Nin Theres a Part on Me That I Want to Get Back Again

What makes a vocal a "breakup vocal"? Does it have to be empowering, à la "I Will Survive" or almost of the songs on Lemonade? Should it be for the lonely, like Carole King's "It'due south Too Late" or Bob Dylan's "If You Encounter Her, Say Hi"? Does it have to address the breakup in the lyrics? (Taylor Swift has many entrants in this category, and Marvin Gaye penned an entire album about his divorce.) What about songs with a famous backstory, similar "Weep Me a River" or any track off of Rumours?

We here at The Ringer believe that since heartache comes in many forms, so should the breakup song. And in award of Valentine's Mean solar day, we decided to dig deep into the genre. Below, you'll detect our ranking of the 50 greatest breakdown songs of all time, equally voted on past our staff. The list spans several decades and many different moods, but all are rooted in some type of pain. In that location was merely 1 rule for the last ranking: merely 1 song per artist was included to avoid Dolly Parton or even Drake from dominating.

So if you're lonely, burn down up our playlist and weep along as yous read our thoughts on each aspirant. If you're happily attached, you can still swoop in—these are some of the greatest songs ever recorded, and that's truthful whether you're in your feelings or non. Perchance you'll proceeds a greater appreciation for your electric current human relationship. After all, breakup songs resonate simply when you know what it's like to lose in love. —Justin Sayles

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Y'all would hide away and notice your peace of mind / With some indie record that's so much cooler than mine"

One of the most vicious breakup songs in history, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" encapsulates the severe "fuck that guy!" energy that follows a long-overdue departing of ways. We've all had that post-fight bluster with our friends: "Ugh … so he calls me up and he's similar, 'I still dearest you,' and I'thousand like … 'I only … I mean this is exhausting, you know, similar, we are never getting dorsum together. Like, ever.'" 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

Nearly heartbreaking line: "I demand somebody and always / This sick strange darkness / Comes creeping on then haunting every time"

"I Miss You" is like a minimalist/emo take on Meat Loaf. Information technology rules. The two best things about this number are Travis Barker's uncomplicated simply persistent drumbeat and Tom DeLonge's archway on the second poetry. It's function of the one thousand popular punk tradition of showing you mean concern by going upward an octave, of which "I Miss You" (along with the Starting Line's "The Best of Me") is the exemplar.

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

48. "It'south Too Late," Carole Male monarch

Almost heartbreaking line: "Just we simply can't stay together, don't you feel it, too? / Withal I'chiliad glad for what nosotros had and how I once loved you"

"Information technology'due south Likewise Tardily" is a burdensome ode to the virtually common kind of breakup. The natural procedure of two people growing autonomously is as heartbreaking equally it is commonplace, and Male monarch sings in a tone perfectly situated betwixt her sorrow and the shrugging access that "we actually did try to brand it." Her conversational delivery early in the song brings us into the living room, diner, or sidewalk where "the talk" betwixt her and her about-to-be-ex is happening: "One of united states is irresolute, or perchance we merely stopped trying," she sings, plain laying out the key, blameless reasons for why most people end upwardly separating. The song is defined past its maturity and its conciliatory attitude, just as with actual breakdown conversations, that doesn't make it whatever easier to hear. —Cory McConnell

47. "Un-Pause My Heart," Toni Braxton

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

This is a perfect instance of the kind of breakup song yous hear on the radio (or, in the late '90s, peradventure the club—the Frankie Knuckles firm remix still goes) and, on a normal mean solar day, merely hear another popular song, just when you're experiencing heartache, what originally sounded like songwriting clichés become the truest words you've ever heard. "I have cried a lot of nights," y'all think, getting out of bed for the first time in days to grab a curlicue of toilet paper since you ran out of Kleenex. "Life is cruel without you lot here beside me," you murmur, staring into the dour chasm of loneliness y'all now know as life. "I would literally practice anything on God's green world to hear you say y'all beloved me once more," you realize with the greatest clarity you've ever experienced. Anyhow, 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 breadbasket is sick / And it's all in my head"

Maybe it'due south not exactly right to call "Mr. Brightside" a breakup song; perhaps information technology'due south more accurate to call it a correct-before-the-breakup song, an I-imagined-my-girlfriend-was-cheating-on-me-so-intensely-that-she-really-started-adulterous-on-me song. But that'south all really clunky, and so let'south 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 difficult fob of but repeating one poesy over and over. As well, Eric Roberts in the video. —Andrew Gruttadaro

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Get up in the morn, expect in the mirror / I less toothbrush hanging in the stand up"

The dynamic duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates became plumage-haired, MTV-borne superstars in the '80s, but their rising to greatness begins hither, with the breakout hit from their 2nd anthology, 1973'south oddly/heartbreakingly named Abandoned Luncheonette. "She'southward Gone" is luscious and silky and deceptively calorie-free, all Motown grandeur by fashion of bluish-eyed Philly soul, simply that lightness only underscores the exquisite heaviness of murmured verse lines like "Get upward in the morning, look in the mirror / Worn equally the toothbrush hanging in the stand." (Or probably information technology's "One less toothbrush," which of grade is even heavier.) The chorus, past contrast, is gigantic and majestic and crushing, punctuated past 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 exist, yous 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 gem of Erykah Badu'south 1997 album Live, is the stupendous opening line: "I'm gettin' tired of your shit / Yous don't e'er buy me nothin'." The first-best moment is all the women in the oversupply immediately shrieking with please and, one fears, recognition. "Tyrone" is named for one of an unnamed deadbeat lover's numerous deadbeat friends: "Every time nosotros get somewhere," Badu purrs with lethal dominance, "I gotta reach downwardly in my handbag / To pay your way and your homeboy's mode and sometimes your cousin's way." It is the gender-flipped riposte to Friday's "Adieu, Felicia," and in fact turned upward as a joke in 2000's Next Fri; it "followed me thru my career like an obsessed X boyfriend," equally Badu put information technology on Instagram in 2017, while shouting out her backup singers, whose sardonic and sublime "Phone call him!" chant is the third-best moment. —Harvilla

43. "Dear Is a Battlefield," Pat Benatar

Almost heartbreaking line: "Do I stand in your way / Or am I the best affair you've had?"

The agonizingly propulsive signature hit from flamethrower-voiced '80s pop queen Pat Benatar laments not so much a breakup as a near-breakdown in progress, an acknowledgement that truthful love means almost breaking upward pretty much all the fourth dimension: "Believe me / Believe me / I can't tell yous why / Merely I'm trapped by your love / And I'm chained to your side." It's a karaoke classic you have no business organisation attempting, a cheeseball Reagan-era boom of eternal profundity, and a hit declaration that sometimes the only thing worse than splitting upwards is not splitting up: "Do I stand up in your way / Or am I the best thing you lot've had?" she wails with genuine agony, and the answer, of course, is both. —Harvilla

42. "Devil in a New Wearing apparel," Kanye West

Most heartbreaking line: "Throwing shit around, the whole identify screwed up / Perhaps I should call Mase so that he could pray for us"

We're not even talking about the whole vocal—we're talking about 20 or and so seconds of Bink production after Kanye'southward second verse, but earlier Rick Ross'south but verse, arguably one of the best in his career. In it, he describes West's about-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 bridge. A climb up the Lord'south ladder, a departure from Globe, a one-mode trip to anywhere but here. —Micah Peters

41. "Suspicious Minds," Elvis Presley

About heartbreaking line: "We can't continue together / With suspicious minds / And we can't build our dreams / On suspicious minds"

Yous can come across the ripples of "Suspicious Minds" throughout the form of breakdown song history, from "Train in Vain" to "Dancing on My Ain," which, yous know, it's Elvis. But beyond the juxtaposition of its relatively upbeat music and depressing-as-hell lyrics, I love the construction of this vocal, with a peppy guitar intro and verses that build into a chorus that goes from 1000 major to very, very E minor and merely doesn't ever really resolve. This might not be the but reason the song fades out merely there's no real suitable ending point for the terminal notes of the chorus, then it always drops back into a verse or a bridge or some other chorus. "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" resolves more hands. Simply like a broken relationship. —Baumann

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

Well-nigh heartbreaking lines: "Although she may be cute, she'southward just a substitute / Because you're the permanent 1"

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

39. "Tears Dry out on Their Own," Amy Winehouse

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

On "Tears Dry on Their Ain," Amy Winehouse demanded that Amy Winehouse accept her own advice. "I cannot play myself again, I should just be my own best friend," she warns. "Not fuck myself in the head with stupid men." These lines that pried the song open were one of Winehouse's hallmarks equally a writer—"Tears" begins in the dumps, in the aftermath. But during every emotional uncoupling comes the point where you gaze into the mirror, stick your finger in your reflection's chest, and tell them to end existence such a dumb, whiny baby. —Peters

38. "Needed Me," Rihanna

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

This vocal is then piffling and I love information technology. Rihanna basically made a hit off the "Sike, you thought!" meme and DJ Mustard added an unforgettable shell behind it. This is one of those bangers that you and your girls boom mail-breakup, pre-going-out. So, after you all sing in unison: "Don't get information technology twisted / You was just another nigga on the striking list / Tryna fix your inner issues with a bad bitch," you all burst into laughter thinking virtually the man who is now barely a retentivity. Rihanna's conviction and savageness is really on an untouchable level. (Remember, this vocal is on the same anthology where she sings "sex activity with me is then amazing" over and over.) Long may she reign. —Jordan Ligons

37. "And then Sick," Ne-Yo

Most heartbreaking line: "Gotta alter my answering machine, now that I'm alone / 'Cause right now it says that nosotros tin't come to the phone"

The earworm of a generation! Ne-Yo said no to sappy ballads in more ways than one with "So Ill," giving us an R&B smash hit for everyone sick of regular, schmegular love songs. Set to the world'southward catchiest beat, Ne-Yo mourns a past relationship and all the day-to-day changes that come with moving on. "Gotta change my answering automobile, at present that I'chiliad alone / 'Cause right now it says that we can't come up to the phone … Gotta fix that calendar I have that's marked July 15 / Because since there's no more than you, there'south no more than ceremony." Fifteen years later, we nonetheless can't turn off the radio. —Halliwell

36. "We Belong Together," Mariah Carey

Virtually heartbreaking line: "When you lot left I lost a part of me / It's still so hard to believe / Come back baby, please / 'Cause we belong together"

*Sighs.* This is easily the most played-out, sad breakup song of the early on 2000s. Everyone idea nigh someone who could've/should've been their soul mate when this dropped in 2005. But now if information technology comes on the radio and you're either happily single or in a solid relationship, your eyes volition glaze over, guaranteed. When the first ii seconds of the infamous trounce come through my speakers, I'm already changing the station. It's merely so annoying, and then Mariah.

You lot may think that you won't observe someone else to lean on when times get rough or someone to talk to you on the phone until the sun comes up, but let me tell you lot, you will and you'll exist fine. Breakups suck, just delight don't torture your cleaved middle (or your ears) by listening to this song on repeat. —Ligons

35. "If You Meet Her, Say Howdy," Bob Dylan

Most heartbreaking line: "Say for me that I'thou all right, though things get kind of slow / She might recollect that I've forgotten her, don't tell her it isn't so"

The inspiration for Bob Dylan's masterful Claret on the Tracks has e'er been debated. Critics have long assumed that the album is nearly Dylan's separation from his wife, Sara. The couple's son, Jakob, reportedly believes that Blood is about his parents. But Dylan himself has steadily denied that his masterpiece is autobiographical, fifty-fifty 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 thing. Claret strikes such a chord considering the heartache it mines feels at once deeply personal and universal.

That's almost palpable on "If You See Her, Say Hello," which brings us into a fractured relationship in a way that's both effortlessly relatable ("Nosotros had a falling out, like lovers often will") and hyper-specific ("And to think of how she left that nighttime, it still brings me a chill"). Information technology's non Dylan's flashiest or heaviest or best song, just information technology is my favorite, a gentle, intimate portrait of lost dear and lasting anguish. Similar so much of his best work, it'due south propelled by its poetry, the raw insights well-nigh 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, desire. It floats on a current of remorse ("Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past / I know every scene by center, they all went by so fast") yet manages to convey the kind of longing that leads, cautiously, dorsum toward promise ("If she's passing back this manner, I'm not that hard to find / Tell her she can look me up, if she's got the fourth dimension"). Subsequently enough listens, and enough heartache of your own, you lot realize that "If You lot Run into Her, Say How-do-you-do" isn't actually a breakup song. It'southward a dear letter. — Mallory Rubin

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Stand upward beside the fireplace / Take that look from off your face / 'Crusade you own't always gonna burn 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 Acrimony." I don't remember why, but it cemented this song (at least for me) every bit 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 Expect Back in Anger" became a kind of unofficial anthem after the Manchester bombing in 2017.) Oasis knows a matter or 2 about writing for the communal sing-along, the importance of the languid, memorable melody and the propulsive chord modify—this song would acquit about the same emotional weight if it were just a title and a chorus. —Baumann

33. "Every Breath You Accept," the Police

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

This spectacularly maudlin New Wave ballad, which anchored the Police force'southward 1983 goliath Synchronicity and reigned as i of the biggest radio hits of the decade, is creepy equally all hell, very much by design: an unrepentant stalker manifesto that doesn't so much draw spurned dear in terms of surveillance as it describes full state surveillance in terms of spurned love: "Every movement you make / Every vow you lot break / Every smile you fake / Every claim you pale." And then on. "I'll be watching you," Sting concludes a couple dozen times throughout, but information technology'south the breast-pounding bridge where the trio's creepy-soulful frontman does some of his best belting, his best pleading, his best super-creepy emoting and enunciating: "I experience so cold and I long for your em-caryatid." Fun fact: He started writing the vocal at Ian Fleming's writing desk-bound on the James Bond author's luxe Jamaican estate, which might not be creepy, but it'due south certainly weird. —Harvilla

32. "Don't Speak," No Dubiousness

Virtually heartbreaking line: "As we die, both y'all and I / With my head in my hands, I sit and cry"

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

No Incertitude'due south offset hit is a piece of 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 You," Frank Body of water

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

Sometimes yous have to lie to yourself to get through heartache. They weren't skilful enough for me. I can do ameliorate. I didn't beloved them, I just thought they were cute. Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You" exposes that kind of posturing for what it is: a facade. No, I wasn't crying almost you, and by the way, I also own waterfront belongings in Idaho. Frank'due south clearly still hung up on the past fifty-fifty if his old flame isn't. And the only way to work through the hurting is to drib the lying and come clean with himself. Information technology's tender, it's sweet, but most of all, it's honest. —Sayles

30. "I'one thousand Goin' Down," Mary J. Blige

Most heartbreaking lines: "Why'd you lot have to say adieu? / Wait what you've done to me / I tin can't terminate these tears from fallin' from my eyes"

No matter your electric current relationship condition, y'all will for certain sing your heart out when this vocal comes on. I do not care, I am Mary J. when the chorus hits. By the end of the song—a cover of Rose Royce's 1976 unmarried—yous've "gone down" so much that you're on the flooring, eyes closed, hoop earrings in, and belting, "My whole world'southward up-[dramatic break]-side down!" I can't be the only 1, right?

Likewise, remember when Tamera sang this vocal for the talent show on Sister, Sis? Iconic. —Ligons

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

About heartbreaking lines: "I could put my arms around every boy I come across / But they'd only remind me of you"

Breakups are freeing; breakups are imprisoning. When you come out of a yearslong relationship, you take to relearn how to live without that person in your life. Parts of that procedure are beautiful—reconnecting with onetime friends, picking up a new hobby, shaking off the shackles. Merely the breakup sticks with you lot. You run into your ex's best friend at the bar, or yous hear a song that you both loved. Sometimes, it'southward a minor annoyance. Other times, it'southward an earth-shattering result. You're relearning how to live, merely living is hard.

I can't think of a vocal that better captures that duality than "Aught Compares 2 U," the 1990 O'Connor hitting originally penned by Prince in 1985. Y'all can practice whatever you want: You lot can political party all night, you lot can swallow at a fancy eating house, you can put your arms around all the boys and girls you'd similar, but it doesn't matter. It's not them, and zero will be. Your best hope is just giving in and living for yourself. —Sayles

28. "Marvin'south Room," Drake

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

Drake is at his best when he'due south destructive because he masks the gaslighting with a softer sadness. "The woman that I would endeavor / Is happy with a good guy," he sings. Is he happy for her? The lines suggest that there'south at least a chance. Drake pauses, and so goes full Drizzy Deleterious: "Just I've been drinkin' so much / That I'ma call her anyway." He proceeds to tell her that the man she's with isn't adept enough to replace what they had. It's the classic overstep from an ex, simply the longer he goes on, we realize it'south more than about his pride and alien emotions well-nigh his life choices than it is most her. Drake spirals, telling her he'due south "had sexual activity four times this calendar week / I can 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'chiliad certain. At least there'due south a voicemail interlude. —Haley O'Shaughnessy

27. "Merely a Friend," Biz Markie

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

Turns out this woman did non have what Biz Markie needed. Equally he singsplains, he became kitten smitten with a woman at one of his shows. Yous'd think that this would accept happened to him all the time, but it did not. This was "the showtime girl I always talked to," Biz told EW last twelvemonth. "Every fourth dimension I would telephone call out to California, a dude would selection up and hand her the phone. I'd be like, 'Yo, what's up [with him]?' She'd say, 'Oh, he'due south 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, there was a guy "tongue-kissing my daughter in her oral fissure."

Biz. My guy. Sit downwardly. Allow'southward talk. First off, she was not your daughter. Yous met her one fourth dimension. Second, you did not take hold of her tongue-kissing a dude. You stalked her. Third, it was extremely obvious that this friend was not merely her friend. What Biz Markie needed was someone to heed to his story and give him honest feedback most his predicament. You know, a friend. —Danny Heifetz

26. "Fire," Usher

Most heartbreaking line: "Merely y'all know, gotta let it go / 'Cause the political party ain't jumpin' similar it used to / Even though this might bruise you / Allow it burn"

I couldn't imagine someone breaking up with me with the lyrics to this song. Usher is all over the place. He says he loves me, but our human relationship has to come up to an end; he says he's pain and he's not happy, only he'south breaking downwardly and crying. Deep downwardly he knows it's best, but he hates the thought of me beingness with someone else. Get your shit together, Usher!

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

25. "Slice of My Middle," Large Blood brother & the Holding Company

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

If you're ever at your wits' end, tragically obsessed with someone who treats you like shit, yous can find some catharsis in the controlled chaos of Janis Joplin'southward vocal performance on "Piece of My Center." Go ahead and scream along. Yous won't sound every bit adept as Janis, but yous'll certainly feel a hell of a lot better afterwards.

One time your anger fades a little, you lot tin switch over to the original recording of this song, released a year before in 1967 and sung by Erma Franklin (yeah, that's Aretha'due south older sis). Or if y'all need some more than twang accompanying your despair, yous can endeavour the Faith Hill version. I also won't judge yous if the only person who can ease your pain is Shaggy (or Beverley Knight, Melissa Etheridge, Steven Tyler, Kelly Clarkson, or 1 of countless other artists).

Written past Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, "Slice of My Middle" is one of the nigh 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 precipitous, primal weep. Undoubtedly, there volition be new versions of this song until the cease of time⁠—considering information technology's an absolute banger—but also because … men. —Matt James

24. "Skinny Dear," Bon Iver

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

A expert dominion for breakdown songs is that in that location has to be a part that y'all can yell along to, unencumbered by dizzy things similar constraint and self-sensation. The chorus of Bon Iver'southward "Skinny Love" has a great one, especially for anyone who's only exited a human relationship and feels compelled to heap all the blame on the other political party.

Y'all know the story by at present: In 2006, Justin Vernon bankrupt up with his girlfriend, packed upward his machine, and drove into the Wisconsin wilderness, emerging but subsequently recording an anthology of weepy breakup songs. That origin tale has been repeated so often that it'southward become soft mush, obscuring the real truth: That For Emma, Forever Agone—and peculiarly "Skinny Love"—are profoundly reflective, intelligent, moving documents about the breakdown of a human relationship. —Gruttadaro

23. "Agree Up," Beyoncé

Most heartbreaking line: "Can't you see there'southward no other homo in a higher place yous? / What a wicked fashion to care for the girl that loves you"

It'due south hard to express real hurt over an uptempo beat and make the heartbreak convincing. Yet Beyoncé is conceivable in "Hold Upward," a painful bookkeeping of the emotions that come up later discovering that your partner has cheated. Lemonade was inspired by truthful events—i.eastward., it'due south Beyoncé coming to terms with Jay-Z being unfaithful. Infidelity brings on a very specific type of devastation: You're mad; you're miserable; y'all're humiliated. You switch from one emotion to another in a matter of minutes. She opens the song with conviction: No other woman can give what she can. "Hold up, they don't love you like I beloved 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. "Y'all let this practiced love go to waste." —O'Shaughnessy

22. "Cry Me a River," Justin Timberlake

Nigh breaking lyric: "You didn't know all the means I loved you, no / Then you took a chance / And made other plans"

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

In his starting time solo megahit, Justin insinuates his love has cheated on him ("You don't have to say what you did / I already know, I found out from him") and writes her off for good. He'south already cried well-nigh it, and now information technology's her turn. But no amount of her tears can undo the harm; he'southward gone. You didn't have to do much sleuthing to figure out he was singing about Britney. That glory 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 on 2000s, catapulting him to another level of stardom. He had split with non merely Britney, but too his past, and he was ready for the world. —Sayles

21. "With or Without You," U2

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "She got me with nothing to win / And nil left to lose"

Zip changes if zilch changes, as they say, and "With or Without You lot" exists in that hopelessly recursive "I detest that I love you lot" infinite. This song was U2'southward showtime no. 1 hit in the U.S., fifty-fifty though, Bono has said, "it's a very odd-sounding vocal … it kind of whispers its style into the world." But it'due south non the whispers that resonate most, however, it's all those wails, like the crescendo of Bono's aching, eminently singalong-able ahhh-ahhh-ahh-ahhhhhs, or the painful, everlasting notes from the Edge'south "space guitar," engineered to concord a tone as if it were a grudge. "Psychotic restraint" is how Bono characterized the Edge'southward spare work on this track, a description that could double equally breakdown advice. —Katie Baker

20. "Jolene," Dolly Parton

Most heartbreaking line: "And I can easily empathise / How y'all could easily take my human being / Simply you don't know what he means to me, Jolene"

While other female person country singers might've handled their homo's newfound fascination with a cute redhead by, say, digging a fundamental into the side of his pretty little souped-upwardly four-cycle drive, or—simply spitballing hither—threatening to ship her to Fist City, Parton but pleads for mercy. The desperate pitch of her appeal, prepare against a frantic Dorian-fashion guitar riff, sets the stakes far higher than those yous might find in generally stern country songs well-nigh cheatin', lyin', and beingness untrue. Any armchair scholar of Parton's work can tell you she cloaks feminist manifestos within marketable diddies virtually everyday experiences. I've e'er taken the song's urgency to imply something that every woman learns eventually: Relationships can exist both romantically fulfilling, and, too oft, an economical lifeboat to a better life. In "Jolene," our narrator isn't simply grasping onto her human, she's grasping for survival. —Alyssa Bereznak

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Do you lot programme to permit me go / For the other guy you loved before?"

This song was first released by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1967. A yr subsequently Marvin Gaye released a slower version of it on his album In the Groove. Maybe the song resonated with Gaye because he married a 41-year-old woman when he was only 24, and their spousal relationship was total of infidelities. "I was in honey with the idea of love," Gaye once said. Or at to the lowest degree that's what I heard through the grapevine. —Heifetz

18. "Ex-Factor," Lauryn Hill

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

"Ex-Factor" is more than a breakup vocal, information technology's about recognizing a toxic relationship earlier you have the words to call it a toxic relationship. Each line, so honest it hurts, is about the fruitless search for reason in a scenario devoid of information technology. Hill's lyrics capture the worst of the worst of a human relationship on the rocks: the hurting, the complicity, and the unwillingness to surrender on a love yous recall is still there, cached beneath the bullshit.

When it hit airwaves over again in 2022 on Drake's pandering yet irresistible "Nice for What," information technology was about like recognizing and reclaiming a past cocky—1 who might have cried along to the original. Now, every bit wiser, more Empowered™ listeners, nosotros heard the remixed, tricky hook devoid of its devastating verses and bopped our heads every bit Drake reminded united states of how short life is. Notwithstanding, no one can capture the raw, uncomfortable emotion that Lauryn originally did—and no one always will. —Johnson

17. "You're So Vain," Carly Simon

About heartbreaking line: "Well, you said that we fabricated such a pretty pair / And that you lot would never leave / Simply you gave away the things you loved / And i of them was me"

Far earlier Taylor Swift sent her fans on subtweet scavenger hunts, Carly Simon penned a ballsy kissoff that, thank you to its cocky-referential chorus, left the world wondering whom it was about and what they could've possibly done to acrimony her. More than than forty years of speculation afterwards, we at present know that the singer was describing the role player Warren Beatty. (She added in a recent, withering interview that, although the song describes three separate men, Beatty "thinks the whole affair is almost him.") Nosotros may never know what company he kept (cough: Mick Jagger?), only the lasting power of Simon's clear-eyed takedown stands as a plebiscite on the unchecked male ego, whether its contained in the body of a dashing actor or a moody fuckboy. —Bereznak

xvi. "Dancing on My Own," Robyn

Most heartbreaking line: "Yeah, I know it'due south stupid, I just gotta see information technology for myself"

Last year, following a Robyn prove at Madison Square Garden, elated concertgoers continued the party on the A/C/E railroad train subway platform, breaking into a dizzy public functioning of "Dancing on My Own." You wouldn't typically expect a breakdown song to be the ane that leads New Yorkers to such displays of collective joy, but most breakdown songs aren't similar this one: a song you can strut to, a club anthem, a scene-stealer, a story of lonesomeness that still finds its solace in a crowd. It'due south a vocal nearly moving on—I only came to say goodbye—but also about, just, moving. The singer might be solitary in the corner, and she might know it'south stupid, only she's out there dancing, at least. —Baker

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 determination to be done with suffering over a relationship, to recommit to oneself, to focus on healing and establishing new patterns. To not just rehearse by losses simply to envision hereafter victories, and also to live in the moment, to be here now.

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

fourteen. "Cease of the Road," Boyz Ii Men

Almost heartbreaking line: "It's unnatural"

Both the joyous genesis and abject death knell for billions of '90s inferior-high-gymnasium-dance relationships that only lasted the length of the song itself, "End of the Road," which rose to power on 1992's Boomerang soundtrack, is one of the biggest hits in pop-music history. Like, "13 directly weeks atop the Hot 100" big. Like, "The 'Sometime Town Road' of Its Twenty-four hours" big, a tearjerking shout-along anthem for lovelorn belters too devastated to even take their horses and leave the business firm. The final a capella chorus is a signature moment in American cultural history, at one time exhilarating and devastating: "It'due south unnatural / You belong to me / I vest to you." The word unnatural has never sounded so natural, then miserable. —Harvilla

thirteen. "Dreams," Fleetwood Mac

About heartbreaking line: "Now here you get again, you say y'all desire your freedom / Well, who am I to continue you downward?"

Even 40-plus years on, to hear Stevie Nicks softly moaning, "What you had ... and what you lost / And what you had ... and what you lot lost" to the guy playing guitar is to live forever, and to imagine that guitar role player dropping expressionless from remorse on the spot. (Lindsey Buckingham, of course, has been known to chugalug out a sweetly caustic breakdown canticle or two himself.) As the second (and all-time!) track on 1977'south zillions-selling Rumours, "Dreams" is both radically overexposed and still somehow criminally underrated, fixed to its iconic identify, time, and circumstances but as well shockingly timeless. (Zoë Kravitz rhapsodizes it in the pilot of Hulu'south new High Fidelity remake series to prove her rock-nerd bona fides.) Pair it with "Silverish Springs" for maximum effect. —Harvilla

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Let me alive again"

There's heartbreak, so there's Al Green heartbreak. (Not to slight the original Bee Gees version—Green is all I know when I'm going through information technology.) He'south exasperated from the beginning, wondering whether he'll e'er recover from the love that went abroad. The agony is enough to contemplate nature itself in the chorus: "How tin can you mend a broken heart? / How tin you stop the rain from falling downward? / How can yous cease the sun from shining? / What makes the world go circular?" Green is begging for answers, for "somebody, delight" to come fix him. He pleads, "Let me live once more." Life as he knew it is over without this person, and as long as the song is on, it feels over for u.s., as well. —O'Shaughnessy

eleven. "Torn," Natalie Imbruglia

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

In that location's a bad breakdown, there's stone lesser, and and so there'south existence "cold and shamed, lying naked on the floor." Natalie Imbruglia's 1997 1-hit wonder (and sneaky comprehend) doesn't mince words in describing exactly how shitty it feels to put your faith in the wrong man. (Or whatever man, depending on how difficult you vibe with this song.) "Torn" has taken a turn for the over-covered and over-memed these days, but you lot're lying if y'all say you don't yet hit that chorus every fourth dimension. —Halliwell

ten. "I Will Survive," Gloria Gaynor

Most heartbreaking line: "And and so you felt like dropping in and simply expect me to be gratis / Well now I'm saving all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me"

This 1978 disco colossus is so singular, so monolithic, so wedding-dancefloor-ingrained that it hardly scans as a breakdown vocal at all: Equally ecstatic and empowering fuck-you anthems go, information technology is the glamorous grandmother to Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" and Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Side by side" and Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" and roughly 50,000 other self-affirming pop hits. What truly elevates New Bailiwick of 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 can chronicle in any way, frivolously or otherwise, to the bluntly iconic line "I'one thousand saving all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me," which of form is everybody. She knows you're afraid; she knows you lot're petrified. Just she also knows you won't stay that way for long. —Harvilla

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

Nearly heartbreaking line: "Wonder this time where she's gone / Wonder if she's gone to stay"

To make a song from 1971 most a video game from 2010: Dante'due south Inferno is an RPG based loosely on the showtime canticle of the Divine Comedy. I say loosely because EA Dante has rippling muscles and a massive scythe, his only protections against the legions of the night, who've stolen his honey Beatrice. I never played information technology, only a friend who did described his frustration with the game: Information technology's as if its decision got further away the more than fourth dimension he devoted to it. A Super Bowl commercial showed Dante sprinting toward Hell's gaping mouth determined but, you know, definitely doomed. As he descends yous hear the depression croak of Nib Withers's vocalism, pining after a lost lover: "Own't no sunshine when she's gone, merely darkness everyday." My last breakup didn't involve a giant flaming devil monster, but it did experience like a similarly hopeless uphill boxing. —Peters

viii. "Someone Like You," Adele

Near heartbreaking line: "Sometimes it lasts in love, merely sometimes it hurts instead"

The queen of heartbreak has never been better than on sophomore album 21, and 21 doesn't get much better than "Someone Similar You lot." Adele's ode to the one who got away is possibly the well-nigh universally adored tearjerker of the past decade; starting with that simple pianoforte line and ending in that crushing claw: "Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead." And of course, that voice! Watching the simple blackness and white music video now, information technology'due south striking how baby-faced Adele was at 21, despite her commitment of a vocal that displays so much emotional maturity. She wishes the best for her ex ("Old friend, why are you so shy?"), but damn, she'southward nonetheless hurting. Aren't we all! —Halliwell

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

Most heartbreaking lyrics: "Someone picked you from the agglomeration, one glance was all it took / Now information technology's much also late for me to take a second look"

Mayhap the virtually outwardly joyous song in this entire ranking, "I Desire You Back" spins a tale that anyone who's ever taken someone for granted will empathise. An 11-year-sometime Michael Jackson is at his most precocious here, singing almost the girl whom he didn't fully capeesh until someone else stole her heart. At present he simply wants another gamble to prove that he knows how to treat her correct. Michael, of form, didn't write the song—information technology was penned past Berry Gordy and Co.—just he sells it in a way that someone ii or three times his historic period never could. A leopard can't change its spots, but if information technology sounds this adept trying to convince yous information technology tin can, why not requite it one more chance? —Sayles

6. "Since U Been Gone," Kelly Clarkson

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

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

five. "Ms. Jackson," Outkast

Nigh heartbreaking lyric: "Forever never seems that long until you're grown / And notice that the day-past-solar day ruler tin't exist likewise wrong"

Sometimes breaking up with your pregnant other'southward family is just equally hard every bit breaking up with them. Big Boi and André 3000 understood that on "Ms. Jackson," a vocal dedicated to Kolleen Maria Wright, the female parent of Erykah Badu, with whom André had a child. Iii Stacks'southward verse is specially poignant—his intentions were adept, but things took a turn for the worse. It's a harsh reality: Most relationships are born with an expiration date, no matter how bright the flame burned at the beginning. Equally far as apology songs go, information technology's pretty nuanced and sincere. And Wright seems to have bought it: Erykah said in 2022 that her mother even has a "MSJACKSON" license plate. —Sayles

4. "I Will Ever Love You," Whitney Houston

Most heartbreaking line: "Delight don't cry / We both know I'm not what you, you demand"

Dolly Parton wrote one of the most dynamic love songs ever with "I Will Ever Love You lot." Whitney Houston, who sang a comprehend for the film The Bodyguard, made a worldwide hitting with her astounding range. Both versions are wonderful for different reasons, though Parton's honeyed, wobbly original is best for heartbreak. For one, it'southward accurate: She wrote the vocal for her former manager and professional partner, Porter Wagoner, afterward she decided to go out him. Parton is sympathetic, yet adamant to go. Every bit she sings in the bridge, it'due south bittersweet. They are both better off this style, she argues, only wishes him nothing merely "joy and happiness." Ane of the hardest human relationship lessons is that 2 people can beloved each other and it nonetheless not be correct for either—thank you to Dolly and Whitney, it was one learned early on. —O'Shaughnessy

three. "I Can't Make You Dearest Me," Bonnie Raitt

Most heartbreaking line: "I'll shut my eyes / Then I won't encounter / The love you don't feel when yous're holding me"

You might exist a girlfriend, a husband, a partner, or even a friend with benefits. Whatever function you play in service of love, it comes with a characterization 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 honey lives is that dearest itself tin can be a ruthlessly nonbinding understanding, an at-volition arrangement. Fifty-fifty more frightening is that it's often our hearts—not the states—calling the shots.

What sets "I Can't Make Yous Love Me" apart from most breakup songs is that it takes identify at the almost painful point of a breakup: acceptance. It's non a post-breakup anthem of empowerment or a desperate plea to stay together. It's the full forcefulness of the disorienting 1-two punch of loss and loneliness. It's the world-shattering moment when you surrender the fight.

Bonnie Raitt'due south arresting performance of this vocal (written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin) carries the weight of a lifetime in and out of dearest. She sets down her slide guitar, sits Bruce Hornsby down at the piano, and sings the absolute fuck out of this song with confidence and grace. The song used on the Luck of the Draw album recording was Bonnie's first take. "I Tin can't Make Y'all Love 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 u.s. most deeply are the ones that unite us through the well-nigh human of shared experiences. Somewhen, we all learn that you tin't brand someone's heart feel "something it won't." But should you one mean solar day detect yourself at rock bottom, suddenly lone in darkness—whether it'south your first time or your 14th—you can feel a piddling flake less alone knowing that Bonnie's been at that place, too. —James

ii. "Yous Oughta Know," Alanis Morissette

Most heartbreaking line: "Does she know how you told me you lot'd concord me until you died, till you died / Just you're still alive"

Alanis Morrisette was 19 years one-time when she recorded that ballad of bitterness "You Oughta Know" in one take at 11 p.yard. "All those vocals are just her at the end of the night," said her cowriter Glen Ballard in an oral history of the album Jagged Trivial Pill, "singing something she but wrote." The effect 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 perhaps inspired by Uncle Joey remains both iconic and securely weird, just too makes sick sense: You oasis't truly been jilted until you've been jilted by someone who'southward not even that cool, yous know?) "You Oughta Know" totally scandalized my mom every fourth dimension it came on the radio in the '90s, and what's more, it features both Flea on bass and Dave Navarro on the guitar. What more could you lot desire—other than sweet, sweet vengeance? —Bakery

one. "Royal Pelting," Prince

Near heartbreaking line: "I never meant to cause you whatever sorrow / I never meant to cause yous any hurting"

Royal rain, co-ordinate to an unsourced quote that's widely attributed to Prince Rogers Nelson, is the result of claret mixing with the sky, which is a sort of apocalyptic drama that only Prince could conjure. But y'all don't even need to empathise what purple pelting is to feel "Royal Pelting," a power carol to finish all power ballads.

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

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