Dinner at Eight by Rufus Wainwright - from Want One. About his relationship with his father. Wow.
MiM
Kate Bush - Never be mine
I look at you and see
My life that might have been:
Your face just ghostly in the smoke.
They’re setting fire to the cornfields
As you’re taking me home.
The smell of burning fields
Will now mean you and here.
Absolutely. His rough voice matches the perspective of a depressed, beaten soldier perfectly.
Try to Remember from The Fantasticks:
Try to remember that kind of September
When dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember that kind of September
When no one wept besides the willow.
The song that makes me tear up about my impending death, but in a healthy way:
End of the Line - The Traveling Willburys
The song that makes me tear up about my impending death, but in a not-so-healthy way:
Nick of Time - Bonnie Raitt
Johnny Cash’s interpretation of this song as seen by an old man looking back at his regrets . . . it gets me every time, and the video is just powerful.
Welcome to the SDMB, Barry From Eastenders!
Just to let you know, I’ve edited your post to remove the excess lyrics. When you get a chance, please take a peek at the Forum Rules; this will help explain the copyright restirctions we try to follow on the SDMB. Typically, it’s best to post just a few lines of a song or other work of art, and then link to the rest.
But, no worries; it happens a lot. You’ll know for the next time.
snerk I’ll remember that… Maybe I’ll finally get through the last verse without the waterworks.
Unless I’m laughing so hard I’m crying that is. 
I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me
Used as a backdrop for the story of Dick & Rick Hoyt.
I’m not sure if it’s the song or the video, but I’m still crying.
for me its the living years by mike and the mechanics
If I’m understanding the criteria in the thread - sentimental/sad not depressing-downer/sad, then these are the ones that come to mind for me:
“What A Wonderful World”
“My Old Man” by Steve Goodman
and because time just seems to go so fast these days -
“Sunrise, Sunset” [there are probably a lot I’m overlooking from musical theatre]
“Turn Around”
There are so many…
PS - My favorite version of “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” is Priscilla Herdman’s. but I’ve never heard a bad version.
I didn’t want to be the first one to mention Prince (so, thanks!), but…
Sometimes It Snows in April really gets me, along with a coupla dozen others (like you said.)
Was a favorite of a friend of mine (who committed suicide) who also who was a huge Prince fan.
Boku no Tegami by Japanese band ZONE.
"If I had just a little more courage, I would have changed
And if I could have been just a little cooler
Things would have turned out better
But you always smiled gently at that sort of me
You were the only one who truly believed in me"
The video really enhances the song, and it brings a tear to my eye every time I watch and listen.
-
She Goes On by Crowded House
-
The Green Leaves of Summer by Dmitri Tomkin, as performed by The Brothers Four
-
The Drinking Song by Moxy Früvous
-
There Was A Time, A Time Forever Gone, from The Gondoliers, an operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan
-
Un bel di from Madama Butterfly (Puccini)
And my all-time favorite slow tempo piece, the praises of which I shall sing with my dying breath: Symphony No 3 (The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) by Gorecki.
The Origin of Love from the movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch
I have the soundtrack and always have to skip that song if I want to keep my “tough girl” street cred.
Good choice.
Also,
Evanessance-Hello
Streets of Heaven by Sherrie Austin. About the mother of a dying 7-year-old pleading with God not to take the child. An absolute sock-you-in-the-gut tearjerker.
“Lord, don’t you know? She’s my angel. You’ve got plenty of your own,” gets me every time.
Ash - Girl from Mars
It rocks.
I still love ya… the Girl From Mars.
I don’t know if you knew that.
Thanks for the reminder - I’m missing a couple of Prince albums in my iTunes (you have to collect them over a lifetime, since he puts out what, two a year?). We have “Parade” on LP - we have to upload it now that we have the iMic.
Warren Zevon’s **Keep Me in Your Heart for a While ** came out when my 79-yr-old father was dying of cancer. The last time I saw him was a week or so before he died, and I asked him how he was feeling- he looked at me, smiled, and said, “I’m not buying any green bananas”. That song, to me, expresses the bittersweet, philisophical acceptance of one’s own death that my Dad had.
Aw, crap, now I’m crying…