’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year going over the same old sounds what have we found? the same old fields wish you were here ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/129 "2008-09-20T14:27:03Z")
“Cherry Tree” by 10,000 Maniacs. It is about someone who is illiterate but longs to be able to read and it just tears me up. ---
**Author:** ![fervour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@fervour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fervour)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/130 "2008-09-20T15:02:17Z")
Stay Gold by Stevie Wonder Jesse written by Janis Ian as performed by Roberta Flack. Both of these songs have the perfect recipe of sadness, mixed with a bit of appreciation for happier times, and add a generous helping of yearning. Voila! Tear-jerker. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/131 "2008-09-20T18:10:56Z")
> [@fervour](#): > > Jesse written by Janis Ian as performed by Roberta Flack. I was going to say this, except “as sung by my mom.” I used to have to leave the room when she would sing it because otherwise I’d cry. (My mom is a good singer/guitar player, and my dad pretty more tore her heart out when he left when I was 10 months old. She’s still single, in fact, over 35 years later. So she put, uh, a lot of emotion into that song.) ---
**Author:** ![critter42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@critter42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/critter42)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/132 "2008-09-21T06:34:38Z")
> [@Arglefraster](#): > > A Boy and his Frog by Tom Smith is the saddest song in the world. Ever. You can listen to it on his website here: > > [http://www.tomsmithonline.com/freestuff.htm](http://www.tomsmithonline.com/freestuff.htm) > > It’s the third mp3 in the list. He can’t even get all the way through singing it without choking up. I think the recording above was the first-ever performance of it at MarCon 1990. He later performed this at MarCon 2005 (there’s a live album not on his website called Homecoming 2005 - basically the anniversary of his first public performance at MarCon). After the song was over, among quiet sniffles he told his story about writing it then started playing “Rainbow Connection” and the whole audience was singing along at the end. You talk about the perfect definition of cathartic - and still is every time I hear these two particular recordings. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/133 "2008-09-21T07:18:32Z")
> [@critter42](#): > > I think the recording above was the first-ever performance of it at MarCon 1990. > > He later performed this at MarCon 2005 (there’s a live album not on his website called Homecoming 2005 - basically the anniversary of his first public performance at MarCon). After the song was over, among quiet sniffles he told his story about writing it then started playing “Rainbow Connection” and the whole audience was singing along at the end. You talk about the perfect definition of cathartic - and still is every time I hear these two particular recordings. [very nice tribute with that song… ignore the “flag” as it’s totally just some dick being a dick. There is nothing objectionable in the clip.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=Na-xvlYMGck) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/134 "2008-09-21T08:16:35Z")
> [@Cosmopolitan](#): > > _Hallelujah_ - the Jeff Buckley version - always gets me. I think it might have something to do with the fact that he died so young combined with the fact that the lyrics are just so beautiful and brilliant. I just heard this on Scrubs the other night (of all shows). Sometimes they like to throw a curve in their comedy routine and this was one of those times. And I think it was an episode about some young kid dying. Where is the damn remote… you’re not gonna depress me. Uh uh. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/135 "2008-09-21T08:31:08Z")
Many of these do it for me - Hallelujah, Wish You Were Here, etc… However, without fail, **Casimir Pulaski Day** by Sufjan Stevens does it - the confusion and despair at the loss of a friend at a young age combined with the overturning of the classic Biblical injunction does it: [QUOTE=Sufjan Stevens] Oh the glory that the Lord has made And the complications when I see his face In the morning in the window Oh the glory when he took our place But he took my shoulders and he shook my face And he takes and he takes and he takes [/QUOTE] If there is a God, he seems to take just as much as he gives… ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/136 "2008-09-21T10:49:24Z")
> [@ArrMatey](#): > > Which is funny- As a fellow filthy heathen, that song always makes me feel somehow inspired. Well, sure it’s inspiring. I mean the hooker does get to live and feel horribly guilty for the poor dead righteous folks and then she gives that bloody bible to her bastard kid so everything’s okay.😃 I love a great many gospel songs because I love to sing, and so many gospel tunes have such rich melodies. A few that reduce me to tears are: _How Great Thou Art, In The Garden, Blessed Assurance_. My favorite Christmas album is Luciano Pavarotti’s ; _Ave Maria_(Schubert) and _Panis Angelicus_ always make me weepy. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/137 "2008-09-21T12:04:04Z")
REM’s _Everybody Hurts_. Michael Stipe is such an emotional singer anyway, and, well, around that time I lost my infant daughter. I kept hearing him sing, “hold on … hold on” and knew that I could, in fact, hold on. I didn’t imagine that song was written for me, but in a little way, I felt like it was. And then there’s _Man in the Moon_ on there just for fun, too. I remember singing _America the Beautiful_ at Mass the Sunday after 9/11 and crying – as were many other people. Now every time I hear it, the associations make me tear up. Especially the line, “God mend thine every flaw.” _Danny Boy_ has been mentioned quite a few times. I swear, I heard that tenor on the old Lawrence Welk show singing it one time and I thought I would have a nervous breakdown. ---
**Author:** ![kapntoad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@kapntoad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapntoad)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/138 "2008-09-21T14:07:39Z")
> [@Cosmopolitan](#): > > _Hallelujah_ - the Jeff Buckley version - always gets me. I think it might have something to do with the fact that he died so young combined with the fact that the lyrics are just so beautiful and brilliant. Amen. Rainbow Connection, as sung by Kamakawiwo’ole. And a handful of songs by Lyle Lovett. Dude can sing some pain. The Fat Girl, and Promises, and Nobody Knows Me. That last one just about did me in after my divorce. ---
**Author:** ![Sparrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/139 "2008-09-21T14:15:56Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I just heard this on Scrubs the other night (of all shows). Sometimes they like to throw a curve in their comedy routine and this was one of those times. And I think it was an episode about some young kid dying. Where is the damn remote… you’re not gonna depress me. Uh uh. They also used in the West Wing in about season 5 or 6, the one where CJ’s bodyguard boyfriend gets shot. I’ve loved it ever since then. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187/140 "2008-09-21T15:41:27Z")
> [@LMFAP](#): > > That makes two of us in the world. I learned all the words for the first time when my little girl decided she liked a recorded version of it, and for the first few (dozen) times blubbed at the last verse. > > A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys > Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys… I thought that song made everyone cry. I had a Peter, Paul and Mary album on in the car a few months ago and that one came on, and I had a very hard time singing along because I kept getting choked up. I always have. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-make-you-embarrassingly-weepy/463187.md?page=8)