I was just thinking about some of my favorite songs dealing with break-ups. In roughly chronological order:

Rolling Stones - Angie
Jim Croce - Operator
Eagles - Wasted Time
Fleetwood Mac - The Chain, Gold Dust Woman, Go Your Own Way (almost the whole Rumors album really!)
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
Sinead O'Connor - Troy
Tori Amos - Baker, Baker, Hey Jupiter, Putting the Damage On, Northern Lad (so much to choose from!)
David Bowie - Something in the Air
Garbage - Cup of Coffee

It would make for an awfully maudlin and depressing mix, but I find all these songs very emotionally expressive

[ December 16, 2003, 06:31 PM: Message edited by: JC ]

Taylor Dayne - "Love will bring you back"

John Waite - "Aint missing you"

Rosario - "Come quieres que te quiera"

Maysa Mataraso - "Ne me quitte pas"

Mina - "Esperame en el cielo"

Los Panchos - "Lo dudo"

Bola de Nieve - "Ay amor"

Charles Aznavour - "Me voila seul"

The Supremes - "Someday we'll be together"

The Smiths - "Plese please please"

Lenny Kravitz-"It Aint Over Til It's Over"-written for Lisa Bonet after he cheated on her!

[ December 16, 2003, 07:18 PM: Message edited by: tennisbudcali ]

Please Don't Go - KC and the Sunshine Band

I should be able to think of more at this time, but my mind is blank.

Beatles - Ticket to Ride
Carpenters (and others) - Superstar
Carpenters - Hurting Each Other
Carpenters - Goodbye to Love (so depressing)

I'll be able to think of non-Carpenters break up songs later.

Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart:

a moment of silence, please.....

Dirty Dozen of Un-Rosey Tunes for the Lovelorn and Heartbroken

1) Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)
2) Weezer, Say It Ain't So
3) Jeff Buckley, Last Goodbye
4) The Dirtbombs, stop
5) Everclear, You Make Me Feel Like a Whore
6) Nine Inch Nails, sin
7) Everything But the Girl, Missing
8) They Eat Their Own, Like a Drug
9) Basement Jaxx, Good Luck
10) Pearl Jam, Black
11) Our Lady Peace, Clumsy
12) Poe, Angry Johnny
13) Olive, You Are Nothing


Other Tracks That Frequently Make It to the Mix Tape:
- Atmosphere, f**k You, Lucy
- The Cardigans, Do You Believe?
- Hooverphonic, Eden
- Lisa Loeb, Stay
- Madonna, Human Nature
- Outkast, Roses
- Shea Seger, Last Time
- Smashing Pumpkins, Landslide (cover)
- The Smiths, Unhappy Birthday
- Sneaker Pimps, Sick
- Splender, Yeah, Whatever
- Stiffed, What You Gon' Do?
- The Sundays, Cry
- Supreme Beings of Leisure, Never the Same
- Wendy & Lisa, Everything But You

1. "Good-Bye To You" Scandal
2. "I Ain't missing you at all" John Waite
3. "We Belong" Pat Benatar

Nobody mentioned a Justin Timberlake song!?

Yep -- "I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain!"

I'm with you there... but how about a couple of Stevie Nicks solo numbers as well:

Stand Back (it's written about an argument and if you read the lyrics, it's an angry song. Plus, it's a rarity: A keyboard-based song that rocks).

No Spoken Word (off Rock A Little. Favorite lines: "If you tell me one more time baby take it easy... well you won't see me ever again/Some people walk down that darkened street/Oh with the faith of a child/And so go the faithless.")

Long Way To Go (off The Other Side Of The Mirror. One favorite line: "Well can you be of any help to me? I don't think so!"). Rocks hard.

Fall From Grace (off Trouble in Shangri-la): Also rocks hard. "I didn't ask when you shook your head/I always accepted what you said as the truth/And the truth only."

Jim Allen - Amen on Joy Division!

No one mentioned "Go your own Way" by Fleetwood Mac? Yeeesh. I love that song.

"Look Away" by Chicago

I don't do a lot of breakup songs.

Trevor

Morrissey - "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get"

Liz Phair - "Divorce Song"
Liz Phair - "Johnny Sunshine"
(Both from Exile in Guyville, one of my absolute faves of all time, ever)

White Stripes - "There's No Home for You Here"

Stones - "Yesterday's Papers"

[ December 17, 2003, 06:38 AM: Message edited by: William1865 ]

Two great ones by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," both hits for Dionne Warwick (though the first seems more a "never-was" song).

I find such music exuberant, never really having had a break-up that wasn't quiet and mutually beneficial. Since romantic love is, y'know, painful mythology.

Actually, JC did when he said pretty much all of Rumours.

It's a karaoke favorite of mine. LOL

Interesting thread. There seem to be two camps -- either the "screw you/good riddance/I'll be strong" type of song, or the "just let me be depressed for a while" type of song. When my first boyfriend and I broke up (he dumped me), I was devastated. I got in my car to drive home, and Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" was on. Whoa. There's hardly a more depressing song than that. It still makes me cry.

Tempted by Squeeze is one of my all time favorite songs.

"I Will Remember You" Sarah Maclahlan (sp)
"Didn't We Almost Have It All?" Whitney Houston
"Go Away" Gloria Estefan
"Right Here Waiting" Richard Marx

They are not my favorite, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

"I Can't Make You Love Me' - Bonnie Rait
"Drinking Again" - Aretha Franklin
"I've Been Loving You Too Long" - Tina Turner
"I'm Not Gon'Cry" - Mary J. Blige
"Hound Dog" - Big Mama Thorton

Sting "Fortress Around Your Heart"
Bonnie Raitt "I Can't Make You Love Me"
The Bee Gees "Love So Right"
Simply Red "Stars" and "Enough"
Bread "Lost Without Your Love"
Celine Dion "Nothin' Broken But My Heart"
Kenny Loggins "The Real Thing"
Billy Dean "Somewhere in My Broken Heart"
Madonna "Something To Remember"

...and of course, Barbra Streisand "The Way We Were"

Cattledog - I am so with you on Bonnie Raitt - that one still gets me. Lots of great ones already mentioned

I also love:

Alanis Morrisette - "You Oughta Know"
[Artist?] - "Just Walk Away Renee"
REM - "Don't Go Back to Rockville"
Dolly Parton - "I will Always Love You."

I'm sure there are more, but can't think of any right now

"Don't Go Back to Rockville" is even more poignent if you think of Michael Stipe singing that to a lost male lover - the lines about how the small town will reject this person "going where nobody says Hello/they don't talk to anybody they don't know" and "go home to an empty house/sit around all by yourself" just kill me.

Oh yeah! Vicious break-up song that kicks ass! "...and are you thinking of me when you f*ck her!" Of course I change the line to "f*ck him!" And you've got to sing it with this face--" :mad: "

You've never heard Emerson, Lake & Palmer then. Or Niacin. Or Le Orme. Or any of these bands. Not so rare.

Maxallen, I had the same thing happen with Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You. Not long after I broke up with the love of my life, I sat with my cassette single and played that song something like 11 times in a row, crying my eyes out.

CPT, I'd never thought of the REM lyrics that way; I'd always thought of them as kind of the twin to CCR's Lodi, kind of a warning to not go back to the deadend small town that both of them were from.

Walk Away Renee was by one-hit wonders The Left Banke, chamber-pop pioneers. It's been covered many times.

[ December 17, 2003, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

Once you know or remember that Alanis Morrisette wrote that song after breaking up with Dave Coulier from Full House, the song loses any and all impact it may have had, at least for me!


Anyway some of my choices:

Easy for You to Say-Linda Ronstadt
His House Her Home-Squeeze
Losin' End-Michael McDonald
Crazy in Love-Kim Carnes
Her Town Too-James Taylor and JD Souther
The Best Part of You-Karla Bonoff
Telling Me Lies-Ronstadt/Parton/Harris
I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself-Ronstadt

Thanks a lot, GVF! eek! I don't think I will ever be able to hear that song the same way again!

Another vote for Bonnie Raitt - I can't make you love me.

And Michael McDonald 2 songs "I keep forgetting" and the heart wrenching:

I CAN LET GO NOW
BY MICHAEL MCDONALD

IT WAS SO RIGHT, IT WAS SO WRONG
ALMOST AT THE SAME TIME
THE PAIN AND ACHE A HEART CAN TAKE
NO ONE REALLY KNOWS

WHEN THE MEMORIES CLING AND KEEP YOU THERE
TILL YOU NO LONGER CARE
AND YOU CAN LET GO NOW

IT'S WRONG FOR ME TO CLING TO YOU
SOMEHOW I JUST NEEDED TIME
FROM WHAT WAS TO BE-IT'S NOT LIKE ME
TO HOLD SOMEBODY DOWN

CHORUS:
BUT I WAS TOSSED HIGH BY LOVE
I ALMOST NEVER CAME DOWN
ONLY TO LAND HERE
WHERE LOVE'S NO LONGER FOUND
WHERE I'M NO LONGER BOUND
AND I CAN LET GO NOW

Any guys/gals who watched China Beach have heard this song. They played it for the Series Finale when they're standing at the Vietnam Memorial.
frown

The only band of the ones you listed that I've even heard OF is Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

I guess "Stand Back" may be one of the few keyboard-based rockers that got a lot of airplay. It still is a concert staple for both Stevie Nicks as a solo artist and for Fleetwood Mac.

But Stevie Nicks will not perform here heavily keyboard influenced "I Can't Wait" in concert, right?

Lets not forget the classic "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor

Leave it to Cattledog to call me out on this one!

I also remember "I Can't Wait" having a lot of guitar in it too, at least before the first verse.

It's been a long time since Stevie Nicks sang "I Can't Wait" at a concert. I love that song.

"What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" by Paul Young (Fried Green Tomatoes Soundtrack)

I'll see your Gloria Gaynor and raise you Cake (the Cake version is more resonant for me, personally).

I've gotten sick of the Gloria Gaynor original. Do I have to hear that song at EVERY karaoke show I go to, gay or straight?

However, the Cake version is just filth.

I loathe that song. Talk about over played and over-hyped. :mad:

Well, if we're talking about cover versions of disco songs, then I'll go for The Communards re-make of Thelma Houston's Don't Leave Me This Way, esp. the 11-minute "Mega Mix" which incorporates The Communards song Sanctify Me, which has this astonishing Jimmy Sommerville high note on it.

couple more to add to my first list.

Bronski beat - "Smalltown boy"

Paul Young - "Every time you go away"

Melissa Etheridge - "I wanna come over"

Simply Red - "Holding back the years"

Dalida - "Paroles paroles"

The Beatles - "In my life"

[ December 17, 2003, 12:33 PM: Message edited by: ung ]

Fleshing out Jim Allen's doubt -- uh, "In My Life" is a breakup song? Neither are many of the others above.

Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields has written a bunch, most obviously "I Don't Want to Get Over You":

Okay no songs are coming to mind but maybe you guys can recommend one for me. I am leaving my job for a new one closer to home (Yeah me), but in the process I am leaving this guy here at work that makes me utterly swoon.

I don't know what it is about him, he's 36, salt and pepper hair, a teddy bear body, and every time I see him, work with him, talk with him, I just...there is wonderlust.

He's married with kids, and we're just friends, but I am sad that I am leaving and will not see him again. My new job is 100 miles away from my current one, and he lives 35 miles away in the opposite direction, so...

How's that for a sad story, now I just a sad song...

At the moment he is across the hall, all hunky and stuff and here I am giddy and broken hearted... frown

Niner_Fan, I'd recommend the entire "Simple Things" CD by Zero 7. It's all sorts of love-lorny, unrequited love, that whole ouevre.

The only "problem" really is that ...well, sometimes, it gets a brotha horny.

I recommend you see the spanish movie "The Law of desire" and pay special attention to the Los Panchos song "Lo dudo" (means "I doubt it") that Antonio Banderas sings to his gay older lover.

The words include " I doubt it... that you'll ever find a love as pure as the one you have from me. You will have 100 love affairs without love. But at the end of each one, you'll only find pain..."

"Twist and Shout" by the Beatles
"Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran
"Let's Spend the Night Together" by the Stones
"Rock the Casbah" by the Clash
"Work It" by Missy Elliot

These are for happy breakups.

And to echo Bill W's doubts, Smalltown Boy? Have y'all ever seen the video? It's really terrific. Jimmy Sommervile's "character" is caught kissing a guy in an alley, is fag-bashed, and when the police take him to his parents house, the dad freaks out when he finds out why he was smacked around, so he leaves. The song/video is about a gay guy living in a Smalltown who leaves to go the Big City because he'll be able to fit in better there. I guess if we stretch, he's breaking up with his Smalltown.....

[ December 17, 2003, 02:43 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

Ok, I must date myself and go old school.

1. Lets just kiss and say goodbye-The Manhattans
2. Aint No Way- Aretha Franklin
3. I'm Going Down-Rose Royce (Car Wash Soundtrack)
4. You Lie- Reba (yeah it's country)
5. Practice what you preach- Barry White
6. Promises, Promises- Christopher Williams
7. Since I lost my baby- Luther Vandross (aka Lutha)
8. Been So long- Anita Baker
9. Fairy Tales- Anita Baker
10. Another Sad Love Song- Toni Braxton

not in any order, but a few good ones.

One more...I'm hating myself for this, but

Please Don't Go Girl - New Kids on the Block

Jesus H. Christ!

I never realized that songs you listen to post break-up had to be so content specific and lyric specific.

The songs I list are basically songs that are sad or melancholy. They are a good fit during the post break-up blues. KnowwhatImean?

I never said these are songs that deal specifically with breakingup as subject matter. These are songs that express loss, love and/or melancholy no matter the source. Oy vey!

Thanks guys for the song advice. I have a long way to drive home tonight, I think I'll have to stop by the record shop and pick something up to soothe this broken heart...

Ung, just being pedantic and riffing with Bill W. No harm intended.

Speaking of Liz Phair, I just got her recent album (the one with "Why Can't I" on it).

If I like this album, I'll check out the rest of her back catalog.

Nothing can touch the \"special\" video (mpg) version!

[ December 17, 2003, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: redsoxbreath ]