9 Songs About Heartbreak You’ll Never Forget- You Might Tear Up a Little
Tugging At Your Heartstrings
In songwriting, heartache is a common inspiration. Take the famous ‘bickering’ of Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks for example. It’s mostly because of relationship problems and pain that they were able to come up with the best tracks for the band. Here are some of those that will hit you right in the feels.
9. ZZ Top – “Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell”
Fave line:
“Like takin’ eyesight from the blind man and money from the poor
that woman took my lovin’ and walked on out that door.”
This incredible bluesy music is perfect when you’re feeling extra melodramatic. The pain is so raw and fresh, it will likely make you way more emotional. This will always be one of our favorite ZZ Top tunes. It’s a real masterpiece. The picking is unbelievable. Somehow, you want to feel sad because of the lyrics but dang, the whole structure of the song is amazing on so many levels. We can list more than a few reasons why this track will remain immortal. It’s definitely one of those you can listen to all day and still not get enough of. It’s the kind of music that can move you to tears – you know, when you suddenly feel like crying without knowing why. It’s a magnificent piece indeed.
8. The Velvet Underground – “Pale Blue Eyes”
Fave line:
“Thought of you as my mountain top,
Thought of you as my peak.
Thought of you as everything,
I’ve had but couldn’t keep.”
To be fair, there are so many memorable words in this track. And you can really feel the pain and anguish of the ‘narrator.’ It hits you on a visceral level. Rumor has it, the inspiration behind the song is Lou Reed’s first love Shelley Albin who, as you would have guessed, married another man. Don’t mind us as we put this on repeat. There’s something about it that’s tattooed deep in our marrows. It’s so beautifully done and yet so inexplicably painful, you wouldn’t know whether to be happy or sad. The simplicity of it is perhaps one of its appeals. You know, we can ugly cry to this. It’s like, one minute you’re just enjoying the basic yet unforgettable tune and the next, you’re in tears.
7. Aerosmith – “You See Me Crying”
Fave line:
“Honey was it the words I said?
You see me crying, say your a ladies man.
You see me crying, I’m so hard to understand.”
When you think of heartbreak songs, ‘rock’ isn’t exactly the first genre that comes to mind. But Steven Tyler sure bared his soul here. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make it the last track to ‘Toys in the Attic’ definitely deserves a medal. It may not have made it to the charts like Aerosmith’s other hits but the complex piano ballad added so much to the ‘heaviness’ of the track that it would easily become one of your favorites. Even some of the band members were frustrated during the recording because of its complexity. But it was well worth it. It’s underrated but we still think Steven did a mighty fine job in terms of vocal performance. And the solo is insane.
6. Cheap Trick – “The Flame”
Fave line:
“Another night slowly closes in
And I feel so lonely
Touching heat freezing on my skin
I pretend you still hold me.”
We hope we’re not the only ones balling our eyes each time this song plays. It makes us seriously miss the ‘80s, can anyone please take us back like, right now? It’s a beautiful song everyone should listen to at least once. Although to be honest, it’s hard not to get addicted after hearing it for the first time. Maybe the best review we’ve read about this track is from the Rolling Stone magazine when they wrote, “Emotional singing and an affecting Nielsen solo make “The Flame” memorable, if not quite equal to the band’s best ballads.” Yep, we couldn’t agree more. If you’re going through a painful heartbreak, this might make you sadder and more sentimental. Hearing it in a bar might make you burst into tears.
5. The Eagles – “Wasted Time”
Fave line:
“Oh, another love has come and gone
Oh, and the years keep rushing on
I remember what you told me before you went out on your own:
‘Sometimes to keep it together, we got to leave it alone’.”
It’s one of the few songs whose every word is so unforgettable and contains so much emotion. It was pretty hard trying to decide which line to put here, because in all honesty, everything is perfectly written. (Diazepam) Perhaps it’s the only good thing that came out from Don Henley’s bitter breakup with Loree Rodkin. It’s a mournful ballad and the pain that he wrote about it just translated to the audience which is why they loved it. You know how to best enjoy this? Whenever you hear the first few notes, you just have to stop and listen intently. It will get touch your soul like no other song ever can.
4. Rolling Stones – “Out of Tears”
Fave line:
“I won’t cry when you say goodbye
I’m out of tears
I won’t die when you wave goodbye
I’m out of tears, yes I am.”
If we can describe this track in two words, it would be ‘simply astounding.’ You know what image comes to mind each time we hear this? Listening to it on a cold, rainy night with nothing but a tub of ice cream and a melodramatic TV show to keep us company. Yes, it’s sad like that. The thing with The Rolling Stones, they’re always about simplicity but this one is quite different from their other hits. According to Mick Jagger, “There’s a very sad mood to that song. The Stones are mainly a guitar band, but I think with a ballad sometimes it’s nice to move away from that. And when a song is written on a keyboard, you get a different sort of melodic structure.”
3. Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way”
Fave line:
“Loving you
Isn’t the right thing to do
How can I ever change things that I feel?”
Judging by the opening line alone, you know this is one bitter song about heartbreak. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks aren’t your average couple and when they were ‘bickering’ in their songs, they didn’t hold anything back. There’s a lot of angst in this track and it makes you think how the atmosphere was like when they were recording it. We’re actually pretty obsessed with this song. You can feel the raw emotion and turmoil – it always seemed like Stevie’s on the verge of tears whenever she performed this. She shared in one interview with the Rolling Stone magazine, “I very much resented him telling the world that ‘packing up, shacking up’ with different men was all I wanted to do. He knew it wasn’t true. It was just an angry thing that he said. Every time those words would come onstage, I wanted to go over and kill him. He knew it, so he really pushed my buttons through that. It was like, ‘I’ll make you suffer for leaving me.’ And I did.”
2. The Beach Boys – “Caroline No”
Fave line:
“Could I ever find in you again
Things that made me love you so much then
Could we ever bring ’em back once they have gone
Oh, Caroline no.”
As to the real inspiration for this song, nothing is really clear. For one, the co-writer Brian Wilson once mentioned that it was written without any particular person in mind but also admitted another time that he had an unrequited love named Carol way back in high school. The other writer Tony Asher also had a girlfriend, Carol, whom he’d broken up with before the lyrics were penned. When this track comes on, it’s hard not to feel anything. It doesn’t matter if you experienced heartbreak yesterday, last week or 10 years ago, you’ll likely weep so hard because of how palpable the emotion is. It’s possible that the brilliance we hear is because of its simple form. The work of a musical genius!
1. The Beatles – “For No One”
Fave line:
“And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind her tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years.”
It’s the story of a once-amazing relationship that turned sour. She’s had enough and now she’s living her life without the guy. What can be more painful than that? When you can do nothing but watch the one you love go about her daily activities and you’re just there on the sidelines, hoping you can go back to those happier times. Great lyrics and a timeless melody, Paul McCartney just has so much musicality in him. There’s an intimacy to it – like you’re getting a peek into a trouble couple’s life. He wrote it while he and then-girlfriend Jane Asher were in on a skiing holiday in Switzerland. Even John Lennon was impressed with this song when he said, “One of my favourites of his. A nice piece of work.”
