# What Songs Make You "Tear Up"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 29, 2004, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676 "2004-05-29T13:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/101 "2008-05-17T05:43:13Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] The Night shift by Marvin Gaye which kept getting played on the radio when my old mum was dying,I think its actually about M.G.s father dying but I’m not sure. [/QUOTE] I don’t know the song, so you may be right but, seeing as how it was Marvin Gaye’s father who KILLED Marvin Gaye, I somehow doubt Marvin wrote a song about his father’s death. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/102 "2008-05-17T05:54:16Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] The Night shift by Marvin Gaye which kept getting played on the radio when my old mum was dying,I think its actually about M.G.s father dying but I’m not sure. [/QUOTE] “Night Shift” was actually by the Commodores, _about_ Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson. It was written after Gaye’s murder and Wilson’s death (Wilson had had a heart attack in 1975 while playing a Dick Clark show in Cherry Hill, NJ, and fell to the stage headfirst, and the blow to his head put him in a coma that he never recovered from. He spent the next 8 years and change in a vegetative state, finally dying in 1984). ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/103 "2008-05-17T06:46:36Z")
Two that are guaranteed to trigger a sobfest are John Prine’s _Souvenirs_ and the schmaltzy _Teddy Bear_ by Red Sovine. ::sniff:: Would somebody please pass a tissue. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/104 "2008-05-17T13:52:33Z")
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine"don’t know the name, my mom used to sing it to me at night. When I was about 12 I decided it meant that she was gonna die and I’d never really get to know her. Why yes, I’m an odd kid. And yes, she’s still alive. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/105 "2008-05-17T14:06:35Z")
[QUOTE=Glory] Cat’s in the Cradle by Harry Chaplin. [/QUOTE] I have to go with this one as well. Always has, always will. It’s something to do with never having the time to spend with your loved ones. I think I’ll go play Legos with my son now, even though I told him I couldn’t earlier. \<\\> ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/106 "2008-05-17T14:15:28Z")
Oh, and \*\*In My Life \*\* by the Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/107 "2008-05-18T00:15:40Z")
[QUOTE=Myglaren] [Come Away Melinda](http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlef9pDMssw), Uriah Heep. [/QUOTE] My goodness, did that just bring back a stream of memories - that was on a home recorded cassette my brother used to play over and over again when I was about 8 years old. Never knew the lyrics except for ‘Daddy, Daddy, come and see…’, and I’ve never really pursued the mystery of who/what it was. Many, many thanks for that. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/108 "2008-05-18T01:02:16Z")
“Don’t you (forget about me)” and “I will wait for you” both because of Futurama. ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/109 "2008-05-18T02:14:45Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] There’s this song by Sufjan Stevens about a childhood female friend of (the narrator? Sufjan himself? I don’t know) who died of cancer. Gets me every time. [/QUOTE] That’s **Casimir Pulaski Day**. I saw him do it in concert and I was a wreck. I wasn’t ever all that into the song until then, but ever since, I can’t listen to it without crying. I even saw some random girl singing it on YouTube once and started bawling. (Didn’t help that she reminded me of my best friend from high school…) ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/110 "2008-05-18T12:42:04Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] “Night Shift” was actually by the Commodores, _about_ Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson. It was written after Gaye’s murder and Wilson’s death (Wilson had had a heart attack in 1975 while playing a Dick Clark show in Cherry Hill, NJ, and fell to the stage headfirst, and the blow to his head put him in a coma that he never recovered from. He spent the next 8 years and change in a vegetative state, finally dying in 1984). [/QUOTE] Also **DfrntBreign** Yes I was wrong,at the time my concentration wasn’t of the highest (And I was still turning in for work aswell)order and because of the sad associations I have with the song I’ve never felt the desire to buy it or even Google it. Cheers for the info. ---
**Author:** ![paffinity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@paffinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paffinity)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/111 "2008-05-19T02:31:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted By **Dogzilla** > _10,000 Days (both parts I and II) by Tool. Especially live._ ``` Though I've never cried to this song, it seems to me like the most heartfelt song of its kind. The love he feels towards her is so obvious: ``` > [@](#): > > Originally Posted By **Tool** > You’re the only one who can hold your head up high, > Shake your fists at the gates saying: > “I’ve come home now! > Fetch me the spirit, the son, and the father. > Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended. > It’s time now! > My time now! > Give me my, give me my wings!” > > You are the light and way that they will only read about. It’s incredible. For me, the song \*\*[Eli, The Barrow Boy](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/decemberists/elithebarrowboy.html) \*\* by the Decemberists makes me cry every so often. The way the protagonist works his whole life just to by his love a nice piece of clothing, only to have her taken away from him. The Decemberists are the only group who can really take me to another time and place with their music. But the one song that will make me cry, guaranteed, is [**Green Fields Of France**](http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/dropkickmurphys/thegreenfieldsoffrance.html) covered by the Dropkick Murphys (I’m not sure who sang the song originally). The feeling it gives me goes from sorrow in the beginning to complete rage when the narrator asks the fallen soldier: > [@](#): > > Did you really believe them when they told you the cause > Did you really believe that this war would end wars > Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame > The killing and dying it was all done in vain > Oh Willy McBride it all happened again > And again, and again, and again, and again It makes me think of just how many people have died because others’ greed. ---
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676/112 "2008-05-19T07:15:47Z")
Only because it’s the only version I know with subtitles [“Der Weg” by Herbert Gronemeyer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Ar0rTAU-8) (The video is my mum’s memorial video, which it happens to be the fourth anniversary of this week.) I’d also add [Badly Drawn Boy’s A Minor Incident](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCW1QGpIy9g) [Black Sabbath’s “Solitude”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQBT5Gwp2A0) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-songs-make-you-tear-up/247676.md?page=5)