# What musical performance or recording of a performance makes you tear up?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 4, 2026, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616 "2026-06-04T13:44:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/1 "2026-06-04T13:44:38Z")
I am enough of a David Bowie fan but not a rabid deep fan.
I am enough of a David Byrne fan but not a rabid deep fan.
For some reason this performance just wrecks me. Perhaps it is the layered generations of civilians singing with love, pain, joy, honesty and soul. Perhaps it is what David does with David’s composition.
Here’s [David Byrne and a chorus of fans singing David Bowie’s “Heroes” at Joe’s Pub in NYC](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7HJZPlJn_U&list=RDw7HJZPlJn_U&start_radio=1).
What’s your easy cry?
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/2 "2026-06-04T14:15:29Z")
Oh god, too many to mention. But off the top of my head I’d go with _Bridge Over Troubled Water_. Eric Clapton’s _Tears in Heaven_ is also a strong one.
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### Author:  [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/3 "2026-06-04T15:26:21Z")
Dylan’s _Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts_ and in particular, the line near the end: _Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair_. I’m not quite sure why, but it has since I first got that great album. It’s a long song, and I love the narrative story-telling and all the drama, but the way he sings that one line gets me.
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/4 "2026-06-04T15:37:03Z")
The similar thread I started 21 years ago:
> [@What songs make you cry?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347):
>
> I was listening to A Prairie Home Companion this morning, a rebroadcast with Randy Newman. He sang [Marie](http://randy-newman.the-lyrics.com/marie-009247.html), a song I have heard many times before (although not for quite a while). I was eating my breakfast, and as Randy came to the chorus, I loved you the first time I saw you, And I always will love you, Marie, I just burst out in tears. I’m a 50-year old guy, not terribly sentimental, not depressed, not given to emotional outbursts, and, no, I’ve never been in love with someone named Marie. B…
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### Author:  [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/5 "2026-06-04T15:39:51Z")
Braddah Iz’s version of _What a Wonderful World_ does that to me. I put together my brother’s memorial service, and the service opened and closed with that. I still can’t hear it without my eyes welling up.
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### Author:  [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/6 "2026-06-04T15:42:26Z")
“The Last Time I Saw Her Face” by Gordon Lightfoot, especially this last part…
\*The last time I saw her face
Her eyes were bathed in starlight
And she walked alone
The last time she kissed my cheek
Her lips were like the wilted leaves
Upon the autumn covered hills
Resting on the frozen ground
The seeds of love lie cold and still
Beneath a battered marking stone
It lies forgotten\*
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### Author:  [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/7 "2026-06-04T15:42:59Z")
I can think of two, offhand. “Being Alive” from _Company_ (situational: I saw the show just about the time I had an engagement fall apart), and Springsteen’s “The Rising” once I realized what it was about.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/8 "2026-06-04T15:50:36Z")
Two for me. First, the live version of Van Morrison’s “Listen To The Lion” on “It’s Too Late To Stop Now”. The studio version already was very intense, but this version is 9 minutes of drama. And at the finish of the song, a woman in the audience cries out “All right!” like after a catharsis. This cry gets me every time.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTkW7uYFJGk)
The other is Kurt Cobain’s rendition of the folk classic “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (In The Pines) on MTV Unplugged. Here, you see a tortured man, giving all he has to give and making the strongest statement of his whole career. In a shabby cardigan, sitting on a chair playing acoustic guitar. A few months later, he was no more.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEMm7gxBYSc)
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/9 "2026-06-04T17:01:14Z")
Paraulas d’amor, by Joan Manuel Serrat. Perhaps the most tender love song ever sung. Still gets me after… how many years? This **[version is from 1968](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6da-yrtBIY&list=RDh6da-yrtBIY&start_radio=1)**. I was a little boy, and Serrat was soooo young.
And 54 years later, the song **[starts at 2:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lyaiMq_XpE&list=RD2lyaiMq_XpE&start_radio=1)**
The simple orchestration of the original feels better, but the spectators singing as one in the second is great too.
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### Author:  [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/10 "2026-06-04T17:12:46Z")
_Puff the Magic Dragon_ - once I had kids and realized that I was going to be Puff someday.
_Far from the Home I Love_ from Fiddler on the Roof. And the spoken lines right after the song are absolutely crushing:
> Hodel: Papa, God alone knows when we shall see each other again.
> Tevye: Then we will leave it in His hands.
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/11 "2026-06-04T17:13:34Z")
> [@commasense](#):
>
> The similar thread I started 21 years ago:
>
> [What songs make you cry?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347)
Oh my gosh, I’m sorry I didn’t do a Search before starting this thread. I dunno. 21 years… Mods, if you need to kill this one and merge into commasense’s, please do.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/12 "2026-06-04T17:54:28Z")
[Peter Gabriel’s performance of Here Comes The Flood](https://youtu.be/Ww9JS8dJ9fY?si=6nTA898mIWFZ_2L9) from the Growing Up Live Tour.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/13 "2026-06-04T17:55:16Z")
[Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VejTwFjwVI&list=RD2VejTwFjwVI&start_radio=1&t=115s) from Verdi’s “Nabucco”. It’s considered by many to be the best chorus ever written for opera.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/14 "2026-06-04T17:56:42Z")
Thanks, I liked seeing the old poster’s names. Also, finding out what I said 21 years ago, it still stands! When She Loved Me, from Toy Story II.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/15 "2026-06-04T18:01:30Z")
One that used to just tear me up when I was young and thought I was in love was “[I’ve Been To Town](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyZJ42h49fc&list=RDIyZJ42h49fc&start_radio=1)”, sung by Glenn Yarbrough
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/16 "2026-06-04T18:14:15Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#):
>
> What’s your easy cry?
Bette Midler’s “The Rose”.
It’s an odd association, and not very direct.
But for some reason it always reminds me of a good musician friend who committed suicide some years ago. To this day we don’t really know why: depression is a horrible disease. And if we’d spotted it earlier, we might have been able to get him some help.
RIP Rob: there was so much more music left to make…
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/17 "2026-06-04T18:55:53Z")
A wedding in an episode of the brilliant _Better Things_ featured the song **Martha** , written by Tom Waits. (Bette Midler also performed it on her one and only appearance on SNL.) A man named Tom Frost reaches out a past love about their relationship from 40 years ago. In a few short verses we get blissful memories (“Days of roses, of poetry and prose”) and the reality that time has passed (“I feel so much older now/ And you’re much older too/ How’s the husband and how’s the kids? / You know that I got married too.”), ending with “And I remember quiet evenings/ Trembling close to you.” It’s a beautiful memory of how wonderful love can be, even if our lives and loves have changed.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/18 "2026-06-04T19:06:45Z")
Can We Still Be Friends, by Todd Rundgren, kind of wrecks me. There’s no deeper reason for it, as it’s played no part in my life, but when I hear it I remember just how it feels when your heart is broken.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6kaw6Ll1sM)
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/19 "2026-06-04T19:25:30Z")
[**Molly**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6VTBVQsh8) - Biff Rose
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### Author:  [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-performance-or-recording-of-a-performance-makes-you-tear-up/1030616/20 "2026-06-04T19:29:46Z")
This performance of “Memory” from Cats. I’ve heard others sing the song but for some reason Elaine Paige’s version hits me differently.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdBVJbzkoqo)
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