Pajiba

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary. Jackie Paper was a little bastard.

1. Defying Gravity, "Wicked" (shut up)
2. One Day More, Les Miserables (I have a thing for musicals)
3. 5am, Tori Amos
4. Do What You Have To Do, Sarah McLachlan
5. Space reserved for whatever amazing piece of music my orchestra is playing that semester, there's always one that gets me.

Ever since that damn "Six Feet Under" finale, Sia's "Breathe Me" always seems to coincide with the air being particularly dusty. That's all I can thinks of at the moment.

"Treasure" - The Cure

"Where Did You Sleep Last Night" - Nirvana Unplugged

"Cat's in the Cradle" - Harry Chapin

"Mad World" - Michael Andrews Version...dunno...if i hear it at the right (wrong?) time it can get me.

"Love, Reign O'er Me" - Pearl Jam...got swept up in it during the movie...

::sigh::... Now i have to go cut myself.

1. hallelujah (the rufus wainwright version)
2. what sarah said by death cab for cutie
3. question by the old 97s (a good kind of cry)
4. comfortable by john mayer
5. texas on my mind by pat green.

Hm... I can only think of three.

1. "Trouble," Cat Stevens
2. "The Size of Our Love," Sleater-Kinney
3. "A Better Son/Daughter," Rilo Kiley

How could anyone choose Rufus Wainright over Jeff Buckley????

1) Famous Blue Raincoat: Leonard Cohen (literally, the saddest song in the world)
2) Whatever song Sarah McLachlan is singing in the ASPCA commercials because you just can't associate a piece of music with abandoned and injured dogs and not expect me to weep every time I hear it.
Some of the Brits and assorted other non-US Pajibans may know my #3
3) Two Little Boys: Rolf Harris (awful bloody song but makes me cry every time)
4) Carrickfergus: Van Morrison & Chieftains (there are actually many more versions since it's a folk song but I'm listing the one that most people may have heard)
5) Every song that I have held close to my heart that has subsequently been used for crass commercial purposes because mis-using a certain kind of song is just evil and makes me cry(i.e., Pogues:Sunnyside of the Street for Cadillac, Clash: London Calling for Jaguar, etc.)
Sorry, I know not a great song list, but I have to be honest.

1. "Cannonball," Damien Rice

2. "Velvet Waltz," Built to Spill

3. "Last Goodbye," Jeff Buckley

4. "Plane," Jason Mraz

5. "Accidental Babies," Damien Rice



and



6. "Forget the Flowers," Wilco

1. slip slidin' away - paul simon
2. bongo man - jimmy cliff (something about my dad?)
3. will the circle be unbroken - the neville brothers version (it's the chief jolly verse that gets me everytime. i guess i've known alot of chief jollies)
4. hearts and bones - paul simon (the man has written some seriously beautiful and sad lyrics)
5. space oddity - david bowie (okay maybe it doesn't make me cry now but when i was a little girl i thought it was the darkest thing i'd ever heard.)

1. Hallelujah (Buckley version. and yes, duh.)
2. Nightswimming by REM
3. Everybody Hurts...REM. They also have their own corner of this market
4. Holes in the Floor of Heaven by Colin Raye
5. Iris..The Goo Goo Dolls

I know that Rufus is much less hip than Jeff Buckley, but I can't help it! I like his version better.

Cat's in the Cradle- Harry Chapin; no brainer

With or Without You- U2

Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" is about it, and that only because I now forever associate it with Eddie Guerrero's death.

"Series of Dreams" by Bob Dylan is so beautiful that it chokes me up, though, just about every time. So that's a close second.

I've noticed a lot of Hallelujah love on Pajiba on previous diversions also and just thought I should point out that Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright aside, the guy who wrote the song and has the dfinitive version of it is the incomparable Mr. Leonard Cohen. Canadian Pajibans, you can thank me later!

father of mine by everclear

"Waiting for My Real Life to Begin" by Colin Hay

"She's Already Made Up Her Mind" by Lyle Lovett

"Danny Boy" by Grimethorpe Colliery Band ("Brassed Off" soundtrack)

Increase the likelihood of tears by a factor of ten if I've been drinking when I hear them.

Times of Your Life - Paul Anka - For all you Parents out there

1. The boxer - Simon and Garfunkel
2. Un bel di, Vedremo - Maria Callas
3. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
4. Hurt - Johnny Cash's cover
5. Born to run - Bruce Springsteen

1. The Best of What's Around, DMB: It reminds me of the summer of 1998, after my senior year of high school. This was the summer that me and my friends Dawn, Tommy, Little Mike, and my best friend Jay discovered each other and became inseparable. Little Mike was killed in a car accident 3 1/2 years ago, so I tear up at his memory and the memory of how young we were and how much fun we had. I love this song.

2. Fast Car, Tracy Chapman: Both the melody and her voice slay me, but mainly this song makes me think of my father (he loves Chapman) and how great our relationship used to be and reminds me of the apathetic asshole he's become.

3. Where Will I Be, Emmy Lou Harris: The way she wails causes goosebumps.

4. The World I Know, Collective Soul: Shut. Up. It makes me weep.

5. Your Eyes, Peter Gabriel: I adore this song, but it depresses me for god knows what reason. I have a masochistic relationship with this song...it hurts, but it hurts so GOOD.

1. Passing Afternoon - Iron & Wine

2. Nightswimming - REM

3. Mad World - Gary Jules

4. The Trapeze Swinger - Iron & Wine

5. Morning Watch - Dolorean

How exciting, I almost never get in early on these afternoon comment diversions!

Here are some tearjerking songs that I love, complete with commentary, because I feel wordy today (sorry, everybody):

Aftermath - REM (For some reason, one part always makes me overwhelmingly sad: "So you work it out, overfeed the cat / and the plants are dry and they need to drink, so you do your best and you flood the sink / sit down in the kitchen and cry")

And Now The Day Is Done - Ron Sexsmith ("The sun has gone, it arose but never shone"...sniff!)

Harrowdown Hill - Thom Yorke (Even without the backstory, it's such an emotion-filled song)

Camera - REM ("I still like you, can you remember?")

Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong - Radiohead (Sigh, now that's love...)

And for good measure, here are two songs that I don't often listen to because they just plain depress me:

Misguided Angel - Cowboy Junkies

Fiddler's Green - The Tragically Hip

"Wild World" - Cat Stevens

"Bright Lights" - Matchbox 20 [it's a dumb song, but my sister said it reminded her of me, so now it gets me choked up. Goddamnit.]

"The Dangling Conversation" - Simon and Garfunkel

"Exit Music [for a film]" - Radiohead

"Shiny" - The Decemberists

I could go on, but I'll stop at five.

These five are usually the closers on my "slit your wrists for love" mixes:

5. "Dead Flowers," Townes van Zandt

4. "Almost Blue," Elvis Costello

3. "All I Left Behind," Emmylou Harris (the most heartbreaking female voice out there)

2. "Wild Horses," The Rolling Stones

1. "Jackson," Lucinda Williams

Their entire catalogue - Good Charlotte
Strong Enough - Cher
Cotton Eyed Joe - Rednex
Musicology - Prince
This is why I'm hot - Mims

These songs make me cry for the simple reason that they blow harder than she who shall not be named during a conjugal visit.

The thing about sobfest tunes is that one person's "oh my God that breaks my heart" song is the next person's "WTF? How can you get the snots over that corny song?" song. (To give one example, U2's "One" just makes me roll my eyes.)

But okay, I'll reveal my inner sentimental cornball self a little:

1) "End of the Game" by Sting. By the time he gets to the last verse I am a useless lump of wet pain.

2) "Brick" by Ben Folds Five. The first time I heard this I was driving and I had to pull over. Rips my heart out.

3) Sarah McLaughlin (judging by these posts she is the Weepy Queen!) did a cover of "The Rainbow Connection" for a kids' album. Go ahead and snicker, you fucks. I dare you to listen to what she does with this simple, beautiful song. If you are not moved you were never a child.

Coming Right Along - The Posies

Oh, God, michael: "Night Swimming." Yes indeed.

1. November Rain - Guns and Roses (For the same reason that Tears in Heaven was mentioned. Speaking of which, I could put Clapton on this list but no, I think not.)

2. Something Vague - Bright Eyes

3. Passenger Seat - Death Cab for Cutie

4. I'll Catch You - The Get Up Kids

5. Pictures of You - The Cure

Wow, that was harder than I thought...trying to come up with songs that aren't tied to a specific breakup but still have the capacity to make me tearful. I think I'll go cry and be emo for a while...

I can only come up with four. I'm sure there are a few more that I can't remember (I know there is definitely one or two by Colin Hay) but I don't like to sonically cut myself so I generally stay away from tear-jerking songs. Here's my four in no particular order:

1. God Knows I'm Good by Bowie (This song makes me cry like a baby. You cannot get any sadder than an impoverished old woman being arrested for stealing bread in order to eat and feeling bad about the act.)

2. Some Things Last A Long Time by Daniel Johnston (This song rips my heart out. The first time I heard it was when it was covered by David J. So I hunted down the original. Holy God, I don't know which version was more heart-wrenching.)

3. On Eagle's Wings by whatever church choir is singing it at the time (Always made me cry, but since it was played at my grandfather's funeral I'm nothing but a puddle of tears every time I hear it. Shit, thinking about it makes me tear up. Moving on...)

4. Let It Be by The Beatles (Yeah! What of it, bitches? Something about this song makes me verklempt.)

1. Jolene - Ray LaMontagne
2. Citywide Rodeo - The Weepies
3. Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell
4. Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez

"Dust in the Wind" and "Carry on my Wayward Son" by Kansas.
Both because the connection I've made between them and people that have died.
The former because...well have you listened to the lyrics?
Unfortunately, the latter used to be a happy song, reminding me of marching band (geek alert!). But...no more.

Rufus Wainwright -- "Beautiful Child"

Joni Mitchell -- "Circle Game"

Cat Stevens -- "Father and Son" or "Oh Very Young"

Sufjan Stevens -- "Springfield" or "For the Widows in Paradise"

Neil Young -- "Sugar Mountain"

Patty Griffin -- "Mary"

I will say this is a little hard while I'm trying to jam out to the new White Stripes. (which is pretty great)

Iron and Wine covering "You Were Always on My Mind"

Maggie Gyllenhaal singing "Just the Way You Are" in Happy Endings.

"I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab

"Desire" by Ryan Adams

"Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens

and Many many Bob Dylan songs choke me up.

Iron and Wine covering "You Were Always on My Mind"

Maggie Gyllenhaal singing "Just the Way You Are" in Happy Endings.

"I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab

"Desire" by Ryan Adams

"Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens

and Many many Bob Dylan songs choke me up.

1."What A Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
2."I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie
3."Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley
4."Hurt" by Christina Aguilera
5."Breath Me" by Sia

It's the associations that get to ya.
1. Calling All Angels - Jane Sibery (Not Train!)
I think of "Pay it Forward" and my mother

2. Three Women - Domestic Science Club
My sister-in-law's cancer

3. Old Friends/Bookend - Paul Simon
getting old

4. Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Dr. Green on ER

On and On and On

1. Rainbow Connection - Kermit the Frog - I can get through it without crying now unless I'm actually holding my son. When I found out that Sarah McLachlan had recorded a version of it, I started crying JUST ON PRINCIPLE.
2.Life Is Sweet - Natalie Merchant Every. Time.
3.Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens - Because motherhood makes you pathetic and weak!
4. That I Would Be Good - Alanis Morissette
5. 500 Miles - Peter Paul and Mary

Oh. I completely forgot "Moon River" - pref. Louis Armstrong's version. Odd considering it's my favorite song EVAH.

1. on eagle's wings - the closing hymn at my dad's funeral. it's been 15 years, and still...
2. mercy (clumsy lovers) - "look her in they and try for mercy."
3. when will i be loved? (elvis costello) - teen angst and heartbreak.
4. chicago (sufjan stevens) - something about that swelling at each chorus...dunno why.
5. what a crying shame (the mavericks) - "'cause i believed in you / from the beginnning / i thought our love was true / now it's all ending." just a lovely, sad lyric.

sigh...

Plus a shout out for the Cowboy Junkies mention. My brother likes to the Junkies oeuvre "music to kill yourself by".

1. I Will Follow You Into the Dark, Death Cab for Cutie

2. Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley

3. Good Enough, Sarah McLachlan

4. River, Joni Mitchell

5. Exit Music for a Film, Radiohead

Pajiba you are reading my mind. Just this morning I was in my car thinking about songs that make me weepy and I wondered "Hmmm...Has Pajiba ever done that as a diversion?" Clearly, I spend too much time online, but also, you are reading my mind.

Here goes:
"I Will Follow You Into the Dark" Death Cab for Cutie
"Eleanor Rigby" The Beatles
"Behind the Bars" & "Say Yes" Elliott Smith
"Wise Up" Aimee Mann
"Symphony 7 Allegretto" Beethoven

The last one doesn't necessarily cause tears, but always an uncanny wave of melancholy.

sorry. "look her in THE EYE and try for mercy."

Hurt - Johnny Cash vers.

I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie (If you have ever seen this youtube video with the sketchbook you will understand)

Cold Water - Damien Rice

Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell (Her re-recorded version. The depth she brings to it now blows me away.)

Brick - Ben Folds Five (This one still gets me. Mostly because it instantly returns me to my 13 year old self.)

Hurt - Johnny Cash vers.

I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie (If you have ever seen this youtube video with the sketchbook you will understand)

Cold Water - Damien Rice

Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell (Her re-recorded version. The depth she brings to it now blows me away.)

Brick - Ben Folds Five (This one still gets me. Mostly because it instantly returns me to my 13 year old self.)

1. Hurt-Johnny Cash's cover, of course. It only serves to remind me he's no longer with us.
2. Pictures of You-The Cure
3. Luckiest-Ben Folds
4. Never Seen Blue-Tori
5. La Valse d'Amelie (piano version)- It plays towards the end of the movie when she thinks she's lost all hope of uniting with Nino. Ah, my many unrequited loves...

Plus (as a lot of people mentioned in the comment thread about Junebug), old hymns and gospel songs get me choked up with their simple beauty and how much they remind me that my grandmommy, who loved that music, is gone from this earth.

AND THEN... There's this super-sappy Christmas song that I only hear on the radio at the holidays about a little girl who nurtures an injured bird but gives it away as her offering on Christmas Eve and God heals the bird and it flys through the church and sings...

Gets me every time.

In My Life- Ben Lee cover
I just graduated college-enough said.

Go Rest High on the Mountain - Vince Gill (Normally am not a fan of bluegrass, but this song was played at my grandfather's funeral and everytime I hear it ((not very often)) it doesn't just bring tears to my eyes, it makes me ball.)

Butterfly- Weezer
Rivers Cuomo's voice is so heartbreaking in this song.

You've got a Friend- Carole King
Did I mention that I just graduated from a woman's college. That just went co-ed. Where most of my friends live states away, if not in different countries?

Samson- Regina Spektor
I have no idea why this song makes me cry. The first time I heard it, my eyes just filled with tears.

My Apartment- Ben Kweller
The frustrations of not knowing where you fit inthe world are beautifully laid out here.

**Love the one about Puff the Magic Dragon. Made me cry as a kid.

In My Life- Ben Lee cover
I just graduated college-enough said.

Go Rest High on the Mountain - Vince Gill (Normally am not a fan of bluegrass, but this song was played at my grandfather's funeral and everytime I hear it ((not very often)) it doesn't just bring tears to my eyes, it makes me ball.)

Butterfly- Weezer
Rivers Cuomo's voice is so heartbreaking in this song.

You've got a Friend- Carole King
Did I mention that I just graduated from a woman's college. That just went co-ed. Where most of my friends live states away, if not in different countries?

Samson- Regina Spektor
I have no idea why this song makes me cry. The first time I heard it, my eyes just filled with tears.

My Apartment- Ben Kweller
The frustrations of not knowing where you fit inthe world are beautifully laid out here.

**Love the one about Puff the Magic Dragon. Made me cry as a kid.

No particular order:

Hallelujah--whichever version

On The Turning Away-Pink Floyd
(not teary per se, just puts you in an introspective "all my difficulties are meaningless" mood

Bridge Over Troubled Water-S&G

Started a Joke-Bee Gees

Hokay, I thought I would add my two bits, even though my opinion isn't worth much:

1.) Northern Sky - Nick Drake
2.) My Work Is Done - Steve Von Til
3.) Blue Factory Flame - Songs: Ohia
4.) Two Blue Lights - Songs: Ohia
5.) I'm Free Now - Morphine

These don't exactly make me tear up, but they do make me more melancholy than normal. Which is quite a feat if you know me.

Imagine - John Lennon, because it's all we'll ever be able to do, imagine living a life of peace. fucking politicians!

Fur Elise - Beethoven. I don't know if classical music can be called a "song" per se, but this moves me.

Color MY World - Chicago. My sister's favorite song before she died.

I Want You - Elvis Costello. I guess this makes me more mad than sad, but in the end I always come up short so ... yeah, here it is.

Anything by Madonna - Because her voice can be heard.

A big 'ol hells YES to everyone who mentioned "On Eagles Wings." Saddest hymn EVER. Ugg, I'm almost tearing up just thinking about it. Oh Catholic school.

I can only think of three at the moment:

1. Why - Annie Lennox
2. Walk Away - Ben Harper
3. The Water is Wide - I have sung this at a bunch of weddings, but recently sung it at a friend's funeral, so it will always be associated with that day.

Songs with beautiful instrumentation or an amazing voice also get to me, so I tear up at a lot of opera and classical/choral music.

first of all, jeff and rufus are equally hip. and the boys can sing, so no need to pick sides...

rufus wainwright ~ the maker makes
jeff buckley ~ morning theft (or any song of his, really)
harry chapin ~ cat's in the cradle
iron & wine ~ naked as we came

1) "Mess to be Made" The Format
2) "Trouble" Ray LaMontagne
3) "Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" Colin Hay
4) "Tragedy" Brandi Carlile
5) "Waste of Paint" Bright Eyes

And pretty much anything by Sarah McLachlan

Never done these before, but saw it quick enough:

Hurt- Johnny Cash version.
Nightswimming- REM
Maybe you're right- Cat Stevens (the saddest song if you are breaking up and trying to make it work ever)
These days- Nico version
Landslide- Any version, but Smashing Pumpkins because I was a child of the '90s.

Aprhodite - I totally second "Samson." Song KILLS me. I think it's just the tone in her voice - it's so MOURNFUL.

As for the rest:
- "Putting the Damage on," Tori Amos. And probably 27 other Tori tracks, but I'll restrain myself.
- "Nightswimming," REM. Michael Stipe will get tyour tears, one way or another
- "The Promise," Tracy Chapman. Played over and over as I mourned the death of my high school relationship
- "Tiny Vessels," Death Cab. Coldhearted and heartbreaking at the same time
- ANYTHING AT ALL by Patsy Cline. And if you don't cry at Patsy Cline, you're a cynical shell of a human being. The End.

"Rain" by Erase the Grey

"Wasted Years" by Cold

"Bother" by Stone Sour (because I can be emo)

1. Holiday in Spain - The Counting Crows

2. The Professor - Damien Rice

3. Someday You Will Be Loved - Death Cab

4. Kite - U2

5. Everybody's Changing - Keane



oof.

In no order:

The Beatles- In My Life

When Whoopie Goldberg sings "Anything You Want" to Mary Louise Parker in Boys on the Side

Sky Blue and Black- Jackson Browne

Life is Sweet- Natalie Merchant

Silver Springs (the live version from The Dance)- Stevie Nicks

Africa- Toto. I am completely serious. SHUT UP!

Smoke by Ben Folds Five
You Could Be Happy by Snow Patrol
20,000 Seconds and Almost Happy by K's Choice
The Old Apartment by the Barenaked Ladies
and lately, Daylight by Better than Ezra

1. Exit Music (For a Film) - Radiohead

2. Videotape - Radiohead

3. Between the Bars - Elliott Smith

4. I Know - Fiona Apple

5. Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton - no matter how hard I try not to

1. Long Long Time by Linda Ronstadt

2. Strange Fruit by Billie Holliday

3. I Don't Care Much sung by Alan Cumming in Cabaret

4. Hurt by Nine Inch Nails

I can't really think of a #5. There are plenty of songs from musicals (like Genny, I kind of have a thing for them), but those are mostly just tear jerking in context.

1. Ben Folds - Still
2. Matthew Good (Band) - The Fine Art of falling Apart
3. Edwin McCain - I'll Be (fuck you, it was my first dance.)
4. Rent - Goodbye Love
5. Jann Arden - At Seventeen

Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper
EVERY TIME.

Many great songs in this category, since there is so much talk about movies, anything by Ennio Morricone can make you weepy.

• 1. Cinema Paradiso "Ennio Morricone"
• 2. There is a light that never goes out "The Smiths"
• 3. Sufjan Stevens "Oh God where are you now"
• 4. Neutral Milk Hotel "Two-Headed Boy Part 2"
• 5. Mr. Bungle "Pink Cigarette"

1. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
2. Ordinary World - Duran Duran
3. Will the Circle Be Unbroken - from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band collaboration
4. American Tune - Simon and Garfunkel (or just Paul Simon, really!)
5. Winter - Tori Amos

1. Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead
2. Coming to America by Neil Diamond
3. So This is Christmas by John Lennon
4. She's Leaving Home by The Beatles
5. Pissing in the Wind by Badly Drawn Boy

Tears From Heaven goes without saying, my son was a few months old when it came out and it can still reduce me to a quivering blob. So the top five:
1. Imagine - John Lennon Makes me weep with pain and fury over the MAGNITUDE of the loss of the man who wrote it.
2.Are You Lonesome Tonight - Elvis Presley I heard this on the radio the day after my mother died and now it is forever linked to how much I miss her.
3.Hallelujah - any version...it's hard to screw up a Leonard Cohen song
4.Famous Blue Raincoat -ditto the above, but I do prefer the Jennifer Warren version (voice of an angel)
5.Julia -Eurythmics 1984 soundtrack - this song just haunts and haunts and haunts me.

I was trying to think of songs that aren't already up there, because they all make me cry because I am week and peri-menopausal and prone to emotions since the birth of my children.
(the kids make fun of me because I cry at every movie--even "SpongeBob The Movie" when he and Patrick shriveled up in the gift shop.)

Anyhoo...here are a few
1)Somebody to Love -- Queen
2)Beautiful -- Christina Aguilera
3)Unicorn Song -- Shel Silverstein
4) Your Gonna Love Me -- From DreamGirls
5)Amazing Grace -- sung by anyone. Even on the bagpipes it makes me cry

Honorable mention of those already mentioned
One, Rainbow Connection (it kills me), Puff the Magic Dragon, Over the Rainbow (did somebody mention it? if not, I just did)

Because songs sung by people who are now dead instantly double in pathos:
Halleluiah: Jeff Buckley
Time is a Healer: Eva Cassidy
Calling You: Jeff Buckley

And even though she's not dead (I don't think):
Why: Annie Lennox

And then because it's the song I walked down the aisle to when I got married, and it's just SO beautiful:
At Last: Etta James

Why - Annie Lennox
Out of the Blue - The Band
A Minor Indicent - Badly Drawn Boy
Do I Still Figure in You're Life - Joe Cocker
All By Myself - Eric Carmen (guilty displeasure)
Rainbow Connection - Kermit the Frog

"King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1" by Neutral Milk Hotel

"Something Pretty" by Patrick Park

"Dancing in the Dark" covered by Mirah (I love her version)

"Somewhere in My Heart" by Volebeats

"Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd

"Just Like Anyone" by Aimee Mann

1) Sacrifice - song in The Gift, by Christopher Beck (in BtVS)
2) Somewhere Over the Rainbow- this was sung by a little girl in the tv show, Britain's Got Talent. Her name is Connie. I started tearing while watching it and i've heard the other versions before without much effect.
3) Moon River- Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's
4) Jezebel- Iron and Wine. the line "Who's seen Jezebel? She was born to be the woman we could blame." gets me every time.

lots of former Catholic schoolers in here, huh? On Eagle's Wings has been played at every sad moment in my life... literally (and not just for funerals/memorial services)

other than that...

Mad World: Gary Jules version
Humble Me: Norah Jones
Eleanor Rigby: The Beatles
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (instrumental version in Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
Stand by Me: Ben E. King
SRXT: Bloc Party

1) Pyramid Song - Radiohead
2) Helpless - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3) Case of You - Joni Mitchell (actually, most of "Blue" makes me loose it)
4) Anything played on bagpipes, what can I say? Crying is my genetically programmed response to bagpipes.

1. Size of Our Love, Sleater-Kinney

2. Everest, Ani DiFranco

3. Something Vague, Bright Eyes

4. It's a Gift to Be Simple, this music box of my mom's. That stupid Shaker construct *kills* me.

I don't really cry that much to music, but I totally have to agree with PaddyDog all the way at the top. I cannot listen to that Sarah McLaughlan song without thinking of the poor, shivering injured dogs and cats on the ASPCA commercials. Seriously, I bawl every time I see that commerical, and that song does NOT help. Well, it doesn't help me not cry. I'm sure it helps abused dogs and cats get cared for.
"Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens has made me cry a few times too.

Oh god! How could I forget Stand By Me by Ben E. King???
So very many sixth grade tears shed over that song... even now when I cry when I watch the movie and the narrator goes into what becomes of Chris Chambers.

1. Ben Harper - Pleasure and Pain
2. Pink Floyd - Wish you were here
3. James Blunt - Goodbye my lover
4. Ben Folds Five - Brick
5. U2 - all i want is you

1. "Black" - Pearl Jam
2. "It Doesn't Matter" - Alison Krauss (first heard it on Buffy; it's stuck with me ever since)
3. "Falling Out of Love" - Aqualung
4. "Lily Dreams On" - Cotton Mather (Veronica Mars fans, you know why)
5. "My Father's Eyes" - Eric Clapton (yes, really)

1. Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell
2. What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
3. Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland
4. Allegretto, Symphony No. 7 - Beethoven (good call, whoever said that earlier)
5. Finale, Symphony No. 9 - Beethoven (just because it's so damn glorious)

Julie at 3:06...totally NOT my business but at least you've got a living breathing father to be pissed at...and hence my sad songs list:

WARNING: Extreme Cheese Factor

1. Dance with My Father, Luther Vandross
2. I Hope You Dance, Leann Womack
3. Father and Daughter, Paul Simon
4. Stranded, Van Morrison
5. Downeaster Alexa, Billy Joel
6. Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits
7. Ghost of Tom Joad, The BOSS :-)
8. Fire Maple Song, Everclear
9. Pictures of You, The Cure
10. Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (instrumental version in Ferris Bueller's Day Off)




Do you mean Pretty in Pink?




My list:


1. Van Morrison - Sweet Thing (I read an analysis of Astral Weeks one time that commented on the hopeful future tense of this song, as though this is everything Van wants to happen instead of the existential murk he seems to be in for the majority of the album, and since then, I'm a mess when I hear this one.)


2. Regina Spektor - Samson (totally agree. And I prefer the demo version to the Begin to Hope cut.)


3. I second Weezer's Butterfly.


4. Wilco - She's a Jar


5. John Lennon - Beautiful Boy ("I can hardly wait to see you come of age. But I guess we'll both just have to be patient." And Sean was only 5 when John was killed. Jesus.)

Good call, Eileen. That "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want This Time" song is covered by The Dream Academy. Great movie, great scene, great song.

OK, how come the preview of my comments always looks nice and then the actual comment is so effed up?

Great diversion. I sang "On Eagle's Wings" at my grandpa's memorial service when I was sixteen. All you people who mentioned that song....holy shit....talk about hitting a long-forgotten teenage nerve. In a good way. Thank you.

next four:

"Upward Over The Mountain" - Iron and Wine
"Famous Blue Raincoat" - both the Cohen original and an absolutely heartbreaking live rendition by Hayden on piano.
"Only In Dreams" - Weezer - yeah, shut up.
"Good Woman" - Cat Power. Actually, most of that woman's discography makes me bawl like a newborn.

Great diversion. I sang "On Eagle's Wings" at my grandpa's memorial service when I was sixteen. All you people who mentioned that song....holy shit....talk about hitting a long-forgotten teenage nerve. In a good way. Thank you.
next four:
"Upward Over The Mountain" - Iron and Wine
"Famous Blue Raincoat" - both the Cohen original and an absolutely heartbreaking live rendition by Hayden on piano.
"Only In Dreams" - Weezer - yeah, shut up.
"Good Woman" - Cat Power. Actually, most of that woman's discography makes me bawl like a newborn.

I cry at a lot of things, but only these 3 songs:

Coat of Many Colors - Dolly Parton
Long Ride Home - Patty Griffith
Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks

1. "these days" jackson browne
2. "grace cathedral hill" the decemberists
3. "absence of god" rilo kiley
4. "fire and rain" james taylor
and, oh god, i'm not sure why, but always (particularly driving in my car)
5. "american pie" don mclean

The Luckiest - Ben Folds

Every time.

1. Across the Universe- the Beatles
2. Forever Young- Alphaville (that's a little embarrassing)
3. Fred Jones Pt. 2- Ben Folds
4. California Stars- Billy Bragg
5. We're All In This Together- Old Crow Medicine Show

The Luckiest - Ben Folds.

Every time.

"Jake" by Lisa Loeb
"What Sarah Said" by Death Cab
"Traveling Soldier" Dixie Chicks(seriously gay but the first time i listened to it i was bawling.)
"Lua" by Bright Eyes(not really sad, but it makes me tear up for some reason)
"Fools in Love" Inara George(not sad either, its just the memory)

- I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie

- The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel

- All the Same - Sick Puppies

- I Don't Know How to Love Him - from Jesus Christ Superstar

- Hurt a Long Time - Jerry Cantrell

1)I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt
2)My Immortal - Evanescence
3)Time To Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman
4)Elderly Woman Behind The Counter in a Small Town - Pearl Jam
and
5)Hush Little Baby, as sung by my Momma at bedtime

There are 3 that fit the bill here:

Sharon Shannon - The Shamrock Shore, although the Brady Molloy Peoples version is a crusher.

Jethro Tull - Cheap Day Return. While you wouldn't think this about Tull, there's just something about this song.

Paul Williams - You Give a Little Love from the Bugsy Malone soundtrack. There is not one song I connect more to my childhood than this one. Of course, the song was whored out to Coke for some dipshit commercial they put together, but that's life, I suppose.

well, of course "Hallelujah," Jeff Buckley

the only other song that has remotely caused me to tear up is "I'm so lonesome I could cry" by Hank Williams. Very basic song, musically, but damnit if Hank didn't sell the piss out of that misery!

There's sort of a trend here with musical choices, so I offer a somewhat different selection... though my choices too fall prey to the experiences that brought about my tears.

1) Hot for teacher (Van Halen) in high school I had a bit of a relationship with a math teacher and it ended badly.

2) Headed for a heartbreak (Winger) I always feel like a am...

3) Sweet home alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd) the government hasn't been true in years.

4) I wear my sunglasses at night (Corey Hart) my father always did, but if he hadn't he might have seen the semi before it was too late...

5) Jump (Van Halen) I lost the use of my legs in middle school.

"Goodnight, Saigon" By Billy Joel.
"Good Enough," Sarah McLachlan
"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word," Elton John
"In My Daughter's Eyes," Martina McBride
"Those Three Days," Lucinda Williams

such great heights (postal service cover) - iron & wine (i only listen to this when i am in dire need of a good cry...like when i'm super, overly hydrated or something)

nobody has to stay - mirah (it sounds like giving up, if that makes sense)

i know - jude (if you've ever seen city of angels, you know whats up with this song)

i found a reason - cat power (i believe someone already said this about her, but cat power has an uncanny ability to depress me. in a good way)

across the universe - the beatles (this is a 'you've had a hard day...now let it all out' song)

tough to choose...so many options!

1. peace on earth: U2
2. calendar girl: stars
3. fair: remy zero
4. what sarah said: death cab for cutie
5. wild horses: the rolling stones

1. Mad World
2. Wild World (Cat Stevens)
3. Hallelujah (Buckley version)
4. Ne Me Quitte Pas (Nina Simone)
5. The Stranger Song (Leonard Cohen)

Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
I Know - Fiona Apple
Landslide - Dixie Chicks
American Tune - Paul Simon
Golden Slumbers - The Beatles

Fountain of Sorrow -- Jackson Browne

Chelsea Hotel #2 -- Leonard Cohen

Red Dirt Girl -- Emmylou Harris

American Tune -- Simon and Garfunkel

Leader of the Band -- Dan Fogelberg

Funny thing is that this isn't at all the kind of music I listen to, but when I hear these songs, I just can't help listening and then tearing up. Hell, Dan Fogelberg is this awful folk stuff my mom listens to, but that song is absolutely impossible to listen to without crying, seriously. As an experiment, I once tried reciting the lyrics to my girlfriend in a completely inflection-free voice and by the end we were both completely bawling fools.

oooh and...

6. fly: nick drake

sorry, had to add...weepiest, most achingly gorgeous song EVER

1)Joni Mitchell-River
2)Stars-The Aspidistra Files
3)Snow Patrol-Set fire to the 3rd bar
4)Fiona Apple-cover of Across the Universe
5)Otis Redding-These Arms of mine...aw, hell also about 75% of his cataloge can manage to make me lose it, I really need to stop listening to that shit after a break up.

I just did this on my blog.

1. Good Mother, Jann Arden
2. Guess I'm Doing Fine, Beck
3. Harder Now That it's Over, Ryan Adams
4. Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own (personal story) U2
5. Winter, Tori Amos

"Come What May" - Moulin Rouge Soundtrack, gets me every fuckin' time.

"All for Leyna" - Billy Joel

"Mary" - Boingo

"Iris" - Goo Goo Dolls - Yeah I'm a sappy MF.

"Moanin'" - Led Belly - look it up and tell it doesn't break you heart.

"Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" - Les Mis

"Sleeping with Ghosts" - Placebo

"3 Libras" - A Perfect Circle

"Children of Eden" - the musical of the same title

"Together We Will Live Forever" - Clint Mansell

...

Okay, back to pretending to be stoic now...

Antony and the Johnsons - Hope There's Someone
Tom Waits - Dirt in the Ground
Nine Inch Nails - Right Where it Belongs
Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl
Cat Power - Maybe Not

1. Cats in the Cradle- Harry Chapin
2. Hurt-Johnny Cash
3. Let it be-the Beatles
4. Dance With my Father-Luther Vandross
5. the momma song (don't know the name)-Tupac

Beck's entire Sea Change album. If you need to narrow it down (but you shouldn't):

Guess I'm Doing Fine,

Lost Cause,

Already Dead

Antony and the Johnsons - Hope There's Someone
Tom Waits - Dirt in the Ground
Nine Inch Nails - Right Where it Belongs
Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl
Cat Power - Maybe Not

Antony and the Johnsons - Hope There's Someone
Tom Waits - Dirt in the Ground
Nine Inch Nails - Right Where it Belongs
Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl
Cat Power - Maybe Not

Sleep Station - Goodnight to the Moon
Le Tigre - New Kicks (I'm not sure why. I just shake every time.)
Arcade Fire - Cold Wind
Sufjan Stevens - For The Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
Neutral Milk Hotel - Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2

This is so incomplete.

Thank you, thunderstorm, for making me post a douchey three times.

Addendum: Regina Spektor - Chemo Limo

1. Starálfur - Sigur Ros
2. Regrets - Christine Fellows
3. Night Windows - The Weakerthans
4. Land Locked Blues - Bright Eyes
5. P.S. You Rock My World - Eels

Bonus: Tom Waits : Come On Up To the House

The Maker Makes - Rufus W
I Know - Fiona Apple
Till Kingdom Come - Coldplay
Wonderwall - Ryan Adams Version
Fade into You - Mazzy Star
Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead

Be Adequite: that's very true. :) Dance With Your Father would completely make me nuts, I can't listen to a song about fathers without thinking of our estrangement.

"Colorblind" - Counting Crows
"On the Bus Mall" - Decemberists
"I Know" - Jude
"Killian's Red" - Nada Surf

s. pisaster, Seriously, were we cleaved in two at birth? I made my list before reading the comments (but before posting) and they matched yours EXACTLY and IN THE SAME ORDER. Really really cool and really really scary!

1. The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel
2. Un Bel Di - Maria Callas
3. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
4. Hurt - Johnny Cash
5. Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

Saw a lot that work for me... guess there's more than five for me too. Here are the guarantees:

1. "The Luckiest"- Ben Folds
2. "Hallelujah" - Cohen, Buckley, Wainwright, and yes, even the Fall-Out Boy "Hum Hallelujah"

3. "The Promise"- Tracy Chapman
4. "Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World" - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

5.Overkill (acoustic version)-- Colin Hay

I humbly submit all of my man cards for this list. They will be smudged.

1. "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack (It's lame, but has to do with my mother)
2. "Wicked Little Town [Tommy Gnosis Version]" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch (I don't know why, but it kills me.)
3. "$1000 Dollar Wedding" covered by Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield (original by Gram Parsons)
4. "Stand By Me" (Man, I agree with the person who cries over Chris Chambers there. I cry a little for River Phoenix, too.)
5. The Sarah McLachlan shivering ASPCA pets song.

The Cat Carol - Meryn Cadell

Hmmm...
Full of Grace - Sarah McLachlan from the Surfacing album

My Lover's Gone - Dido

I'll second Leader of the Band by Dan Fogelberg, even though I haven't heard it in about 20 years.

Pachelbell's Cannon (the purple and orange version)

Piano Sonata in C Sharp Minor, Op.27 No.2:3 (Basically the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata) The first movement is slow and sweet and sad, but this one is full of this terrible desperation that breaks my heart, and I'm going on way too long about this...

Ooh -- I just thought of another one
Rocky Mountain High-- John Denver
"He was born in the summer of his 27th year..."

kills me.

And I second Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton.
It's gut wrenching

5. Mad World - Gary Jules..it's not even the lyrics, it's the meoldy that gets me

4. America - Simon and Garfunkle...I can't make it through this song without tearing up

3. My life - The Beatles...I love the raw emotion in Lennon's voice

2. Dear Prudence - The Beatles...again, it's the melody here.

1. Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole...this song first got me when it was on a commercial for kids toys or something. Then that blasted show ER had to use it when Dr. Green's character died...SOB!

*sigh*, That should be Pachelbel and canon, and I should probably specify the Canon in D

ah... so many of those listed here have such sad stories

In no particular order
1) Morning Light by Concorde Dawn (for my recently-deceased-at-34 brother in law)

2) You Are My Sunshine by pretty much anyone (because it reminds me of my best friend and we live on opposite sides of the world)

3) If I Ain't Got You by Alicia Keys (because I live in hope)

4) Untitled and Unsung by Belly (cos its just that little bit too close to the bone)

5) With Or Without You by U2 (does anyone else remember that episode of 21 Jumpstreet about a million years ago when Dougie goes to El Salvador find his beloved?....)

Honourable mention must also go to Puff the Magic Dragon, because it can still get me and my sister's bawling, and we are all in our 30s.

Maybe not tears but some sadness:
Cat's In the Cradle, Harry Chapin
Wreck of the Edmunds Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot
Mr. Brightside, The Killers
Far, Far Away From My Heart, The BoDeans

Okay, tears (manly though) from Harry Chapin

Hurt - Johnny Cash (due to the one-two punch of the song with that video. GOD the video)

Ruby's Arms - Tom Waits

Cold Cold Ground - Tom Waits (the stoic-yet-sad gets me every time)

Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen

The Size Of Our Love - Sleater-Kinney (possibly the most literal of the songs on this list, but still a killer. And thanks to litelysalted for making me remember that one)

Story Of An Artist - Daniel Johnston

Midnight Radio - Hedwig/John Cameron Mitchell/Steven Trask/Whoever (specifically due to the stage show, not so much the impressionistic movie ending)

Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead (fun note! The band had just come from a Jeff Buckley show the evening Thom laid down the vocal for this. Makes sense, no?)

I Found A Reason - Cat Power

1)Bright Eyes by Simon and Garfunkel (oh shut up. It comes from watching the movie version of Watership Down)
2)Everybody Hurts by REM (given)
3)Regret by Malice Mizer/Gackt (it makes me wibble, okay? Because it's to do with the death of their drummer)
4)Mad World by Gary Jules (the original Tears for Fears version is too pop and too fast)
5)The Crying Game by Boy George (shut up about this one too)

Twilly, I love that you added Mary by Patty Griffin. That's awesome.
I'd add If I Laugh by Cat Stevens and
Bang the Drum Slowly by Emmy Lou Harris

1. Place To Be - Nick Drake
2. Human Thing - Be Good Tanyas
3. Breathe Me - Sia
4. Return To Innocence - Enigma
5. The Day You Walked Away - The Joel Plaskett Emergency

a great diversion.

1) "The One I Love" - REM My boyfriend was murdered fourteen years ago. He had recently learned how to play this song on the guitar and it was played at his funeral. I still have difficulty listening to it.

2) "God is Trying to Tell You Something" - Color Purple Soundtrack (movie) And it doesn't matter if you believe in God.

3) "This Woman's Work" Kate Bush Oh. My. God.

4) "Don't Give Up" Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel

5) "Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye" Black Crowes See murdered boyfriend noted above.

I left out Pearl Jam's "Black" from the debut album....

1 Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major "Kreutzer" - Beethoven. Every time, without fail.
2 A Pair of Brown Eyes - The Pogues
3 Into These Arms - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
4 Lilac Wine - Jeff Buckley
5 Summertime - Janis Joplin

Also, Little Green by Joni Mitchell

Mr. Bojangles- The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Bar none the saddest, most beautiful song ever.

I saw a few people have already mentioned a few Van Morrison songs, but the one that always gets me is "Into the Mystic".

1. Bad As They Seem- Hayden
2. Golden Slumbers- The Beatles
3. Time- Pink Floyd
4. Broken- Elvis Costello
5. Somewhere- Tom Waits

P.S: Am I the only one who hates the Johnny Cash cover of Hurt? And also his covers of Rusty Cage and another one that's slipped my mind right now but was a cover of another contemporary rock song.

Pretty sure most of mine have already been said, but, in my opinion, they are worth saying again...

1. Hallelujah-Jeff Buckley (All Jeff Buckley songs have an element of tragedy in them, but for some reason, this one always kills me.)
2. Casimir Pulaski Day-Sufjan Stevens
3. Brick-Ben Folds Five
4. Nothing-Peter Searcy (I confess, rather ashamed, that I first heard this song on Roswell, but on its own, it's still sad.)
5. Song for an Empty House-Common Rotation

1.Puff the Magic Dragon - Peter, Paul, and Mary can suck it(like typing the name is making me tear up)
2.Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin
3.The Last Unicorn
4.L'chi Lach(It's a Jewish thing)
5.Essentially any song with lyrics about animals dying, children dying, or really anything touching at all.

1.Puff the Magic Dragon - Peter, Paul, and Mary can suck it(like typing the name is making me tear up)
2.Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin
3.The Last Unicorn
4.L'chi Lach(It's a Jewish thing)
5.Essentially any song with lyrics about animals dying, children dying, or really anything touching at all.

1. Catch 22's version of "As the Footsteps Die Out Forever"
2. Sufjan Stevens - "Casimir Pulaski Day"
3. Johnny Cash - "Hurt"
4. Death Cab for Cutie - "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"
5. Yann Tiersen - "Rue des Cascades"

(honorable mention to Streelight Manifesto's "A Better Place, A Better Time")

The first time I ever heard "Is Heaven Good Enough For You" by Allison Moorer, I had to pull over the car to make sure I wasn't driving unsafely. It's a song she wrote after her mother died, asking if God could possibly love her mother more than she did. It just rips the heart out of me to hear it like no other song.

Runner-up: "No One is Alone" from the musical Into the Woods.

Also, can I please be terribly pedantic and take a moment to apologise for the apostrophe crime in my comment?

Lovely.
Cheers.

Oh Lord. These are some rather recent newfound tearjerkers for me, here I go:

Goldmund - 25 Thousand Miles
(You can almost hear his fingers on the piano, and you feel how he only shoots off a new note when the preceding one has vanished.)

Clint Mansell + Kronos Quartet + Mogwai - The Last Man
(I know Death Is the Road To Awe is the best song on the score, but it somehow gets me ecstatic rather than down. The Last Man does the job though.)

Songs:Ohia - Love Leaves Its Abusers
(Just look at the song's title and you can already guess how this is weeping material.)

Casiotone For the Painfully Alone - I Love Creedence
(Owen Ashworth from CFTPA has a unique way in storytelling, and his "crappy", simplistic Casio melodies perfectly serve as the backdrop for his mostly gut-wrenchingly sad lyrics. If he'd play acoustic guitar or violin, people'd seriously have to kill themselves listening to his records.)

The Wind-Up Bird - Whips
(This is actually a whole album, but I couldn't just pick one song off of it. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say that this album is leaving me a puddle of tears every time I listen to it. Looking at the tracklist alone gives me goosebumps each time. FYI The songs make up one sentence, which was supposedly left on the artists' answering machine, they amount to: Sorry that I've Become This Monster, I Love You A Lot. there are few albums who really break me down like this one. I can't listen to it while doing anything else, it honestly (and rightfully) demands undivided attention.)

There you go people. If you are in need of good music, or want to know what it felt like to be hit with en amotional sledgehammer to the gut, seek these out.

The last sentence should of course say "an emotional".

Sorry.

i had a really rough day at work.

this list made me cry just reading it.

*sigh* i needed a good purge.

i love you, Pajiba.

'Cuno - Yes, you might be the only one. I'm curious though about your position; are you saying it's such a shitty song that even the late great Mr. Cash cannot redemm it or rather does Trent "Boo-Hoo-I'm-So-Fucking-Sad-But-Angry-But-Sad" Reznor do a better job in your opinion? I can deal with hating the song under any circumstance, but Johnny Cash dropped turds with more talent than Trent. In his sleep. While dying. Yeah.

Sweet Old World, Lucinda Williams
Raglan Road, Van Morrison
The Hem of His Garment, Sam Cooke
Girl from the North Country, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash
Keep Me in Your Heart, Warren Zevon

Sleep - The Smiths
Breakin Me - Johnny Lang
The World Has Turned and Left Me Here - Weezer
Breakable - Fisher
Cathedrals, Mexico - Jump, Little Children
Medicine - Guster
Hold on Hope - Guided by Voices

"Adagio for Strings" Samuel Barber

"Over the Rainbow" Judy Garland

"Better Place to Be" Harry Chapin (almost anything by Chapin can get to me)

"Ode to Joy" Beethovan

Theme to "Brian's Song" Michal Legrand(my mother loved that movie!)

1) damien rice - cannonball
2) ron sexsmith - gold in them hills
3) u2 - sometimes you can't make it on your own
4) the perishers - sway
5) colin hay - I just can't get over you

since i am made of cheese and LOVE a good cry:

"why" annie lenox--i honestly can't control my reaction to this song
"breathe me" sia
"bridge over troubled water" simon & garfunkel--i can't help this one either
"don't give up" kate bush & peter gabriel
"standing" anthony head (i love that man, and that song, and that show)

"Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye" by Leonard Cohen
"Wet Sand" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Dry Your Eyes" and "Empty Cans" by The Streets, especially when listed to back to back and right after a breakup
"The Build-Up" by Kings of Convenience
"Angel from Montgomery" and "Feels Like Home"by Bonnie Raitt
and most of all:
"The Babysitter's Here" by Dar WIlliams

I forgot!
"Of Angels and Angles" by the Decemberists
"Uninvited" by Alanis Morrisette
"The Son Never Shines on Closed Doors" by Flogging Molly

Wheat Kings - the Tragically Hip (There's a very sad piece of Canadian history behind this beautiful song.)

Vertebrae - Christine Fellows (She has a gorgeous, unconventional voice.)

Strange Days - Matthew Good Band (I memorized the words in high school and it still gets me.)

And So It Is - Damien Rice (I think about leaving my hometown and growing up.)

and finally-

Left and Leaving - the Weakerthans

house of smoke and mirrors - matthew good band
couldn't love you more - john martyn
vienna - the fray
nataq - richard Desjardins
lover, you should've come over - jeff buckley

Damn, this diversion is bumming me out. But still (in no particular order):

-I Shall Be Released, Bob Dylan (play this at my funeral, but NOT a current Dylan version, because I'm sorry, he sounds like Elmer Fudd these days. Other covers have been great, especially The Band.

- Silver Thunderbird, Marc Cohn. My dad was "the man with the plan and the pocket comb." Kills me every time.

- These Days, Jackson Browne. Nobody does sad like Dr. Depression. Fountain of Sorry is a close second.

- On Eagle's Wings. Yep, the whole funeral thing.

- Dance With My Father. I know, pretty heavy Cheez Whiz. But I heard it with my sister one day, we made eye contact, and both started sobbing. So I have dead-daddy issues, kill me.

I have to go abuse substances now.
-

Shit. I forgot one. I know that's six, but I have to do it.

-Biko, Peter Gabriel

"Have You Seen Her?" by The Chi Lites
"Vincent" by Don Mclean

I'm with the folks who mentioned Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" and especially the person who mentioned Radiohead's "Pyramid Song." Talk about haunting.

Lately I get really blubbery during the part towards the end of Joanna Newsom's "Only Skin" that begins with "All my bones they are gone gone gone..." I mean god it just overwhelms me and I can't help it! I get pretty overhelmed by "Armageddon" by CocoRosie too, especially when I'm listening to it with headphones.

Oh yeah, Richard Strauss' "Vier letzte Lieder." Everything about it just kills me.

1)Sufjan Stevens: For the Windows in Paradise
2)Red Hot Chili Peppers: Wet Sand
3)Hard-Fi: Move on Now
4)U2: With or Without You
5)Jose Gonzales: Crosses

"Storybook Love" ~ Mark Knopfler (from The Princess Bride soundtrack)

"Weekend In New England" ~ Barry Manilow: All these comments and I've yet to see this; I'm more ashamed than ever.

"Good Riddance" ~ Green Day: On ER when Gloria Reuben as Jeanie Boulet sang it at Anspaugh's son's funeral, I didn't think I would ever stop crying.

And the "Rainbow/Wonderful/Hallelujah" triumvirate no matter who sings them. Though I reserve the right to change that should it come to my attention that KidzBop covers exist.

1. "Part of the wind" by Tim Hardin.
2. "Mad World" by Michael Andrews
3. "Bag Lady" by Erykah Baduh, but in a good way
4. "Bonnie" Prefab Sprout
5. "Little girl in bloom" by Thin Lizzy, because I just love it so much

just off the top of my head, in no particular order...

1. How Deep in the Valley - Sarah Harmer


2. Bad Timing - Blue Rodeo


3. Over Yonder - Steve Earle


4. Blues Eyes Crying in the Rain - Willie Nelson


5. It Makes No Difference - The Band

Because motherhood makes you pathetic and weak!

Ha Henry! Ain't that the truth.

In no certain order save as they occurred to me:

Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel. This music is so beautiful I can barely stand listening to it.

Countdown by Rush. Can't explain it. This song just gets to me.

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda by the Pogues. Listen to it, and you'll understand.

Dante's Prayer by Loreena McKennitt. I sent this song to my closest friends the night before I reported to the hospital for a really dangerous operation. I thought I was saying goodbye.

Cheyenne Anthem by Kansas. "All our words and deeds are carried on the wind." The tragic waste of it all cuts my heart out.

Cowboy Mouth - The Avenue. Especially if it's live.
"What A Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole simply for the ER/Dr. Green kicks it in Hawaii ep.
Sarah McLaughlan- Full of Grace. I still see the image of Buffy on that bus leaving Sunnydale when I hear it.
Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (actually the Refreshments) - Mekong and anyone who has been to a live show will agree there isn't anything else quite like a room full of strangers coming together with their beers raised for this song. here's to life! (god i'm lame)

(in no particular order)

-'tiny vessels' death cab for cutie
-'heartbeats' jose gonzalez
-'fast car' tracy chapman (xiu xiu as well)
-'breathe me' sia (after six feet under, it has become a reflex for my throat to close up and my stomach to drop)
-'the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us' sufjan stevens (don't quite know why on this one)

maybe not 'crying' songs but essentially that general 'choking/moping feeling' songs

(in no particular order)

-'tiny vessels' death cab for cutie
-'heartbeats' jose gonzalez
-'fast car' tracy chapman (xiu xiu as well)
-'breathe me' sia (after six feet under, it has become a reflex for my throat to close up and my stomach to drop)
-'the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us' sufjan stevens (don't quite know why on this one)

maybe not 'crying' songs but essentially that general 'choking/moping feeling' songs

COme on! Lots of Death Cab but no Transatlanticism? That's my number one!

Also

Amie, by Damien Rice

Slipped Away, By Avril Lavigne (really, before that crap Girlfriend song, I really thought she'd be something great. SO much for me as a fortune teller).

I wish you love, by Rachael Yamagata

Mi primer día sin ti, by Enanitos Verdes, and Rayando el Sol, by Maná.

Boston, by Agustana, but not the radio version, but the far mor subtle original one.

yeah didn't mean to post that twice. apologies.

1.Breathe Me by SiA
God, what a moving song. It works so well with the finale of Six Feet Under. It can be either a beautiful song or one to make you cry your eyes out.

2.Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright or k.d lang
Personally, I don't really care which version it is, they all are so different and moving.

3. Angel by Sarah McLachlan
I love Sarah, and this song just is incredible. And truly haunting.

4. Hurt by Johnny Cash
This song really strikes a major nerve. Amazingly, I think it's a better version then Nine Inch Nails, who did the original.

5. Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland
It's so sad to think of her life how short it was and how tragic, so it makes this song more emotional.

This could also be the "What do you want at your funeral?" list. Because it fits.

1. Sia - Breathe Me
2. Judy Garland - Smile
3. Death Cab For Cutie - Tiny Vessles
4. Mindy Smith - Jolene
5. Gary Jules - Mad World

1. Sia - Breathe Me
2. Judy Garland - Smile
3. Death Cab For Cutie - Tiny Vessles
4. Mindy Smith - Jolene
5. Gary Jules - Mad World

Ok, so firstly, thanks to this list I've discovered several new songs to add to my list of songs that make me cry, so thanks (weird to be saying thanks for being made to cry, but hey). Here are some that I already knew and make me cry:

1. Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now (re-recorded version) I associate it with the scene in Love Actually,a nd say what you will of the film, buut Emma Thompson is a fantastic actress, and as a result I saw what several people I know must have gone through behind closed doors when I was growing up, which was damned hard.

2. Counting Crows - Holiday In Spain, this is just forever associated with a really bad period in my ife, and has the uncanny ability to mentally transport me back there, to the extent where if it comes on the radio I become a blathering wreck instantly.

3. Johnny Cash - Hurt, the video made me cry, and now the song does by association.

4. Ryan Adams - The Rescue Blues, my eldest brother emailed me when I was living away from home for the first time in a different country, telling me I should listen to tis if ever I needed him and he'd be there in spirit. That was it, I was gone.

5. David Gray - This Years Love, I associate it with my break-up from my first love and sitting alone in my room, in the dark a lot. So this makes me cry on behalf of my sixteen year old self!

1) Casimir Pulaski Day- Sufjan Stevens
2) It's All About Us- American Analog Set
3) Measure 3- Matt Pond PA
4) The Size of Our Love- Sleater-Kinney
5) Have You Forgotten- Red House Painters

"If You Could See Me Now" by Truth
"With or Without You" by U2
(I associate those two with my uncle's attempted suicide and subsequent death when I was quite young)
"Resurrection" by Nicole Nordman
"Be Thou My Vision" by Fernando Ortega or pretty much anyone who sings it.
the whole "Fiction" album by Mukala...I was a very depressed 13 year old.

oh, dear. here goes:

1. all the trees of the field will clap their hands - sufjan stevens
2. crazy baby - joan osborne
3. time (the revelator) - gillian welch
4. bombay theme - a.r. rahman
5. little suicides - golden palominos

1) Death Cab for Cutie - What Sarah Said
2)Joni Mitchell - River
3) Bright Eyes - Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh
4) REM - Everybody Hurts
5) Bright Eyes - A Song to Pass the Time

1. Sarah McLachlan-When Somebody Loved Me. You know, the one from Toy Story 2.
2. Most of Dario Marinelli's V For Vendetta soundtrack. But let's say Evey Reborn.
3. Bette Midler-The Wind Beneath My Wings. Shut up,I was raised on Beaches.
4. Massive Attack-Live With Me.
5. The Church of Glass-Thomas Newman. From Oscar and Lucinda, but just cos it's so damned joyous.

1)Llorando by Rebekah del Rio-when I heard it on Mulholland Drive I felt chills and sadness. Now whenever I hear it I tear up a little. Such a beautiful rendition by her.

2)Cold Water by Damien Rice- I don't know if it was the chant or the woman's angelic voice or the lyrics or maybe all three but this song touched me more than any of the songs off that cd.

3)Last Kiss by Ricky Nelson- This song makes me think of those ghost stories about high schoolers coming back from the dead to reunite with their sweetheart. I always get sad at those stories...embarrassing I know.

4)Etsi ksafnika by Antonis Remos- It's a greek song and I don't really know what the song means but the way this man sings is so powerful that I don't really care. One of my favorite songs ever.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoxOrM1fs8Q

Only 5?
1) Aimee Mann - Invisible Ink (and many others)
2) Nick Cave Are You the One (That I've Been Waiting For?) - I'm shocked there isn't more Cave here. His speaking voice gets me weepy.
3)Anthony and the Johnsons - Fistful of Love
4) Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
5) Sheryl Crow - Strong Enough (yeah. so?)
[No one has said Wicked Game by Chris Isaak? Maybe it got so overplayed that people are immune.]

Oh fuck, a sixth. The Smiths' Rubber Ring.

With or Without You - U2. Played at the funeral of my friend's brother...he committed suicide and at 17 it was about the worst thing that happened to me...and I didn't even know him.

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen. Said friend's brother loved queen. This song made her lose her shit. Then said friend's car got hit by a truck and she is brain damamged.

Brick - Ben Folds. Just cause it's so freaking sad...

there's a book you can get in Australia called 'I Hate myself and I want to die - the 1000 most depressing songs ever written'. I'm wondering how many of these are in there...

I'ma leave the "Hallelujah" alone and just take it as a given like Jolie and Clooney are do-able.

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole. Little girls danced to this at my daughter's school recital and I..was..a..mess. I don't even think I can talk about it.

"Hurt" by Johnny Cash . Caught this one right after Cash died, when they played it at the end of the best "Smallville" episode ever. Haven't watched it since.

"Angel" by Sarah McLaughlin. Just what is wrong with this woman that she feels the need to make me weep?

"Lately" by Stevie Wonder. sigh.

"I Care for You" by Aaliyah. Yeah, a song by the dead girl. sniff.

Winter - Tori Amos - heartbreakingly lovely piano work, and it reminds me of my dad (who is a very lovely guy)

No Woman, No Cry - Bob Marley -- my mom was a big Marley fan (go figure); now she's a semi-vegetative mute. "Everything's gonna be alright."

Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, "Ode to Joy" - played by a full orchestra and good choir -- like experiencing the divine in person

Biko - Peter Gabriel - blew my mind when I first heard it as a teenager (in the 80s) and realized how much banal evil was still in the world

Wonderful World/Over the Rainbow - Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole - back before it got advertised into oblivion, it was a sweetly optimistic view of the world which somehow reduced my jaded, pessimistic self to tears.

Oh, and Johnny Cash's "Hurt" is the most nakedly painful song I've ever heard. It freaks me out.

rudy - that is creepy. We pajibans must be getting too much alike :)

5. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2 (it's more the whole album, but this one in particular)
4. Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
3. Antony and the Johnsons - Hope There's Someone
2. The Tiger Lillies - Sleep With The Fishes
1. David Bowie - Life on Mars

This was easy; I'm pathetic enough to have a "sad songs" playlist on my iPod. Anyways, I'm a sucker for breakup songs, so...

1. Snow Patrol - You Could Be Happy
2. Sister Hazel - Best I'll Ever Be (and I'm surprised I didn't already see it on the list)
3. Sugarcult - Back to California
4. Something Corporate - Konstantine
5. The Get Up Kids - I'll Catch You

The ones I can think of right now:

- "Comfortable" by John Mayer - one of the best post-breakup songs I've ever heard. Every woman wants him to write her a song, and if she doesn't, she's a fool!
- "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera - it's especially poignant at the end when Christine has left with Raoul and the Phantom sings, "It's over now, the music of the night" and the orchestra swells and....oh god. I actually did have to pull off to the side of the road once when I was listening to the soundtrack for a good cry.
- "Full of Grace" by Sarah MacLachlan - someone else mentioned Buffy leaving after killing Angel, and I bawled my eyes out at the end of that episode!
- "Sunrise Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. Maybe it's just a Jew-thing.

Wenchmaster: And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda is such a great song. Have you heard Eric Bogle's other anti-war songs? Try the Green Fields of France and My Youngest Son Cam Home Today. Amazing.

Also love that so many people like Peter Gabriel's Biko, but that song doesn't make me cry. It makes me really freaking angry.

Wow, so many of the songs already mentioned are making me tear up just reading the name. I didn't used to be so sappy. Here are some I didn't see mentioned.

Nature Boy - Nat King Cole. This song reminds me of my Grandfather and any incarnation of it makes me sob.

Music Box Dancer - written by Frank Mills. This piano instrumental makes me think of my Grandma, who played it for me when I was young.

Your Song - Elton John. I know, I know. But It pulls on the strings.

Raining in Baltimore - Counting Crows. I have no connection to Baltimore, so I'm not sure why this on gets me so. It's so wistful.

The Greatest - Kenny Rogers. Again, I don't have a little boy,or any kids, so I don't know why I am so affected by this song. But it really makes me cry. Maybe it's the loss of my own unwavering confidence in myself?

Additionally the ones already mentioned that get me every time:

Rainbow Connection, I Will Follow You Into The Dark, Hurt (either version will do it but Jonny Cash has the advantage), Somewhere Over the Raindow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Ya, those will all make me a mess.

dangerkitten:
"Also love that so many people like Peter Gabriel's Biko, but that song doesn't make me cry. It makes me really freaking angry."

Sorrow and anger are both pretty appropriate responses to Biko. Gabriel did a good job.

cmcd:
Somebody else actually saw Oscar and Lucinda? Major props. I love that movie.

Evanescence - My Immortal
It was playing on the radio when I learned that my Mom had died, and it was also playing when I pulled up to where she used to live when I drove to MO for her funereal.

The Offspring - Gone Away
Also reminds me of my Mom and the fact that she's gone away.

U2 - Running to Stand Still
I was very depressed as a teenager, and this song pretty much summed up how I felt about life. I'm older and happier now, but this song still makes me feel sad and depressed.

Concrete Blonde - Everybody Knows
Same thing as above.

Cheap Trick - The Flame
First heard this after breaking up with my first girlfriend, who I still loved even though we couldn't seem to get along. It still gets to me, I think more due to nostalgia than anything.

The Star Spangled Banner
Because, despite it's flaws, I still love my country.

Tonight we fly by The Divine Comedy. Well, many many songs involving Neil Hannon choke me up.

Bryan Ferry - Don't think twice, it's all right. Nobody does Dylan like Ferry.

Ben Folds five - Seeing that much love for Ben Folds, specially for "Brick", I cannot not mention this one. Not particularly dramatic or sad, but I love the passion in the voice.

Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's blues. The one with the Waltzing Matilda. That sweeping beauty and breaking voice gets me every time.

Nick Cave and the bad seeds - Into my arms. There's not much to say about this one, is there?

Georgia On My Mind, Ray Charles
(especially at the Stone Mountain Lasershow - they play it toward the end and I've usually had a few beers and wooo!-ed myself lightheaded - it makes me sentimental.)

The Lady of Shalott, Loreena McKinnett
(yay, wenchmaster!)

O Holy Night, by anyone who can hit the notes

A Letter to Elise, The Cure

The song from the cartoon version of "Charlotte's Web" that Charlotte sings about Mother Earth and Father Time. Charlotte is so wise and grateful. I love her.

Joey, Concrete Blonde

1. Desperadoes Under the Eaves - Warren Zevon

2. It Makes No Difference - The Band

3. Adagio for Strings - Samuel Barber

4. The Dutchman - Steve Goodman

5. Two Star - Everything But The Girl

1. Rufus Wainwright version of "Hallelujah" is heartbeaking. It's on the Shrek soundtrack which I bought JUST for that song (hey -- this was before iPods)

2. The Scientist - Coldplay
3. In the Sun -- Michael Stipe
4. Bobby Jean - Bruce Springsteen (or Jersey Girl in place - both remind me of my highschool boyfriend and our sweet first love - gag, I know)

5. Lullaby -- Shawn Mullins
5. Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush (actually, entire album "Us" by Gabriel is a sobfest -- that or it drives you to catatonic suicidal state -- GREAT after a breakup)

Georgia On My Mind, Ray Charles
(especially at the Stone Mountain Lasershow - they play it toward the end and I've usually had a few beers and wooo!-ed myself lightheaded - it makes me sentimental.)
Ack! What is it about the Stone Mountain Laser Show? I HATE "God Bless the USA", but found myself with tears streaming down my cheeks the first time I heard it there. Everyone thought I'd lost my mind.

1. Sullivan Street, Counting Crows

2. Me In Honey, REM Featuring Kate Pearson

3. Songbird, Fleetwood Mac

4. Fade Into You, Mazzy Star

5. San Jacinto, Peter Gabriel

Oh, and Beloved Wife by Natalie Merchant. No way Mrs. socalled goes less than 60 seconds before me.

The following are all intensely personal (in terms of why they make me cry) but here we go anyway:

Accidentally in Love, Counting Crows. This played as people were walking into a friend's memorial service and it was so fucking applicable to her. I had held it together until then, but this song pushed me over the edge. And now I can't really listen to it.

Hallelujah, Chris Botti. I like this version best, and it's probably indicative of my unhipness and lack of music knowledge to say that I've never heard the Jeff Buckley version. But I stand by the mournful trumpet rendition. Plus, this played in the car after I went to a friend's wake, so you've got the personal side to it, too. Basically all I can remember with this song is driving down a dark street and trying not to cry so hard that I couldn't function on the road and thus meet the same fate my friend had a week prior. ::shrugs::

I'll Follow You Into The Dark, Death Cab. Another one that's just applicable to friends I've lost. Boyfriend and girlfriend died in a car crash. I knew him a bit, knew her really well. Listen to the lyrics... It's almost too appropriate.

A Love That Will Never Grow Old and The Maker Makes did it for me for a good six or seven months after I saw Brokeback. I hate being a gay guy who loves the movie, but what the fuck ever. Sometimes the majority is right.

I'll give my last spot here to someone who added a sixth. :-) But I'll add another general comment... I'm all for music, but I tend to be more of a visual person. Someone mentioned the Six Feet Under finale, and I agree completely - when there's a perfect mix of image to the soundtrack, it can be breathtaking. Music alone rarely does that for me. The end of Stranger than Fiction, too, for me, was a great mix of the writing, the cinematography, and, most importantly, the song on the soundtrack.

But I couldn't tell you the name of the song.

JulieD - it's because they break the sword! And then it turns into the North and the South! And then the country is reunited! God Bless the USA!

Yeah I don't really know what it is either, but I cry every time. Ridiculous.

I'll also take "Hallelujah" as an obvious choice, because duh. Love both the Buckley and Wainwright versions.

1. Counting Crows, "Raining in Baltimore" and "Anna Begins" and "Sullivan Street"...OK, make it that whole damned album. Must be nostalgia.
2. R.E.M., "Everybody Hurts"...they sure do, Mr. Stipe.
3. IZ, "Over the Rainbow"...something about this simple, straightforward arrangement makes me misty.
4. Radiohead, "Pyramid Song"...just so incredibly beautiful.
5. Fiona Apple, "I Know"...because I sing this a lot in the shower and the car but only recently realized that the lyrics hit way too close to home.

"Without You" from RENT.

1. Verdi Cries -- 10,000 Maniacs (it's a toss up between this one and "Gold Rush Brides"; there's something about Natalie's voice that makes you ache)



2. Lullaby for a Stormy Night -- Vienna Teng (she just radiates pure motherly concern; my cynical side mocks me, but I can't help loving this song)



3. The Redtailed Hawk -- Kate Wolf (this was one of my father's favorite songs and between that fact and the fact that it's about home, this one always does it for me.)



4. Raining in Baltimore -- Counting Crows (somehow this one just strips longing and regret down to their bare bones)



5. Everybody Hurts -- (several years after it came out, this was the theme song of my nervous breakdown)

Ben, I know just what you mean. I can hear Sia's "Breathe Me" independent of the last few minutes of that SFU episode and be just fine, but show me the clip on YouTube and I'm a mess. Also, I'll take your empty fifth spot to add a sixth song I forgot:

6. Ben Folds Five, "Don't Change Your Plans"...something about the juxtaposition of the pretty, wistful tone and the incredibly sad lyrics makes me cry like a wee baby.

1. If This is Goodbye- Mark Knopfler and Emma Lou Harris. This is the song that we played for my mom's funeral. I really can't handle hearing it.

2. What A Wonderful World- Louis Armstrong. I really can't say why I find this song so terribly sad, but I do.

Really, I can't think of any others off the top of my head. Probably something from a musical.

1. If This is Goodbye- Mark Knopfler and Emma Lou Harris. This is the song that we played for my mom's funeral. I really can't handle hearing it.

2. What A Wonderful World- Louis Armstrong. I really can't say why I find this song so terribly sad, but I do.

Really, I can't think of any others off the top of my head. Probably something from a musical.

"Songs that make you cry"? Come off it, Pajiba. You've given too much power to that shitty TV whore and now you're all pansies. I never thought I'd go crawling back to Gene Shalit; yet, here I am. If only I could sign off with a still-appropriate 'miserable pricks'. If only.

Linger - The Cranberries
Unloveable - The Smiths
Hardheaded Woman - Cat Stevens
NIN - Something I Can Never Have
Elvis Costello - Poisoned Rose

1. Cold Beer and Remote Control-Indigo Girls
2. Momentum-Aimee Mann
3. Lucky-Seven Mary Three
4. Watershed-Indigo Girls
5. Fire and Rain-James Taylor
6. Summer Highland Falls-Billy Joel

Two more that I forgot to list earlier:

Yaz - Only You. This will always harbor memories of the finale to The Office (UK) where Dawn and Tim finally get together. It is the only TV moment that has ever gotten me. Perfect ending Mr. Gervais and Mr. Merchant. It will always live with me.

Otis Redding - Pain in My Heart. This one's the clincher. I've never heard a more gut wrenching song than this one. Simple, but so fucking heartfelt. It crushes me every time I hear it.

1. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

2. I Don't Care Much - from "Cabaret" (the stage version, it's not in the movie)

3. Long, Long Time - Linda Rondstadt

4. I Know - Fiona Apple

5. Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt

And because #1 is a given at this point, here's a bonus track: The Animals Were Gone - Damien Rice

Llorando by Rebekah del Rio-when I heard it on Mulholland Drive I felt chills and sadness. Now whenever I hear it I tear up a little. Such a beautiful rendition by her.

Lex you are so right. I had completely forgotten about this song. Her rendition was so heartfelt and heartbreaking. I don't think I breathed until her performance was over and she collapsed. And combined with the tragic relationship of the two women....amazing rendition. So glad you reminded me. I get goosebumps thinking about it.

1. hallelujah - rufus or buckley, they both have heartbreaking voices.
2. cooling - tori amos; the best b-side ever.
3. delicate - damien rice, but almost anything that man sings tears me to pieces.
4. i'll catch you - the get up kids
5. i want to know your plans - say anything. max bemis is a lunatic, but damn can he write.

Just a little post of solidarity for the "Beaches" soundtrack love, but I've always thought "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" is the saddest song on it. And I, too, cry when I hear the National Anthem. Makes it damn difficult to sing. I'm such a sop.

As a side note, I finally heard the Avett Brothers' "Emotionalism" this evening, and I cried through most of it. (I'll blame some of those tears on this list!) Give it a go, if you haven't yet.

A Day In The Life - Beatles

The Hallelujah song that I didn't know who the singer was until a story on NPR the other day (very tragic story, btw).

Blue Savannah - Erasure (the gay man coming out in me)

Beyond The Sea - Bobby Darin

Ditto on Over The Rainbow, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Did he intend to make such a funeral-like song?

Oh, and Ex-Factor by Lauryn Hill

If only we'd done this 10 years ago when when weepy music was all I listened to!

1. The Water is Wide
2. Mystery by the Indigo Girls
3. Bein' Green by Kermit THE Frog
4. Birds and Ships from Mermaid Avenue with Woody Guthrie lyrics and Billy Bragg music and the vocal stylings of Natalie Merchant
5. Remember the Mountain Bed from Mermaid Avenue vol II with Woody Guthrie lyrics and Wilco music

1. Puff the Magic Dragon-Peter, Paul & Mary
[I'm a sucker for kids outgrowing their childhood friends. The older I get, the harder I sob.]

2. Honey-Bobby Goldsboro
[AHHH! My mom played this for me and damned if I don't cry ever time. Its an older song and I can't believe that nobody else has heard it.]

3. Nan's Song-Robbie Williams (I KNOW! JESUS!)
[Completely trite but my Great Grandmother died not too long ago and anytime anyone mentions someone being in heaven it gets me all teary. I'm an atheist. Cripes.]

4. Ruby Tuesday-The Rolling Stones.
[For no reason other than the scene in "Children of Men"...I can't even hear the song without losing my fool mind now.]

5. Mr. Tambourine Man-Bob Dylan
[Res Ipsa Loquitur.]

* Cosmic Dancer-T.Rex always puts me in a melancholy mood but only because I decided one day that I wanted the song played at my funeral. Haha. It was some lame Myspace survey and I couldn't think of a song...then I listened to this again and thought it was perfect for some reason. Now I think its sad. When really...its not very. Hmph.

Why - Annie Lennox. When she did it live she was bawling by the end and so was I.
I can't make you love me - Bonnie Raitt. When I saw her live I was a sobbing mess by the end of the song. Her voice just holds heartache.
Hurt - Johnny Cash. I agree that I was undone when I saw the video. This giant of a man who was so aware of his mortality just...
Imagine - John Lennon. Always got to me because of his death but then a radio DJ played it on Sept. 11 as I was trying to drive home from work. I cried for hours!
And AK -Damn you! I had forgotten about Keep me in your heart until I saw your list. That song is a killer too!

So, music that makes me lose my shit. Kinda hard to think of them, considering the effect:

"Everybody Hurts", R.E.M.
"Fuzzy", Grant Lee Buffalo
"Hallelujah" by Buckley
"My One and Only Love", Sting, on the Leaving Las Vegas soundtrack
"In My Life", by you know who...

And a few others, depending on the right mood.

On a side note, apparently there's a strong reason why "Hallelujah" is so extremely overused in movies and series' finales... I mean, damn! That song is so strong it seems it doesn't need to be listened to, it's like a feeling per se.

Great list. I'm just gonna add one song I haven't seen yet:

"I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" by Stevie Wonder. All I can say is Stevie really pours it on towards the end - "Whyyyyy didn't you stay..."

Gets me every g.d. time

1. "I Wish I Was the Moon" Neko Case (God bless me I'm a free man/with no where free to go/paralyzed and collared tight...)

2. "Backstreets" Bruce Springsteen (Remember all the movies that we'd go see/trying to learn how to walk like the heroes/we thought we had to be/and after all this time to find we're just like all the rest...)

3. "She's Got You" Patsy Cline

4. "Rock and Roll Suicide" David Bowie (Oh no, Love, you're not alone...)

5. "A Case of You" Joni Mitchell

"Un Canadien Errant" Leonard Cohen
"Leavin' On Your Mind" Patsy Cline
"Jerusalem of Gold" Ofra Haza
"Goodnight Irene" Dr. John

ordinary people - john legend

32 flavors - ani difranco

lullaby (goodnight, my angel) - billy joel

so far away - carole king

pass in time - beth orton

forgiven - deb talan

i'm with everyone who said it's been an emotional day! i got weepy reading the list. etta james 'at last' especially got me. and 'if i ain't got you' alicia keys... wow.

One song :
Sleep's Dark And Silent Gate by Jackson Browne

The way he sings the line "Oh God this is some shape I'm in" makes me start crying. The next line, "And the only thing that makes me cry is the kindness in my baby's eyes" makes me want to curl up and cry for days.

Nooooo way. I was just thinking the other day that you guys should do this exact topic, because I was listening to the one and only song in the entire world that makes me cry EVERY fricking time. And I don't mean like well up a little; it's to the point where I literally cannot listen to it in public because I end up bawling and getting stared at:

Her Space Holiday - "Sleepy California"

Too bad my comment is so far down by now.. haha.
But seriously:

I never thought I'd say this
But I miss my mom
Even though through all those years
We didn't get along
...
I wish she felt young again
When everything was new
When her father held her hand
Said 'there's nothing you can't do'

I woke up to a phone call
Right on Christmas day
Said 'your grandmother is dying
In a painful way'
...
I hope that she's not scared
Lying there alone
I hope she hears her husband's voice
Telling her she's coming home

Aaaand now I'm crying. Hurray!

I am glad there are others who agree with me about Puff. It took me all day to think of the other 4 songs.
I am glad to see some Nick Cave here, and I will say his renditions of "Shivers" and "Opium Tea" get to me. Whoo.
A lot of people have Annie Lennox's "Why?" but I say "I've Tried Everything" from the Sopranos sndtk is the real weeper.
The Flaming Lips "Sleeping on the Porch" reminds me of my childhood and is such an incredibly beautiful song that it makes me tear up.
And finally, "Half Acre" by Hem.
And to those who said "The Last Unicorn", I so agree with that. I think I sobbed everytime as a child listening to that.

Tori is right - nothing beats "A Case of You" by Joni Mitchell. Nothing.

And JasonVB is right about " John Wayne Gacy, Jr." by Sufjan Stevens.

And I agree with the several recommendations for "Brick" by Ben Folds

And Map already mentioned "American Tune" - Paul Simon

And CMCD already mentioned "When She Loved Me" - Sarah McLachlan

And Christina mentioned John Lennon's "In My Life".

And missmle mentioned "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann

But I can't do just five (that's seven already anyway).

Nobody mentioned the devastatingly good version of "Moonshiner" by Uncle Tupelo. Or "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963" by Rickie Lee Jones. Or, damnit, "Last Chance Texaco".

Other people have also mentioned Eels, Bruce Springsteen, and Jackson Browne, but not (as far as I can tell in all this):

"Climbing Up To The Moon" - Eels, off "Electroshock Blues"
"Song for Adam" - Jackson Browne, off his eponymous first album.
"One by One" by Wilco, off "Mermaid Avenue"
"Little Bombs" by Aimee Mann, off "The Forgotten Arm"
"North Dakota" by Lyle Lovett
"Stolen Car" - Bruce Springsteen - actually, can we just nominate all of "Nebraska" as the saddest stuff ever written?

Maybe "Four Seasons in One Day" by Crowded House, but only because it reminds me of my old hometown, Melbourne.

Oh, did anyone else like Pink's "I Got Money Now"?

Wow, what a topic...

I have a few that get me going my wife usually wont let me play them.... especially if I happen to be driving at the time.

In no particular order

Annie Lennox - 'No more I love you's' it was in heavy rotation at the time of a bad break-up...it made working very difficult when it was played two of three times daily during working hours

Beatles - 'Across the Universe'

The Fixx - 'Happy Landings' and 'Camphor' & 'Do What you Can' when played back to back

Supertramp - 'Fools Overture' it doesn't make me sad, but it gets cranked to 11 when I'm in a depressed mood.

Far from complete but these are first the come to mind.

okay, so everyone is gonna laugh at this, but trust me: leo sayer, just a boy. Honestly.

A lot of mine are pretty obvious, and similar to those already there, but one I didn't see was "I Dreamed A Dream" off the Les Miserables soundtrack. I mean, consider the context: broke, abandoned young woman forced into prostitution to support a daughter she never sees, sings on her deathbed about the wreck her life has become, and about still loving the man who got her pregnant and left her with nothing. Seriously. Tragic.

A lot of mine are pretty obvious, and similar to those already there, but one I didn't see was "I Dreamed A Dream" off the Les Miserables soundtrack. I mean, consider the context: broke, abandoned young woman forced into prostitution to support a daughter she never sees, sings on her deathbed about the wreck her life has become, and about still loving the man who got her pregnant and left her with nothing. Seriously. Tragic.

Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton

Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg