Theres No Way That Son of a Bitch Going to Hold Me Back Again! This Time

What makes a song a "breakdown song"? Does it take to be empowering, à la "I Volition Survive" or virtually of the songs on Lemonade? Should it be for the lonely, like Carole Rex'south "It's Too Belatedly" or Bob Dylan'due south "If Y'all 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 entire album near his divorce.) What nearly songs with a famous backstory, like "Cry Me a River" or any runway off of Rumours?

We here at The Ringer believe that since heartache comes in many forms, so should the breakup vocal. 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 time, as voted on by our staff. The listing spans several decades and many different moods, only all are rooted in some blazon of hurting. There was but ane rule for the terminal ranking: just one song per artist was included to avert Dolly Parton or even Drake from dominating.

And then if you're lonely, fire up our playlist and cry along as yous read our thoughts on each entrant. If you're happily attached, you tin can still swoop in—these are some of the greatest songs ever recorded, and that'due south truthful whether you're in your feelings or not. Maybe you'll gain a greater appreciation for your current relationship. Later on all, breakup songs resonate only when you know what information technology'due south like to lose in love. —Justin Sayles

50. "We Are Never E'er Getting Dorsum Together," Taylor Swift

Most heartbreaking line: "You lot would hide abroad and discover your peace of mind / With some indie record that's so much cooler than mine"

One of the virtually savage breakup songs in history, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" encapsulates the astringent "fuck that guy!" free energy that follows a long-overdue departing of means. We've all had that post-fight bluster with our friends: "Ugh … so he calls me up and he's similar, 'I still love yous,' and I'yard like … 'I merely … I mean this is exhausting, you know, like, we are never getting dorsum together. Like, ever.'" Flippant, triumphant, and entirely exhausted by All Men, Taylor Swift gave usa the perfect soundtrack for breakup recovery. — Kate Halliwell

49. "I Miss Yous," Blink-182

Most heartbreaking line: "I need somebody and ever / This ill strange darkness / Comes creeping on so haunting every time"

"I Miss You" is like a minimalist/emo accept on Meat Loaf. It rules. The two all-time things well-nigh this number are Travis Barker'south simple but persistent drumbeat and Tom DeLonge'south entrance on the 2nd poetry. Information technology'south office of the thousand popular punk tradition of showing you mean business by going up an octave, of which "I Miss You" (along with the Starting Line's "The All-time of Me") is the exemplar.

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

48. "Information technology's Too Late," Carole King

Most heartbreaking line: "But we just can't stay together, don't you feel it, too? / All the same I'm glad for what we had and how I once loved y'all"

"It's Too Belatedly" is a crushing ode to the most common kind of breakup. The natural process of two people growing apart is as heartbreaking as it is commonplace, and Rex sings in a tone perfectly situated betwixt her sorrow and the shrugging admission that "we really did try to go far." Her conversational delivery early in the song brings usa into the living room, diner, or sidewalk where "the talk" between her and her about-to-be-ex is happening: "One of u.s.a. is changing, or perhaps we just stopped trying," she sings, plainly laying out the central, clean-living reasons for why most people end up separating. The vocal is defined by its maturity and its conciliatory attitude, but as with actual breakup conversations, that doesn't get in whatever easier to hear. —Cory McConnell

47. "Un-Break My Middle," Toni Braxton

Most heartbreaking line: "I tin can't forget the day yous left / Time is then unkind"

This is a perfect example of the kind of breakup song you hear on the radio (or, in the late '90s, possibly the club—the Frankie Duke house remix still goes) and, on a normal day, only hear another pop vocal, but when yous're experiencing heartache, what originally sounded like songwriting clichés become the truest words you lot've ever heard. "I have cried a lot of nights," you call back, getting out of bed for the beginning time in days to catch a roll of toilet paper since you ran out of Kleenex. "Life is cruel without you lot hither beside me," you lot murmur, staring into the bleak chasm of loneliness you now know as life. "I would literally exercise annihilation on God's green earth to hear you say you love me again," you realize with the greatest clarity you lot've always experienced. Anyway, where are my altos at? This is our karaoke song. — Kjerstin Johnson

46. "Mr. Brightside," the Killers

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

Maybe information technology's non exactly right to phone call "Mr. Brightside" a breakup vocal; maybe it'southward more accurate to call it a right-before-the-breakup vocal, an I-imagined-my-girlfriend-was-adulterous-on-me-then-intensely-that-she-really-started-cheating-on-me song. But that's all actually clunky, so let's accept being slightly incorrect for the sake of cleanliness. Either manner, "Mr. Brightside" is an iconic mid-aughts song that's perfect for yell-karaoking and that pulls off the hard trick of merely repeating one verse over and over. Also, Eric Roberts in the video. —Andrew Gruttadaro

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

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "Become upwards in the forenoon, look in the mirror / 1 less toothbrush hanging in the stand"

The dynamic duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates became feather-haired, MTV-borne superstars in the '80s, but their rise to greatness begins hither, with the breakout hit from their second album, 1973's oddly/heartbreakingly named Abandoned Luncheonette. "She's Gone" is luscious and silky and deceptively light, all Motown grandeur past way of blueish-eyed Philly soul, but that lightness but underscores the exquisite heaviness of murmured verse lines like "Get upward in the morning, expect in the mirror / Worn as the toothbrush hanging in the stand." (Or probably it's "One less toothbrush," which of class is fifty-fifty heavier.) The chorus, by contrast, 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, but they certainly never got sadder. —Rob Harvilla

44. "Tyrone," Erykah Badu

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

The second-best moment on this viciously sultry slow jam, the crown jewel of Erykah Badu's 1997 anthology Live, is the stupendous opening line: "I'yard gettin' tired of your shit / You don't ever buy me nothin'." The showtime-best moment is all the women in the crowd immediately shrieking with please and, ane fears, recognition. "Tyrone" is named for i of an unnamed deadbeat lover's numerous deadbeat friends: "Every fourth dimension we get somewhere," Badu purrs with lethal authority, "I gotta reach down in my handbag / To pay your manner and your homeboy's manner and sometimes your cousin's way." It is the gender-flipped riposte to Friday'southward "Bye, Felicia," and in fact turned up as a joke in 2000's Side by side Fri; it "followed me thru my career like an obsessed 10 beau," as Badu put information technology on Instagram in 2017, while shouting out her backup singers, whose sardonic and sublime "Call him!" dirge is the third-all-time moment. —Harvilla

43. "Beloved Is a Battlefield," Pat Benatar

Virtually heartbreaking line: "Practise I stand in your way / Or am I the best thing y'all've had?"

The agonizingly propulsive signature hit from flamethrower-voiced '80s popular queen Pat Benatar laments not so much a breakup as a near-breakup in progress, an acknowledgement that truthful love ways almost breaking upwards pretty much all the time: "Believe me / Believe me / I can't tell you why / But I'm trapped by your love / And I'm chained to your side." It's a karaoke classic you accept no business attempting, a cheeseball Reagan-era smash of eternal profundity, and a striking declaration that sometimes the merely thing worse than splitting up is not splitting up: "Do I stand in your manner / Or am I the best thing you've had?" she wails with 18-carat desperation, and the respond, of course, is both. —Harvilla

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

Nigh heartbreaking line: "Throwing shit around, the whole place screwed up / Possibly I should telephone call Mase so that he could pray for u.s."

We're not even talking about the whole song—we're talking about xx or so seconds of Bink production after Kanye'south second verse, merely before Rick Ross's only verse, arguably one of the best in his career. In it, he describes Westward's most-fatal car crash in 2002 equally an aborted climb "up the Lord's ladder," and honestly, that's exactly what the collection of power strings audio similar on this bridge. A climb up the Lord's ladder, a difference from Earth, a one-way trip to anywhere just hither. —Micah Peters

41. "Suspicious Minds," Elvis Presley

Nigh heartbreaking line: "We can't go on together / With suspicious minds / And we can't build our dreams / On suspicious minds"

You can meet the ripples of "Suspicious Minds" throughout the course of breakup song history, from "Railroad train in Vain" to "Dancing on My Own," which, you lot know, it's Elvis. But across the juxtaposition of its relatively upbeat music and depressing-every bit-hell lyrics, I love the structure of this song, with a peppy guitar intro and verses that build into a chorus that goes from G major to very, very Due east minor and just doesn't ever really resolve. This might not be the only reason the vocal fades out but there's no real suitable catastrophe bespeak for the concluding notes of the chorus, so information technology ever drops back into a poetry or a bridge or some other chorus. "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" resolves more easily. Just like a cleaved relationship. —Baumann

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

Most heartbreaking lines: "Although she may exist cute, she'due south simply a substitute / Because yous're the permanent i"

On this archetype Motown tearjerker, Smokey embodies the thought of the sad clown better than any vocal ever has. He'due south the life of the party—using jokes like a clown uses makeup—merely inside, he's wounded, pining for a by lover. He's dating someone new, but he's not thinking of her. (Side notation: I don't know who I'm sadder for hither, Smokey or the rebound he's walking around boondocks with.) He may have wiped away the tears, but they've left their mark. And the makeup only makes the tear tracks that much more apparent. —Justin Sayles

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

Most heartbreaking line: "So this is inevitable withdrawal / Fifty-fifty if I stop wanting you / And perspective pushes through / I'll be some next man'southward other woman shortly"

On "Tears Dry on Their Own," Amy Winehouse demanded that Amy Winehouse have her own communication. "I cannot play myself again, I should just be my own all-time friend," she warns. "Not fuck myself in the caput with stupid men." These lines that pried the vocal open were one of Winehouse's hallmarks as a author—"Tears" begins in the dumps, in the backwash. But during every emotional uncoupling comes the signal where you lot gaze into the mirror, stick your finger in your reflection's chest, and tell them to stop being such a impaired, whiny baby. —Peters

38. "Needed Me," Rihanna

Most heartbreaking lines: "Fuck your white horse and a wagon / Bet y'all never could imagine / Never told you you could accept it / You needed me"

This vocal is so lilliputian and I beloved it. Rihanna basically made a hit off the "Sike, you thought!" meme and DJ Mustard added an unforgettable beat behind it. This is one of those bangers that you lot and your girls blast mail service-breakup, pre-going-out. Then, after you all sing in unison: "Don't become information technology twisted / You lot was only another nigga on the hit list / Tryna fix your inner issues with a bad bowwow," you all burst into laughter thinking about the man who is at present barely a retention. Rihanna's confidence and savageness is actually on an untouchable level. (Think, this song is on the same album where she sings "sexual activity with me is then astonishing" over and over.) Long may she reign. —Hashemite kingdom of jordan Ligons

37. "And then Ill," Ne-Yo

Most heartbreaking line: "Gotta change my answering machine, at present that I'grand alone / 'Cause right now it says that we tin't come up to the telephone"

The earworm of a generation! Ne-Yo said no to sappy ballads in more ways than one with "Then Sick," giving us an R&B nail hitting for everyone sick of regular, schmegular love songs. Set to the globe'due south catchiest shell, Ne-Yo mourns a by human relationship and all the day-to-day changes that come up with moving on. "Gotta change my answering auto, now that I'chiliad alone / 'Cause right now it says that nosotros tin can't come to the phone … Gotta fix that calendar I have that'due south marked July 15 / Because since there's no more you, in that location'southward no more ceremony." Fifteen years subsequently, we still can't turn off the radio. —Halliwell

36. "Nosotros Vest Together," Mariah Carey

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "When you left I lost a part of me / It's notwithstanding so difficult to believe / Come back baby, please / 'Crusade we vest together"

*Sighs.* This is hands the most played-out, sorry breakup song of the early 2000s. Everyone thought most someone who could've/should've been their soul mate when this dropped in 2005. Merely 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'm already changing the station. It'southward just and then abrasive, and so Mariah.

You may think that you won't find someone else to lean on when times get rough or someone to talk to you lot on the phone until the lord's day comes upwardly, merely let me tell y'all, you will and you lot'll be fine. Breakups suck, only please don't torture your broken heart (or your ears) by listening to this vocal on repeat. —Ligons

35. "If You lot See Her, Say Hello," Bob Dylan

Most heartbreaking line: "Say for me that I'yard all right, though things get kind of ho-hum / She might think that I've forgotten her, don't tell her information technology isn't then"

The inspiration for Bob Dylan's masterful Blood on the Tracks has always been debated. Critics have long causeless that the anthology is about Dylan'south separation from his wife, Sara. The couple's son, Jakob, reportedly believes that Blood is about his parents. Just Dylan himself has steadily denied that his masterpiece is autobiographical, fifty-fifty saying instead that information technology's based on … Chekhov'due south brusk 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 once securely personal and universal.

That's most palpable on "If You lot Meet Her, Say Hello," which brings u.s.a. into a fractured relationship in a mode that'south both effortlessly relatable ("We had a falling out, like lovers often will") and hyper-specific ("And to recall of how she left that night, it still brings me a chill"). It's not Dylan'southward flashiest or heaviest or all-time vocal, just it is my favorite, a gentle, intimate portrait of lost love and lasting anguish. Similar so much of his best work, information technology's propelled by its poetry, the raw insights about how it feels to be alive. The song cycles through the same phases that so many of us do while processing heartbreak: denial, despair, acrimony, want. Information technology floats on a current of remorse ("Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the by / I know every scene by eye, they all went by so fast") yet manages to convey the kind of longing that leads, charily, back toward hope ("If she's passing back this style, I'm not that hard to detect / Tell her she tin can wait me upward, if she'due south got the fourth dimension"). Later on enough listens, and enough heartache of your own, you realize that "If Y'all See Her, Say Hullo" isn't really a breakup song. Information technology's a love letter. — Mallory Rubin

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

Nigh heartbreaking line: "Stand up up beside the fireplace / Accept that look from off your confront / 'Cause you lot own't ever gonna burn my heart out"

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

33. "Every Breath You Take," the Police

Nearly heartbreaking line: "Since yous've gone I've been lost without a trace / I dream at night, I tin can merely run across your confront"

This spectacularly maudlin New Wave carol, which anchored the Constabulary's 1983 goliath Synchronicity and reigned as ane of the biggest radio hits of the decade, is creepy as all hell, very much by blueprint: an unrepentant stalker manifesto that doesn't so much depict spurned love in terms of surveillance as it describes total state surveillance in terms of spurned beloved: "Every motion you lot make / Every vow you intermission / Every smile y'all fake / Every claim you stake." And then on. "I'll be watching you lot," Sting concludes a couple dozen times throughout, but information technology's the chest-pounding bridge where the trio'southward creepy-soulful frontman does some of his best belting, his best pleading, his all-time super-creepy emoting and enunciating: "I feel so common cold and I long for your em-brace." Fun fact: He started writing the song at Ian Fleming's writing desk-bound on the James Bond writer'south luxe Jamaican estate, which might not be creepy, only information technology'due south certainly weird. —Harvilla

32. "Don't Speak," No Doubtfulness

Nearly heartbreaking line: "As we die, both you and I / With my caput in my hands, I sit and cry"

I mean, honestly, it takes a lot of guts to drop a Spanish classical guitar solo in the middle of an angsty '90s alt-rock song. It also takes a lot of guts to write a vocal near breaking upwardly with the bass player in your ring and and then make a music video for the song that has shots in it like the one below: Don't speak, literally.

No Dubiousness'due south get-go hit is a work of art, full of raw, youthful emotion and complex arrangements. Information technology's beautiful, brutal, painful, and incendiary, all at once. —Gruttadaro

31. "Thinkin Bout Y'all," Frank Ocean

Most heartbreaking lines: "Do you non recollect so far ahead? / 'Cause I been thinkin' bout forever"

Sometimes you have to lie to yourself to get through heartache. They weren't good enough for me. I can do amend. I didn't love them, I just thought they were cute. Frank Body of water's "Thinkin Bout You" exposes that kind of posturing for what it is: a facade. No, I wasn't crying nigh y'all, and past the style, I also own waterfront belongings in Idaho. Frank's conspicuously still hung upwards on the past even if his old flame isn't. And the only way to work through the hurting is to drop the lying and come clean with himself. Information technology'southward tender, it's sweetness, but most of all, it'south honest. —Sayles

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

Most heartbreaking lines: "Why'd y'all take to say goodbye? / Look what y'all've washed to me / I tin't end these tears from fallin' from my eyes"

No matter your electric current relationship status, you will for certain sing your heart out when this vocal comes on. I practice not intendance, I am Mary J. when the chorus hits. By the end of the song—a comprehend of Rose Royce'south 1976 single—you've "gone down" and then much that you're on the flooring, eyes closed, hoop earrings in, and belting, "My whole world'southward up-[dramatic pause]-side downward!" I can't be the only one, right?

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

29. "Nothing Compares ii U," Sinéad O'Connor

Most heartbreaking lines: "I could put my arms effectually every male child I come across / But they'd merely remind me of you"

Breakups are freeing; breakups are imprisoning. When you lot come out of a yearslong human relationship, you have to relearn how to live without that person in your life. Parts of that process are beautiful—reconnecting with old friends, picking up a new hobby, shaking off the shackles. Merely the breakup sticks with you. Y'all run into your ex's all-time friend at the bar, or you lot hear a song that you both loved. Sometimes, it's a minor annoyance. Other times, it's an earth-shattering consequence. Y'all're relearning how to live, simply living is difficult.

I can't recall of a song that amend captures that duality than "Nothing Compares 2 U," the 1990 O'Connor hit originally penned by Prince in 1985. Y'all tin can practise whatever you desire: Yous can political party all night, you tin can consume at a fancy restaurant, you tin put your artillery around all the boys and girls you'd like, simply it doesn't thing. It's not them, and nothing will be. Your best hope is just giving in and living for yourself. —Sayles

28. "Marvin's Room," Drake

Most heartbreaking line: "The adult female that I would try / 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 adult female that I would try / Is happy with a good guy," he sings. Is he happy for her? The lines suggest that there'southward at least a take a chance. Drake pauses, then goes full Drizzy Deleterious: "But I've been drinkin' so much / That I'ma call her anyway." He proceeds to tell her that the man she'southward with isn't good enough to replace what they had. It's the archetype overstep from an ex, merely the longer he goes on, nosotros realize it's more about his pride and alien emotions most his life choices than it is well-nigh her. Drake spirals, telling her he'south "had sex activity four times this calendar week / I can explicate," that he's sponsoring women, that he can't stop partying and request for naked pictures. Exactly what your ex-girlfriend wants to hear, I'm sure. At least there's a voicemail interlude. —Haley O'Shaughnessy

27. "Just a Friend," Biz Markie

Nigh heartbreaking line: "Oh, snap! Guess what I saw? / A fella natural language-kissin' my girl in her oral fissure"

Turns out this woman did not have what Biz Markie needed. Every bit he singsplains, he became kitten smitten with a woman at one of his shows. You'd remember that this would have happened to him all the fourth dimension, but it did not. This was "the first girl I ever talked to," Biz told EW last year. "Every time I would call out to California, a dude would choice up and hand her the phone. I'd exist like, 'Yo, what's upwards [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 up, in that location was a guy "natural language-kissing my girl in her mouth."

Biz. My guy. Sit down. Permit's talk. First off, she was not your girl. You met her i time. Second, y'all did non grab her tongue-kissing a dude. You stalked her. Third, it was extremely obvious that this friend was not but her friend. What Biz Markie needed was someone to listen to his story and give him honest feedback virtually his predicament. You know, a friend. —Danny Heifetz

26. "Burn down," Usher

Most heartbreaking line: "But you know, gotta let it become / 'Crusade the party ain't jumpin' similar it used to / Fifty-fifty though this might bruise you / Permit information technology burn"

I couldn't imagine someone breaking upwards with me with the lyrics to this song. Usher is all over the identify. He says he loves me, merely our relationship has to come to an end; he says he's hurting and he's not happy, but he's breaking down and crying. Deep down he knows it'south all-time, but he hates the thought of me existence with someone else. Get your shit together, Conductor!

Still, for all of its disruptive back-and-forth, this is a breakup classic. It preaches the ideology of forcing yourself to allow go even when you lot don't know what you're going to do without your boo. After a heartbreak, everyone has found themselves teetering on the line between regret and freedom. Conductor's "Burn" allows yous to tap into that while simultaneously yelling out, "Information technology's been fifty-11 days, umpteen hours, and Imma be burnin' till y'all return!" —Ligons

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

Nigh heartbreaking line: "Simply each time I tell myself that I, well I can't stand up the pain / But when yous hold me in your arms, I'll sing it one time again"

If you're e'er at your wits' cease, tragically obsessed with someone who treats you like shit, y'all tin find some catharsis in the controlled chaos of Janis Joplin'south song performance on "Piece of My Middle." Get alee and scream along. Y'all won't sound every bit skillful as Janis, only yous'll certainly feel a hell of a lot amend afterward.

One time your anger fades a lilliputian, you can switch over to the original recording of this song, released a year earlier in 1967 and sung by Erma Franklin (yes, that's Aretha'due south older sister). Or if you need some more than twang accompanying your despair, you can try the Faith Hill version. I besides won't judge you if the only person who can ease your pain is Shaggy (or Beverley Knight, Melissa Etheridge, Steven Tyler, Kelly Clarkson, or one of countless other artists).

Written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, "Piece of My Center" is 1 of the most relatable and enduring songs well-nigh Some Fuckboi in the history of fuckbois. The call-and-response construction of the chorus builds those simmering resentments and releases them with a sharp, key cry. Undoubtedly, there will be new versions of this vocal until the end of time⁠—considering information technology's an absolute banger—but besides considering … men. —Matt James

24. "Skinny Love," Bon Iver

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "And I told you to be patient / And I told y'all to be fine"

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

You lot know the story past at present: In 2006, Justin Vernon broke upward with his girlfriend, packed up his automobile, and drove into the Wisconsin wilderness, emerging merely after recording an album of weepy breakup songs. That origin tale has been repeated so often that it's become soft mush, obscuring the real truth: That For Emma, Forever Agone—and especially "Skinny Honey"—are greatly reflective, intelligent, moving documents about the breakdown of a human relationship. —Gruttadaro

23. "Hold Up," Beyoncé

Near heartbreaking line: "Can't you run across there's no other man above y'all? / What a wicked style to treat the girl that loves you"

Information technology's hard to express existent injure over an uptempo vanquish and make the heartbreak convincing. All the same Beyoncé is believable in "Hold Upward," a painful accounting of the emotions that come up afterward discovering that your partner has cheated. Lemonade was inspired by true events—i.e., it's Beyoncé coming to terms with Jay-Z being unfaithful. Infidelity brings on a very specific type of devastation: You lot're mad; you're miserable; you lot're humiliated. You switch from one emotion to another in a affair of minutes. She opens the song with confidence: No other woman can requite what she can. "Hold upwards, they don't love y'all like I love you." In a breath, she'due south less sure of herself: "What's worse, looking jealous or crazy?" Beyoncé settles on crazy, then returns to anger. "You permit this practiced love go to waste." —O'Shaughnessy

22. "Cry Me a River," Justin Timberlake

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

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

In his first solo megahit, Justin insinuates his honey has cheated on him ("You don't accept to say what you did / I already know, I found out from him") and writes her off for proficient. He's already cried almost information technology, and at present it's her turn. But no corporeality of her tears can undo the damage; he's gone. You didn't have to exercise much sleuthing to effigy out he was singing nearly Britney. That celebrity intrigue, Timbaland's sharp production, and an instantly memorable music video combined to make "Cry Me a River" the most iconic breakup song of the early 2000s, catapulting him to another level of stardom. He had carve up with not but Britney, only also his past, and he was fix 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 nothing changes, equally they say, and "With or Without You" exists in that hopelessly recursive "I hate that I honey you" space. This song was U2's first no. 1 hit in the U.S., fifty-fifty though, Bono has said, "it's a very odd-sounding song … it kind of whispers its manner into the world." But information technology's non the whispers that resonate virtually, however, it's all those wails, like the crescendo of Bono'south agonized, eminently singalong-able ahhh-ahhh-ahh-ahhhhhs, or the painful, everlasting notes from the Edge's "infinite guitar," engineered to hold a tone as if information technology were a grudge. "Psychotic restraint" is how Bono characterized the Edge'south spare work on this track, a description that could double as breakup advice. —Katie Baker

twenty. "Jolene," Dolly Parton

Most heartbreaking line: "And I can hands empathise / How you could easily take my man / But you lot don't know what he means to me, Jolene"

While other female person country singers might've handled their man's newfound fascination with a cute redhead by, say, digging a key into the side of his pretty fiddling souped-up four-cycle drive, or—just spitballing here—threatening to send her to Fist City, Parton simply pleads for mercy. The desperate pitch of her appeal, ready confronting a frantic Dorian-way guitar riff, sets the stakes far higher than those you might find in generally stern country songs about cheatin', lyin', and beingness untrue. Whatever armchair scholar of Parton'southward work can tell yous she cloaks feminist manifestos within marketable diddies well-nigh everyday experiences. I've always taken the song'south urgency to imply something that every adult female learns eventually: Relationships can exist both romantically fulfilling, and, too frequently, an economical lifeboat to a ameliorate life. In "Jolene," our narrator isn't only grasping onto her human, she'southward grasping for survival. —Alyssa Bereznak

xix. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," Marvin Gaye

Most heartbreaking line: "Do you plan to let me go / For the other guy you loved before?"

This vocal was outset released by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1967. A year later Marvin Gaye released a slower version of it on his anthology In the Groove. Perhaps the song resonated with Gaye because he married a 41-yr-former woman when he was just 24, and their marriage was total of infidelities. "I was in dearest with the idea of dearest," Gaye once said. Or at to the lowest degree that'southward what I heard through the grapevine. —Heifetz

xviii. "Ex-Cistron," Lauryn Hill

Nearly heartbreaking line: "Where were you when I needed you?"

"Ex-Cistron" is more a breakdown vocal, it'southward virtually recognizing a toxic relationship earlier you have the words to telephone call it a toxic human relationship. Each line, then honest it hurts, is about the fruitless search for reason in a scenario devoid of it. Hill's lyrics capture the worst of the worst of a relationship on the rocks: the pain, the complicity, and the unwillingness to surrender on a dearest yous recall is still there, cached below the bullshit.

When it hit airwaves again in 2018 on Drake'southward pandering yet irresistible "Nice for What," information technology was almost similar recognizing and reclaiming a past cocky—one who might accept cried along to the original. At present, every bit wiser, more Empowered™ listeners, nosotros heard the remixed, catchy hook devoid of its devastating verses and bopped our heads as Drake reminded united states of how short life is. Still, no one can capture the raw, uncomfortable emotion that Lauryn originally did—and no one ever will. —Johnson

17. "You're And so Vain," Carly Simon

Most heartbreaking line: "Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair / And that you lot would never leave / But you gave abroad the things you loved / And one 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 earth wondering whom it was nigh and what they could've possibly done to acrimony her. More than than 40 years of speculation afterward, we at present know that the vocaliser was describing the actor Warren Beatty. (She added in a recent, withering interview that, although the song describes three separate men, Beatty "thinks the whole thing is about him.") We may never know what company he kept (cough: Mick Jagger?), just the lasting power of Simon's articulate-eyed takedown stands as a referendum on the unchecked male ego, whether its contained in the body of a dashing player or a moody fuckboy. —Bereznak

xvi. "Dancing on My Own," Robyn

Near heartbreaking line: "Yes, I know it's stupid, I just gotta see it for myself"

Last year, following a Robyn show at Madison Square Garden, elated concertgoers continued the political party on the A/C/Due east train subway platform, breaking into a light-headed public performance of "Dancing on My Own." You wouldn't typically expect a breakup song to be the i that leads New Yorkers to such displays of collective joy, but well-nigh breakdown songs aren't like this ane: a vocal y'all can strut to, a club anthem, a scene-stealer, a story of lonesomeness that withal finds its solace in a crowd. Information technology'south a vocal about moving on—I only came to say cheerio—but also well-nigh, just, moving. The vocaliser might be alone in the corner, and she might know it'due south stupid, but she's out at that place dancing, at least. —Baker

15. "Thank U, Next," Ariana Grande

Virtually heartbreaking line: "Wish I could say, 'Thank you' to Malcolm / 'Crusade he was an affections"

This song is a determination to exist washed with suffering over a relationship, to recommit to oneself, to focus on healing and establishing new patterns. To not only rehearse by losses but to envision futurity victories, and likewise to alive in the moment, to exist here now.

This to practise the actual, mean solar day-in, twenty-four hours-out work of being happy. —Peters

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

Almost heartbreaking line: "It's unnatural"

Both the joyous genesis and abject death knell for billions of '90s junior-high-gymnasium-dance relationships that only lasted the length of the song itself, "End of the Route," which rose to power on 1992'due south Boomerang soundtrack, is one of the biggest hits in pop-music history. Like, "13 straight weeks atop the Hot 100" big. Like, "The 'Onetime Town Route' of Its Day" big, a tearjerking shout-forth anthem for lovelorn belters too devastated to fifty-fifty take their horses and go out the house. The final a capella chorus is a signature moment in American cultural history, at once exhilarating and devastating: "It'southward unnatural / You vest to me / I belong to yous." The word unnatural has never sounded so natural, then miserable. —Harvilla

xiii. "Dreams," Fleetwood Mac

Most heartbreaking line: "Now here you go again, you say you desire your freedom / Well, who am I to keep you down?"

Even 40-plus years on, to hear Stevie Nicks softly moaning, "What you lot had ... and what yous lost / And what you had ... and what you lost" to the guy playing guitar is to live forever, and to imagine that guitar player dropping expressionless from remorse on the spot. (Lindsey Buckingham, of course, has been known to belt out a sweetly caustic breakup canticle or two himself.) As the 2d (and all-time!) track on 1977'southward zillions-selling Rumours, "Dreams" is both radically overexposed and all the same somehow criminally underrated, fixed to its iconic identify, time, and circumstances but likewise shockingly timeless. (Zoë Kravitz rhapsodizes it in the pilot of Hulu's new Loftier Fidelity remake serial to testify her rock-nerd bona fides.) Pair it with "Argent Springs" for maximum consequence. —Harvilla

12. "How Tin You Mend a Broken Middle," Al Greenish

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

There's heartbreak, and and so there's Al Green heartbreak. (Not to slight the original Bee Gees version—Light-green is all I know when I'm going through it.) He'south exasperated from the beginning, wondering whether he'll always recover from the dear that went abroad. The agony is plenty to contemplate nature itself in the chorus: "How can you mend a broken heart? / How tin can you end the rain from falling down? / How can you stop the sunday from shining? / What makes the world get round?" Green is begging for answers, for "somebody, please" to come fix him. He pleads, "Let me live again." Life every bit he knew it is over without this person, and as long every bit the vocal is on, it feels over for us, too. —O'Shaughnessy

11. "Torn," Natalie Imbruglia

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

In that location's a bad breakdown, there's rock bottom, and then at that place's being "cold and shamed, lying naked on the floor." Natalie Imbruglia'south 1997 one-hit wonder (and sneaky embrace) doesn't mince words in describing exactly how shitty it feels to put your faith in the incorrect man. (Or any man, depending on how hard y'all vibe with this song.) "Torn" has taken a plough for the over-covered and over-memed these days, but you're lying if y'all say you don't still hit that chorus every time. —Halliwell

x. "I Will Survive," Gloria Gaynor

Most heartbreaking line: "So yous felt like dropping in and just wait me to exist free / Well at present I'yard saving all my lovin' for someone who'south lovin' me"

This 1978 disco colossus is then singular, and then monolithic, so wedding-dancefloor-ingrained that it hardly scans every bit a breakup vocal at all: As ecstatic and empowering fuck-you lot anthems get, it is the glamorous grandmother to Lizzo'due south "Truth Hurts" and Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Next" and Beyoncé'south "Irreplaceable" and roughly 50,000 other self-affirming pop hits. What truly elevates New Bailiwick of jersey diva Gloria Gaynor'southward 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 chronicle in whatsoever way, frivolously or otherwise, to the frankly iconic line "I'thousand saving all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me," which of course is everybody. She knows yous're afraid; she knows you're petrified. Merely she also knows y'all won't stay that way for long. —Harvilla

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

About heartbreaking line: "Wonder this fourth dimension where she'due south gone / Wonder if she's gone to stay"

To brand a vocal from 1971 about a video game from 2010: Dante'south Inferno is an RPG based loosely on the start anthem of the Divine One-act. I say loosely because EA Dante has rippling muscles and a massive scythe, his merely protections against the legions of the night, who've stolen his beloved Beatrice. I never played it, but a friend who did described his frustration with the game: It'south as if its conclusion got farther away the more than time he devoted to it. A Super Bowl commercial showed Dante sprinting toward Hell'south gaping mouth determined but, you know, definitely doomed. Every bit he descends you hear the low croak of Bill Withers's vox, pining subsequently a lost lover: "Own't no sunshine when she'southward gone, only darkness everyday." My last breakup didn't involve a giant flaming devil monster, but information technology did feel similar a similarly hopeless uphill battle. —Peters

8. "Someone Like You lot," Adele

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "Sometimes it lasts in love, simply sometimes it hurts instead"

The queen of heartbreak has never been better than on sophomore album 21, and 21 doesn't go much better than "Someone Like Y'all." Adele's ode to the 1 who got away is perchance the most universally adored tearjerker of the past decade; starting with that simple piano line and ending in that burdensome hook: "Sometimes it lasts in dear, but sometimes information technology hurts instead." And of class, that voice! Watching the elementary blackness and white music video now, information technology'due south striking how infant-faced Adele was at 21, despite her commitment of a song that displays so much emotional maturity. She wishes the best for her ex ("Former friend, why are you so shy?"), but damn, she's still hurting. Aren't we all! —Halliwell

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

Most heartbreaking lyrics: "Someone picked you from the bunch, one glance was all it took / Now it'southward much too tardily for me to take a second look"

Perchance the most outwardly joyous song in this unabridged ranking, "I Want You Back" spins a tale that anyone who's ever taken someone for granted will understand. An xi-year-old Michael Jackson is at his most precocious here, singing virtually the girl whom he didn't fully appreciate until someone else stole her center. Now he just wants another chance to prove that he knows how to treat her correct. Michael, of course, didn't write the vocal—it was penned by Berry 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, simply if it sounds this proficient trying to convince you it can, why not give information technology i more than take a chance? —Sayles

half-dozen. "Since U Been Gone," Kelly Clarkson

Most heartbreaking line: "How come up I'd never hear you lot say / 'I only wanna exist with you' (be with you) / I guess you never felt that style"

There is a moment in every breakup where, after a few weeks of cocky-pity, you shed your sweatpant cocoon, step outside, and, with the instantaneity of a rubber ring snap, of a sudden know deep within your centre that your ex was an detestable grandstanding. Kelly Clarkson's mosh-adjacent power popular ballad embodies the newfound self-assurance that comes with that realization. It also happens to be enshrined in a pop civilization moment that I will forever acquaintance with existence a melodramatic 16-year-old millennial: "Since U Been Gone" was written by pop lords Max Martin and Dr. Luke, who ripped its entire musical structure from the far more poetic Yeah Yes Yeahs hitting, "Maps," and then—after being passed up by both Pink and Hilary Duff—was sung by the very starting time winner of the then-fledgling reality TV prove American Idol. The AIM-friendly "U" in the title is just the icing on the cake. —Bereznak

v. "Ms. Jackson," Outkast

Most heartbreaking lyric: "Forever never seems that long until you're grown / And find that the solar day-by-twenty-four hour period ruler tin't be too wrong"

Sometimes breaking up with your significant other's family is just as difficult as breaking up with them. Big Boi and André 3000 understood that on "Ms. Jackson," a song defended to Kolleen Maria Wright, the female parent of Erykah Badu, with whom André had a kid. Three Stacks's verse is especially poignant—his intentions were practiced, simply things took a turn for the worse. Information technology'south a harsh reality: Well-nigh relationships are born with an expiration date, no matter how bright the flame burned at the starting time. As far as apology songs go, information technology's pretty nuanced and sincere. And Wright seems to have bought information technology: Erykah said in 2016 that her mother fifty-fifty has a "MSJACKSON" license plate. —Sayles

4. "I Will E'er Beloved You lot," Whitney Houston

Most heartbreaking line: "Delight don't cry / We both know I'grand not what yous, you need"

Dolly Parton wrote one of the most dynamic love songs e'er with "I Will Ever Dearest You." Whitney Houston, who sang a embrace for the flick The Bodyguard, fabricated a worldwide hit with her astounding range. Both versions are wonderful for different reasons, though Parton's honeyed, wobbly original is best for heartbreak. For i, it's authentic: She wrote the song for her former managing director and professional partner, Porter Wagoner, after she decided to exit him. Parton is sympathetic, yet determined to get. As she sings in the bridge, it's bittersweet. They are both better off this way, she argues, but wishes him nothing but "joy and happiness." One of the hardest relationship lessons is that 2 people tin honey each other and it still non be right for either—thanks to Dolly and Whitney, it was i learned early on. —O'Shaughnessy

iii. "I Can't Make Y'all Love Me," Bonnie Raitt

Most heartbreaking line: "I'll shut my optics / Then I won't run across / The love y'all don't feel when yous're holding me"

You might exist a girlfriend, a husband, a partner, or even a friend with benefits. Whatever role you play in service of love, information technology comes with a label that sets expectations. There is clarity and comfort in knowing where you stand with someone. Only despite all of our semantics and promises, the terrifying reality of our love lives is that honey itself tin can exist a ruthlessly nonbinding agreement, an at-will organisation. Even more frightening is that it's ofttimes our hearts—not usa—calling the shots.

What sets "I Can't Make You lot Love Me" apart from most breakup songs is that it takes identify at the near painful indicate of a breakup: acceptance. It's not a post-breakdown anthem of empowerment or a desperate plea to stay together. It's the full force of the disorienting one-ii punch of loss and loneliness. It's the world-shattering moment when yous give up the fight.

Bonnie Raitt's arresting performance of this song (written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin) carries the weight of a lifetime in and out of beloved. She sets downwardly her slide guitar, sits Bruce Hornsby down at the piano, and sings the absolute fuck out of this song with confidence and grace. The vocal used on the Luck of the Draw album recording was Bonnie'due south commencement take. "I Can't Make You lot Love Me" has been covered by countless artists, included on several Greatest Songs Of All Fourth dimension lists, and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The songs that touch usa most deeply are the ones that unite usa through the nigh homo of shared experiences. Somewhen, we all learn that you can't brand someone'south eye feel "something information technology won't." But should you one day find yourself at rock bottom, all of a sudden alone in darkness—whether information technology'due south your first fourth dimension or your 14th—you can feel a footling bit less lone knowing that Bonnie's been there, too. —James

ii. "You lot Oughta Know," Alanis Morissette

Virtually heartbreaking line: "Does she know how you told me you'd agree me until you died, till y'all died / But y'all're still live"

Alanis Morrisette was 19 years erstwhile when she recorded that ballad of bitterness "You Oughta Know" in one take at 11 p.k. "All those vocals are but her at the end of the dark," said her cowriter Glen Ballard in an oral history of the anthology Jagged Niggling Pill, "singing something she just wrote." The result was a revelation in its ragged emotion, all fingernail scratches and fellatio, a piece of work of fine art centering the seething spirals of rage. (That it was possibly inspired by Uncle Joey remains both iconic and deeply weird, but also makes sick sense: You lot oasis'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 it came on the radio in the '90s, and what'south more, it features both Flea on bass and Dave Navarro on the guitar. What more than could you want—other than sweet, sweet vengeance? —Baker

1. "Purple Rain," Prince

Nigh heartbreaking line: "I never meant to crusade you any sorrow / I never meant to crusade you any pain"

Purple pelting, according to an unsourced quote that's widely attributed to Prince Rogers Nelson, is the outcome of blood mixing with the sky, which is a sort of apocalyptic drama that only Prince could conjure. Just y'all don't even need to understand what purple pelting is to feel "Purple Rain," a power carol to cease all power ballads.

Some breakup songs are mean, some are mournful, others are empowering. But "Royal Rain" has the power to feel like 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 you lot. —Gruttadaro

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

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