Songs That Make You Cry

"Gracie" was one of the first songs I thought of, along with another Ben Folds song, "The Luckiest."

I'll add in "Layla," just for the piano.

 

My How You've Grown, by 10,000 Maniacs.
Lot of great songs on their last album before Natalie Merchant left, but that one always makes me want to call my mother and just say hi.

 

Should this thread have Billy Ocean's "There'll Be Sad Songs" playing in the background? Or Elton John's "Sad Songs (Say So Much)?"

First, a song that doesn't make me cry: "Butterfly Kisses." You know, the tearjerker about the guy watching his little girl grow up, and it ends with him dancing with her at her wedding. Easy cheese. That was a huge hit in June 1997, when my eldest was born. We didn't know yet he was a boy, so the nurse taking care of wife in labor asks me if I've heard the song. I say, yeah. She asks me if I like it. I say, no, not really. The nurse then lights into me: "You DON'T like Butterfly Kisses? How can you SAY that? Let me tell YOU, if YOU have a daughter, YOU will CHANGE YOUR MIND, MISTER!" Um, nurse, I'm sorry, but you could you worry a little more about the pregnant lady in the room than about my musical taste?

We had a son. Later, we had a daughter. Two, in fact. I still hate that song.

One that does make me cry: the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??" A most beautiful song about enjoy life's everyday mundanities, without being ham-fisted like "Butterfly Kisses." It's amazing that as the Lips' music has grown weirder and less direct, its lyrics have done the opposite.

 

Aaron Neville's "Ave Maria"
Luther Vandross/Mariah Carey - "Endless Love"
"The River," Natalie Merchant
"100 Years," Five For Fighting
"Overjoyed," Stevie Wonder
"I (Who Have Nothing)" - Luther Vandross
"Stand By Me" - Ben E. King

 

-The piano coda in "Layla"
-"Tears in Heaven" by Clapton
-"What Hurts the Most" and "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts
-"Follow Through" by Gavin DeGraw
-Good call on "Christmas Time is Here." It brings me back to my childhood more than any other song.
-"I Miss You" by Incubus
-"Across the Sea" by Weezer
-"100 Years" by Five for Fighting

 

"Angel" Sarah McLaughlin
"Cats in the Cradle" Harry Chapin

 

Seven Hillsides by Walt Wilkins, about an old-time preacher struggling to find the right words to say at funerals for seven families who had sons die in the war, is a heavy, heavy song.

Also, knowing that Warren Zevon recorded Keep Me in Your Heart after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, gives a lot more weight to the song than the lyrics would suggest.

 

While we're on David Gray, WI, I'd definitely add "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" to the list.

Another for me is U2's "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own." Bono wrote the song about his late father, and you can hear the passion. And for me, it reminds me of my recently passed Grandfather, so it always gets me.

 

At Seventeen - Janis Ian

Ian performed the song on the first Saturday Night Live back in '75. I have the SNL first season DVDs, so I've been listening to it a lot.

When I hear the song, I think about my daughter, who turned 17 two weeks ago, and all she encounters in life.

 

"Wonderful Tonight," by Eric Clapton
"All I Want Is You," by U2

 

tears in heaven meant absolutely nothing to me until the heartbreakers came along. now? a very, very sad song ... and i hate using the word, very.

 

Deteriorate - Demon Hunter

Maybe it's not tear-provoking, but it is sad.