Let’s talk about the songs that make you tear up (as opposed to those that make you tear it up, which are probably more common). Let’s talk about the songs that put a lump in your throat and make your vision go all watery and tie your ventricles in knots. Let’s talk about the songs that make you feel so bad that you exit from them 180º on the other side of the emotional spectrum into euphoria. Let’s talk about the songs that make wallowing in self-pity a most exquisite pleasure. Because it’s Monday and you’re still kind of hungover…

I’ve been enjoying these types of songs since the ’60s, even though I was way too young to know the definition of “poignant.” I remember hearing on the radio Glen Campbell’s version of “Wichita Lineman” (written by the immortal Jimmy Webb) as a wee lad and being overcome by inexpressible sadness—and elation. That this song could rivet a hyper 7-year-old boy and fill him with contradictory adult feelings may be one meaning of genius.

Another song that swelled my heart and mind with the profound lugubriousness of life while simultaneously inflating my soul was the theme song to Midnight Cowboy by John Barry (fwiw, the film’s also in my top 10 of all time). For decades I’ve been searching for a piece of music that moves me more deeply than this brief paragon of melancholy. Many have come close, but none has surpassed it. As one YouTube commenter astutely put it re: one of the videos showcasing Barry’s composition, “the harmonica sounds like it’s crying.” You don’t even need to see Midnight Cowboy to appreciate the special expression of sadness and longing Barry captures in 2:45. But by all means see the film, if only to ogle Jon Voigt in his prime and marvel that from his seed sprouted Angelina Jolie.

Speaking of great soundtrack music, the score to the 1973 cult UK film The Wicker Man (composed by Paul Giovanni) has enchanted scores of musicians and others highly attuned to sublime British folk music. One piece in particular, “Willow’s Song” [see video below], encapsulates the powerful yearning of the movie’s private investigator (Edward Woodward) and the sanity-threatening seductiveness of its village temptress (Britt Ekland). This one hits below the belt…

Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” is so beautiful and poignant, it makes me feel both ashamed and blessed to be alive. It’s like the Taj Mahal of folk songs. Some people think that This Mortal Coil’s version may even be better than the original (David Lynch used it to devastating effect in Lost Highway). Some people just might be right, for a change.

Pharoah Sanders’ mighty, mystical, free-jazz epic “The Creator Has a Master Plan”—especially Leon Thomas’ yodeling acrobatics—also never fails to move me to my core, causing as much trembling on the 127th listen as it did on the first one.

What songs crack your stoic demeanor and reduce you to a sobbing mess?