Top Ten Songs That Turn Me Into a Huge Crybaby

Music is an incredible thing. I find it wonderful how one of your senses can pick up something so emotional, so beautiful, and so incredibly amazing that your body can't even handle it and you just cry. Or at least I do. Maybe I'm over-emotional, (there's no 'maybe'... I am over-emotional) but there are some songs that I listen to that just make me weep uncontrollably, either because they remind me of something or someone, or because they are so beautiful I just can't even deal with it. So here is my list for top ten songs that turn me into a bawling idiot:

10. "Timothy" by Dada

I'm sure many people have never even heard of this song (except my Dada-obsessed family), so if you haven't, you must. It makes me cry not only because it is beautiful, but because it tells a very sad story. I'm not going to give the story away, you'll just have to listen to the lyrics. But seriously... Dada is an incredibly talented band that my family and myself have been in love with since the early 90's. This song in particular is one that I grew up listening to and it reminds me of summer and having cookouts at our old house in Appleton (the pink and grey house, as my family knows it). So... if you have not heard this song, please listen to it, and also check out the rest of Dada's albums both old and new because they rock.

9. "Yesterday" by The Beatles

Now we have a song many people know. This song makes me cry because of a very strange memory I have of it. On September 11, 2001 I was with my fellow classmates at a park for a "Team Bonding Day". There was a karaoke machine there and nobody would sing anything, so my math teacher Mrs. Sinclair decided to sing the song "Yesterday" by The Beatles. Very soon after that, our teachers sat us down and explained to us what happened in New York. We got back to school just in time to see the second tower collapse on television. Now the song "Yesterday" has a much bigger meaning to me. To me, it represents life before 9/11, and life after, and how it only took a couple of hours that morning to change everybody's lives. The memory of the song, and the karaoke is so scattered and distant to me, so I'm unsure of the actual timing of events, but I remember seeing that tower collapse, and every single angry and confused feeling that I felt after that point is still completely clear to me. 

8. "Imagine" by John Lennon

This song never used to make me cry, until it was played at my cousin Rosemary's funeral. When her husband played this song, something inside me broke and I started crying uncontrollably. Ever since then, I can't get through it without crying. Rosemary was such a positive and happy person and the world was such a beautiful place with her in it. 

7. "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder" by Secret Sisters

This song is a very positive and uplifting song, but there is something in her voice that makes it quite haunting. It is such a beautiful song though, and I'm not really sure why it makes me cry. Perhaps its beauty, or its content, but all I know is I love it and I'm so glad it has been written into this world. 

6. "Primavera" by Ludovico Einaudi

Here is a song that makes me cry simply because it is so beautiful. Einaudi's piano compositions are some of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. This one in particular has a light and pretty feel at first but the more you listen, the more complex and emotional and even dark at times it becomes. At 2:26, the chords he uses in the left hand... I can almost feel his emotion in them. They are so dark and beautiful and UGH I just love it. It's amazing. Listen to it damn it.

5. "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney

This song will always be special to me, because it reminds me of my Aunt Janice who passed away when I was a senior in high school. We were very close and I miss her like crazy. Before she died, we went to a Paul McCartney concert, and I remember her getting so excited when he started to play her favorite song "Maybe I'm Amazed". It was such a cool experience to be there with her, and to see her so happy and experiencing something so awesome. I will cherish that memory for the rest of my life. To me, this will always be her song, and whenever I hear it being played somewhere, I know it's her reminding me that she is still around. 

4. "Breathe Me" by Sia

Anyone who knows me had to expect this one on the list. Anyone who has seen the TV Show Six Feet Under from start to finish better have this on their own lists. F***ing A. What can I say? It is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and was put into the most beautiful show ending ever written. It was perfect, and it left me happy, inspired, heartbroken and in mourning all at the same time. Putting so much emotion into one song, and into one television show is an incredible feat. I am not exaggerating when I say Six Feet Under changed me. It led me to a new outlook on life, and this song aided me on the way.

3. "Dreaming of You" by Selena

Oh Selena. I have loved you ever since I was little. This song makes me cry because it reminds me of the great talent and beautiful, happy person that was taken from us too soon. We never got to hear the rest of this album, her first English crossover, but we know it would have been a hit and there would have been many more hits after that. So much lost potential. Every time I listen to this song (Or "I Could Fall in Love"... another one of my favorites) my heart breaks all over again. Te quiero mi niña. <3

2. "10,000 Miles" by Mary Chapin Carpenter

This really is the only song I've ever heard by Mary Chapin Carpenter, but oh my God do I bawl when I listen to it. And it is 100% due to the movie Fly Away Home. This song plays in the opening scene when her mother dies and it plays at the ending as well and I cry during both scenes like a baby. Such a beautiful movie, and such a perfect song to go with it. 

1. "Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 "Pathetique"" by Tchaikovsky

Hands down, this is the most beautiful song ever created. I didn't put a specific movement (although I'm partial to Adagio) because the Symphony as a whole is just absolutely incredible. In the first movement "Adagio" about 4 minutes and 48 seconds into the movement (5:35 in the video above) my heart melts, and I collapse into a smoldering heap of emotion and tears. What makes this symphony even more emotional, is that it was Tchaikovsky's last symphony that he ever wrote before he died. He was struggling with quite a bit of emotional issues in his life at the time he wrote this masterpiece, and you can feel it. His very first performance of this piece occurred on October 28th, 1893, nine days before his death. Some people have speculated that the symphony took the place of Tchaikovsky's "Suicide Note", but that was never confirmed. The title itself "Pathetique" or "Patetičeskaja" In Russian, means "passionate" or "emotional" and is a word reflective of a touch of concurrent suffering. I suppose we will never know exactly what Tchaikovsky was thinking when he wrote it, but the world, especially myself, is just very glad that he did.