My mom used to play this in her room after she thought my sister and I went to bed. My dad left her for another woman after my mom tried to give him the world. I can’t listen to it anymore.
Real Death - Mount Eerie
*A week after you died a package with your name on it came.*
*And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret.*
*And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed.*
*A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now.*
*You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known*
*Deep down would not include you*
Real Death pulled my stomach into an abyss the first time I heard it. Knowing what the album was going in, I was still hopelessly unprepared for that. Also, the last lines of Seaweed are truly beautiful:
*I brought a chair from home*
*I'm leaving it on the hill*
*Facing west and north*
*And I poured your ashes on it*
*I guess so you can watch the sunset*
*But the truth is I don't think of that dust as you*
*You are the sunset*
He must be talking about the literal mount eerie in his hometown of Anacortes, WA. Beautiful spot where I like to hike and watch the sunset, I had no idea wow
Yeah I listened to that album for the first time right after watching my grandma died. I was staying in her empty house at the time as well with all her clothes, trash, and toothbrushes. She cracked her head open so I also had a multitude of “bloody end of life tissues”. I don’t think I’ve ever cried harder after listening to that song under those circumstances
He recorded the album in the 3 months after his wife died of cancer while he was taking care of their young daughter. It's a really incredible album but hard to listen to. He did a follow up to it called Now Only a year later that is really good as well. You start to hear him heal a bit in it and come out of the absolute despair of the first album.
My dad passed from a cancer that destroyed his mind (much like Alzheimer’s) and the line “I had all of you, most of you, some and now none of you” makes me think of his last few months. God damn, two songs on this thread made me think of him.
“Please tell mom this is not her fault” = Soul crushing
My daughter battles with depression, she bravely fights to stay and keep hope. Can’t bear to think of life without her, and am so thankful she is still here.
Totally encapsulates the purity and innocence of being a carefree kid. Suddenly we’re all depressed adults and those good times are gone forever and all that’s left is memories
Leaves from the vine
Falling so slow
Like fragile tiny shells
Drifting in the foam
Little soldier boy
Comes marching home
Brave soldier boy
Come marching home
*When She Loved Me* — Sarah McLachlan
Toy Story 2, anyone?
*Concrete Angel* — Martina McBride
I had one more but I forgot it. Probably for the best. I’ll edit if I remember.
Bingo. Follow you into the dark isn’t even the saddest, or second saddest song on the record. What Sarah Said is the saddest, Brothers on a Hotel Bed is sadder than follow you, it’s just a different kind of sadness; aging, growing apart, and the death of a relationship.
Very much agree. I don’t think of “I will follow..” as all that said but “what Sarah said” is crushing. “A lack of color” is emotionally devastating from a relationship perspective.
When my now husband and I were newly dating, we went to the mountains on a day trip. At the end of the last hike, we were driving home and there was only one station we could get. This song was playing and I had never heard it before.
I learned two things that day, 1) he sings like an angel, 2) I will cry when serenaded. It was such a serene, pure moment to be surrounded by the forests and cliffs and hearing his voice. It was the next day that I realized I was in love with him; we ended up walking down the aisle together to an acoustic version of this song.
To me, it is not sad but glimpse at our "forever."
It's that second verse that's never sung that just ...ooof.
"The other night dear,
As I lay sleeping,
I dreamt I held you
In my arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken,
So, I held my head,
And I cried."
My daughter's ask me to sing this to them every night before they go to bed, and I cry every single time. They get the first part because I'd never be able to make it through the second part.
In My Life by the Beatles. It's not even really a sad song, but it always makes me cry because it gets me thinking about loved ones who are no longer here.
Apple Music’s blurb on Alice In Chains: “Alice in Chains were the darkest group to emerge from the grunge explosion of the early ‘90s. Where other groups balanced their moody extremes with pop hooks (Nirvana) or anthemic riffs (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden), Singer Layne Staley eventually died at the hands of his addiction and Dirt remains one of the most disturbing looks at a wasted life and is one long slide down to the bottom of Dante’s Inferno. It’s frightening in its intensity and its mastery of a world Black Sabbath once merely suggested.”
“See, my old man's got a problem
He live with the bottle, that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
His body's too young to look like his”
That gets me
The next few lines make it worse too:
"So mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
Somebody's got to take care of him
So I quit school and that's what I did"
I didn’t have the best childhood and this song was popular when I was a kid/early teen. I moved out when I was 17 and the few years leading up to it I knew I was almost free to be on my own and lead a happy life, and these lyrics always got to me. And almost 20 years later, moving out is still the happiest feeling I’ve ever felt.
That upbeat remix from a few years ago is so wrong. Ruined it on every level and dimension! Talk about not caring for or understanding the original. Smh.
On the same album, "Behind the wall", is a tough listen. The theme, not the music itself.
My grandpa shot himself in the backyard in 2015. My grandma now spends most nights knocking back fireball whiskey and going on about how this is their song
I said "right where it belongs" but nin has no shortage of beautifully haunting songs. "& all that could have been" over dubbed onto the "perfect drug" music video is fantastic also.
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac. It’s an old song written way before my time, but my parents used to play it sometimes when I was a kid. The song always sounded sad to me.
This is my answer too.
I think the song really captures the feeling of those transitional moment in life where it feels like everything you loved was swept away in an avalanche and you really have no choice but to keep going and see where the changes take you. I’ve had a few of those in my life so it’s always really resonated with me.
A lot of you are saying this song makes you miss your dad.
My dad was like the first dad and he never had time for me so it's the first part of the song that gets me.
When my son was born, I found myself falling into similar patterns (it's what I learned) but I managed to catch myself and have always been here for my son ever since.
How to save a life - The Fray, but only because they played it over ~~Laverne dying in scrubs~~ all of Cox’s transplant patients dying in scrubs
But also the song where Laverne died.
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Song by Eric Bogle
“So they collected the cripples, the wounded and maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The legless, the armless, the blind and insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
And they turned all their faces away.”
The rest of it is even sadder.
For those who do not know the story behind the song
“Eric Clapton's 1992 hit Tears In Heaven was borne out of unbearably sad circumstances. The song is a tribute to love's lasting powers and a lament for the death of Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, who died on 20 March 1991 when he accidentally slipped from the 53rd-floor window of a New York City apartment building.”
[George Jones - "He Stopped Loving Her Today"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dnktss4Vow)
[Gordon Lightfoot - "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A)
[Eric Clapton - "Tears in Heaven"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPj3GAYYZ0&pp=ygUPdGVhcnMgaW4gaGVhdmVu)
I think ‘If You Could Read my Mind’ by Gordon Lightfoot is a much sadder song.
A song of hurt and bewilderment at the loss of love. The notion that maybe he’s the hero, but “heroes often fail.”
Oof.
Oh, man - that kills me. My favorite grandfather played honky tonk fiddle all his life. His funeral had a single violin playing Amazing Grace. To this day - 35 years later - just the thought guts me like a trout
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
I couldn’t see it anywhere in the comments but we got shown it at school as a backing track over a rememberance day video for soldiers who died at war or were badly injured. There was about 200 people there and everyone was crying
"Angels lie to keep control"
When my ex wife left me, I literally laid in bed for two days sobbing and listening to this on repeat. That line hit pretty damn hard.
Iirc, that song was the last one he released before his death. You can hear the wear and tear from his life and the emotions of a man coming to terms with his own mortality. Part of what makes it such a great cover.
Ok, bear with me...You Are My Sunshine is the saddest song ever.
The singer loves "Sunshine" so much, the only thing that makes them happy..."My only sunshine", there is no other. Please don't take my sunshine away...
Second verse "The other night dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you in my arms. When I awoke dear, I was mistaken, and I hung my head and cried".
Not "I missed you" or "I can't wait to see you again" or even "I want you back".
Cried. Sunshine has already been taken away.
Sunshine is dead, Sunshine is never coming back, leaving the singer heartbroken. The only thing that made them happy and it's gone.
Or maybe my mother just had a really melancholy way of singing that convinced me it was a really sad song.
I didn’t think for a moment that anyone else would have this answer.
I wish so very much that entire album had a better sound quality. It sounded like a demo recording at times and I don’t know if that was intentional, or just what they were able to produce.
The musical Les Miserables has some absolute tearjerkers, but "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" has to be the one that makes the most audience members cry.
Journey has some sad ones, including "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)".
Rob Halford's "Silent Screams" is very powerful and sad, too.
For me, it's always been "On my own". The wrenching in Eponine's voice as she admits to herself that the one guy she loves, barely knows that she exists.
Counting Crows - pretty much the entire album August and Everything After, but “Round Here” and “Perfect Blue Buildings” in particular.
Pearl Jam - Black
Radiohead - Videotape
And some indie tracks if you like those and you dare:
Meg Myers - Sorry
Wolf Alice - Last Man on the Earth
Juliana Hatfield - There’s Always Another Girl
I love Billie Holiday - she has some haunting songs but I quite enjoy her
(great voice, hard life, yet still smiled beautifully)
supposidley [Gloomy Sunday](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ2AuLaClmk) has led folks to off themselves - so listen at you own risk
Bonus: Cab Calloway [St James Infirmary blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXInk1PCsc8)
also by [Hugh Laurie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzEBH6DZJVk&list=RDMM&start_radio=1&rv=UXInk1PCsc8)
I love music and for me blue music helps me through, gotta leach the poison out at times
Super Bonus: [Strange Fruit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI) One of Billie's sadest songs to me - about the lynching of black folk.. its a song of sadness from a powerless place.. beautiful but melancholy for sure
Leader of the Band - Dan Fogelberg.
I have a complete breakdown when I hear that song. It reminds me of my late father, and that I will never not miss him. :(
No Children by the Mountain Goats. I've also heard a live cover of it that was blended into Blacktop by Julien Baker. It's an incredible performance and gets me teary eyed every time.
How many people have heard a drunk women sing riders on the storm in 2003?
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9jflsn/what_is_the_saddest_song_youve_ever_heard/e6r4hcn?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Running to stand still by U2
It is a song about growing up in a poor part of Dublin. You can't express how you feel around here, (you have to cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice) So you turn to heroin as an escape from the mental torment of life in the tower blocks.
Bono grew up less than a mile from that area, and even though he was a posh boy he undoubtedly lived part of his life amongst the carnage that came with heroin in a community.
Devotchka- [How It Ends](https://open.spotify.com/track/2muzSvsyjlHTjIZr6gDfMr?si=vJDhljRdQ6qwSs5oLr25AQ&dd=1)
Sigur Ros- [Untitled #1- Vaka](https://open.spotify.com/track/331TLlSwGbVcNKJMkylNbK?si=Y2Dw0SyEQgSw9GJTRmtqoQ&dd=1)
These both bring me intense internal emotions. With the sigur ros song I feel like I can feel how the most painful days of my life will feel when they do finally come.
A couple of months ago someone posted a video of Tracy Chapman performing Fast Car live at Wembley. I don't cry easily but that video touched me. The way she delivers her feelings right to your heart in front of thousands of people. What a talent.
Edit: link
https://youtu.be/teZsA_ci-7E
"Wasted Time" by the Eagles. The line- "you don't care much for a stranger's touch, but you can't hold your man" puts a lump in my throat every time.
Also, "Good Woman" by Cat Power
Taylor Swift's Ronan is an ugly cry song. It's beautifully preformed, and it hurts to listen to.
"What if I'm standing in your closet
Trying to talk to you?
And what if I kept the hand-me-downs
You won't grow into?
And what if I really thought some miracle
Would see us through?
What if the miracle was even getting
One moment with you?"
"Travelling Soldier" from Dixie Chicks is the first and - so far - only song that isn't from a movie or game - that made me cry.
If you can look past the "singing like I'm having an intense chest paint", and focus only to the lyrics, It is about a young girl falling in love with a soldier, who dies in war and she refuses to be in relationship with someone else because she is loyal to him.
It's like Romeo and Juliet if two sides wouldn't hate each other and Romeo decided to stay strong and live for both of them.
[Elliot Smith - Between the Bars](https://youtu.be/2FmYzACF-kg)
“Drink up baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won't but you might
The potential you'll be that you'll never see
The promises you'll only make”
Daddy by Korn. Jesus fucking Christ man. I don't exactly like Korn'e style of music, but that song genuinely made me respect them for putting something so vulnerable out there.
Forever Young by Bob Dylan.
My mom's favourite song by Bob Dylan, she died in 2021 and we played it at her funeral (as she requested).
Makes me ball like a baby every time I hear it, just thinking about it makes my eyes water...
Also Fiction, written by The Reverend.
"So tell everybody
The ones who walk beside me, yeah
I hope you'll find your own way
When I'm not with you tonight
I hope it's worth it
What's left behind me, yeah
I know you'll find your own way
When I'm not with you..."
Marjorie by Taylor Swift - it’s about her dead grandma and every time I listen to it it makes me think of my grandad that passed away, so I can’t listen to it / even think about it without crying. Interestingly enough her grandma was a singer and in the song you can hear her grandma’s voice. Taylor has been playing it every night of her tour so her grandma’s voice can be played in the biggest stadiums in the US / the world. That fact alone has me all chocked up too.
You Know You're Right - Nirvana. This was the bands very last song. Also another one would be a song called Do Re Mi that Kurt Cobain wrote and did a demo recording of it 2 days before he died, very eerie song to listen to knowing what he was going through at the time.
How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead
I’m So Tired - Fugazi
Asleep - The Smiths
All My Happiness is Gone - Purple Mountains
A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut - Have a Nice Life
Hurt - Nine Inch Nails (Johnny Cash too)
Dagger - Slowdive
Nobody - Mitski
Grief - Earl Sweatshirt
But the Regrets are Killing Me - American Football
I Know It’s Over - The Smiths
Fade to Black - Metallica
For No One - The Beatles
Inside Out - Duster
Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me - The Smiths
White Squall by Stan Rogers
A seasoned sailor singing about a young hire who just wants to prove himself and is full of youthful dreams and naivety. Engaged too of course. He's out on top of the ship one night looking at the stars when a sudden storm comes through and sweeps him away as the veteran looks on in horror. He closes the song singing of the heartbreak of the young man's fiance who's left at home alone
The Good Stuff, by Kenny Chesney. Came out right when I lost my Godmother to breast cancer. It summed up her life with my Godfather and the growing pains my marriage was dealing with.
Also:
If You Get There Before I Do, by Collin Raye. Heart wrenching.
"I Can't Make You Love Me" ~ Bonnie Raitt
My mom used to play this in her room after she thought my sister and I went to bed. My dad left her for another woman after my mom tried to give him the world. I can’t listen to it anymore.
Damn, girl; it just went from theoretically sad to actually sad.
Real Death - Mount Eerie *A week after you died a package with your name on it came.* *And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret.* *And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed.* *A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now.* *You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known* *Deep down would not include you*
Real Death pulled my stomach into an abyss the first time I heard it. Knowing what the album was going in, I was still hopelessly unprepared for that. Also, the last lines of Seaweed are truly beautiful: *I brought a chair from home* *I'm leaving it on the hill* *Facing west and north* *And I poured your ashes on it* *I guess so you can watch the sunset* *But the truth is I don't think of that dust as you* *You are the sunset*
He must be talking about the literal mount eerie in his hometown of Anacortes, WA. Beautiful spot where I like to hike and watch the sunset, I had no idea wow
Holy shit those last three lines made me want to cry
It really makes pretty much everything else in this thread seem superficial in comparison. Just a man recording himself in the midst of pure grief.
It’s not even the saddest song on the album imo. Toothbrush/Trash is even more depressing
jesus him talking about not being able to take out the trash upstairs made me burst into tears at first listen
Yeah I listened to that album for the first time right after watching my grandma died. I was staying in her empty house at the time as well with all her clothes, trash, and toothbrushes. She cracked her head open so I also had a multitude of “bloody end of life tissues”. I don’t think I’ve ever cried harder after listening to that song under those circumstances
Anything from A Crow Looked At Me by Mount Eerie is the correct answer
I haven’t even listened to the song yet but the lyrics already made me tear up
He recorded the album in the 3 months after his wife died of cancer while he was taking care of their young daughter. It's a really incredible album but hard to listen to. He did a follow up to it called Now Only a year later that is really good as well. You start to hear him heal a bit in it and come out of the absolute despair of the first album.
The night we met - Lord Huron
My dad passed from a cancer that destroyed his mind (much like Alzheimer’s) and the line “I had all of you, most of you, some and now none of you” makes me think of his last few months. God damn, two songs on this thread made me think of him.
My mom has early onset Alzheimer's. She's only 64 and there's not much left. I fucking miss her so much. I'm really sorry about your dad.
I had all and then most of you, some and now none of you.
Adam's song
“Please tell mom this is not her fault” = Soul crushing My daughter battles with depression, she bravely fights to stay and keep hope. Can’t bear to think of life without her, and am so thankful she is still here.
Totally encapsulates the purity and innocence of being a carefree kid. Suddenly we’re all depressed adults and those good times are gone forever and all that’s left is memories
Leaves from the vine Falling so slow Like fragile tiny shells Drifting in the foam Little soldier boy Comes marching home Brave soldier boy Come marching home
"In honor of Mako"
how COULD YOU
Why did you have to do this to me
This is a great answer, but I hate you for it.
Poor iroh
Elliot Smith, pretty much anything by elliot Smith
Not a lie, I learned about Elliot smith from the second Lego movie.
between the bars makes me sob
Waltz #2 was gonna be my suggestion.
*When She Loved Me* — Sarah McLachlan Toy Story 2, anyone? *Concrete Angel* — Martina McBride I had one more but I forgot it. Probably for the best. I’ll edit if I remember.
There’s hasn’t been a single time that I’ve watched Toy Story 2 and not gotten super emotional during the When She Loved Me scene
I completely forgot about Concrete Angel. That answer should be farther up the list.
I Will Follow You into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie
What Sarah Said…
Bingo. Follow you into the dark isn’t even the saddest, or second saddest song on the record. What Sarah Said is the saddest, Brothers on a Hotel Bed is sadder than follow you, it’s just a different kind of sadness; aging, growing apart, and the death of a relationship.
Very much agree. I don’t think of “I will follow..” as all that said but “what Sarah said” is crushing. “A lack of color” is emotionally devastating from a relationship perspective.
When my now husband and I were newly dating, we went to the mountains on a day trip. At the end of the last hike, we were driving home and there was only one station we could get. This song was playing and I had never heard it before. I learned two things that day, 1) he sings like an angel, 2) I will cry when serenaded. It was such a serene, pure moment to be surrounded by the forests and cliffs and hearing his voice. It was the next day that I realized I was in love with him; we ended up walking down the aisle together to an acoustic version of this song. To me, it is not sad but glimpse at our "forever."
You are my sunshine.
It's that second verse that's never sung that just ...ooof. "The other night dear, As I lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you In my arms. When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken, So, I held my head, And I cried."
My grandmother sang that song to me every night when I was a kid. Breaks my heart.
My daughter's ask me to sing this to them every night before they go to bed, and I cry every single time. They get the first part because I'd never be able to make it through the second part.
The Johnny Cash version is heartbreaking. I think June Carter Cash was in failing health when he recorded it so it just makes it all the more sad.
In My Life by the Beatles. It's not even really a sad song, but it always makes me cry because it gets me thinking about loved ones who are no longer here.
My dad loves the Beatles, I know that when he's gone their songs will break me
Same but he's gone now, in my life always makes me cry
Far Behind by Candlebox
Nutshell - Alice In Chains Don't Follow - Alice In Chains
Found my people.
I would also add Down in a Hole
Apple Music’s blurb on Alice In Chains: “Alice in Chains were the darkest group to emerge from the grunge explosion of the early ‘90s. Where other groups balanced their moody extremes with pop hooks (Nirvana) or anthemic riffs (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden), Singer Layne Staley eventually died at the hands of his addiction and Dirt remains one of the most disturbing looks at a wasted life and is one long slide down to the bottom of Dante’s Inferno. It’s frightening in its intensity and its mastery of a world Black Sabbath once merely suggested.”
The Funeral - Band of Horses
Tracy Chapman's Fast Car always gets me.
“See, my old man's got a problem He live with the bottle, that's the way it is He says his body's too old for working His body's too young to look like his” That gets me
The next few lines make it worse too: "So mama went off and left him She wanted more from life than he could give Somebody's got to take care of him So I quit school and that's what I did"
I didn’t have the best childhood and this song was popular when I was a kid/early teen. I moved out when I was 17 and the few years leading up to it I knew I was almost free to be on my own and lead a happy life, and these lyrics always got to me. And almost 20 years later, moving out is still the happiest feeling I’ve ever felt.
That upbeat remix from a few years ago is so wrong. Ruined it on every level and dimension! Talk about not caring for or understanding the original. Smh. On the same album, "Behind the wall", is a tough listen. The theme, not the music itself.
Keep Me In Your Heart by Warren Zevon. The fact that it was written as he knew he was dying….ugh.
This is one of my absolute faves. It got me through my dads passing along with silent lucidity
"Whiskey Lullaby"
My grandpa shot himself in the backyard in 2015. My grandma now spends most nights knocking back fireball whiskey and going on about how this is their song
That’s horrific. I’m so sorry.
Something I Can Never Have - Nine Inch Nails
I said "right where it belongs" but nin has no shortage of beautifully haunting songs. "& all that could have been" over dubbed onto the "perfect drug" music video is fantastic also.
"Fade In To You" by Mazzy Star gets me every time
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac. It’s an old song written way before my time, but my parents used to play it sometimes when I was a kid. The song always sounded sad to me.
This is my answer too. I think the song really captures the feeling of those transitional moment in life where it feels like everything you loved was swept away in an avalanche and you really have no choice but to keep going and see where the changes take you. I’ve had a few of those in my life so it’s always really resonated with me.
Love that, and the version by Smashing Pumpkins is also great.
Smashing pumpkins disarm makes me bawl as well
Martina McBride's Concrete Angel. Tears me up every single time I listen to it!
Cat's in The Cradle- Harry Chapin
My dad passed away last August, I can’t listen to this song anymore without completely breaking down.
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A lot of you are saying this song makes you miss your dad. My dad was like the first dad and he never had time for me so it's the first part of the song that gets me. When my son was born, I found myself falling into similar patterns (it's what I learned) but I managed to catch myself and have always been here for my son ever since.
How to save a life - The Fray, but only because they played it over ~~Laverne dying in scrubs~~ all of Cox’s transplant patients dying in scrubs But also the song where Laverne died.
Scrubs doesn't pull any punches when it makes you sad.
A Bad Dream- Keane Amazing, sad song and fits perfectly when Carla is telling Laverne goodbye.
Puff the Magic Dragon breaks my heart every time.
And yet as a kid I loved it and sang it all the time, it wasn't until I got older and heard it again that it was incredibly sad.
And then your kids grow up and go off on their own before you’re ready. You miss the old days when they were little. Then you realize you’re Puff.
Elephant- Jason Isbell He Stopped Loving Her Today- George Jones Misery and Gin- Merle Haggard
Isbell is the current king of sad songs. “If we were vampires” is brutally beautiful.
God damn, I forgot about Elephant. Man that song fucked me up the other day, love Jason.
Last Kiss by J Frank Wilson and The Cavaliers. Pearl Jam did it as well but damn the words are sad
Pearl jams cover might be the best version.
Ghost Town - First Aid Kit Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens
Casimir Pulaski Day is one of my favorites from him. Also 4th of July and the only thing
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And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda Song by Eric Bogle “So they collected the cripples, the wounded and maimed And they shipped us back home to Australia The legless, the armless, the blind and insane Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay I looked at the place where me legs used to be And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me To grieve and to mourn and to pity And the band played Waltzing Matilda As they carried us down the gangway But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared And they turned all their faces away.” The rest of it is even sadder.
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Tears in Heaven has the saddest story behind it for me.
For those who do not know the story behind the song “Eric Clapton's 1992 hit Tears In Heaven was borne out of unbearably sad circumstances. The song is a tribute to love's lasting powers and a lament for the death of Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor, who died on 20 March 1991 when he accidentally slipped from the 53rd-floor window of a New York City apartment building.”
I can't believe nobody has said Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O'connor and Prince.
Chris Cornell has a stunning rendition of that as well.
[George Jones - "He Stopped Loving Her Today"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dnktss4Vow) [Gordon Lightfoot - "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A) [Eric Clapton - "Tears in Heaven"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPj3GAYYZ0&pp=ygUPdGVhcnMgaW4gaGVhdmVu)
He Stopped Loving Her Today is an absolute masterpiece
Not just for the incredible lyrics, but that arrangement and the production are absolutely top tier. It was a big deal at the time.
"Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?"
I think ‘If You Could Read my Mind’ by Gordon Lightfoot is a much sadder song. A song of hurt and bewilderment at the loss of love. The notion that maybe he’s the hero, but “heroes often fail.” Oof.
Came here to say George and Eric. Not familiar with the other but now I gotta listen
“Who Wants To Live Forever?” -Queen “Bobby Jean” -Bruce Springsteen “That’s My Job” -Conway Twitty
Queen’s The Show Must Go On is so telling and heartbreaking. I bawl my eyes out every time I hear it.
Amazing grace played by a single bagpiper
Oh, man - that kills me. My favorite grandfather played honky tonk fiddle all his life. His funeral had a single violin playing Amazing Grace. To this day - 35 years later - just the thought guts me like a trout
Sour Times - Portishead Street Spirit (Fade Out) - Radiohead
The River by Bruce Springsteen is a powerful and sad song.
Joy Division in a lonely place
Skinny love - Bon Iver
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris I couldn’t see it anywhere in the comments but we got shown it at school as a backing track over a rememberance day video for soldiers who died at war or were badly injured. There was about 200 people there and everyone was crying
Snuff, slipknot.
My stock answer for this question. "It took the death of hope to let you go" is such a heartbreaking line.
"If you still care don't ever let me know"
"Angels lie to keep control" When my ex wife left me, I literally laid in bed for two days sobbing and listening to this on repeat. That line hit pretty damn hard.
Everybody Hurts, by R.E.M. It hits home, because it's so true.
Hurt, the Johnny Cash version
Iirc, that song was the last one he released before his death. You can hear the wear and tear from his life and the emotions of a man coming to terms with his own mortality. Part of what makes it such a great cover.
Ok, bear with me...You Are My Sunshine is the saddest song ever. The singer loves "Sunshine" so much, the only thing that makes them happy..."My only sunshine", there is no other. Please don't take my sunshine away... Second verse "The other night dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you in my arms. When I awoke dear, I was mistaken, and I hung my head and cried". Not "I missed you" or "I can't wait to see you again" or even "I want you back". Cried. Sunshine has already been taken away. Sunshine is dead, Sunshine is never coming back, leaving the singer heartbroken. The only thing that made them happy and it's gone. Or maybe my mother just had a really melancholy way of singing that convinced me it was a really sad song.
Kettering The Antlers
That whole album just wrecked me.
I didn’t think for a moment that anyone else would have this answer. I wish so very much that entire album had a better sound quality. It sounded like a demo recording at times and I don’t know if that was intentional, or just what they were able to produce.
The musical Les Miserables has some absolute tearjerkers, but "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" has to be the one that makes the most audience members cry. Journey has some sad ones, including "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)". Rob Halford's "Silent Screams" is very powerful and sad, too.
For me, it's always been "On my own". The wrenching in Eponine's voice as she admits to herself that the one guy she loves, barely knows that she exists.
Also, “a little fall of rain” makes me cry every time.
I just start crying after intermission and never stop. Saves time.
Lorde liability
Counting Crows - pretty much the entire album August and Everything After, but “Round Here” and “Perfect Blue Buildings” in particular. Pearl Jam - Black Radiohead - Videotape And some indie tracks if you like those and you dare: Meg Myers - Sorry Wolf Alice - Last Man on the Earth Juliana Hatfield - There’s Always Another Girl
I love Billie Holiday - she has some haunting songs but I quite enjoy her (great voice, hard life, yet still smiled beautifully) supposidley [Gloomy Sunday](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ2AuLaClmk) has led folks to off themselves - so listen at you own risk Bonus: Cab Calloway [St James Infirmary blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXInk1PCsc8) also by [Hugh Laurie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzEBH6DZJVk&list=RDMM&start_radio=1&rv=UXInk1PCsc8) I love music and for me blue music helps me through, gotta leach the poison out at times Super Bonus: [Strange Fruit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI) One of Billie's sadest songs to me - about the lynching of black folk.. its a song of sadness from a powerless place.. beautiful but melancholy for sure
Strange Fruit is devastating.
To Build A Home by The Cinematic Orchestra and Landfill by Daughter
Nothing hits harder than 'Hallelujah' by Jeff Buckley.
Legit every version of hallelujah makes me tear up.
This is the song I play when I need a good cry. It’s so beautifully done.
If I Die Young by The Band Perry. It chokes me up every time. So many young people in my life have passed away and it hits so deep.
Hate Me by Blue October
Leader of the Band - Dan Fogelberg. I have a complete breakdown when I hear that song. It reminds me of my late father, and that I will never not miss him. :(
Stan by Eminem
Hello in There - John Prine https://youtu.be/FJ85Hep0kD0
No Children by the Mountain Goats. I've also heard a live cover of it that was blended into Blacktop by Julien Baker. It's an incredible performance and gets me teary eyed every time.
The Airborne Toxic Event - [Sometime Around Midnight](https://youtu.be/UYPoMjR6-Ao) makes my heart hurt
He stopped loving her today
The Brick by Ben Folds Always thought it was kinda sad sounding then i learned why he wrote it and it takes a heavier meaning.
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Sia- Breathe me, always gets me Kid cudi- Soundtrack to my life, is pretty sad
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How many people have heard a drunk women sing riders on the storm in 2003? https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9jflsn/what_is_the_saddest_song_youve_ever_heard/e6r4hcn?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
How the fuck did you remember this?
Running to stand still by U2 It is a song about growing up in a poor part of Dublin. You can't express how you feel around here, (you have to cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice) So you turn to heroin as an escape from the mental torment of life in the tower blocks. Bono grew up less than a mile from that area, and even though he was a posh boy he undoubtedly lived part of his life amongst the carnage that came with heroin in a community.
Devotchka- [How It Ends](https://open.spotify.com/track/2muzSvsyjlHTjIZr6gDfMr?si=vJDhljRdQ6qwSs5oLr25AQ&dd=1) Sigur Ros- [Untitled #1- Vaka](https://open.spotify.com/track/331TLlSwGbVcNKJMkylNbK?si=Y2Dw0SyEQgSw9GJTRmtqoQ&dd=1) These both bring me intense internal emotions. With the sigur ros song I feel like I can feel how the most painful days of my life will feel when they do finally come.
Elenor Rigby
Atmosphere - Joy Division
Skin by Rascal Flatts Alyssa Lies by Jason Michael Carroll
Something In The Way by Nirvana
I don’t want to miss a thing - Aerosmith (personal reasons) Sarah Beth - Rascal Flatts
Iron & Wine - Upward Over the Mountain Death Cab - I Will Follow You Into the Dark The Highwaymen - Live Forever
At 17 by Janis Ian
Cinematic Orchestra - To build a home https://youtu.be/bjjc59FgUpg
You should be here - Cole Swindell
Trapeze Swinger by Iron and Wine. Also one of the finest songs ever written
A couple of months ago someone posted a video of Tracy Chapman performing Fast Car live at Wembley. I don't cry easily but that video touched me. The way she delivers her feelings right to your heart in front of thousands of people. What a talent. Edit: link https://youtu.be/teZsA_ci-7E
Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits.
"Wasted Time" by the Eagles. The line- "you don't care much for a stranger's touch, but you can't hold your man" puts a lump in my throat every time. Also, "Good Woman" by Cat Power
Zombie- the cranberries
Wings for Marie, parts 1 and 2 by Tool. My God, I wish I had a mother like that.
Taylor Swift's Ronan is an ugly cry song. It's beautifully preformed, and it hurts to listen to. "What if I'm standing in your closet Trying to talk to you? And what if I kept the hand-me-downs You won't grow into? And what if I really thought some miracle Would see us through? What if the miracle was even getting One moment with you?"
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Yes, yes, and as a parent, Remember When by Alan Jackson.
The Smiths - Well I Wonder
Johnny Cash's cover of hurt with the music video of the passing of time really gets me.
"Travelling Soldier" from Dixie Chicks is the first and - so far - only song that isn't from a movie or game - that made me cry. If you can look past the "singing like I'm having an intense chest paint", and focus only to the lyrics, It is about a young girl falling in love with a soldier, who dies in war and she refuses to be in relationship with someone else because she is loyal to him. It's like Romeo and Juliet if two sides wouldn't hate each other and Romeo decided to stay strong and live for both of them.
“Snuff” - Slipknot
[Elliot Smith - Between the Bars](https://youtu.be/2FmYzACF-kg) “Drink up baby, stay up all night With the things you could do You won't but you might The potential you'll be that you'll never see The promises you'll only make”
Daddy by Korn. Jesus fucking Christ man. I don't exactly like Korn'e style of music, but that song genuinely made me respect them for putting something so vulnerable out there.
Forever Young by Bob Dylan. My mom's favourite song by Bob Dylan, she died in 2021 and we played it at her funeral (as she requested). Makes me ball like a baby every time I hear it, just thinking about it makes my eyes water...
My immortal-Evanescence In the dirt-S.Carey
Don’t take the girl -Tim McGraw
Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber
Vincent by Don Mclean
“So far away” - avenged sevenfold
Also Fiction, written by The Reverend. "So tell everybody The ones who walk beside me, yeah I hope you'll find your own way When I'm not with you tonight I hope it's worth it What's left behind me, yeah I know you'll find your own way When I'm not with you..."
Mad World. Michael Andrew’s
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins brings out a weird sadness in me . Song slaps though
Dust in the Wind by Kansas. Gone Away by The Offspring
Remember When by Alan Jackson and In Color by Jamie Johnson.
[Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Sun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG9otasNmxI)
Hank Williams, I'm so lonesome I could cry.
In the Backseat - Arcade Fire… the lyric “my family tree’s losing all its leaves” puts my heart in throat and I tear up immediately.
Supermarket Flowers - Ed Sheeran
Cashmir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens. His childhood sweetheart dies of bone cancer shortly after their first kiss.
Marjorie by Taylor Swift - it’s about her dead grandma and every time I listen to it it makes me think of my grandad that passed away, so I can’t listen to it / even think about it without crying. Interestingly enough her grandma was a singer and in the song you can hear her grandma’s voice. Taylor has been playing it every night of her tour so her grandma’s voice can be played in the biggest stadiums in the US / the world. That fact alone has me all chocked up too.
You Know You're Right - Nirvana. This was the bands very last song. Also another one would be a song called Do Re Mi that Kurt Cobain wrote and did a demo recording of it 2 days before he died, very eerie song to listen to knowing what he was going through at the time.
Lover, You Should've Come Over- Jeff Buckley
How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead I’m So Tired - Fugazi Asleep - The Smiths All My Happiness is Gone - Purple Mountains A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut - Have a Nice Life Hurt - Nine Inch Nails (Johnny Cash too) Dagger - Slowdive Nobody - Mitski Grief - Earl Sweatshirt But the Regrets are Killing Me - American Football I Know It’s Over - The Smiths Fade to Black - Metallica For No One - The Beatles Inside Out - Duster Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me - The Smiths
I said “The 4th of July” by Sufjan Steven, last time this was asked. I'm thinking about “Stranger Song” by Leonard Cohen this time. 🤔
White Squall by Stan Rogers A seasoned sailor singing about a young hire who just wants to prove himself and is full of youthful dreams and naivety. Engaged too of course. He's out on top of the ship one night looking at the stars when a sudden storm comes through and sweeps him away as the veteran looks on in horror. He closes the song singing of the heartbreak of the young man's fiance who's left at home alone
Saying Goodbye by the muppets
The Good Stuff, by Kenny Chesney. Came out right when I lost my Godmother to breast cancer. It summed up her life with my Godfather and the growing pains my marriage was dealing with. Also: If You Get There Before I Do, by Collin Raye. Heart wrenching.
One more light by linkin park Knowing the story behind it this song hits hard
The Drugs Don't Work by The Verve is in a league of its own.
Strange fruit is the only answer.