“Seasons in the Sun” is a strange one for me. I find myself tearing up when I hear it or think of it, yet at the same time I feel like I should not be. I think this is because this song is so over the top, and tends to be disliked by a lot of people. Therefore, I feel like I should be cynical about the song even though it does tend to get me weepy.
One thing that has intrigued me about this song is that it is not exactly clear what the person is dying from, or how. When I was an angst-ridden teenager, I assumed it was a suicide song. In college, a friend interpreted it as being about a soldier who gets drafted (Vietnam?) and is mortally wounded in battle. Of course, another possibility is a terminal illness, or non-war injury like a car accident.
That was the song that was playing as my son was born. It’s always been a misty favorite, and now even moreso. I can’t hear it without flashing back to seeing him for the first time, and hearing his cries.
I’ll also second “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor, and add “Needle and the Damage Done” by Neil Young…
*I’ve seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie’s like a settin’ sun. *
And as long as others have admitted to listening to sappy country songs, I’ll throw one of those in too.
“Angels in Waiting” by Tammy someone or other, it was big about a year ago. The singer lost two brothers to Cystic Fibrosis, and the video was all home movies of them as children. Talk about tearjerking…
Annie’s going to sing he song called “Take Me Back Again”
It sometimes lasts the whole night long
It depends on how long she’s been gone.
I sit and look as hard as nails.
She knows the damn thing never fails
"When Annie Took Me Home
Love can grow and love can go.
Did she love me? I don’t know
Though she often told me so
I’ve never really known?
Was I blind? I don’t mind.
I think that life’s been more than kind
Thanks to life there was a time
When Annie took me home.
I made a potify list of best tearjerkers ever…it quickly devolved into “Songs personal only to me” Art Garfunkels “Bright Eyes”…Peter Gabriels cover of “Power of Love”
Then I remembered musical songs and it blew up. Sunset Boulevard, Godspell, JCS.
For the OP’s first type, I’d go with Chopin’s Etude Op 10 no 3 which my mom got pretty good at playing, just after the divorce (early 70s). Trying to get myself to sleep while she was practicing away has kinda made it, now, the most curbstomping thing I’ll ever listen to, by light years.
For the second type:
