Well that’s it. It’s all over. I knew we were getting there but I didn’t know we were there, parked and unpacked already. Men are officially complete wusses. (Is that how you spell wusses?)
We’ve gone from John Wayne and Gregory Peck being male role models to Michael Cera and Seth Rogen in just a few generations. Folks, that ain’t improvement.
There’s so much wrong with this story that I don’t even know where to begin. A newspaper in Britain compiled a list of songs that make men cry. OK. What kind of man responds to such an inquiry from a stranger with a notepad. Secondly, the song that topped the chart was…I can’t even write it for shame of counting myself among the same gender as these “men.” They picked…I can’t tell you. It’s too terrible. I’ll just cut and paste it in because I can’t even write it.
The UK Sun reports:
EVERYBODY Hurts by REM is the song most likely to make grown men cry.
Look I understand that the visage of increasingly skeletal Michael Stipes would frighten many people but I don’t know if there’s anything Michael Stipes could do to make me cry. I’d imagine it would have to involve rubber hammers, a monkey wrench, tasers, and rope though.
Some of the other songs included Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” and U2’s “With or Without You.”
What? Did they forget the soothing but melancholic tones of Air Supply?
I personally had my tear ducts removed by a school nurse I paid under the table in the second grade. No anaesthesia. So I don’t even know from this crying thing you speak of…but…if there HAD TO BE such a list there are probably a few songs that could conceivably be on the list.
Danny Boy
Ave Maria
I’m Proud to be An American by Lee Greenwood
That country song about the kid buying shoes for his dying mother. I don’t know the name because I turn it off every time I hear it. (I don’t want to be emotional while driving.)
The Star Spangled Banner.
Bagpipes playing Amazing Grace.
You got any additions?
September 29, 2010 at 9:06 pm
"Uno" by Discepolo, as interpreted by Julio Sosa.
September 29, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Oh my gosh, Mrs. Zummo, one of my friends does the same thing! And I doubt you two know each other… She started singing "Everybody Poops" when she was potty-training her first child, years ago. I always thought it was hilarious, and a much better use for the song than the original lyrics.
September 29, 2010 at 10:49 pm
The Exultet.
and, on a much lighter note:
"There's Always Tomorrow" from Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Admit it! You know you have. 馃檪
September 29, 2010 at 10:53 pm
If there's any song that would do it, it's America the Beautiful.
September 29, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Edelweiss from Sound of Music.
September 29, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Stabat Mater definitely gets a reaction from this Airman. Not saying it's tears, but it's close.
Same for "Green Fields of France"
September 30, 2010 at 12:33 am
Rachmaninoff's "Bless the Lord, O My Soul", from the All-Night Vigil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X72YqdZMaJg
Beautiful…
September 30, 2010 at 1:08 am
You know, "Horst Wessel Lied" and "Internationale" never fail to bring a tear to my eye…
September 30, 2010 at 1:09 am
How about "Heaven's Highest Hill" true song about a man telling his daughter that mom died. Heard it live in red rocks colorado, pretty sappy but gets me
September 30, 2010 at 1:28 am
I'm the wrong gender for my vote to count, but the first time I heard Allegri's Miserere (sung in English) on our classical station, I had to pull over and weep at the side of the road.
o.h.
September 30, 2010 at 1:56 am
Uh-oh – Matt, I was about to do a post centered around that very REM song (talking about suffering, how unusual of me)…now you have me re-thinking that plan. :-/
CZ
September 30, 2010 at 2:05 am
In my more (blush) melodramatic days, I used to walk around singing "On my own" from Les Mis and weeping copious tears.
But then since I'm female, such behavior is very nearly permitted.
(Most of the songs that made me cry between the ages of 16-20 now make me blush with embarassment!)
On the subject of crying Men, I was once at a party in college where a guy who'd recenlt broken up with his girlfriend hijacked the CD player and started playing "The Cure"… CD after CD of the Cure. Broke up the party, all right…..
September 30, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Silent Night in German. The sound of that carol coming from the German trenches became the start of the Christmas truce of 1914.
September 30, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Pat,
I well up at The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald…BECAUSE THOSE 29 SAILORS MET DEATH LIKE MEN!
JOB
September 30, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Woops, I meant Matthew!
JOB
September 30, 2010 at 3:22 pm
When Ave Maria was sung at my father's funeral, that most certainly made me weep. Also, Ray Charles singing "America the Beautiful" at the first fourth of July celebration after 9/11.
September 30, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Butterfly Kisses
September 30, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Songs by Barry Manilow make me cry, "Make it stop!"
September 30, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Different tunes have different effects on me depending on my mood and the situation. But I just want to be clear that "Christmas Shoes" is actually a song by Christian artist, Newsong. Pretty cool that they made it into mainstream (although, around Christmas a lot of Christian music lands on the pop stations).
September 30, 2010 at 6:59 pm
"Don't Break My Heart, my Achy Breaky Heart" is up there in the songs that make me cry.
But I mean, cry.
-Theo