Songs That Make Me Cry – Top Ten

Sometimes you just need to let go of bottled up emotions. This top ten list is full of songs that help me get all of those emotions out. These are the top ten songs that make me cry. This is a very personal list for me. As such, there’s not any real outside influence for any of these choices. They are all songs that touch me personally in one way or another. Sometimes it is because of the stories behind the songs. Most of the time, it is just in how the lyrics, the melody, and the emotion in the performance get me in the feels.

10. “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton

A lot of tearful songs come from the pain that the songwriters experience. “Tears in Heaven” was inspired by the loss of Clapton’s son. Through expressing his loss, we all come face to face with dealing with the loss of loved ones that have left us way too soon.

Tear Jerking Lines

I must be strong and carry on
‘Cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven

9. “The Heart of the Matter” by Don Henley

A song of lost love, acceptance, and moving on, “The Heart of the Matter” is about realizing the things that we do that destroy our own relationships. It is about being able to move on regardless of how things have been left. I think we all have those relationships that the only way that we could move on with our lives beyond them is to forgive ourselves as well as our lost loves.

Tear Jerking Lines

I’m learning to live without you now
But I miss you sometimes
The more I know the less I understand
All the things I thought I knew, I’m learning again

8. “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac

“Landslide” is about watching life crumbling around us. I listen to it, and I hear a message of heartbreak. We all have people, careers, and things that we’ve built our life around. But all of them are fleeting. And we can lose them all at the drop of a hat. There is the despair in losing everything that we’ve built our lives around.

Tear Jerking Lines

Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m getting older, too

7. “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass

The blame for this song making this list lies squarely on the shoulders of James Gunn. It is honestly a song that I would have never thought that much of prior to the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. However, the prominence of “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” not just in the movie, but as a key element of the story itself, really made me examine this one. We have a story of a woman hopelessly pining for a man that she knows that she could never have a home with. It is really a punch in the gut when you think about the lyrics.

Tear Jerking Lines

Brandy, you’ve a fine girl,
What a good wife you would be
But my life, my love and my lady is the sea.

6. “Return to Pooh Corner” by Kenny Loggins

While a majority of the songs that make me cry tend to be about loss or broken relationships, “Return to Pooh Corner” touches me in a very different way. It is nostalgic for childhood, but the real hook for me is in that final verse that Loggins added when he re-recorded this song, when the adventures of Christopher Robin and Pooh are passed on to his son.

Tear Jerking Lines

So I tucked him in, I kissed him and as I was going
I swear that old bear whispered, ‘boy, welcome home’

5. “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin

“Cat’s in the Cradle” is the king of daddy issues songs. All boys inherently look up to their fathers as their first role model of what a man is supposed to be. It is a hero-worship relationship, for good or bad. Sometimes the relationship grows and matures beyond that. Other times, the relationship never grows beyond that, and it eventually crumbles like a house of cards when the son realizes that the father isn’t the hero he grew up thinking he was.

Tear Jerking Lines

He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talking ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say, I’m gonna be like you, dad
You know I’m gonna be like you

4. “One More Day” by Diamond Rio

“One More Day” can have so many meanings. For me, it has changed meaning over the years. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, it was a song about lost love. In my mid-thirties, it took on a much deeper meaning. About a year ago, my grandfather passed away, and I just totally broke down the first time I heard this song after his passing. Because I would give anything to have one more day with him, but I know that at the end of it I would want nothing but just one more day.

Tear Jerking Lines

One more day, one more time
One more sunset, maybe I’d be satisfied
But then again, I know what it would do
Leave me wishing still for one more day with you

3. “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler

Even though it was from the movie Beaches, that has nothing to do with why “Wind Beneath My Wings” makes me cry, as I’ve never even seen that movie. It makes my list because of how it describes my relationship with my mom. She is one of the few people in my life that has always been there. I feel like there were a lot of sacrifices that she made for my sake, even if she never saw them as sacrifices herself.

Tear Jerking Lines

A beautiful face without a name for so long.
A beautiful smile to hide the pain.

2. “Because of You” by Kelly Clarkson

Broken relationships don’t always just affect the people in the broken relationship. Even though a broken relationship can affect two adults for the rest of their lives, it can affect their children for their entire lives. I think this song really hits home for any child of divorce, especially so if either parent is absent either physically or emotionally.

Tear Jerking Lines

My heart can’t possibly break
When it wasn’t even whole to start with

1. “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg

“Same Old Lang Syne” has brought tears to my eyes for longer than any song on this list (though not the first song to bring tears to my eyes…). It is also one of the few that is capable of bringing me to tears from the first note, before a single word is said. It is such a universal song. Unless you ended up marrying your high school sweetheart, we all have can relate to this experience even if we haven’t had something like it happen to us.

Tear Jerking Lines

I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasn’t sure if I saw
Doubt or gratitude

I Think I Need a Tissue Now…

And those are the top ten songs that make me cry. I have to admit, this was probably one of the most emotionally draining blog posts I’ve ever written. These are all things that we deal with in life, and it is our emotions that really bind us as people to each other. I hope this has been as cathartic for you as it was for me in writing it. For a playlist including these and other songs that make me cry, check out this playlist on Spotify.

Teaser: Next time, we’ll be discussing starting your own website.