How often do you come across songs that immediately make you start weeping?
Well, apart from the message resonating with your own personal life, there are also songs that just hit hard, even if the lyrics don’t necessarily remind of your own experiences.
There are songs that are just composed, sung or written so hauntingly that the beauty in them takes your breath away and makes you cry, involuntarily.
Today, we’ll be concentrating on the biggest tear-jerkers, or say the most depressing songs ever curated – ranking them on the basis of their ability to make you cry.
From old-school Rock to classic Opera Arias, here are 10 songs that are certain to make you cry:
20) Yesterday – The Beatles
The melancholic sound of nostalgia. A tearful escape from your troubled present, this song.
19) Hurt – Johnny Cash
Nine Inch Nails sang it first, but Cash put more emotion into it. Maybe it’s the sound of an ageing man reflecting back on his troubled road so far, that takes the [bitter] cake.
18) It Hurts Like Hell – Aretha Franklin
Since Aretha Franklin had the ability to make you believe in every word she sang, this song does just what it’s name suggests. It hurts like hell. Especially when she reaches the bridge and stars producing notes that sound like loud cries, it really does.
17) Help – Tina Turner
Yes, The Beatles sang it first – but Tina Turner brought a whole another level of misery to this cry for help, making it truly sound like one. Just play it and weep.
16) Coat Of Many Colours – Dolly Parton
Even if you were not as dirt-poor as Dolly while growing up, this emotional song will still get you.
15) Carry You Home – James Blunt
James Blunt crooning about mourning a fallen friend. Enough said. Just grab your tissues.
14) Breathe Me – Sia
Sia’s ultimate call for help. If you saw the viral video of teenager Johah Mowry, who did self-harm after being bullied at school and uploaded a video to make his confession, with this song playing in the background – you’ll forever be haunted by those visuals, when you listen to this song.
13) I Will Remember You – Sarah McLachlan
‘Don’t let your life pass you by, weep not for the memories’ Perhaps the saddest goodbye song ever written or sung.
12) Rainy Days and Mondays – Carpenters
Karen Carpenter’s deep and gloomy voice, narrating how we’ve all felt a sense of emptiness without a rhyme or reason. Typical summation of Monday-morning blues. Play this while you’re heading back to work after a long holiday, and you’ll certainly cry on the way.
11) Smile – Judy Garland
Although this song asks you to smile in the face of adversities, you know the whole vibe around it is so depressing, especially Miss Garland’s heart-rendering voice, that it feels like it was always meant to make you cry instead.
10) Non, je ne regrette rien – Edith Piaf
Looking back her at life without any regrets is France’s iconic and most controversial, troubled singer – Edith Piaf. The sense of depressing nostalgia this song brings, makes you reminisce over her astonishing story as she sings at the brink of her life’s final chapter, looking back at her journey so far.
9) A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke
A song about social and racial discrimination, but now resonating with all forms of inequality and hate, curated to depict how it all takes affect on a personal level. Gut wrenching.
8) Goodbye My Lover – James Blunt
Yet another incredibly sob-worthy song from James Blunt, with him saying goodbye now to a lover, he could have lived the rest of his life with.
7) Nessun Dorma – Any great Opera Tenor
This Opera aria is so hauntingly composed that you don’t even have have to understand the meaning behind it’s Italian lyrics. When the tenor voice reaches the high-notes, you’re ready to explode with stomach-churning emotions inside you.
6) All By Myself – Celine Dion
The most perfect song depicting the most miserable form of loneliness. “Living alone, I think of all the friends I’ve known, When I dial the telephone, Nobody’s home” – just horribly beautiful.
5) Everybody Hurts – REM
The definitive tear-jerker. The vulnerable voices of the singers telling you it is okay to cry and let it all out, since everybody hurts. You won’t be able to help it.
4) Imagine – John Lennon
The naïve hopefulness of the protagonist, urging you to imagine a world that has perhaps never existed – without cults, groups, geographical segregations and wars.
3) Dance With My Father – Luther Vandross
The great Luther Vandross’ dedication to his late father, after he has left for the heavenly abode. Just yearning for that one last dance with him. Sob Sob.
2) In The Arms Of An Angel – Sarah McLachlan
This song shows Sarah at her most vulnerable as she yearns for comfort amidst life’s hardships. A ghostly serenade to overflow your lid.
1) I Dreamed a Dream – Various Artists (Doesn’t matter, the song itself is miserable)
One of the greatest and one of the most iconic songs to come out of musical theatres. This miserable song from a play that’s even called ‘Les Misérables’, has no silver lining. It just ends in gloom.
Apart from these great miserable 20 all-time tearjerkers, a few honourable mentions would include:
Fernando – ABBA
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina – Karen Carpenter
Bridge Over Troubled Water – Johnny Cash
Over The Rainbow – Judy Garland