Always in the Wrong Knowing Where We Stand but You and I Will Carry on

What makes a song a "breakup song"? Does it take to exist empowering, à la "I Will Survive" or virtually of the songs on Lemonade? Should it be for the lonely, like Carole King's "Information technology's Also Tardily" or Bob Dylan's "If You See Her, Say Hello"? Does it accept to address the breakup in the lyrics? (Taylor Swift has many entrants in this category, and Marvin Gaye penned an unabridged album about his divorce.) What about songs with a famous backstory, like "Cry Me a River" or any track off of Rumours?

Nosotros here at The Ringer believe that since heartache comes in many forms, so should the breakup song. And in honor of Valentine'southward Day, we decided to dig deep into the genre. Below, you'll find our ranking of the 50 greatest breakup songs of all fourth dimension, as voted on past our staff. The list spans several decades and many unlike moods, but all are rooted in some type of pain. At that place was only i rule for the terminal ranking: but one song per artist was included to avert Dolly Parton or even Drake from dominating.

So if you're lonely, fire upwardly our playlist and cry along as y'all read our thoughts on each entrant. If you're happily fastened, you can nevertheless dive in—these are some of the greatest songs ever recorded, and that'southward true whether you're in your feelings or non. Maybe yous'll gain a greater appreciation for your current human relationship. Later on all, breakdown songs resonate only when you know what it's like to lose in beloved. —Justin Sayles

50. "Nosotros Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," Taylor Swift

Near heartbreaking line: "You would hide abroad and find your peace of mind / With some indie record that's then much cooler than mine"

1 of the nearly savage breakdown songs in history, "Nosotros Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" encapsulates the astringent "fuck that guy!" free energy that follows a long-overdue parting of ways. We've all had that mail service-fight rant with our friends: "Ugh … and so he calls me up and he's like, 'I even so love you,' and I'thou like … 'I simply … I mean this is exhausting, you know, like, we are never getting back together. Like, e'er.'" Flippant, triumphant, and entirely exhausted by All Men, Taylor Swift gave us the perfect soundtrack for breakdown recovery. — Kate Halliwell

49. "I Miss You," Blink-182

Most heartbreaking line: "I need somebody and e'er / This sick foreign darkness / Comes creeping on and so haunting every fourth dimension"

"I Miss You" is like a minimalist/emo take on Meat Loaf. It rules. The two best things almost this number are Travis Barker's elementary only persistent drumbeat and Tom DeLonge's archway on the second poetry. Information technology'southward office of the m pop punk tradition of showing y'all mean concern by going up an octave, of which "I Miss You lot" (along with the Starting Line'due south "The All-time of Me") is the exemplar.

Don't simply take my give-and-take for it, though. Consider Grammy-winning producer Finneas'south have: "Tom comes into that song like he was on a balcony and he jumped off the balcony onto the vocal." —Michael Baumann

48. "Information technology'due south Too Late," Carole King

Almost heartbreaking line: "But we just can't stay together, don't you feel information technology, as well? / Nonetheless I'chiliad glad for what we had and how I once loved you"

"It's Also Tardily" is a crushing ode to the most common kind of breakup. The natural procedure of two people growing apart is as heartbreaking as it is commonplace, and King sings in a tone perfectly situated between her sorrow and the shrugging admission that "we really did try to brand information technology." Her conversational delivery early in the vocal brings the states into the living room, diner, or sidewalk where "the talk" between her and her abouthoped-for-ex is happening: "One of u.s. is changing, or maybe we just stopped trying," she sings, patently laying out the cardinal, blameless reasons for why most people end up separating. The song is divers by its maturity and its conciliatory attitude, but as with actual breakup conversations, that doesn't make it any easier to hear. —Cory McConnell

47. "Un-Suspension My Center," Toni Braxton

Most heartbreaking line: "I tin't forget the day you left / Fourth dimension is so unkind"

This is a perfect example of the kind of breakup song you lot hear on the radio (or, in the belatedly '90s, perhaps the club—the Frankie Knuckles house remix even so goes) and, on a normal twenty-four hours, but hear some other popular song, only when you're experiencing heartache, what originally sounded like songwriting clichés become the truest words y'all've always heard. "I have cried a lot of nights," you call up, getting out of bed for the offset fourth dimension in days to grab a roll of toilet paper since y'all ran out of Kleenex. "Life is fell without you lot here beside me," you murmur, staring into the dour chasm of loneliness you now know as life. "I would literally do anything on God's green world to hear you say y'all love me over again," yous realize with the greatest clarity you've ever experienced. Anyway, where are my altos at? This is our karaoke vocal. — Kjerstin Johnson

46. "Mr. Brightside," the Killers

About heartbreaking line: "Now they're going to bed and my stomach is ill / And information technology's all in my head"

Mayhap it's not exactly correct to phone call "Mr. Brightside" a breakup song; maybe it'southward more accurate to call information technology a right-before-the-breakup song, an I-imagined-my-girlfriend-was-cheating-on-me-so-intensely-that-she-actually-started-adulterous-on-me song. Simply that's all really clunky, so let's have being slightly incorrect for the sake of cleanliness. Either way, "Mr. Brightside" is an iconic mid-aughts song that's perfect for yell-karaoking and that pulls off the difficult play tricks of just repeating i verse over and over. Also, Eric Roberts in the video. —Andrew Gruttadaro

45. "She's Gone," Hall & Oates

Most heartbreaking line: "Get up in the morning, look in the mirror / One less toothbrush hanging in the stand"

The dynamic duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates became plume-haired, MTV-borne superstars in the '80s, only their rising to greatness begins here, with the breakout hit from their second album, 1973's oddly/heartbreakingly named Abandoned Luncheonette. "She'south Gone" is luscious and silky and deceptively low-cal, all Motown grandeur by way of blue-eyed Philly soul, but that lightness merely underscores the exquisite heaviness of murmured verse lines like "Go upwards in the morning, look in the mirror / Worn as the toothbrush hanging in the stand." (Or probably it's "Ane less toothbrush," which of class is even heavier.) The chorus, by dissimilarity, is gigantic and majestic and crushing, punctuated by cloudbursting lamentations of "She's gone! / Oh why? / Oh why?" The boys only got bigger from here, merely they certainly never got sadder. —Rob Harvilla

44. "Tyrone," Erykah Badu

Nigh heartbreaking line: "I just want it to be, you and me, like information technology used to be, baby / But ya don't know how to act"

The second-all-time moment on this viciously sultry tedious jam, the crown jewel of Erykah Badu'south 1997 album Live, is the stupendous opening line: "I'thou gettin' tired of your shit / You don't ever purchase me nothin'." The first-all-time moment is all the women in the crowd immediately shrieking with delight and, one fears, recognition. "Tyrone" is named for i of an unnamed deadbeat lover'southward numerous deadbeat friends: "Every fourth dimension nosotros go somewhere," Badu purrs with lethal say-so, "I gotta reach downward in my purse / To pay your way and your homeboy's way and sometimes your cousin's manner." It is the gender-flipped riposte to Fri's "Bye, Felicia," and in fact turned up as a joke in 2000's Next Friday; it "followed me thru my career like an obsessed X fellow," as Badu put information technology on Instagram in 2017, while shouting out her backup singers, whose sardonic and sublime "Phone call him!" chant is the 3rd-best moment. —Harvilla

43. "Dear Is a Battlefield," Pat Benatar

Most heartbreaking line: "Do I stand in your way / Or am I the all-time thing you lot've had?"

The agonizingly propulsive signature hit from flamethrower-voiced '80s pop queen Pat Benatar laments not so much a breakup equally a near-breakup in progress, an acknowledgement that true love means almost breaking up pretty much all the fourth dimension: "Believe me / Believe me / I tin't tell you why / Simply I'm trapped by your love / And I'yard chained to your side." It's a karaoke classic you have no business attempting, a cheeseball Reagan-era smash of eternal profundity, and a hitting proclamation that sometimes the simply affair worse than splitting up is non splitting up: "Practice I stand in your way / Or am I the best thing you've had?" she wails with genuine desperation, and the reply, of class, is both. —Harvilla

42. "Devil in a New Dress," Kanye Westward

Most heartbreaking line: "Throwing shit around, the whole place screwed upwardly / Maybe I should call Mase so that he could pray for the states"

We're non even talking about the whole vocal—we're talking near 20 or and then seconds of Bink production after Kanye'southward second poesy, but earlier Rick Ross's merely verse, arguably one of the all-time in his career. In it, he describes W's near-fatal car crash in 2002 as an aborted climb "up the Lord's ladder," and honestly, that's exactly what the collection of power strings sound like on this span. A climb up the Lord'south ladder, a divergence from Earth, a 1-way trip to anywhere merely hither. —Micah Peters

41. "Suspicious Minds," Elvis Presley

Most heartbreaking line: "We can't go along together / With suspicious minds / And nosotros can't build our dreams / On suspicious minds"

You can encounter the ripples of "Suspicious Minds" throughout the course of breakup vocal history, from "Train in Vain" to "Dancing on My Own," which, you know, information technology's Elvis. Simply across the juxtaposition of its relatively upbeat music and depressing-as-hell lyrics, I love the structure of this vocal, with a peppy guitar intro and verses that build into a chorus that goes from G major to very, very Eastward small-scale and only doesn't e'er really resolve. This might not exist the only reason the song fades out simply there's no real suitable ending point for the terminal notes of the chorus, so it always drops back into a poesy or a bridge or another chorus. "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" resolves more easily. Merely like a cleaved relationship. —Baumann

40. "The Tracks of My Tears," Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

Most heartbreaking lines: "Although she may be cute, she's just a substitute / Because you're the permanent 1"

On this classic Motown tearjerker, Smokey embodies the idea of the sad clown better than whatever song ever has. He's the life of the political party—using jokes like a clown uses makeup—just inside, he's wounded, pining for a past lover. He'southward dating someone new, simply he'south not thinking of her. (Side note: I don't know who I'chiliad sadder for here, Smokey or the rebound he'due south walking around town with.) He may have wiped away the tears, but they've left their mark. And the makeup just makes the tear tracks that much more credible. —Justin Sayles

39. "Tears Dry on Their Ain," Amy Winehouse

Most heartbreaking line: "So this is inevitable withdrawal / Even if I cease wanting you / And perspective pushes through / I'll be some adjacent man's other woman before long"

On "Tears Dry on Their Own," Amy Winehouse demanded that Amy Winehouse accept her own communication. "I cannot play myself again, I should just exist my own best friend," she warns. "Not fuck myself in the caput with stupid men." These lines that pried the vocal open up were ane of Winehouse'southward hallmarks every bit a writer—"Tears" begins in the dumps, in the backwash. But during every emotional uncoupling comes the bespeak where y'all gaze into the mirror, stick your finger in your reflection'south chest, and tell them to terminate being such a dumb, whiny baby. —Peters

38. "Needed Me," Rihanna

Most heartbreaking lines: "Fuck your white equus caballus and a carriage / Bet you lot never could imagine / Never told you you lot could have it / Y'all needed me"

This song is so piffling and I love it. Rihanna basically made a hit off the "Sike, you thought!" meme and DJ Mustard added an unforgettable trounce backside it. This is one of those bangers that yous and your girls smash postal service-breakup, pre-going-out. And so, afterward you all sing in unison: "Don't get it twisted / Yous was simply another nigga on the hit list / Tryna set up your inner issues with a bad bitch," you all burst into laughter thinking nearly the human being who is now barely a memory. Rihanna's conviction and savageness is really on an untouchable level. (Remember, this song is on the same album where she sings "sex with me is so astonishing" over and over.) Long may she reign. —Jordan Ligons

37. "So Sick," Ne-Yo

Most heartbreaking line: "Gotta change my answering motorcar, now that I'thousand solitary / 'Cause right at present information technology says that nosotros can't come to the phone"

The earworm of a generation! Ne-Yo said no to sappy ballads in more means than one with "So Sick," giving us an R&B nail hit for everyone sick of regular, schmegular love songs. Gear up to the world's catchiest beat, Ne-Yo mourns a past relationship and all the day-to-day changes that come with moving on. "Gotta alter my answering machine, now that I'm lonely / 'Cause correct at present information technology says that we can't come to the telephone … Gotta fix that calendar I take that'due south marked July 15 / Because since there'due south no more than you, there'due south no more anniversary." 15 years later, nosotros still tin can't plough off the radio. —Halliwell

36. "We Vest Together," Mariah Carey

Most heartbreaking line: "When you left I lost a part of me / It's still then difficult to believe / Come back infant, please / 'Cause we belong together"

*Sighs.* This is easily the virtually played-out, sad breakdown song of the early 2000s. Everyone thought about someone who could've/should've been their soul mate when this dropped in 2005. But now if it comes on the radio and y'all're either happily single or in a solid relationship, your eyes will glaze over, guaranteed. When the first two seconds of the infamous beat come through my speakers, I'1000 already changing the station. It's just so annoying, and so Mariah.

Yous may think that y'all won't find someone else to lean on when times get crude or someone to talk to y'all on the phone until the sunday comes upward, but allow me tell you, you will and you'll exist fine. Breakups suck, but delight don't torture your broken eye (or your ears) by listening to this song on repeat. —Ligons

35. "If Y'all See Her, Say Hullo," Bob Dylan

Nigh heartbreaking line: "Say for me that I'm all correct, though things get kind of slow / She might remember that I've forgotten her, don't tell her it isn't so"

The inspiration for Bob Dylan's masterful Blood on the Tracks has always been debated. Critics accept long assumed that the anthology is about Dylan's separation from his wife, Sara. The couple's son, Jakob, reportedly believes that Blood is most his parents. But Dylan himself has steadily denied that his masterpiece is autobiographical, even saying instead that it's based on … Chekhov's short stories. "I don't write confessional songs," Dylan told Cameron Crowe during the release of the immersive (and, in the context of this quote, ironically named) Biograph. The truth is, it doesn't matter. Blood strikes such a chord because the heartache information technology mines feels at in one case deeply personal and universal.

That'south most palpable on "If You See Her, Say Hello," which brings us into a fractured relationship in a manner that's both effortlessly relatable ("We had a falling out, similar lovers ofttimes will") and hyper-specific ("And to recall of how she left that night, it still brings me a chill"). It'southward not Dylan's flashiest or heaviest or all-time song, merely it is my favorite, a gentle, intimate portrait of lost love and lasting anguish. Like and so much of his best work, information technology'due south propelled by its poesy, the raw insights about how it feels to be alive. The vocal cycles through the same phases that and then many of us do while processing heartbreak: denial, despair, anger, desire. Information technology floats on a current of remorse ("Sundown, yellowish moon, I replay the by / I know every scene past heart, they all went past so fast") nonetheless manages to convey the kind of longing that leads, cautiously, back toward hope ("If she's passing dorsum this way, I'm not that hard to find / Tell her she can await me up, if she'south got the fourth dimension"). After enough listens, and enough heartache of your own, you realize that "If You lot Meet Her, Say Hullo" isn't really a breakup song. Information technology's a dearest letter of the alphabet. — Mallory Rubin

34. "Don't Look Back in Anger," Oasis

Most heartbreaking line: "Stand up up beside the fireplace / Take that look from off your face up / 'Cause you ain't ever gonna fire my heart out"

The closest I've ever come to living in an episode of Glee was when my high schoolhouse French class spontaneously broke out singing "Don't Look Back in Anger." I don't remember why, but information technology cemented this song (at least for me) as a ballad of communal weltschmerz, rather than personal sadness or regret, similar a fin-de-siècle "You lot'll Never Walk Alone." (For instance: "Don't Look Back in Anger" became a kind of unofficial anthem after the Manchester bombing in 2017.) Oasis knows a affair or ii about writing for the communal sing-along, the importance of the languid, memorable melody and the propulsive chord change—this song would carry nearly the same emotional weight if it were just a title and a chorus. —Baumann

33. "Every Breath You Take," the Law

Most heartbreaking line: "Since you've gone I've been lost without a trace / I dream at nighttime, I can but see your face"

This spectacularly maudlin New Wave ballad, which anchored the Police force'south 1983 goliath Synchronicity and reigned equally one of the biggest radio hits of the decade, is creepy every bit all hell, very much past design: an unrepentant stalker manifesto that doesn't then much describe spurned love in terms of surveillance every bit it describes total land surveillance in terms of spurned love: "Every move yous brand / Every vow you pause / Every grin you imitation / Every claim you lot stake." Then on. "I'll exist watching you," Sting concludes a couple dozen times throughout, merely it'southward the chest-pounding span where the trio'south creepy-soulful frontman does some of his best belting, his best pleading, his all-time super-creepy emoting and enunciating: "I feel so cold and I long for your em-brace." Fun fact: He started writing the vocal at Ian Fleming's writing desk on the James Bond writer's luxe Jamaican estate, which might not be creepy, but it's certainly weird. —Harvilla

32. "Don't Speak," No Incertitude

Most heartbreaking line: "As nosotros die, both you and I / With my head in my easily, I sit and cry"

I hateful, honestly, it takes a lot of guts to drop a Spanish classical guitar solo in the center of an angsty '90s alt-rock song. Information technology also takes a lot of guts to write a song about breaking upward with the bass player in your band and then make a music video for the song that has shots in it like the one beneath: Don't speak, literally.

No Doubt's first hit is a work of fine art, full of raw, youthful emotion and complex arrangements. It's beautiful, vicious, painful, and incendiary, all at once. —Gruttadaro

31. "Thinkin Bout You," Frank Ocean

Nearly heartbreaking lines: "Do yous not think so far ahead? / 'Cause I been thinkin' bout forever"

Sometimes you have to lie to yourself to become through heartache. They weren't good plenty for me. I can practice better. I didn't honey them, I just thought they were cute. Frank Sea's "Thinkin Bout Y'all" exposes that kind of posturing for what it is: a facade. No, I wasn't crying about you, and by the way, I also ain waterfront belongings in Idaho. Frank's clearly nonetheless hung upwardly on the past even if his old flame isn't. And the but way to piece of work through the pain is to drop the lying and come clean with himself. It's tender, it's sweet, but most of all, it's honest. —Sayles

30. "I'm Goin' Down," Mary J. Blige

About heartbreaking lines: "Why'd you have to say goodbye? / Look what you've washed to me / I can't finish these tears from fallin' from my eyes"

No affair your electric current relationship status, y'all will for sure sing your heart out when this song comes on. I practise not intendance, I am Mary J. when the chorus hits. By the terminate of the song—a cover of Rose Royce's 1976 single—you lot've "gone downwardly" so much that yous're on the floor, eyes airtight, hoop earrings in, and belting, "My whole earth'due south up-[dramatic break]-side down!" I can't be the only one, right?

Also, remember when Tamera sang this song for the talent show on Sister, Sister? Iconic. —Ligons

29. "Aught Compares 2 U," Sinéad O'Connor

Almost heartbreaking lines: "I could put my artillery around every boy I see / Just they'd only remind me of you"

Breakups are freeing; breakups are imprisoning. When you come out of a yearslong relationship, you have to relearn how to live without that person in your life. Parts of that process are cute—reconnecting with former friends, picking up a new hobby, shaking off the shackles. But the breakup sticks with you. Y'all come across your ex'southward best friend at the bar, or yous hear a song that you both loved. Sometimes, information technology's a minor annoyance. Other times, it's an globe-shattering event. You're relearning how to live, but living is hard.

I can't think of a song that ameliorate captures that duality than "Nada Compares two U," the 1990 O'Connor hitting originally penned by Prince in 1985. You lot can do whatsoever you lot desire: You tin can party all night, you tin consume at a fancy restaurant, you tin put your arms effectually all the boys and girls y'all'd similar, but it doesn't matter. Information technology'south not them, and nothing will exist. Your best hope is just giving in and living for yourself. —Sayles

28. "Marvin's Room," Drake

Most heartbreaking line: "The woman that I would endeavor / Is happy with a good guy"

Drake is at his best when he'southward destructive because he masks the gaslighting with a softer sadness. "The woman that I would try / Is happy with a skillful guy," he sings. Is he happy for her? The lines suggest that there's at least a hazard. Drake pauses, then goes full Drizzy Deleterious: "But I've been drinkin' and then much / That I'ma telephone call her anyhow." He proceeds to tell her that the man she's with isn't practiced enough to replace what they had. It'south the classic overstep from an ex, merely the longer he goes on, we realize it's more about his pride and conflicting emotions about his life choices than it is most her. Drake spirals, telling her he's "had sex activity four times this calendar week / I tin explain," that he's sponsoring women, that he can't stop partying and asking for naked pictures. Exactly what your ex-girlfriend wants to hear, I'one thousand sure. At least at that place's a voicemail interlude. —Haley O'Shaughnessy

27. "Simply a Friend," Biz Markie

Nearly heartbreaking line: "Oh, snap! Guess what I saw? / A fella tongue-kissin' my girl in her mouth"

Turns out this woman did not take what Biz Markie needed. As he singsplains, he became kitten smitten with a woman at i of his shows. You lot'd retrieve that this would have happened to him all the time, but it did not. This was "the first girl I e'er talked to," Biz told EW concluding yr. "Every fourth dimension I would call out to California, a dude would pick up and mitt her the phone. I'd be like, 'Yo, what'south up [with him]?' She'd say, 'Oh, he's just a friend. He's nobody.'" Not taking the hint, Biz flew out to California to surprise her a week earlier than planned. When he showed upward, at that place was a guy "tongue-kissing my girl in her mouth."

Biz. My guy. Sit down. Allow's talk. Start off, she was not your daughter. You met her one fourth dimension. Second, you did non grab her tongue-kissing a dude. You stalked her. 3rd, information technology was extremely obvious that this friend was non just her friend. What Biz Markie needed was someone to listen to his story and requite him honest feedback about his predicament. You know, a friend. —Danny Heifetz

26. "Burn," Conductor

Most heartbreaking line: "But you know, gotta allow it become / 'Cause the party ain't jumpin' like it used to / Even though this might bruise you / Let it burn down"

I couldn't imagine someone breaking upward with me with the lyrics to this song. Usher is all over the place. He says he loves me, just our relationship has to come to an stop; he says he'south hurting and he's not happy, but he'due south breaking down and crying. Deep downward he knows it's best, but he hates the idea of me being with someone else. Get your shit together, Usher!

Still, for all of its disruptive back-and-forth, this is a breakup classic. It preaches the credo of forcing yourself to permit get fifty-fifty when yous don't know what you're going to do without your boo. After a heartbreak, anybody has found themselves teetering on the line between regret and liberty. Usher's "Fire" allows yous to tap into that while simultaneously yelling out, "It's been fifty-xi days, umpteen hours, and Imma be burnin' till you render!" —Ligons

25. "Slice of My Heart," Big Blood brother & the Property Company

Most heartbreaking line: "But each fourth dimension I tell myself that I, well I tin can't stand the hurting / Only when you lot hold me in your arms, I'll sing information technology once again"

If you're e'er at your wits' end, tragically obsessed with someone who treats you lot like shit, you lot can find some catharsis in the controlled anarchy of Janis Joplin's song functioning on "Piece of My Heart." Go ahead and scream forth. You won't sound every bit good every bit Janis, but you'll certainly feel a hell of a lot improve afterward.

Once your anger fades a piddling, yous can switch over to the original recording of this song, released a yr earlier in 1967 and sung past Erma Franklin (yes, that's Aretha'due south older sister). Or if you need some more twang accompanying your despair, you can try the Faith Hill version. I also won't judge y'all if the merely person who tin ease your pain is Shaggy (or Beverley Knight, Melissa Etheridge, Steven Tyler, Kelly Clarkson, or i of countless other artists).

Written past Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, "Slice of My Heart" is 1 of the virtually relatable and enduring songs about Some Fuckboi in the history of fuckbois. The call-and-response structure of the chorus builds those simmering resentments and releases them with a abrupt, primal weep. Undoubtedly, there will be new versions of this song until the end of time⁠—because it's an absolute banger—but also considering … men. —Matt James

24. "Skinny Beloved," Bon Iver

Most heartbreaking line: "And I told you to be patient / And I told yous to be fine"

A good rule for breakup songs is that at that place has to be a part that you tin yell along to, unencumbered by featherbrained things like constraint and self-awareness. The chorus of Bon Iver's "Skinny Honey" has a great one, especially for anyone who's only exited a relationship and feels compelled to heap all the blame on the other party.

You know the story by at present: In 2006, Justin Vernon bankrupt upwards with his girlfriend, packed up his machine, and collection into the Wisconsin wilderness, emerging simply afterwards recording an album of weepy breakup songs. That origin tale has been repeated so oftentimes that it'south go soft mush, obscuring the real truth: That For Emma, Forever Agone—and particularly "Skinny Love"—are profoundly cogitating, intelligent, moving documents about the breakdown of a relationship. —Gruttadaro

23. "Agree Up," Beyoncé

Virtually heartbreaking line: "Can't yous come across there'southward no other human being higher up you? / What a wicked style to treat the daughter that loves yous"

It's hard to express real hurt over an uptempo shell and make the heartbreak convincing. However Beyoncé is conceivable in "Hold Up," a painful bookkeeping of the emotions that come after discovering that your partner has cheated. Lemonade was inspired by true events—i.e., it'south Beyoncé coming to terms with Jay-Z being unfaithful. Adultery brings on a very specific type of devastation: You're mad; you're miserable; you're humiliated. You switch from one emotion to another in a matter of minutes. She opens the vocal with confidence: No other adult female can give what she tin can. "Hold upwardly, they don't honey you like I love you." In a breath, she's less sure of herself: "What's worse, looking jealous or crazy?" Beyoncé settles on crazy, then returns to acrimony. "You lot allow this expert love go to waste." —O'Shaughnessy

22. "Weep Me a River," Justin Timberlake

Most breaking lyric: "You lot didn't know all the ways I loved you, no / Then y'all took a gamble / And made other plans"

Entering 2002, Justin Timberlake wasn't regarded equally much more than a teeny bopper. His group 'NSync was 1 of the defining groups of the boy band era, and he was its charismatic face. (The cute one, if you will.) He even had the perfect girlfriend for that blazon of stardom: Britney Spears, with whom he pulled off this iconic denim fit. So the couple bankrupt up, JT split from 'NSync, and "Weep Me a River" happened.

In his first solo megahit, Justin insinuates his love has cheated on him ("You don't have to say what you did / I already know, I plant out from him") and writes her off for good. He's already cried about it, and at present it's her plow. Only no amount of her tears can disengage the damage; he's gone. You didn't have to do much sleuthing to figure out he was singing about Britney. That celebrity intrigue, Timbaland'southward sharp production, and an instantly memorable music video combined to make "Cry Me a River" the most iconic breakup vocal of the early on 2000s, catapulting him to another level of stardom. He had split with not but Britney, simply also his past, and he was ready for the world. —Sayles

21. "With or Without You," U2

Most heartbreaking line: "She got me with nothing to win / And nothing left to lose"

Nothing changes if zippo changes, every bit they say, and "With or Without Yous" exists in that hopelessly recursive "I hate that I beloved you" space. This song was U2's first no. 1 hit in the U.S., even though, Bono has said, "it's a very odd-sounding vocal … it kind of whispers its fashion into the world." But it's not the whispers that resonate most, all the same, it'southward all those wails, similar the crescendo of Bono'due south aching, eminently singalong-able ahhh-ahhh-ahh-ahhhhhs, or the painful, everlasting notes from the Edge's "space guitar," engineered to hold a tone as if it were a grudge. "Psychotic restraint" is how Bono characterized the Edge's spare piece of work on this track, a description that could double equally breakup advice. —Katie Baker

twenty. "Jolene," Dolly Parton

About heartbreaking line: "And I can hands understand / How y'all could easily have my human being / But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene"

While other female country singers might've handled their homo's newfound fascination with a beautiful redhead by, say, digging a central into the side of his pretty piffling souped-up iv-wheel drive, or—only spitballing here—threatening to transport her to Fist City, Parton simply pleads for mercy. The desperate pitch of her entreatment, set confronting a frantic Dorian-mode guitar riff, sets the stakes far higher than those you might find in by and large stern country songs about cheatin', lyin', and being untrue. Any armchair scholar of Parton'due south work can tell you she cloaks feminist manifestos inside marketable diddies about everyday experiences. I've ever taken the song's urgency to imply something that every woman learns eventually: Relationships tin can be both romantically fulfilling, and, too often, an economic lifeboat to a better life. In "Jolene," our narrator isn't just grasping onto her man, she'southward grasping for survival. —Alyssa Bereznak

19. "I Heard Information technology Through the Grapevine," Marvin Gaye

Most heartbreaking line: "Practise you plan to allow me go / For the other guy you lot loved before?"

This vocal was first released by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1967. A year subsequently Marvin Gaye released a slower version of it on his album In the Groove. Perhaps the song resonated with Gaye because he married a 41-year-old adult female when he was only 24, and their marriage was total of infidelities. "I was in dear with the idea of dear," Gaye in one case said. Or at least that'south what I heard through the grapevine. —Heifetz

18. "Ex-Factor," Lauryn Loma

Most heartbreaking line: "Where were y'all when I needed you?"

"Ex-Cistron" is more than a breakup song, it'southward about recognizing a toxic human relationship before you lot have the words to phone call it a toxic relationship. Each line, and then honest it hurts, is well-nigh the fruitless search for reason in a scenario devoid of information technology. Colina'due south lyrics capture the worst of the worst of a relationship on the rocks: the hurting, the complicity, and the unwillingness to requite up on a love you remember is still there, buried beneath the bullshit.

When it hit airwaves over again in 2018 on Drake's pandering yet irresistible "Dainty for What," it was nigh similar recognizing and reclaiming a past self—ane who might have cried along to the original. Now, as wiser, more Empowered™ listeners, we heard the remixed, catchy hook devoid of its devastating verses and bopped our heads as Drake reminded the states of how short life is. Still, no ane can capture the raw, uncomfortable emotion that Lauryn originally did—and no one ever will. —Johnson

17. "You lot're Then Vain," Carly Simon

Near heartbreaking line: "Well, y'all said that we made such a pretty pair / And that y'all would never leave / But yous gave abroad the things you loved / And ane of them was me"

Far before Taylor Swift sent her fans on subtweet scavenger hunts, Carly Simon penned a ballsy kissoff that, thanks to its self-referential chorus, left the world wondering whom information technology was about and what they could've maybe done to anger her. More than 40 years of speculation later, we now know that the vocalizer was describing the actor Warren Beatty. (She added in a contempo, withering interview that, although the song describes iii carve up men, Beatty "thinks the whole thing is about him.") We may never know what company he kept (cough: Mick Jagger?), but the lasting ability of Simon'southward clear-eyed takedown stands as a plebiscite on the unchecked male person ego, whether its independent in the torso of a dashing thespian or a moody fuckboy. —Bereznak

16. "Dancing on My Ain," Robyn

Most heartbreaking line: "Yeah, I know it'south stupid, I just gotta encounter it for myself"

Last year, following a Robyn show at Madison Foursquare Garden, elated concertgoers continued the party on the A/C/E train subway platform, breaking into a giddy public performance of "Dancing on My Ain." You wouldn't typically expect a breakup song to exist the one that leads New Yorkers to such displays of collective joy, only nearly breakdown songs aren't like this one: a vocal yous tin can strut to, a lodge anthem, a scene-stealer, a story of lonesomeness that still finds its solace in a crowd. It's a song almost moving on—I only came to say goodbye—but also about, just, moving. The singer might exist alone in the corner, and she might know it'south stupid, merely she'south out in that location dancing, at least. —Bakery

15. "Thank U, Next," Ariana Grande

Most heartbreaking line: "Wish I could say, 'Thank you' to Malcolm / 'Cause he was an angel"

This song is a decision to be done with suffering over a human relationship, to recommit to oneself, to focus on healing and establishing new patterns. To not only rehearse by losses just to envision future victories, and as well to live in the moment, to be here now.

This to practise the actual, day-in, day-out work of being happy. —Peters

14. "End of the Road," Boyz Two Men

Nearly heartbreaking line: "It'southward unnatural"

Both the joyous genesis and abject death knell for billions of '90s junior-high-gymnasium-trip the light fantastic toe relationships that only lasted the length of the song itself, "End of the Road," which rose to ability on 1992's Boomerang soundtrack, is one of the biggest hits in pop-music history. Similar, "13 directly weeks atop the Hot 100" big. Like, "The 'Old Town Road' of Its Day" big, a tearjerking shout-along anthem for lovelorn belters likewise devastated to even take their horses and exit the house. The last a capella chorus is a signature moment in American cultural history, at once exhilarating and devastating: "Information technology's unnatural / You belong to me / I belong to yous." The word unnatural has never sounded so natural, and and so miserable. —Harvilla

thirteen. "Dreams," Fleetwood Mac

Almost heartbreaking line: "Now here you become again, y'all say you want your freedom / Well, who am I to continue y'all downwardly?"

Even forty-plus years on, to hear Stevie Nicks softly moaning, "What yous had ... and what you lot lost / And what you lot had ... and what you lost" to the guy playing guitar is to live forever, and to imagine that guitar player dropping dead from remorse on the spot. (Lindsey Buckingham, of course, has been known to belt out a sweetly caustic breakup canticle or two himself.) Equally the second (and best!) track on 1977'southward zillions-selling Rumours, "Dreams" is both radically overexposed and still somehow criminally underrated, stock-still to its iconic identify, time, and circumstances but likewise shockingly timeless. (Zoë Kravitz rhapsodizes it in the pilot of Hulu'south new Loftier Fidelity remake series to prove her rock-nerd bona fides.) Pair it with "Silver Springs" for maximum effect. —Harvilla

12. "How Tin You Mend a Broken Heart," Al Green

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "Let me alive again"

In that location's heartbreak, then in that location'south Al Green heartbreak. (Non to slight the original Bee Gees version—Dark-green is all I know when I'm going through information technology.) He's exasperated from the beginning, wondering whether he'll always recover from the love that went away. The agony is enough to contemplate nature itself in the chorus: "How can yous mend a broken centre? / How can you finish the pelting from falling down? / How can yous stop the dominicus from shining? / What makes the earth go circular?" Light-green is begging for answers, for "somebody, delight" to come fix him. He pleads, "Permit me live again." Life as he knew information technology is over without this person, and every bit long as the song is on, information technology feels over for usa, too. —O'Shaughnessy

11. "Torn," Natalie Imbruglia

Most heartbreaking line: "I'm all out of faith / This is how I feel, I'yard cold and I am shamed / Lying naked on the flooring"

There's a bad breakup, there's rock bottom, and then there's being "cold and shamed, lying naked on the flooring." Natalie Imbruglia's 1997 one-hit wonder (and sneaky cover) doesn't mince words in describing exactly how shitty it feels to put your faith in the wrong homo. (Or any man, depending on how hard you vibe with this song.) "Torn" has taken a turn for the over-covered and over-memed these days, but you're lying if you lot say you don't still striking that chorus every time. —Halliwell

ten. "I Will Survive," Gloria Gaynor

Nearly heartbreaking line: "And and then you felt like dropping in and merely wait me to exist free / Well at present I'one thousand saving all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me"

This 1978 disco colossus is so singular, so monolithic, and then wedding-dancefloor-ingrained that it hardly scans as a breakdown song at all: As ecstatic and empowering fuck-you anthems go, it is the glamorous grandmother to Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" and Ariana Grande's "Give thanks U, Next" and Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" and roughly 50,000 other cocky-affirming pop hits. What truly elevates New Jersey diva Gloria Gaynor's all-timer, though, is its sociopolitical import: "I Will Survive" has long been a stirring battle hymn for the LGBTQ community, for survivors of domestic violence, for anyone who tin relate in any way, frivolously or otherwise, to the frankly iconic line "I'm saving all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me," which of course is everybody. She knows yous're agape; she knows y'all're petrified. Simply she also knows you lot won't stay that mode for long. —Harvilla

9. "Ain't No Sunshine," Bill Withers

Most heartbreaking line: "Wonder this time where she'south gone / Wonder if she'south gone to stay"

To brand a vocal from 1971 near a video game from 2010: Dante's Inferno is an RPG based loosely on the first anthem of the Divine One-act. I say loosely considering EA Dante has rippling muscles and a massive scythe, his just protections against the legions of the night, who've stolen his love Beatrice. I never played it, but a friend who did described his frustration with the game: It's equally if its conclusion got farther away the more time he devoted to it. A Super Basin commercial showed Dante sprinting toward Hell's gaping mouth determined but, yous know, definitely doomed. Equally he descends y'all hear the low croak of Bill Withers'due south voice, pining afterward a lost lover: "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, but darkness everyday." My terminal breakup didn't involve a giant flaming devil monster, only it did feel like a similarly hopeless uphill battle. —Peters

8. "Someone Like You," Adele

Nigh heartbreaking line: "Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead"

The queen of heartbreak has never been improve than on sophomore album 21, and 21 doesn't get much better than "Someone Like You." Adele'south ode to the one who got abroad is perhaps the most universally adored tearjerker of the past decade; starting with that simple piano line and ending in that crushing claw: "Sometimes it lasts in beloved, but sometimes it hurts instead." And of course, that phonation! Watching the simple black and white music video now, it'south striking how baby-faced Adele was at 21, despite her delivery of a song that displays so much emotional maturity. She wishes the best for her ex ("Erstwhile friend, why are you lot and then shy?"), but damn, she'south withal hurting. Aren't we all! —Halliwell

7. "I Want Yous Back," The Jackson 5

Most heartbreaking lyrics: "Someone picked you lot from the bunch, one glance was all information technology took / Now information technology's much likewise belatedly for me to take a second look"

Perhaps the virtually outwardly joyous song in this entire ranking, "I Want You lot Dorsum" spins a tale that anyone who's always taken someone for granted volition empathise. An xi-year-old Michael Jackson is at his most precocious here, singing nearly the girl whom he didn't fully appreciate until someone else stole her heart. Now he just wants another run a risk to prove that he knows how to treat her right. Michael, of course, didn't write the song—it was penned past Drupe Gordy and Co.—but he sells it in a way that someone two or three times his age never could. A leopard can't change its spots, but if it sounds this good trying to convince you it tin, why not requite it 1 more chance? —Sayles

6. "Since U Been Gone," Kelly Clarkson

Most heartbreaking line: "How come I'd never hear you say / 'I just wanna be with yous' (be with you lot) / I guess yous never felt that way"

There is a moment in every breakup where, after a few weeks of self-pity, you shed your sweatpant cocoon, step outside, and, with the instantaneity of a condom band snap, all of a sudden know deep within your heart that your ex was an detestable blowhard. Kelly Clarkson's mosh-adjacent power pop ballad embodies the newfound self-assurance that comes with that realization. It too happens to be enshrined in a pop culture moment that I will forever associate with being a melodramatic xvi-year-onetime millennial: "Since U Been Gone" was written past pop lords Max Martin and Dr. Luke, who ripped its unabridged musical structure from the far more poetic Aye Yeah Yeahs striking, "Maps," and so—after beingness passed upwardly by both Pink and Hilary Duff—was sung by the very first winner of the then-fledgling reality Television receiver show American Idol. The AIM-friendly "U" in the title is just the icing on the cake. —Bereznak

v. "Ms. Jackson," Outkast

Virtually heartbreaking lyric: "Forever never seems that long until you're grown / And notice that the day-by-day ruler tin't be besides wrong"

Sometimes breaking up with your significant other's family unit is just as difficult equally breaking upwardly with them. Large Boi and André 3000 understood that on "Ms. Jackson," a song dedicated to Kolleen Maria Wright, the mother of Erykah Badu, with whom André had a child. Three Stacks'due south verse is specially poignant—his intentions were good, but things took a turn for the worse. It's a harsh reality: Most relationships are born with an expiration appointment, no matter how bright the flame burned at the outset. As far as amends songs go, it's pretty nuanced and sincere. And Wright seems to have bought it: Erykah said in 2016 that her mother even has a "MSJACKSON" license plate. —Sayles

4. "I Will Always Beloved You," Whitney Houston

Most heartbreaking line: "Please don't cry / We both know I'k not what y'all, you need"

Dolly Parton wrote one of the most dynamic love songs always with "I Will Always Love Yous." Whitney Houston, who sang a embrace for the picture The Bodyguard, made a worldwide hitting with her astounding range. Both versions are wonderful for different reasons, though Parton's honeyed, wobbly original is all-time for heartbreak. For ane, it'southward authentic: She wrote the vocal for her one-time manager and professional person partner, Porter Wagoner, afterward she decided to get out him. Parton is sympathetic, yet determined to go. As she sings in the bridge, information technology's bittersweet. They are both better off this style, she argues, only wishes him zilch only "joy and happiness." One of the hardest relationship lessons is that two people tin can love each other and information technology still not be right for either—thank you to Dolly and Whitney, information technology was one learned early on. —O'Shaughnessy

3. "I Can't Make You Love Me," Bonnie Raitt

Most heartbreaking line: "I'll close my eyes / And then I won't meet / The dearest you lot don't feel when you're holding me"

You might be a girlfriend, a husband, a partner, or fifty-fifty a friend with benefits. Whatever role y'all play in service of honey, it comes with a label that sets expectations. In that location is clarity and condolement in knowing where y'all stand up with someone. But despite all of our semantics and promises, the terrifying reality of our beloved lives is that love itself can be a ruthlessly nonbinding understanding, an at-will arrangement. Fifty-fifty more frightening is that it's often our hearts—not us—calling the shots.

What sets "I Can't Make You Love Me" apart from well-nigh breakdown songs is that information technology takes identify at the almost painful betoken of a breakdown: acceptance. It'southward not a post-breakdown canticle of empowerment or a drastic plea to stay together. Information technology's the total force of the disorienting one-two dial of loss and loneliness. It's the world-shattering moment when you surrender the fight.

Bonnie Raitt'southward absorbing performance of this vocal (written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin) carries the weight of a lifetime in and out of love. She sets down her slide guitar, sits Bruce Hornsby down at the pianoforte, and sings the absolute fuck out of this song with conviction and grace. The vocal used on the Luck of the Draw album recording was Bonnie's first take. "I Can't Brand You Beloved Me" has been covered by countless artists, included on several Greatest Songs Of All Time lists, and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The songs that touch us most deeply are the ones that unite us through the most human of shared experiences. Eventually, we all learn that you can't brand someone's center feel "something it won't." But should you one twenty-four hours find yourself at stone bottom, suddenly alone in darkness—whether information technology'south your beginning time or your 14th—yous can feel a niggling flake less lonely knowing that Bonnie's been there, as well. —James

ii. "You Oughta Know," Alanis Morissette

Almost heartbreaking line: "Does she know how y'all told me you'd agree me until you lot died, till you died / But y'all're even so alive"

Alanis Morrisette was 19 years old when she recorded that ballad of bitterness "Y'all Oughta Know" in one take at 11 p.m. "All those vocals are simply her at the finish of the night," said her cowriter Glen Ballard in an oral history of the album Jagged Picayune Pill, "singing something she just wrote." The event was a revelation in its ragged emotion, all fingernail scratches and fellatio, a work of art centering the seething spirals of rage. (That it was possibly inspired by Uncle Joey remains both iconic and deeply weird, but also makes ill sense: You haven't truly been jilted until you've been jilted past someone who's not even that cool, you know?) "You Oughta Know" totally scandalized my mom every time information technology came on the radio in the '90s, and what'due south more, it features both Flea on bass and Dave Navarro on the guitar. What more could you want—other than sweet, sweet vengeance? —Baker

1. "Majestic Rain," Prince

Most heartbreaking line: "I never meant to cause you lot any sorrow / I never meant to cause you lot any hurting"

Purple rain, according to an unsourced quote that's widely attributed to Prince Rogers Nelson, is the event of blood mixing with the sky, which is a sort of apocalyptic drama that only Prince could conjure. But you lot don't even need to empathize what purple rain is to experience "Purple Pelting," a ability ballad to end all ability ballads.

Some breakdown songs are hateful, some are mournful, others are empowering. Only "Purple Pelting" has the ability to feel similar everything all at once, a near-religious feel of a song that has the ability to heal like no other. In times of trouble, put "Purple Rain" on, and let him guide yous. —Gruttadaro

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Source: https://www.theringer.com/music/2020/2/14/21137264/50-greatest-breakup-songs-ever-ranking