Songs That Make You Cry: Heart-Wrenching Western Music—from Timeless Classics to the Newest Hits
There are times when, instead of listening to music to get pumped up or fired up, you deliberately want to listen to poignant or slightly sad songs and have a good cry alone, right?
Upbeat tracks that give you a push are great, but in this article we’ve researched and selected timeless, heart-wrenching English-language songs that empathize with listeners’ feelings, both old and new.
From classic standards to recent hits and the latest buzzworthy tracks, we’re bringing you a genre-crossing selection.
Try listening in whatever setting makes you feel most at ease—whether that’s in your bedroom or on a drive!
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Tearjerkers! Heartbreaking Western Songs — From Timeless Classics to the Newest Hits — (71–80)
SonnetThe Verve
Originally, it seems that the band The Verve mainly focused on psychedelic music.
Although this song has the feel of a slightly pop-leaning ballad, their spirit of taking on various musical genres is truly admirable.
EverytimeBritney Spears
Britney has quite a few intense tracks, but this one is a relaxed ballad.
It’s also a heartbreak song that expresses the complex feelings of loving someone who won’t look your way.
I think it’s one of those songs that reaffirms that Britney really does have vocal prowess.
I Can’t Make You Love MeBonnie Raitt
A song written by songwriters Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin.
Reid got the idea for the song from a newspaper article about a man who, while drunk, shot his girlfriend’s car.
It is sung from the perspective of a woman who knows that the person she loves is no longer interested in her.
The Wind Cries MaryThe Jimi Hendrix Experience
A song that Jimi Hendrix was inspired to write by his then-girlfriend, Kathy Mary Etchingham.
They argued about her cooking, and in anger she started throwing pots and pans, then eventually left to spend the night at a friend’s place.
There’s a story that when she came back, Jimi had written The Wind Cries Mary for her.
The LovedPaul Weller
The performance is a solo singing with a deep, husky voice, and it sounds really cool.
As the title suggests, it’s a heartbreak ballad.
The tempo gradually picks up, and as you listen, it even feels like a song that somehow lifts your spirits.
I Don’t Like YouGrace VanderWaal
I recommend this song, “I Don’t Like You,” to anyone struggling with relationship issues.
Love can sometimes force you to endure things.
“I Don’t Like You” conveys the pain of a woman who can’t bring herself to tell her partner that she doesn’t really like them.
We Are the WorldUSA For Africa
Rather than a tearjerker, it’s a song that genuinely moves you.
It’s the globally renowned classic born in 1985 from “USA for Africa,” a project proposed by Harry Belafonte inspired by the UK’s Band Aid to relieve famine in Africa.
As a charity single created to help alleviate the worsening famine in Africa, it brought together 45 of the era’s top American superstars, leaving its mark on history as a landmark undertaking.
There’s no need to rehash the significance or brilliance of the song itself, but collaborations of this caliber among such extraordinary vocalists are exceedingly rare, and as a music fan, the mere fact that this track came to be is deeply moving.
Be sure to check out the documentary footage of the recording sessions as well!