Getting over a difficult breakup? Here is a list of ultimate breakup songs to get you through the hard times.
* I am, by no means, your typical classic rock kind of girl. However, whenever I hear that raspy voice at the beginning of Nazareth's "Love Hurts," I actually cringe inside thinking of past breakups. The lyrics are enough to tear anybody apart and make hard cynics out of true romantics: "Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and mars...I know it isn't true, I know it isn't true. Love is just a lie made to make you blue."
* I don't want to pick favorites in this list, but Blur's "No Distance Left to Run" is the perfect combination of defeat, acceptance and moving on: "I won't kill myself trying to stay in your life...When you see me, please, turn your back and walk away." This is a song about somebody who understands the relationship went sour and who actually wishes a good life for his ex, so if you and your ex ended on an amicable note, this may be the song for you.
* R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" is one of those songs that makes you realize that you are not the only person in the world to feel pain. Sure, the breakup may still be fresh in your mind, but this song will make you feel like life does go on and the pain is temporary.
* What ultimate breakup song list would be complete without one song from the band Chicago? I can almost guarantee you when I hear any of their songs on the radio, I get tears in my eyes. They're just that kind of band. Their hit "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" is a great breakup song with promising lyrics like, "I just want you to stay...After all that we've been through, I will make it up to you. I promise to." If there is a glimmer of hope for a reconciliation in your past relationship, listen to this song for inspiration.
* Ever wonder what it would be like if everything was different, if maybe you had made different choices in the course of your relationship?Coldplay's "The Scientist" is one of those songs that begs for a chance to rewind to the start of a relationship and start over: "It's such a shame for us to part...No one ever said it would be this hard. Aw, take me back to the start."
* I have to admit I always get a bit nostalgic when hearing Naked Eyes' "Always Something There to Remind Me." I remember hearing this song in middle school and not really getting the true sentiment of the song until I got to high school and had my first love gone bad episode.
* "Did I disappoint you? Leave a bad taste in your mouth?" With lyrics like these from U2's hit "One," you know this has to make most everybody's list of ultimate breakup songs. It is hard enough trying to resist Bono's voice in his other songs, but this song can be almost overwhelmingly sad at times, so listen to it in moderation during a bad breakup.
* Again, it would be almost sacrilegious to create a list of this kind without paying tribute to a band notorious for breakup songs: The Cure. "Boys Don't' Cry" is one of those songs that takes unrequited love to a whole new level. "I would tell you that I loved you, if I thought that you would stay. But I know that it's no use, that you've already gone away."
* For its abundant use of the word "cry," Roy Orbison's hit "Crying" is a shoe-in for the ultimate breakup song list. "You couldn't tell that I've been crying over you...left me standing all alone." Just thinking about it sends me crying...crying...crying.
