Songs that make you cry. Let's be (even) sadder together.

A suicide song. Revamped 2017 version of "Sweet Old World," by Lucinda Williams.

Me and a Gun

"Goodbye, Saigon" - Billy Joel

Waiting for You - Nick Cave

"Five Hundred Miles", because my mom, who is dying of Alzheimer's, sang it to me when I was little.

"Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground".

One day, at a rural bar with a jukebox, someone I loved very much, who had a beautiful, smart, witty daughter, however the daughter was an alcoholic, had me play this song. She told me it reminded me of her daughter, who was the angel, and the many good men who fell in love with her, but, she always flew away from them, leaving those men broken-hearted.

"Gravity" by Luchane Boyd

R7 Here. I fell in love with this woman's voice; she sang "Yellow" on a recent AGT episode. I searched for her on YouTube and had never heard the song "Gravity."

"You love me cause I'm fragile, but I thought that I was strong."

Hole- Northern Star

She's Leaving Home. Brilliant but very sad.

Can’t listen to this one.

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" - George Jones

R12 That song is so heartbreaking, I have trouble listening to it without tears. And George Jones -- I know who he is but I've never heard anything else by him except this song. His voice is perfect.

R7, Gravity was written by Sara Bareilles.

Expanded version of "He Never Got Enough Love," from Lucinda Williams 2017 re-do of the Sweet Old World album, called This Sweet Old World. The new song is called "Drivin' down a Dead End Street."

Alone Again Naturally.

I'm In Here (Piano Vocal Version) by Sia

No sadder song than this:

The entire score to 'Wolf's Rain.' Specifically this.

"How Can I Tell You?" - Cat Stevens. I had the album for years, but I never really heard this song until someone played it for me who hoped it would help me fall in love with him.

r2 Me and a Gun is a great one. Personally, "Winter" gets me every time, especially that last verse. This is a double feature Kleenex would love to sponsor.

I Can't Live by Harry Nilsson

Abraham Martin and John.

The BBC banned Gloomy Sunday from their airwaves for many decades, alleging an increase in suicides when it was played.

Along the lines of "Abraham, Martin, and John", r23.

"He Was a Friend of Mine," the Byrds. It still makes me tear up. Right now, for instance.

This one.

I Hope You Dance.

I tried again to listen to Tori Amos, courtesy of r21, and I just can't take her voice. The shrillness...non posso ascoltarla.

R10 Everything But the Girl do a beautiful version of that song.

Kate Bush -This Woman’s Work

Seasons In The Sun by Terry Jacks. OMG.

Don't Think Twice It's Alright by Susan Tedeschi / Derek Trucks. Ke$ha also does a good version.

She Used to Be Mine, Sarah Bareilles.

To R18...I agree with you! "I can't make you Love me if you won't" is probably one of the saddest, truest songs ever written.

Gay or str8, we all have had relationships that ended up like that!! It's no one's fault, it happens!!

I sang that song in an open mic in Ft Lauderdale 2 yrs ago.

A Summer Place. Especially when the french horns come in near the end. The song holds up better than the movie, because it's so timeless.

OP I love that Siouxsie And The Banshees song as well. I think we must be the only two people who like it.

Jason Isbell, “Elephant”.

Sinead’s cover of Sacrifice

Coming Around Again / Itsy Bitsy Spider - Carly Simon

(Bad life experience.)

r39 = Nora Ephron's ghost

"Remember the Tinman" - Tracy Chapman

All by Myself, Eric Carmen (1975).

The long version (at link) is particularly a tear jerker.

Sara by Fleetwood Mac. Not normally a huge FM fan, but this song tears my heart out. I like the live version better than the released version.

A heartbreaking story of the past yet incredibly current today.

This song has so much angst and there is even some hopefulness in it, but the plaintive tone and melody just get me every time.

This song is my inclusion to the list. I remember learning about love (yes, that) the first time with this song playing. He’s gone, totally gone, but I’m still here and this song will always remind me of him.

Sadie by The Spinners…with my mom in the nursing home it is somewhat painful to hear…

Dear Mama by 2Pac.

Sand and Water by Beth Nielsen Chapman

The cheesy "On My Own" from Pattie LaBelle, mostly just because I was a little kid and my mom would always sing that when things were rough and she was trying to cheer herself up.

I can’t help but cry whenever I hear Just Like Starting Over, or Woman or Beautiful Boy from Double Fantasy.

Translated to English:

All the boys and girls my age Walk down the street in pairs All the boys and girls my age Know well what it means to be happy Eyes in eyes, and hand in hand

They fall in love without fear of tomorrow Yes, but I, I walk the streets alone, the lost soul Yes, but I, I am alone, because nobody loves me

My days are like my nights In all respects No joy and such trouble Nobody whispers "I love you" in my ear

All the boys and girls my age Make projects for the future All the boys and girls my age Know very well what love means Eyes in eyes, and hand in hand

They fall in love without fear of tomorrow Yes, but I, I walk the streets alone, the lost soul Yes, but I, I am alone, because nobody loves me

My days are like my nights In all respects No joy and such trouble Oh, when will the sun shine for me?

This song always makes me shiver. Every time.

Two Headed Boy pt 2 by Neutral Milk Hotel The Needle and the Damage Done by Neil Young Mother by John Lennon Good Morning, Captain by Slint

Janis Ian - At Seventeen

Janis Ian - "In the Winter" (extra blankets for the cold)

The Pretenders - "Goodbye"

"The Jackson Song" - Patti Smith's lullaby written for her two-year old son, Jackson.

Husband, Fred, was producing and told pianist Richard Sohl, "Make them cry."

It's Not Up to You - Bjork

Mr. Bojangles by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Vincent by Don McLean

Bridge Over Troubled Water by S&G

Sad. And so very haunting. I know the lyrics are a bit opaque but it reminds me of a good friend I grew up with who was absolutely brilliant. He killed himself our senior year of high school.

Matt Alber - The End Of The World. It's about a breakup, and he's gay so the video is him and another guy.

If you've never heard it, I highly recommend you give it a listen.

😢🐶

🏈 CB

Sad ass this thread again?

Brian Wilson is such a masterful songwriter. This is one of his best...

On the Sunny Side of the Street by Louis Armstrong

A Change is Gonna Come

Blue Gardenia

I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash

"Cuckoo" by Benjamin Britten, a haunting choral piece performed by La Monnaie Children's Choir of Belgium. It's featured at the end of Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom."

Crying as I type (seriously). I defy you to listen and not fall apart.

The line that starts with 'Let me try...' gets me sobbing everytime

OP, I love this thread.

Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings. But it is a musical piece and not a song…still haunting and melancholy.

This song came on shuffle and got me misty eyed today. Maybe because it’s a question I’ve been asking myself for 30 years.

This just played on the stream I listen to while bathing

The saddest ever, composed by Chopin.

Sweet oldie but goodie, "What'll I do?" by Irving Berlin.

When I'm alone

With only dreams of you

That won't come true

What'll I do?

The final theme from Michael Nyman's amazing OST to the equally amazing film "Gattaca" called "The Departure."

Vincent: 'For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess I'm suddenly having a hard time leaving it."

"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", by The Platters. The version Mrs. Jerome Kern detested...is my favorite. And I love the way it was used in "American Graffiti" as well.

R78 great choice

Aretha Franklin - Dark End of The Street

Rose Royce - I'm Going Down

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday" by G.C. Cameron

COCHISE!!

My bad. It's the longer video from the movie instead of an edited song BUT it's more effective.

Edie Brickell and the NB- Circle

R78 Great choice, thank you. Here's one of my favorite old melancholy tunes: You Bought Me Violets for My Furs

Every time.

Cheesy, but Air Supply's All Out of Love always brings a little tears to my eyes.

Tear*** ^^

90 posts and no Smiths yet?

When it comes to The Smiths, "Please Please, Please ..." is more tear-worthy for me. I usually don't get there, though, because it's too short.

You Don’t Know Me-Ray Charles. I can’t even explain the hold this song has over me. I start tearing up from the opening chords.

Some great fucking choices on this thread!

"Tonight I Wanna Cry" for Keith Urban's lost looks...

I've always thought Linda Ronstadt was kind of a bitch in interviews and other appearances - especially for the way she treated Dolly Parton on the second "Trio" album, where she insisted Dolly cancel tour dates and come back into the studio to record changes that no one but Linda felt were needed...

but the bitch can sing a sad song...

R95 I'd never heard that story

IIRC, it's the reason they didn't do much promotion on the Trio II album - they wouldn't even get together for a group phoo for the album cover - they had to use childhood photos of Dolly, Linda, and Emmylou.

Dolly was trying to play tour dates that had been scheduled years in advance and Linda kept calling and faxing Dolly that the album couldn't be released until Dolly re-recorded some of the vocals that didn't suit Linda. The final straw was when Linda recruited Emmlou to begin harrassing Dolly too - and they were telling her she was costing them tens of thousands of dollars in studio rental moeny, because Linda was obsessed with remxing the album the way she "thought" it should sound.

They finally reached some kind of agreement to release the album, with all of Dolly's vocals removed from the master tracks. Dolly has spoken openly about how hurt she was by the whole ordea.

Thanks to Linda, there never was and never will be another Trio album...

This song

Given that story, this is now a sad song...because it's perfection, and the "Trio" will never record together again

Perhaps a tad cliche here but Elton John's Last Song, the only thing he did post 1980 I love. "I can't believe you love me"...fuck me....

Save Me… The Magnolia Soundtrack…Tom Cruise and the cast were in the video…

[quote]Thanks to Linda's progressive supranuclear palsy, there never will be another Trio album...

Fixed, you cunt.

^ takes one to know one

"the living years" by Mike and the Mechanics. Because my dad.

"The living years" by Mike and the Mechanics. Because of my dad.

The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics. Because of my dad.

How the fuck do I delete a post?

R108 You don't because you can't!

Don't worry about it, R108, it happens to the best of us...

Today I learned and also made a damned fool of myself.

Rufus Wainwright from the HOLDING THE MAN soundtrack…. I teared up when I heard it…

Hurt by Johnny Cash.

and "Disarm" by The Smashing Pumpkins

Dolly. Paisley.

The entirety of the album "Blood on the Tracks" by Bob Dylan but especially Shelter from the Storm. But it's a good cry, I've done more therapy listening to this song than hours spent on a divan.

Madonna. 1994. I'll remember. Widower here. This song always reminds me of him. LINK is to the LYRICS Version.

Fix You from Coldplay because I associate it with my grandmother when she was dying.

Thanks, r118. I can never listen to "Fix You" just once, even though my first thought is of Chris' writing it for Gwynnie when Bruce died. The line "tears stream down your face...when you lose something you cannot replace" makes it a little more universal for me, and I focus on my own dead people.

Next song to come up on my YT was the original version of Lucinda Williams' "Sweet Old World," about a friend of hers who committed suicide.

Sylvian & Sakamoto

Téléphonez-moi

R120, R121

Angel by Sarah McLachlan. My partner died before we could get married. We weren't out so nobody new about about us and I had to sit at the back of her funeral pretending she was just a "friend" I'd lost and not the love of my life. For a while after her death I'd get a babysitter sometimes and go and get drunk by myself in a hotel room and just cry and let it all out. This is the song.

The Chad Mitchell Trio's late and wonderful (Father) Joe Frazier:

"The Last Thing On My Mind."

AND this one, too, featuring the CMT's Mike Kobluk:

"Four Strong Winds."

I Touch Myself by the Divinyls. True tearjerker

So many particularly 80s ballads and tunes which put me in a nostalgic mood but Daniel by Elton John is #1 tear jerker song for Mr

R122 = 🤡💩🤮🤮

R129

R130

Know That You Are Loved

White Chalk by PJ Harvey. I think it's about dying.

Towerblock. Sometimes known as Bo and Carlys love theme on Days of our Lives..

The first side of Tears for Fears’ The Hurting, especially if you grew up abused.

"How Can I Tell You?" - Cat Stevens. Someone played this at me once, hoping it would convince me to fall in love with him. Instead, it reminded me of someone else, someone I hoped was in love with me.

Wayne Newton’s so very cheesy, but “Daddy Don’t You Run So Fast” always gets me. Similarly, I’m an easy mark for Mike Douglas’s “The Men In My Little’s Girl Life.”

Only You. Miranda Lambert.

Another Miranda song...House that built me...

Jimmie Hodges's "Someday."

There are many covers, but I think Patsy Cline's cover is the saddest.

Since this came out my freshman year in college, I associate this song with the amplified heartache experienced when first love ends.

linky stinky

Fields of Gold, Eva Cassidy. Heartbreaking. Haunting.

One More Try and Kissing A Fool by George Michael

Memories of first love gone bad. Always makes me sad.

Dido - "White Flag"

It's what I always hear whenever I fall in love with the wrong man.

The story of a man who hid in his house because he believed he was ugly, but became infatuated with a woman, so he grew a special flower for her.

I've been listening to Nothing Compares 2 U since yesterday evening

R148 Pink has a pretty nice cover of it.

I'd been listening to this Sinead song again recently--before she passed--but got back into it again. From 2000 when she was going through her Rastafarian phase.

Blue

The runner up

This one. Only the extended version:

I won't post any of them here but just wanted to say - my old ass is so old that I am now crying at happy songs....or generally midtempo/uptempo songs that aren't inherently sad.

Call My Name - OMD

Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

One of the sadder songs from the 70s -

The Cars did this tune as a tribute to their deceased member Benjamin Orr =

Billy's saddest song =

The great Petula Clark...

The runner up

"I Wish I Were Blind" by Bruce Springsteen.

The linked video performance was recorded 31 years ago, on September 22, 1992.

Wishing the Boss a happy and healthy 74th today, September 23.

Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” sung by Rufus Wainwright

Smalltown Boy, Bronsku Beat Farewell Song, Janis Joplin Willow, Joan Armatrading The Boxer, Simon and Garfunkel That’s Heaven To Me, Sam Cooke Reflections Of My Life, Marmalade Funny How Time Slips Away, Al Green Daniel, Elton John Nature Boy, Nat King Cole America The Beautiful, Ray Charles Streets of Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen I Loves You Porgy, Billie Holiday You Don’t Know Me, Ray Charles Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper Vincent, Don McLean Long, Long Time, Linda Ronstadt She’s Got A Way, Billy Joel Blue Eyes Cryin In The Rain, Willie Nelson Tears In Heaven, Eric Clapton Village Ghetto Land, Stevie Wonder Sweet Dreams, Patsy Cline To Love Somebody, Bee Gees A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hank Williams Someone Like You, Adele Take Me To The King, Chris Blue Teach Your Children, CSNY

^ Thread closed.

Outlaw by Olive

Spanish Moss - Gordon Lightfoot

Jesse - Roberta Flack

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

This version of You Don’t Know Me by Kenny Loggins is wistful and heartbreaking.

And this may be a little overwrought 80’s but I remember playing this over and over as a heartbroken young adult.