14Mike & The Mechanics - The Living Years
Did you know?
In an interview with the band, Mike Rutherford--frontman for Mike & The Mechanics and a founding member of Genesis--said:The lyrics were written by B.A. Robertson and the song is about something he went through. He lost his Dad and it's about the lack of communication between him and his father before he died. There's also the irony of him having a baby just after losing his father.The song was written after Robertson's father died, 12 weeks before the birth of his own son.
Moment you'll tear up:
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye
13Sam Smith - Stay With Me
Did you know?
Stay With Me was written in a mere half hour. Sam Smith was in a studio with William Phillips and Jimmy Napes who were experimenting with chords on the piano and simple drum patterns. Sam began layering his own voice samples until it all began to sound like a choir. Parts of that demo wound up on the final recording.
Moment you'll tear up:
And deep down I know this never works
But you can lay with me so it doesn't hurt
12Sarah McLachlan - Hold On
Did you know?
Sarah McLachlan introduced Hold On with this explaination at VH1 Storytellers:This is a song, basically um, another one of those few and rare occasions where a song came out very quickly and easily. It was from pure emotion. Um, I watching a, a documentary called a 'Promise Kept' it was made in Canada. It was about this woman who uh, discovered her fiance was HIV positive and basically the story followed her and her husband. They got married, um, and he got progressively sicker and she took care of him right up until the end, and she was telling her story with just such, y'know, beautiful clarity and honesty and uh, it just, it struck home in a way that I, I couldn't really describe except by writing this song and I really feel like it's a, sort of a, something that came out of me through her. This is called 'Hold On.'
Moment you'll tear up:
Oh God, if you’re out there won’t you hear me
I know that we’ve never talked before
Oh God, the man I love is leaving
Won’t you take him when he comes to your door
11Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia
Did you know?
The song was written and performed by Springsteen for the first mainstream film on HIV/AIDS, in 1993. The film, Philadelphia, was inspired in part by the story of Geoffrey Bowers, an attorney who sued the law firm Baker & McKenzie for wrongful dismissal in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases, in 1987.
Moment you'll tear up:
I saw my reflection in a window I didn't know
My own face
Oh brother are you gonna leave me
Wastin´away
On the streets of Philadelphia
10A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera - Say Something
Did you know?When Say Something was originally released, the song went completely unnoticed. It was part of Ian Axel’s solo effort, This Is The New Year and featured Jenny Owen Youngs as the vocalist. During an episode of So You Think You Can Dance in 2013, eventual winner Amy Yakima used the song during her performance. The song blew up and a mere two months later, Christina Aguilera found herself in the studio rerecording the lyrics and transforming the song into the version we all know today.
Moment you'll tear up:
And I will swallow my pride
You're the one that I love
And I'm saying goodbye
9Fastball - The Way
Did you know?
Upon first listen, The Way sounds like a happy track. This song was inspired by a news article about Lela and Raymond Howard, an elderly couple who had disappeared in Texas. The couple was on their way to a family reunion when they disappeared. The band imagined that the couple had begun reminiscing and decided to take off on their own romantic trip; however, the true story wasn't quite as romantic. Lela had Alzheimer's, and Raymond was recovering from brain surgery. They veered off the road in their Oldsmobile 88 and were found dead at the bottom of a canyon.
Moment you'll tear up:
They'll never get hungry
They'll never get old and gray
8Chocolate Genius, Inc. - My Mom
Did you know?
In this song, Marc Anthony Thompson returns to the house where he grew up, to his childhood, and then tells the heartbreaking tale of his mother's Alzheimer condition.
Moment you'll tear up:
Hold on to both of her hands too afraid to let her go
And five times exactly no more or no less
She says 'how you been eating boy' Is a, okay I guess
In this room where she made me each day she grows weak
She flips on the Golden Girls and the first tear hits my cheek