Songs that will always tug at your heart strings

Cafe Society
1

I think we all have a few of these songs.

Ok, so it’s been years, decades even, maybe. You’re over him/her. You wouldn’t get back together with them even if they crawled over hot coals and begged you with the eyes of the saddest puppy dog.

But still, every time that song comes on, you can’t help but feel just a little nostalgic, remniscent, and perhaps bittersweet about the way things went. Maybe for a moment the song makes you wonder, “what if?” or maybe it makes you think, “oh yeah…” or hell maybe makes you think “fuck that bitch/dick!”

Whatever it is, there’s THAT song that you simply cannot separate from THAT person, in whatever emotion it evokes.

So that’s what this thread is about. Post the song and the person it makes you think of, and any relevant feeling it makes you have. Do you listen to the song, do you shut it off right away, does it make you happy, sad, angry, bitter, etc? Feel free to give a short description as to why this song makes you think of that person, if you want.

Note, it does not have to be a romantic interest. Maybe there is a song that reminds you of dear old departed dad, or your first born son, or a long lost friend. Those are great for this thread too.
Here are mine:

Chicago - Hard To Say I’m Sorry
Reminds me of a guy I dated very briefly a couple of separate times. He loved Chicago. I felt bad for some things I said/did to him, and used to listen to this song. Even to this day, even though he was just a blip in my past, still reminds me of him.

Alicia Keys - No One
I used to listen to this on repeat when I would work out like mad, after ending things for the 2nd or 3rd time with my on/off again boyfriend Alex in college. I was convinced we would get back together and live happily ever after, and No One would get in our way. Song makes me still feel a little sad sometimes but it always reminds me of Alex and working hard to try and win him back (again) and failing.

Michael Buble - Everything
I pretty much can’t listen to this song. If it comes on my playlist I have to turn it. If it comes on in a restaurant or something, I try not to pay attention. It was Eric and I’s song (my most recent ex). I used to have it as an alarm ringtone to wake up to every day when we were first dating. Sang it to him karaoke a number of times. It really symbolized everything we had together. Very sad to me now.

2

Probably not an original submission, but “Wonderful Tonight”. It was my prom song, the night I felt like a princess. The night I got knocked up.

Cheese fest galore, “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt hit at just a wonderliciously tragical part of my early 20’s when my Starcrossed Love and I broke up. And got back together. And broke up. And got together. And broke up. Repeat ad infinitum. Plus, it’s just a great song for wailing to. 9/10 on the AngstOMeter

Then there’s this one, “Song for Caileigh”, which you’ve never heard before. My dear friend (on guitar) wrote it for my micropreemie daughter, saying he’d dreamt it while she was still in the NICU. The repeating guitar note reminds me of the cardiac monitor she was hooked to for so many weeks, and the rise and fall of the music reminds me of her excursions into and out of her body in those early months. (The violins are being played by my spiritdaughters, with a great deal of love, if not perfect pitch.) I can now hear it without crying, but I still catch my breath every time.

3

“Old Friend” by Rancid gets me every time. Reminds me of running around in San Francisco with my (now ex) girlfriend. The whole album is great but that song specifically makes me think of her. Loved that girl.

4

“Nights in White Satin” was the song I used to listen to with the man who became, eventually, my ex-husband.:frowning:

5

Randall Knife -Guy Clark Always chokes me up especially since my father passed.

6

Two for the same woman for the same reason: Mika’s Lollipop and Cat Stevens’s Wild World. I was extremely protective of my first girlfriend, and then she moved away to university. We shared those songs together as we shared our anxieties and I hid my fear that something would happen to her.

Another, for a different reason, is Last of the Mohicans, because it was played at a friend’s funeral after his sudden death in 2002.

7

Desperados Waiting For A Train for me.

8

“If You Were Here Tonight” by Alexander O’Neal. A member of my group of friends died when we were in college, and after that our friends who had a radio show would play this every week for her.

This chokes me up too. :wink: “It was Eric’s and my song”.

9

The Last Song - Elton John

The song itself is very sad. However, the first time I heard it was in the closing of the HBO film “And the Band Played On” during a montage of persons (famous or not) who had died of AIDS or related problems up to that time. My eyes get watery whenever I hear that song played.

10

Ah, the “Magic Songs”!

Mind you, these have no connection to any person or event, but when I hear them, they trigger some kind of strange Euphoria. I have no idea why. Its actually kinda bewildering.

Robert Plant: I Believe
Spacehog: In the Meantime(or is it just Meantime?)

I have no explanation. There are a couple more, but can’t think of them right now. But I know 'em when I hear 'em!

Maybe Gemma Hayes *Undercover *or Back of My Hand. But I’m not sure if they’ve achieved “Magic” status yet. They’re just real good. If I understood music better, maybe I could figure out some mystic chord progression or key something. But I play drums, so I don’t know shit about music! :smiley:

11
12

My ex introduced me to Wilco, right before Sky Blue Sky came out - Jesus Etc and Via Chicago in particular remind me of those days.

Time of Your Life reminds me of my time in Chicago in a more general sense. Those were a great couple of years.

13
14

Thanks a lot Saucywench. Here I am, 3 o’clock in the morning, full of cheap wine, blubbering in front of the computer. :frowning:

Well, here’s one that will get you teared up if you ever lost a loved one:

15

Some of these songs are cultural. You may hate pasodobles with a passion and your family even more, but if you’re spending Chritmas away from Spain and someone has the cojones to play Suspiros de España you’ll bawl your heart out (it’s about being away from Spain for Christmas and hearing a pasodoble that’s playing in a neighbor’s apartment). If you’re in Navarre, No te vayas de Navarra (Don’t you ever leave Navarre) is just a ditty; if you’re away, it’s bawling time.

If done properly, that is. The other day I caught a bit of No te vayas de Navarra in a national chain that was having two soaked-rags dismember it on account of it being Sanfermines; I didn’t want to sing along, I didn’t need to claim there was dust in the air. I wanted to go down to the studio, grab that pair and whomever had mis-taught them the song, explain in excruciating detail the many ways in which they’d gotten it wrong, and then make them write it whole on one-hundred prickly pears each and eat them, unpeeled and raw :mad: (“have you read the fucking LYRICS? It’s HER who’s from Seville, not HIM! And that’s the girl’s part! He can’t sing that bit, he’s DEAD! That’s showing off, you don’t show off. Well, you do, but in the third person; that part’s acceptable when speaking about another person but not about yourself, for Saint Fermin’s sake, what barn were you guys born in?”)

16

[quote=“Peanuthead, post:14, topic:664855”]

Thanks a lot Saucywench. Here I am, 3 o’clock in the morning, full of cheap wine, blubbering in front of the computer. :frowning:

Ahhh…a kindred spirit.
Love Tupelo Honey!

17

“Without You” written by Badfinger and as recorded by Harry Nilsson. It’s been covered by 180 artists but Nilsson’s is the best.

Most heart-wrenching song of all time.
*
I can’t live if living is without you
I can’t give, I can’t give anymore *

18

^Without You. Good one.

A cover.

The originator.

19

A thread like this one happens about once a year, and I always trot out Volverás, by Ricky Martin.

20

Natalie Merchant: My Beloved Wife
Holly Williams: Waiting on June