Which pop ballad makes you cry?

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Well?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 18 October 2002 15:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Britney's "Born To Make You Happy" gets me with its urgency and vulnerablity - Britney's performance is one of the best, most brutal I've heard. I say stuff about this in my article on it, obv.

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.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 18 October 2002 15:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Billy Joel - "She's Only a Woman" / Peabo Bryson - "Can You Stop The Rain?" The former for its matter-of-fact demeanor, the latter for its insistance. If James Ingram's "I Don't Have the Heart" didn't shit the bed near the end with the heartfelt "woooooohoooooo"s, that'd be here, too.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 18 October 2002 15:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Not sure if they're ballads:
Bon Jovi - "Living On A Prayer"
Bette Midler - "The Rose"

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.

― toraneko (toraneko), Friday, 18 October 2002 16:12 (twenty-three years ago)

No Toraneko no!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 18 October 2002 16:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm sorry, I can't help it! Don't tell me that you can hear it without a slight bit of sentimental moistness?

― toraneko (toraneko), Friday, 18 October 2002 16:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Tim, don't be an anti-jingoist. That's so unbecoming.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 18 October 2002 16:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart", but only in it's Frankie Knuckles remix incarnation which turns it into this mediterranean - I will survive - house anthem thing.

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

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 18 October 2002 16:44 (twenty-three years ago)

For the past few days I have been very taken with Roxy Music's "Dance Away" I love how it's built on this 4/4 disco beat but rides it in half-time, ballad-style.

― g.cannon (gcannon), Friday, 18 October 2002 16:53 (twenty-three years ago)

None. Generally speaking big pop ballads as such could make me wistful, but not sad, while usually the singing is so overdetermined and bent on emphasizing the lyrics that I get annoyed with the space in the song it takes up.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 October 2002 16:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Do you mean really make you cry?

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 18 October 2002 16:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes I cry when I hear Warrant's "Sometimes She Cries."

― Aaron W., Friday, 18 October 2002 17:05 (twenty-three years ago)

too many - but it's tears of joy that music (& people) can be so good

― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, 18 October 2002 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Dollar's "Give Me Back My Heart" - produced by Trevor Horn straight after doing "The Lexicon of Love" - has always done it for me. Summer 82, just discovering what real (ie: teenage) emotion is, it is the audio soul sister to ET for me for its ability even now to reduce me to a melting, quivering wreck. For Spielberg's brilliance at manipulating the tear ducts read Trev and "GMBMH".

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

― Darren, Friday, 18 October 2002 17:17 (twenty-three years ago)

anthony turned me on to "Red Rag Top" by Tim McGraw and that did actually make me cry.

I don't know if "Underneath It All" by No Doubt counts as a ballad - it's somewhere inbetween

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 18 October 2002 17:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Darren, I was also oddly thinking about "Thinking of You" but I thought it wouldn't count being disco. Although built around a different sample source, Pete Heller's "Big Love" reminds me of "Thinking of You" and gets me a bit misty eyed too.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 18 October 2002 17:37 (twenty-three years ago)

"I Go to Sleep", the version by the Truth.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 18 October 2002 18:08 (twenty-three years ago)

'Broken Bicycle' by Kes Wyndham,a brilliant track on one of the Pye 'Ripples'compilations about a girl who grows up & gives up on her childhood bicycle.'Julie just left me to rust in the rain',the saddest song ever.There's also a 60's one about a seagull with oil on it's wings that is really sad,Paul Korda I think.Love that Dollar song too.

― Paul R, Friday, 18 October 2002 18:30 (twenty-three years ago)

check out Linda Lewis song "Guffer"

― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, 18 October 2002 18:41 (twenty-three years ago)

"It's Too Late" by the Streets

― Clarke B., Friday, 18 October 2002 19:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"A Moment Like This" by Kelly Clarkson, because it's so FUCKING AWFUL.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 October 2002 20:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Before Your Love" ain't bad (though overproduced). Cathy Dennis magic in effect.

― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, 18 October 2002 20:34 (twenty-three years ago)

"Before Your Love" is much better, yes. I wouldn't choose to listen to it, but I wouldn't change the channel if it came on the radio.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 October 2002 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Far be it for me to question, let alone make fun, of what songs induce enough emotion in the listener to cause him or her to cry, but some of the answers here make me want to barf.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 18 October 2002 21:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Thirteen - Big Star (pop enough?)

Shape of My Heart - Backstreet Boys (it's gotta be that key change)

Want You Back - Take That (cringe)

― Claire (Claire Miccio), Friday, 18 October 2002 22:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"The Winner Takes It All". "Send In The Clowns". "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". - I don't cry easily.

― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 19 October 2002 00:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Some Bryan Adams piece of crap and then that damned Titanic song once made me cry - at work, of all places! But in my defence, there were a few mitigating factors. Not the least of which was my being in the death throes of a passionate but doomed romance.

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 19 October 2002 00:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, because of it's timing w. the aforementioned relationship, Sheryl Crow's 'Favourite Mistake' still makes me a lot more wistful than something that obviously emotionally manipulative should. As if the world needed further proof that love makes ya stupid!

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 19 October 2002 00:33 (twenty-three years ago)

haaa- I almost put down My Favorite Mistake too. But I yellowed out. So wistful and so stupid.

― Claire (Claire Miccio), Saturday, 19 October 2002 01:38 (twenty-three years ago)

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

― Aaron A., Saturday, 19 October 2002 02:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I cried when I first saw the video for Ultravox's 'Dancing With Tears In My Eyes', but only because I was terrified that nuclear war was imminent. My wife cries just about every time she hears Kate Bush's 'This Woman's Work'. Sad video there, too.

― Bryan (Bryan), Saturday, 19 October 2002 03:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Candy Says

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 19 October 2002 04:06 (twenty-three years ago)

cliche answer, but "God Only Knows" does send me right over the edge whenever I hear it. Buffalo Springfield's "Expecting to Fly" has a similar effect.

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.

― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 19 October 2002 05:53 (twenty-three years ago)

this used to be my playground - mads

― kinski (kinski), Saturday, 19 October 2002 09:26 (twenty-three years ago)

men don't cry.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 19 October 2002 10:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Throw some Madonna ballads on my list too - "Take a Bow" and "I'll Remember" in particular.

― James Blount (James Blount), Saturday, 19 October 2002 12:04 (twenty-three years ago)

aaliyah always sounds so lonely

― minna (minna), Saturday, 19 October 2002 13:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Madonna, "Live To Tell"

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

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 19 October 2002 15:22 (twenty-three years ago)

such a thin line between crying and barfing, Sean

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 19 October 2002 18:21 (twenty-three years ago)

"Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart", but only in it's Frankie Knuckles remix incarnation which turns it into this mediterranean - I will survive - house anthem thing."

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"

― adam b (adam b), Saturday, 19 October 2002 22:07 (twenty-three years ago)

haha tracer <=> mark s zodiacal mindmeld

"i'm just a teenage dirtbag"

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 19 October 2002 23:35 (twenty-three years ago)

heaps, "i'm all out of love" by air supply, "eagle" by abba, and thats only the ones i can remember right now.

― di smith (lucylurex), Saturday, 19 October 2002 23:50 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

i've been listening to 'I Care 4 U' again now that the "new" album is around and oddly it moves me far far beyond any other pop ballads in recent memory. maybe i'm too dismissive of balladry and make a special case for Aaliyah since i loved her album last year. but ah the way she flickers that "love you" out at the last minute....

― Honda (Honda), Friday, 6 December 2002 00:12 (twenty-three years ago)

"I Care 4 U" is sublime my answer to thread: "Fade Into You,' Mazzy Star also "Bad Girl" by Maddy

― Vic, Friday, 6 December 2002 01:10 (twenty-three years ago)

'rock the boat' is my aaliyah one. it's not really a sad song. it's about sex or something. but she makes it sad. and she's not alive anymore and that's pretty sad.

'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.

― d k (d k), Friday, 6 December 2002 01:25 (twenty-three years ago)

three months pass...

Brian Wilson - Melt Away

it just hits me.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:16 (twenty-three years ago)

C.R.E.A.M.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:20 (twenty-three years ago)

goddamn. Toooo many to mention. But I don't think I heard anybody mention Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm really surprised "The Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera hasn't been mentioned. I can't remember if I've actually actually cried to it, but it r00lz. It came over the speakers in the restaurant tonight and I was entranced. "We'll live fo-rev-VAH" then the backing vocal repeats the line, mmmmm.

― Aaron A., Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Dido, Thankyou. Lotsa country songs too, but that's getting outside the genre, I suppose.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 03:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I am the MAN who will FIGHT for your HONOR. I am the HERO you've been dreaming OF. We'll LIVE FOREVER, knowing TOGETHER that WE did it ALL for the glory of love.

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 05:21 (twenty-three years ago)

8,,,,- /

― Aaron A., Tuesday, 18 March 2003 05:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Two that always get to me:

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

There are others...what a softie.

― tomasinojones, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 16:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Madonna's 'This used to be my playground' is achingly sad.

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

― russ t, Tuesday, 18 March 2003 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

Madonna - "Bad Girl" - even if Madonna's "trained" singing voice wasn't positively annoying, I'd still regret that she lost the endearing weakness that makes her earlier ballads so frequently dazzling. Here she strains to sing "Don't want to cause you any pain/but I love you just the same/and you'll always be my baby..." and the strain is heartbreaking, deftly but vividly telling you all you need to know about the contours of this breakdown. Shep Pettibone's not so secret weapon the lilting piano vamp that gives the chorus's catalogue of debauchery a grim forward propulsion.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

ABBA, "Happy New Year" - the combination of melancholic, ennui-laden lyric and whatever they're doing on the harmonies there

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

Elliot Smith. All of it.

― Citypark, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

Biz Markie - Just a Friend

― tipustiger, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 14:46 (twenty years ago)

Don`t Let Go by En Vogue

― djangojones (djangojones), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

'Nothing compares 2 u' for me too.

― Affectian (Affectian), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 15:26 (twenty years ago)

Crowded House - "Don't Dream It's Over"

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

LONELY ROAD OF FAITH!!!!

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 16:01 (twenty years ago)

It's not really a pop ballad, but Lost In The Plot by The Dears made me nearly cry last Sunday. It's such a lovely song.

― Nicole (StarShine), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

The Beatles "In My Life"
John Lennon "Jealous Guy"

― Brett Hickman (Bhickman), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

It's not really a pop ballad, but Lost In The Plot by The Dears made me nearly cry last Sunday. It's such a lovely song.

OTM

Do The Magnetic Fields count? What about the Smiths?

― daavid (daavid), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:04 (twenty years ago)

Mario Winans - I Don't Wanna Know

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

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

OK the one that never fails is
The Smiths - "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"

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

― daavid (daavid), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:17 (twenty years ago)

Big Star - Holocaust

― Gerard (Gerard), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:38 (twenty years ago)

Faith Hill - Cry

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

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:40 (twenty years ago)

"Give Me the Reason" by Luther Vandross
"This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush (every. damn. time)
"Missing" and "Rollercoaster" by Everything But the Girl.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:41 (twenty years ago)

"Stay" by Shakespeare's Sister....kinda

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

my call

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

― secondhandnews, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 23:28 (twenty years ago)

I don't actually recall crying over any of these three but, when my first wife and I broke up, "Angie" by the Stones just about did it to me as it was the one song that really made me identify with her the most.

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!

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:45 (twenty years ago)

"Still" by The Commodores. When he gets to the last line: "I do love you..." and then his voice breaks just a little when he says quietly "...still" and then there's a smaller version of the big flourish we heard earlier in the song. Gah, I'm getting chills now just thinking about it.

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

― Nackles (Nackles), Thursday, 7 July 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

Time After Time

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 7 July 2005 12:57 (twenty years ago)

Why does "If You're Not The One" by Daniel Bedingfield make me cry?

― cheeseman, Thursday, 7 July 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

Because it is awesome.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 7 July 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

ten years pass...

will you love me tomorrow

― wizzz! (amateurist), Sunday, 4 October 2015 12:25 (ten years ago)

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

― dyl, Sunday, 4 October 2015 14:49 (ten years ago)

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

― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 4 October 2015 14:56 (ten years ago)

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

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Sunday, 4 October 2015 15:05 (ten years ago)

"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, 4 October 2015 16:11 (ten years ago)

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

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Sunday, 4 October 2015 16:24 (ten years ago)

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.

― Ys Man a.k.a. Have One on G (geoffreyess), Sunday, 4 October 2015 16:35 (ten years ago)

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

― Iago Galdston, Sunday, 4 October 2015 16:45 (ten years ago)

otm, So Far Away is a tearjerker for me too

― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 4 October 2015 16:48 (ten years ago)

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

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Sunday, 4 October 2015 16:51 (ten years ago)

"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

^^^^^^

― Turrican, Sunday, 4 October 2015 17:26 (ten years ago)

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

― JacobSanders, Sunday, 4 October 2015 17:56 (ten years ago)

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.

― SlimAndSlam, Sunday, 4 October 2015 18:56 (ten years ago)

"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

― rip van wanko, Sunday, 4 October 2015 19:10 (ten years ago)

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

Moments of Pleasure > This Woman's Work

― The Once-ler, Sunday, 4 October 2015 20:14 (ten years ago)

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

― The Once-ler, Sunday, 4 October 2015 20:19 (ten years ago)

Robyn

― Hinklepicker, Sunday, 4 October 2015 21:11 (ten years ago)

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