# What songs make you cry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347 "2005-03-13T17:25:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/41 "2005-03-14T17:16:23Z")
“Long, Long Time” by Linda Ronstadt gets to me every time. Every damn time! It’s embarrassing. Runners-up: “Farewell, Farewell” by Fairport Convention; “City of New Orleans” sung by Arlo Guthrie (Steve Goodman’s version isn’t bad, either, but not as affecting); “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton (_NOT_ the godawful screechy Whitney Houston version). ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/42 "2005-03-14T17:32:22Z")
Nearly forgot “Anachie Gordon” by Mary Black, which might even trump Ronstadt. I heard her sing it on tour with De Danann back in 1983 or 84. When they finished there was about 30 seconds of applause, then it died down, then started up again and went on for about two minutes. I’ve never experienced anything quite like that before or since; neither, apparently, had the band, as they looked mildly confused and embarrassed. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/43 "2005-03-14T19:50:49Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > There are a few hundred songs that make me cry, but When She Loved Me… > I only heard it the one time I saw Toy Story II, and I have studiously avoided that song and movie ever since, because that song just broke my heart. I’m talking huge, gasping sobs in the movie theater! Put me in the sentimental sap category – this did me in horribly as well–middle aged man sitting in the theatre crying at a cartoon; it’s a wonder they didn’t call just in case I went psycho on everyone. A few that get me that I haven’t seen here are “Auld Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg, “America” by Paul Simon, and “Vincent” by Don MacClean. Also, for reasons I don’t fully understand “Yerushalaim” by Rachel tends to make me tear up too. ---
**Author:** ![bainne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@bainne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bainne)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/44 "2005-03-15T14:34:17Z")
> [@Katisha](#): > > I have a recording of it done by the Chieftains, with a guest appearance from Roger Daltrey on lead vocal. Wonderful stuff. (Indeed, your posts have made me feel compelled to put it on now…) > > I’m the sort of person who’ll cry at practically anything if it hits me in just the right mood, I have to admit… It’s reckoned by some that the Dubliners/Luke Kelly version is the definitive one. You should see if you can track it down. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/45 "2005-03-15T15:59:39Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > First, a disclaimer: I have been known to tear up over Kodak and McDonald’s commercials. I’m a complete sap, and it’s shockingly easy to make me cry. For an example of HOW easy, note that Butterfly Kisses, one of the most insipid, glurgey songs ever, made me cry. Country music is the worst for this. > > “Where’ve You Been” by Kathy Mattea, starts out about young lovers worried about missing one another and ends with the two of them in a nursing home together. Think “The Notebook.” > > “Love, Me” by Collin Raye - same premise, basically, only this time one of them places a note in the other’s casket. > > “Don’t Take The Girl” by Tim McGraw - starts out with a little boy begging his dad NOT to take the girl next door on their father-son fishing trip, ends with the boy all grown up, begging God not to take his wife, dying in the delivery room. > > “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones - he held a torch until the day he died. Dear gawd, make it stop. > > Same premise as above: “I’ll Be True To You” by the Oak Ridge Boys - in this one, she held the torch, he dissed her. He makes up for it too late at her graveside. I’ll see every one of your choices and raise you a _How Can I Help You To Say Goodbye_ by Patty Loveless and a _Teddy Bear_ by Red Sovine. _He Stopped Loving Her Today_ is one that I can’t listen to without weeping for a brother-in-law who committed suicide–part of the reason was depression over his failed relationship with my sister-in-law, and so I always think of him when I hear it. _Where Have You Been_ just slays me–the ending will empty my tear ducts every time! ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/46 "2005-03-15T16:54:38Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#): > > and a _Teddy Bear_ by Red Sovine. Have you heard Sovine’s “Flowers for Mama”? What IS it with country glurge, and why does it work so well? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/47 "2005-03-15T17:55:07Z")
“Remember When” by Alan Jackson is the latest tearjerker for me. “Lies” by Stan Rogers is one of my all-time favorites and can get me at the right moment. A lot of his stuff is touching on its own but also because I think of how much more he could have created had he not died. “Catch the Wind” by Donovan When I saw “Be Alone Tonight” in School Daze I was overcome because a girl who died during our college years had been in a skit of that. Not so much the song, but the circumstances. In “Don’t Take the Girl” is she supposed to die at the end or not? I haven’t seen the video but I’ve never been sure either way. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/48 "2005-03-15T18:57:12Z")
The only one that comes to mind at the moment is Annie Lennox singing “Into the West” - it was at the end of LotR: Return of the King, and I cried then, too. Achingly beautiful song. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/49 "2005-03-15T19:53:17Z")
From the American Civil War… [_Was My Brother in the Battle?_](http://members.fortunecity.com/folkfred/wasmy.html) by Kate McGarrigle. [_The Vacant Chair_](http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/vacant.html) by Kathy Mattea. [_Coming to Us Dead_](http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/xpresoff.htm) by the 97th Regimental Band ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/50 "2005-03-16T00:37:48Z")
I made a playlist with this theme. I forgot about “When She Loved Me” because I don’t have the song. Others that have done it for me: “A Better Son/Daughter” by Rilo Kiley “Six O’Clock News” by Kathleen Edwards “Sweet Side” and “Side of the Road” by Lucinda Williams “The Ballad of Paul and Sheila” by Mason Jennings “I Would Have Married You” by Tim Easton These were only when I saw them live: “Do You Realize” by the Flaming Lips “One Foot in Front of the Other” by Bright Eyes (on the latest album, it’s titled “Landlocked Blues”) “When the Stars Go Blue” by Ryan Adams “2002” by Bob Schneider ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/51 "2005-03-16T02:41:36Z")
I have a few: “Father Figure” by George Michael. Because I lost my virginity to this song, and the girl - who I never got over - is dead. Most of these songs get me because of her. That “It’s Been Awhile” song by Staind, for the same reason. I can still remember the way she smells. And tastes. A few people mentioned “Amazing Grace,” and it does for me, too. But for a different reason. My dad died about 4 years ago, and the minister mentioned when we met to make arrangements that his favorite hymn would be played. You have to understand…I’d never heard my dad mention God without “Damn” at the end. His three sons (me included) all looked at each other like, “what?” The minister then said that it was “Amazing Grace.” We theorized that it was Dad’s favorite because it was the only one he knew. ---
**Author:** ![Sample\_the\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/52 "2005-03-16T03:09:54Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > I have a few: > > “Father Figure” by George Michael. Because I lost my virginity to this song, and the girl - who I never got over - is dead. Most of these songs get me because of her. > > That “It’s Been Awhile” song by Staind, for the same reason. I can still remember the way she smells. And tastes. > > A few people mentioned “Amazing Grace,” and it does for me, too. But for a different reason. My dad died about 4 years ago, and the minister mentioned when we met to make arrangements that his favorite hymn would be played. You have to understand…I’d never heard my dad mention God without “Damn” at the end. His three sons (me included) all looked at each other like, “what?” The minister then said that it was “Amazing Grace.” We theorized that it was Dad’s favorite because it was the only one he knew. Your first sex was consummated while listening to a song called “Father Figure”? Dude… “It’s Been Awhile” also affects me, btw, but not the relationship passages – it’s the addiction side that really speaks to me. You get over it, y’know, but you never get over it. As for “Amazing Grace”, that song has a lot of power even if you don’t believe in God. ---
**Author:** ![rhettbutler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rhettbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhettbutler)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/53 "2005-03-16T03:51:02Z")
I just read through the posts really quickly, so this may have already been mentioned, but one that makes me cry is Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton. The whole premise of the song is sad to begin with, but there’s also additional meaning for me. After my grandad died in 2000, my sister, my mother, and I were driving home after the viewing, and this song came on the radio. We all just lost it, and we had to turn it off. Then less than a year later, my grandma died, and someone got the bright idea to play this during her funeral. Now it’s forever connected in my mind to people I loved that died, and I can’t hear it without breaking down in tears. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/54 "2005-03-16T04:04:01Z")
All the money that ‘er I had I spent it in good company, And all the friends that ‘er I knew Would wish me one more day to stay, And so it’s fall’n unto my lot That I should rise and you should not, I’ll quickly rise and softly go, Fair well and joy be with you all. I’ve told my preacher that this is what I want sung at my funeral as the recessional. But then I also want this line included in the eulogy: “His wife was appalled by every thing he ever said or did.” I’ll get ‘em one way or an other. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/55 "2005-03-16T04:05:42Z")
The one that always gets me is _Winter,_ by Tori Amos. I’m not sure why, but it makes me cry. When I was a kid, we had a record of Irish songs that were all about war and stuff. One of those songs always made me sad–I think it might have been “The Rising of the Moon.” Another one from way back is a song about a mine disaster (I think it was the Cumberland mine, somewhere in Nova Scotia). Very sad song. There’s blood on the coal, and miners lie in roads that never saw sun nor sky, roads that never saw sun nor sky. I vaguely remember another song about a man who got stuck in a cave, and they couldn’t get him out. Pretty heavy stuff, when you’re 10 years old. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/56 "2005-03-16T04:13:29Z")
> [@Sample\_the\_Dog](#): > > Your first sex was consummated while listening to a song called “Father Figure”? Dude… Not my most shining moment, I know. It doesn’t help things that I was 20, and she was 16. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/57 "2005-03-16T04:21:57Z")
I have a couple: The theme to Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade will make me bawl on the spot. It’s got very very strong associations with my childhood, and innocence, and good days in general 🙂 Stupid? Yes, I’ll admit it. Homeward Bound or The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel does the trick as well, and A Tout Le Monde by Megadeth (neat factoid: the very guitar Dave Mustaine used in that video resides not three feet to my right). If I’m in the mood (hello, hormones!) it really doesn’t take much to get the tears flowing. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/58 "2005-03-16T04:25:21Z")
Oh and all of The Cure album Disintegration, except for Love Song. I just fast forward through that crap. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/59 "2005-03-16T04:28:11Z")
> [@Spavined Gelding](#): > > All the money that ‘er I had > I spent it in good company, > And all the friends that ‘er I knew > Would wish me one more day to stay, > And so it’s fall’n unto my lot > That I should rise and you should not, > I’ll quickly rise and softly go, > Fair well and joy be with you all. > > I’ve told my preacher that this is what I want sung at my funeral as the recessional. > > But then I also want this line included in the eulogy: > > “His wife was appalled by every thing he ever said or did.” > > I’ll get ‘em one way or an other. 😛 I’ve loved “The Parting Glass” for just about ever, but until I heard it on the soundtrack of Waking Ned Devine, I never thought of it as a sad song. But through the weird twists in my brain, this post made me think of another one that makes me sniffle: “Ghost of the Molly Maguires” which I’ve only heard performed by Hair of the Dog (who also recorded "The Parting Glass - see?) “And I will die with my head held high, I fought for the men below. The men who work and fight and die down in that black hell hole.” ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347/60 "2005-03-16T04:36:08Z")
> [@MagicEyes](#): > > Another one from way back is a song about a mine disaster (I think it was the Cumberland mine, somewhere in Nova Scotia). Very sad song. > > There’s blood on the coal, and miners lie > in roads that never saw sun nor sky, > roads that never saw sun nor sky. That’s **The Ballad of Springhill** , also known as **Springhill Mining Disaster**. A heartbreaking song. Lyrics are [here](http://www.barbaradickson.net/lyrics_ballad_of__spring_officia.html). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-cry/294347.md?page=4)