Which pop ballad makes you cry?

Backstreet Boys' "Shape Of My Heart" by contrast is almost too perfect - the echoey opening vocals, the strummed guitar... I'd be left unaffected most likely if not for the slight and endearing whinyness of Nick's bridge, followed by the most amazing keychange/harmony ever, a fireworks display of prepubescent longing. (my favourite thing to do *ever* is to switch from this straight to the Neptunes mix of "The Call").

Blue's "If You Come Back In My Life" - somewhere in between the two, this rests on the strings and harmonies on the hand, and the talented one's (I've forgotten his name again) ragged male melisma on the other, like twin but opposing pillars of strength. That one member in particular possesses a voice that is almost skyscrapingly perfect, taking his cues from Huey Lewis and Michael Bolton but somehow making those similarities urgent and key. Bono wishes he could make something so yearning.

and a very non-pop song "We Are Australian" which has a chorus that goes:

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian.

It might just be the melody that gets me though.

and maybe that Aerosmith Armageddon thing. Does "Past, Present, Future" count?

Not strictly pop, but also "Thinking of You" by Sister Sledge is as achingly swoonsome as it ever gets.

Not nearly as dramatic, but John Lennon's "Watching the Wheels" makes me wistful at the very least, moisteyed at most when I hear it. Pavement's "Starlings of the Slipstream" chokes me up to. I'll get slaughtered for this, but U2's "All I Want Is You" and "With or Without You" manage to make me emotional also. Oh, and "Ruby Tuesday". I'm a big crybaby.

Scott Fitzgerald & Yvonne Keely, "If I Had Words"

that'd be my pick too, but i like prefer the big dramatic diva version

'don't give up" by peter gabriel and kate bush too

and also things like 'hobart paving' and 'being boring' and most especially of all, 'that summer feeling' by jonathan richman (pretty much guarenteed actually), although i'm discounting them by taking the subliminal meaning of this thread to be "...by people you don't otherwise have much time for"

"i'm just a teenage dirtbag"

'can you hear me' is the new one. i usually program so the cd ends at 'hot' or skips over to the remix. i've only listened it all the way through a couple times. it feels really weird to lie on your back in front of the stereo and start crying like that and the tears rolling back over your cheeks into the black headphones foam. i think it's the saddest song i've ever heard.

it just hits me.

"Never Had a Dream Come True" S Club Seven (really!)
"Nothing Compares 2 U"

There are others...what a softie.

Saddest song ever, though, has to be Kate Bush's 'This Woman's Work'. Fabulous record.

OTM

Do The Magnetic Fields count? What about the Smiths?

such an extreme emotional position to hold on to, such despair.

But I guess this thread is more about chart pop. Unfortunately I can't think of anything now.

No, really, it's all true...

will you still love me tommorow...
will think of more

Also, Todd Rundgren's "The Last Ride" is just so painfuly beautiful that it gets me to thinking of just about anyone that I have ever gone out with.

And this is kinda neat... I forgot the third song!

Also "The Wings That Fly Us Home" by John Denver, and "Danny Boy."

will you love me tomorrow

i love so many of the songs mentioned itt and am glad ppl were willing to mention that they made them so emotional

All Through the Night - Cyndi Lauper
The Rose - Bette Midler
Suddenly - Olivia Newton John & Cliff Richard

Elton John - Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Harry Nilsson - Without You
Morbid Angel - God of Emptiness

"This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush (every. damn. time)
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, July 6, 2005 6:41 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

ohhh...some might find it cheesy (cos of the video), but Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush - Don't Give Up.

Speaking of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," Foxes in Fiction's "Shadow's Song" got me pretty weepy again the other night. It has Owen Pallett playing a sorta homage to the strings in early 60s r&b/rnr, though "Stand by Me" might be a better reference point.

Carly Simon, That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be
Carole King, So Far Away

otm, So Far Away is a tearjerker for me too

The-Dream's "Mama" also. given my recent parent drama that one might be too much tho.

"This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush (every. damn. time)
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, July 6, 2005 6:41 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Sunday, October 4, 2015 4:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^^^

Mary J. Blige - Not Gon' Cry
Keyshia Cole - I Remember

A while ago I was driving a car, alone, with no working sound system, singing Simon & Garfunkel songs to pass the time. I started crying while singing "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

When it was just me and the lyrics - and no audience - I was overwhelmed by the song's message of unconditional support. The recording does not have this effect on me.

"I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt

― Aaron A., Friday, October 18, 2002 10:15 PM (12 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me otm from 13 yrs ago

almost cried to Kate Bush - Moments of Pleasure, Army Dreamers

Moments of Pleasure > This Woman's Work

a lot more death in Moments of Pleasure and Army Dreamers >.<

Robyn