I Want You Both to Know Im Not Giving It Up

What makes a song a "breakup song"? Does information technology have to be empowering, à la "I Volition Survive" or almost of the songs on Lemonade? Should it be for the solitary, like Carole King'southward "It'south Too Late" or Bob Dylan's "If You Run into Her, Say Hello"? Does it have to address the breakdown 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, like "Cry Me a River" or any rails off of Rumours?

We here at The Ringer believe that since heartache comes in many forms, and so should the breakdown song. And in laurels of Valentine'south Day, we decided to dig deep into the genre. Below, you'll observe our ranking of the 50 greatest breakup songs of all time, every bit voted on by our staff. The listing spans several decades and many unlike moods, but all are rooted in some blazon of pain. There was only one rule for the last ranking: only ane vocal per artist was included to avoid Dolly Parton or even Drake from dominating.

So if you're lonely, fire up our playlist and cry forth as you lot read our thoughts on each entrant. If you're happily attached, y'all tin can still swoop in—these are some of the greatest songs e'er recorded, and that'due south truthful whether you're in your feelings or non. Maybe you'll gain a greater appreciation for your current relationship. After all, breakup songs resonate only when you know what it's like to lose in love. —Justin Sayles

fifty. "We Are Never Ever Getting Dorsum Together," Taylor Swift

Most heartbreaking line: "Yous would hide abroad and discover your peace of mind / With some indie record that'southward and then much libation than mine"

One of the most barbarous breakup songs in history, "We Are Never Ever Getting Dorsum Together" encapsulates the severe "fuck that guy!" free energy that follows a long-overdue parting of ways. Nosotros've all had that post-fight rant with our friends: "Ugh … so he calls me up and he's similar, 'I even so love you lot,' and I'm like … 'I just … I mean this is exhausting, yous know, like, we are never getting back together. Like, ever.'" Flippant, triumphant, and entirely wearied by All Men, Taylor Swift gave u.s.a. the perfect soundtrack for breakup recovery. — Kate Halliwell

49. "I Miss You lot," Blink-182

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

"I Miss Y'all" is like a minimalist/emo take on Meat Loaf. It rules. The two best things about this number are Travis Barker's elementary but persistent drumbeat and Tom DeLonge'due south entrance on the second verse. It's office of the one thousand pop punk tradition of showing you mean business by going upwards an octave, of which "I Miss You" (along with the Starting Line's "The Best of Me") is the exemplar.

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

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

Most heartbreaking line: "But we just can't stay together, don't you feel it, besides? / Still I'g glad for what nosotros had and how I in one case loved you"

"It's Too Late" is a crushing ode to the most mutual kind of breakup. The natural process of 2 people growing autonomously is every bit heartbreaking as information technology is commonplace, and King sings in a tone perfectly situated between her sorrow and the shrugging admission that "nosotros actually did attempt to get in." Her conversational delivery early in the song brings usa into the living room, diner, or sidewalk where "the talk" between her and her almost-to-be-ex is happening: "1 of us is changing, or maybe nosotros just stopped trying," she sings, plainly laying out the central, blameless reasons for why well-nigh people end up separating. The song is defined past its maturity and its conciliatory attitude, merely equally with actual breakup conversations, that doesn't make information technology whatsoever easier to hear. —Cory McConnell

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

Nigh heartbreaking line: "I can't forget the day you left / Time is so unkind"

This is a perfect case of the kind of breakup song you hear on the radio (or, in the late '90s, perhaps the order—the Frankie Duke house remix even so goes) and, on a normal day, just hear another popular song, just when you lot're experiencing heartache, what originally sounded similar songwriting clichés go the truest words you've ever heard. "I accept cried a lot of nights," yous think, getting out of bed for the first fourth dimension in days to take hold of a roll of toilet paper since y'all ran out of Kleenex. "Life is fell without you here beside me," you murmur, staring into the bleak chasm of loneliness you now know every bit life. "I would literally practise anything on God's light-green world to hear you say you beloved me once more," y'all realize with the greatest clarity you've ever experienced. Anyway, where are my altos at? This is our karaoke song. — Kjerstin Johnson

46. "Mr. Brightside," the Killers

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

Perhaps it's non exactly right to call "Mr. Brightside" a breakdown song; maybe it'southward more than authentic to telephone call it a right-earlier-the-breakup song, an I-imagined-my-girlfriend-was-cheating-on-me-then-intensely-that-she-actually-started-cheating-on-me vocal. Simply that's all really clunky, so let'due south accept beingness slightly incorrect for the sake of cleanliness. Either way, "Mr. Brightside" is an iconic mid-aughts song that'southward perfect for yell-karaoking and that pulls off the difficult trick of simply repeating one verse over and over. Also, Eric Roberts in the video. —Andrew Gruttadaro

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Go upwards in the morning, wait in the mirror / One 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 here, with the breakout hit from their 2d anthology, 1973'due south oddly/heartbreakingly named Abandoned Luncheonette. "She'due south Gone" is luscious and silky and deceptively light, all Motown grandeur by style of blue-eyed Philly soul, only that lightness simply underscores the exquisite heaviness of murmured verse lines like "Get upwards in the morning time, wait in the mirror / Worn as the toothbrush hanging in the stand." (Or probably it'southward "One less toothbrush," which of course is even heavier.) The chorus, past 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 hither, but they certainly never got sadder. —Rob Harvilla

44. "Tyrone," Erykah Badu

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

The second-all-time moment on this viciously sultry slow jam, the crown jewel of Erykah Badu's 1997 album Live, is the stupendous opening line: "I'k gettin' tired of your shit / You don't e'er buy me nothin'." The showtime-best moment is all the women in the crowd immediately shrieking with delight and, one fears, recognition. "Tyrone" is named for one of an unnamed deadbeat lover's numerous deadbeat friends: "Every fourth dimension we get somewhere," Badu purrs with lethal authorization, "I gotta reach down in my bag / To pay your style and your homeboy's way and sometimes your cousin'southward mode." It is the gender-flipped riposte to Friday'due south "Farewell, Felicia," and in fact turned up as a joke in 2000's Next Friday; information technology "followed me thru my career like an obsessed X boyfriend," equally Badu put it on Instagram in 2017, while shouting out her backup singers, whose sardonic and sublime "Phone call him!" dirge is the third-best moment. —Harvilla

43. "Honey Is a Battlefield," Pat Benatar

Most heartbreaking line: "Exercise I stand in your style / Or am I the best thing yous've had?"

The agonizingly propulsive signature striking from flamethrower-voiced '80s pop queen Pat Benatar laments not so much a breakdown every bit a virtually-breakdown in progress, an acknowledgement that true love ways almost breaking up pretty much all the fourth dimension: "Believe me / Believe me / I can't tell you lot why / But I'1000 trapped by your honey / And I'm chained to your side." It's a karaoke archetype y'all have no business attempting, a cheeseball Reagan-era smash of eternal profundity, and a striking declaration that sometimes the only affair worse than splitting upwardly is non splitting upwardly: "Do I stand in your way / Or am I the all-time affair you've had?" she wails with genuine desperation, and the respond, of course, is both. —Harvilla

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

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

We're not even talking most the whole song—we're talking about 20 or so seconds of Bink production after Kanye'due south 2d poesy, simply before Rick Ross's only poetry, arguably one of the best in his career. In it, he describes Westward's almost-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 upwards the Lord's ladder, a departure from Globe, a 1-way trip to anywhere but here. —Micah Peters

41. "Suspicious Minds," Elvis Presley

Most heartbreaking line: "Nosotros tin't get on together / With suspicious minds / And we tin't build our dreams / On suspicious minds"

You tin see the ripples of "Suspicious Minds" throughout the course of breakup song history, from "Train in Vain" to "Dancing on My Own," which, you know, it's Elvis. But beyond the juxtaposition of its relatively upbeat music and depressing-as-hell lyrics, I dear the construction of this song, with a peppy guitar intro and verses that build into a chorus that goes from M major to very, very East minor and just doesn't ever actually resolve. This might not be the only reason the song fades out simply there's no real suitable ending point for the last notes of the chorus, and then information technology always drops back into a verse or a bridge or another chorus. "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" resolves more easily. Just like a broken relationship. —Baumann

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

Most heartbreaking lines: "Although she may be cute, she'southward just a substitute / Because you're the permanent one"

On this archetype Motown tearjerker, Smokey embodies the idea of the sad clown better than any song ever has. He's the life of the party—using jokes like a clown uses makeup—simply within, he'southward wounded, pining for a past lover. He's dating someone new, but he's non thinking of her. (Side annotation: I don't know who I'one thousand sadder for here, Smokey or the rebound he'due south walking effectually town with.) He may have wiped away the tears, but they've left their marker. And the makeup only makes the tear tracks that much more than apparent. —Justin Sayles

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

Nigh heartbreaking line: "And so this is inevitable withdrawal / Even if I terminate wanting you / And perspective pushes through / I'll exist some side by side human being'due south other woman presently"

On "Tears Dry out on Their Own," Amy Winehouse demanded that Amy Winehouse take her own advice. "I cannot play myself again, I should simply 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 as a writer—"Tears" begins in the dumps, in the aftermath. But during every emotional uncoupling comes the betoken where you gaze into the mirror, stick your finger in your reflection'due south breast, and tell them to stop being such a impaired, whiny baby. —Peters

38. "Needed Me," Rihanna

Well-nigh heartbreaking lines: "Fuck your white horse and a carriage / Bet you never could imagine / Never told yous you could have it / You needed me"

This song is so petty and I honey it. Rihanna basically made a hit off the "Sike, y'all thought!" meme and DJ Mustard added an unforgettable beat backside it. This is one of those bangers that you and your girls blast mail-breakdown, pre-going-out. Then, afterward y'all all sing in unison: "Don't get it twisted / You was merely some other nigga on the hit list / Tryna gear up your inner issues with a bad bitch," you all burst into laughter thinking about the man who is now barely a memory. Rihanna'due south confidence and savageness is actually on an untouchable level. (Remember, this vocal is on the same album where she sings "sex with me is so amazing" over and over.) Long may she reign. —Jordan Ligons

37. "And so Sick," Ne-Yo

Most heartbreaking line: "Gotta alter my answering machine, now that I'chiliad lonely / 'Cause right now information technology says that we can't come up to the phone"

The earworm of a generation! Ne-Yo said no to sappy ballads in more means than one with "And so Sick," giving us an R&B smash hit for everyone ill of regular, schmegular love songs. Set to the world's catchiest beat, Ne-Yo mourns a past relationship and all the twenty-four hour period-to-day changes that come with moving on. "Gotta change my answering machine, at present that I'm alone / 'Crusade correct now it says that we tin can't come to the phone … Gotta fix that calendar I have that's marked July 15 / Because since there'southward no more you, there's no more anniversary." Fifteen years subsequently, we yet can't turn off the radio. —Halliwell

36. "We Belong Together," Mariah Carey

Most heartbreaking line: "When you left I lost a function of me / It'south nonetheless and then hard to believe / Come dorsum baby, delight / 'Crusade we belong together"

*Sighs.* This is easily the most played-out, sad breakup vocal of the early 2000s. Everyone thought about someone who could've/should've been their soul mate when this dropped in 2005. But now if it comes on the radio and y'all're either happily unmarried or in a solid relationship, your optics volition glaze over, guaranteed. When the first two seconds of the infamous crush come through my speakers, I'm already changing the station. It's just and so annoying, and so Mariah.

You may think that you won't find someone else to lean on when times get crude or someone to talk to you on the phone until the dominicus comes up, but allow me tell you, you will and you'll be fine. Breakups suck, but delight don't torture your cleaved eye (or your ears) by listening to this song on repeat. —Ligons

35. "If Yous See Her, Say Hello," Bob Dylan

Most heartbreaking line: "Say for me that I'm all right, though things get kind of ho-hum / She might call back that I've forgotten her, don't tell her it isn't and then"

The inspiration for Bob Dylan's masterful Blood on the Tracks has always been debated. Critics take long assumed that the album is about Dylan'southward separation from his wife, Sara. The couple's son, Jakob, reportedly believes that Claret is about his parents. But Dylan himself has steadily denied that his masterpiece is autobiographical, even saying instead that it'southward based on … Chekhov'south 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, information technology doesn't matter. Blood strikes such a chord because the heartache information technology mines feels at one time securely personal and universal.

That'south most palpable on "If Y'all See Her, Say Howdy," which brings us into a fractured human relationship in a mode that's both effortlessly relatable ("We had a falling out, like lovers often will") and hyper-specific ("And to think of how she left that night, it still brings me a arctic"). It's not Dylan's flashiest or heaviest or all-time song, but it is my favorite, a gentle, intimate portrait of lost dear and lasting anguish. Like so much of his all-time piece of work, it's propelled by its poetry, the raw insights well-nigh how information technology feels to exist alive. The vocal cycles through the same phases that so many of us do while processing heartbreak: denial, despair, anger, desire. It floats on a current of remorse ("Sundown, xanthous moon, I replay the past / I know every scene by heart, they all went past and so fast") yet manages to convey the kind of longing that leads, cautiously, dorsum toward promise ("If she'south passing dorsum this style, I'm non that difficult to find / Tell her she can look me upwardly, if she's got the fourth dimension"). Later plenty listens, and enough heartache of your ain, you realize that "If Yous Run into Her, Say Hello" isn't really a breakup song. It's a love letter. — Mallory Rubin

34. "Don't Look Dorsum in Anger," Oasis

Almost heartbreaking line: "Stand up beside the fireplace / Accept that look from off your face up / 'Cause you ain't ever gonna burn my centre out"

The closest I've ever come to living in an episode of Glee was when my loftier school French class spontaneously broke out singing "Don't Await Back in Anger." I don't recollect why, merely it cemented this song (at to the lowest degree for me) as a carol of communal weltschmerz, rather than personal sadness or regret, similar a fin-de-siècle "You lot'll Never Walk Alone." (For case: "Don't Await Back in Anger" became a kind of unofficial anthem later the Manchester bombing in 2017.) Oasis knows a thing or ii about writing for the communal sing-forth, the importance of the languid, memorable melody and the propulsive chord change—this song would carry nigh the same emotional weight if it were just a title and a chorus. —Baumann

33. "Every Breath You Have," the Law

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "Since you've gone I've been lost without a trace / I dream at night, I can only see your face"

This spectacularly maudlin New Wave ballad, which anchored the Police's 1983 goliath Synchronicity and reigned as one of the biggest radio hits of the decade, is creepy as all hell, very much by pattern: an unrepentant stalker manifesto that doesn't so much describe spurned love in terms of surveillance as information technology describes total state surveillance in terms of spurned love: "Every movement you brand / Every vow you break / Every grinning you fake / Every claim you stake." And so on. "I'll be watching you," Sting concludes a couple dozen times throughout, just it'southward the breast-pounding bridge where the trio'south creepy-soulful frontman does some of his best belting, his best pleading, his all-time super-creepy emoting and enunciating: "I feel and so cold and I long for your em-caryatid." Fun fact: He started writing the song at Ian Fleming'southward writing desk on the James Bond writer's luxe Jamaican estate, which might not be creepy, merely it's certainly weird. —Harvilla

32. "Don't Speak," No Doubt

Most heartbreaking line: "As we die, both you and I / With my head in my easily, I sit and cry"

I hateful, 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 song about breaking up with the bass player in your band and then make a music video for the song that has shots in information technology similar the one beneath: Don't speak, literally.

No Doubt's start hit is a piece of work of fine art, full of raw, youthful emotion and complex arrangements. It's beautiful, cruel, painful, and incendiary, all at once. —Gruttadaro

31. "Thinkin Bout You lot," Frank Ocean

Near heartbreaking lines: "Do you not think and so far ahead? / 'Cause I been thinkin' bout forever"

Sometimes you have to prevarication to yourself to get through heartache. They weren't proficient plenty for me. I can practise meliorate. I didn't honey them, I just idea they were beautiful. Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You" exposes that kind of posturing for what information technology is: a facade. No, I wasn't crying almost you, and by the way, I also own waterfront property in Idaho. Frank's clearly notwithstanding hung up on the past even if his old flame isn't. And the merely mode to piece of work through the pain is to drop the lying and come up clean with himself. It'south tender, information technology's sweet, but most of all, it's honest. —Sayles

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

Most heartbreaking lines: "Why'd you have to say adieu? / Look what you've washed to me / I can't stop these tears from fallin' from my eyes"

No matter your current relationship status, you will for sure sing your heart out when this song comes on. I practice not care, I am Mary J. when the chorus hits. By the end of the song—a embrace of Rose Royce's 1976 single—you've "gone downwards" so much that you're on the floor, optics closed, hoop earrings in, and belting, "My whole world'south upward-[dramatic pause]-side downwardly!" I tin can't be the only one, right?

Besides, recall when Tamera sang this song for the talent evidence on Sister, Sis? Iconic. —Ligons

29. "Nothing Compares 2 U," Sinéad O'Connor

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

Breakups are freeing; breakups are imprisoning. When yous come up 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. But the breakup sticks with you. You run into your ex's best friend at the bar, or you lot hear a song that you both loved. Sometimes, it's a modest annoyance. Other times, information technology'south an world-shattering issue. You lot're relearning how to live, merely living is difficult.

I can't think of a vocal that amend captures that duality than "Nothing Compares ii U," the 1990 O'Connor hit originally penned by Prince in 1985. Yous can practice whatever you want: You can party all night, you lot can swallow at a fancy restaurant, you lot can put your arms around all the boys and girls you'd similar, but it doesn't thing. It's not them, and nothing volition be. Your best hope is but giving in and living for yourself. —Sayles

28. "Marvin's Room," Drake

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

Drake is at his best when he's destructive because he masks the gaslighting with a softer sadness. "The woman that I would try / Is happy with a good guy," he sings. Is he happy for her? The lines suggest that there's at to the lowest degree a take chances. Drake pauses, then goes full Drizzy Deleterious: "Merely I've been drinkin' then much / That I'ma call her anyhow." He proceeds to tell her that the human being she's with isn't good enough to replace what they had. It'south the classic overstep from an ex, but the longer he goes on, we realize it'south more about his pride and alien emotions about his life choices than it is about her. Drake spirals, telling her he'south "had sex iv times this week / I can explain," that he's sponsoring women, that he can't terminate partying and asking for naked pictures. Exactly what your ex-girlfriend wants to hear, I'thou certain. At least there's a voicemail interlude. —Haley O'Shaughnessy

27. "Just a Friend," Biz Markie

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

Turns out this woman did not accept what Biz Markie needed. Equally he singsplains, he became kitten smitten with a woman at one of his shows. You lot'd think that this would have happened to him all the time, simply it did not. This was "the first girl I e'er talked to," Biz told EW last year. "Every time I would call out to California, a dude would choice upwardly and hand her the phone. I'd be like, 'Yo, what's up [with him]?' She'd say, 'Oh, he's only a friend. He's nobody.'" Non taking the hint, Biz flew out to California to surprise her a week earlier than planned. When he showed up, at that place was a guy "tongue-kissing my girl in her oral fissure."

Biz. My guy. Sit down downward. Let's talk. First off, she was not your daughter. You met her once. Second, yous did not grab her tongue-kissing a dude. You stalked her. Tertiary, it was extremely obvious that this friend was not just her friend. What Biz Markie needed was someone to listen to his story and give him honest feedback about his predicament. You know, a friend. —Danny Heifetz

26. "Burn," Usher

Most heartbreaking line: "Just you know, gotta let it go / 'Cause the party own't jumpin' like it used to / Even though this might trample yous / Let it burn down"

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, simply our relationship has to come to an end; he says he's hurting and he'due south non happy, just he's breaking downwardly and crying. Deep down he knows it's best, but he hates the thought of me being with someone else. Get your shit together, Usher!

Yet, for all of its confusing back-and-forth, this is a breakup classic. It preaches the ideology of forcing yourself to let go even when you don't know what you're going to practise without your boo. Afterward a heartbreak, everyone has plant themselves teetering on the line betwixt regret and freedom. Conductor's "Burn" allows you lot to tap into that while simultaneously yelling out, "It'due south been l-eleven days, umpteen hours, and Imma be burnin' till you lot return!" —Ligons

25. "Piece of My Centre," Big Brother & the Holding Company

Almost heartbreaking line: "But each fourth dimension I tell myself that I, well I can't stand the pain / But when you concord me in your artillery, I'll sing it once over again"

If you're ever at your wits' stop, tragically obsessed with someone who treats you like shit, you can find some catharsis in the controlled anarchy of Janis Joplin's vocal performance on "Piece of My Heart." Go ahead and scream along. Yous won't audio as good as Janis, simply you'll certainly feel a hell of a lot better afterward.

One time your acrimony fades a niggling, you lot can switch over to the original recording of this vocal, released a year earlier in 1967 and sung by Erma Franklin (yes, that'due south Aretha's older sister). Or if yous need some more twang accompanying your despair, you can endeavour the Religion Hill version. I too won't judge yous if the simply person who can ease your pain is Shaggy (or Beverley Knight, Melissa Etheridge, Steven Tyler, Kelly Clarkson, or one of endless other artists).

Written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, "Slice of My Heart" is ane of the well-nigh relatable and enduring songs most Some Fuckboi in the history of fuckbois. The phone call-and-response structure of the chorus builds those simmering resentments and releases them with a precipitous, primal cry. Undoubtedly, there will exist new versions of this song until the stop of time⁠—considering it's an absolute banger—only also because … men. —Matt James

24. "Skinny Love," Bon Iver

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

A good dominion for breakdown songs is that there has to be a office that you lot tin can yell along to, unencumbered by featherbrained things like constraint and cocky-sensation. The chorus of Bon Iver'south "Skinny Love" has a great one, especially for anyone who's just exited a relationship and feels compelled to heap all the blame on the other political party.

You know the story by now: In 2006, Justin Vernon broke up with his girlfriend, packed up his car, and drove into the Wisconsin wilderness, emerging just after recording an album of weepy breakup songs. That origin tale has been repeated so often that information technology's become soft mush, obscuring the real truth: That For Emma, Forever Agone—and especially "Skinny Love"—are greatly cogitating, intelligent, moving documents about the breakup of a relationship. —Gruttadaro

23. "Concur Up," Beyoncé

Most heartbreaking line: "Can't you see at that place's no other homo above you? / What a wicked manner to treat the girl that loves yous"

It'southward hard to express real injure over an uptempo trounce and make the heartbreak disarming. Yet Beyoncé is believable in "Agree Upwards," a painful accounting of the emotions that come up later on discovering that your partner has cheated. Lemonade was inspired past true events—i.due east., it'southward Beyoncé coming to terms with Jay-Z being unfaithful. Infidelity brings on a very specific type of destruction: You're mad; you're miserable; you're humiliated. You switch from one emotion to another in a affair of minutes. She opens the song with confidence: No other woman tin requite what she can. "Concord upwardly, they don't love you like I love you." In a breath, she's less sure of herself: "What'south worse, looking jealous or crazy?" Beyoncé settles on crazy, then returns to anger. "You permit this good dear go to waste product." —O'Shaughnessy

22. "Weep Me a River," Justin Timberlake

Most breaking lyric: "You didn't know all the ways I loved you, no / So you lot 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 ring era, and he was its charismatic face. (The cute i, if you lot will.) He even had the perfect girlfriend for that type of stardom: Britney Spears, with whom he pulled off this iconic denim fit. Then the couple broke up, JT split from 'NSync, and "Cry Me a River" happened.

In his first solo megahit, Justin insinuates his honey has cheated on him ("Yous don't have to say what you lot did / I already know, I found out from him") and writes her off for good. He'southward already cried about it, and now it's her turn. But no corporeality of her tears can undo the damage; he's gone. You didn't take to do much sleuthing to effigy out he was singing about Britney. That celebrity intrigue, Timbaland's sharp production, and an instantly memorable music video combined to brand "Cry Me a River" the most iconic breakup song of the early on 2000s, catapulting him to another level of stardom. He had split up with not only Britney, but too his past, and he was prepare for the world. —Sayles

21. "With or Without You," U2

Nigh heartbreaking line: "She got me with naught to win / And zippo 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 love you" infinite. This song was U2's beginning no. 1 striking in the U.Southward., even though, Bono has said, "it'south a very odd-sounding song … it kind of whispers its mode into the world." Only it's non the whispers that resonate most, however, it's all those wails, similar the crescendo of Bono'southward aching, eminently singalong-able ahhh-ahhh-ahh-ahhhhhs, or the painful, everlasting notes from the Edge's "infinite guitar," engineered to concur a tone equally if it were a grudge. "Psychotic restraint" is how Bono characterized the Edge's spare work on this rail, a description that could double as breakup communication. —Katie Baker

20. "Jolene," Dolly Parton

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

While other female person state singers might've handled their man'due south newfound fascination with a beautiful redhead past, say, digging a key into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-bicycle bulldoze, or—simply spitballing here—threatening to ship her to Fist City, Parton simply pleads for mercy. The desperate pitch of her entreatment, prepare confronting a frantic Dorian-mode guitar riff, sets the stakes far college than those y'all might find in generally stern country songs about cheatin', lyin', and being untrue. Any armchair scholar of Parton'south piece of work can tell you she cloaks feminist manifestos within marketable diddies most everyday experiences. I've always taken the song'southward urgency to imply something that every woman learns eventually: Relationships can be both romantically fulfilling, and, also often, an economical lifeboat to a better life. In "Jolene," our narrator isn't just grasping onto her man, she'south grasping for survival. —Alyssa Bereznak

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

About heartbreaking line: "Do yous plan to let me get / For the other guy you loved before?"

This song was outset released by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1967. A year later Marvin Gaye released a slower version of it on his album In the Groove. Peradventure the song resonated with Gaye because he married a 41-year-old adult female when he was just 24, and their marriage was full of infidelities. "I was in dearest with the idea of dearest," Gaye in one case said. Or at least that's what I heard through the grapevine. —Heifetz

xviii. "Ex-Factor," Lauryn Hill

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

"Ex-Factor" is more a breakup vocal, information technology'south about recognizing a toxic relationship earlier you lot have the words to call information technology a toxic relationship. Each line, so 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 hurting, the complicity, and the unwillingness to requite up on a beloved you think is notwithstanding there, buried below the bullshit.

When it hitting airwaves again in 2022 on Drake'due south pandering yet irresistible "Nice for What," information technology was virtually similar recognizing and reclaiming a past cocky—1 who might have cried along to the original. Now, as wiser, more Empowered™ listeners, we heard the remixed, catchy hook devoid of its devastating verses and bopped our heads as Drake reminded u.s.a. of how short life is. Still, no one tin capture the raw, uncomfortable emotion that Lauryn originally did—and no one e'er volition. —Johnson

17. "Yous're Then Vain," Carly Simon

About heartbreaking line: "Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair / And that you would never leave / Only you gave away the things you loved / And 1 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 world wondering whom it was about and what they could've mayhap done to anger her. More than than 40 years of speculation afterward, we now know that the vocaliser was describing the thespian Warren Beatty. (She added in a recent, withering interview that, although the song describes 3 separate men, Beatty "thinks the whole matter is about him.") We may never know what visitor he kept (cough: Mick Jagger?), but the lasting power of Simon's clear-eyed takedown stands as a referendum on the unchecked male ego, whether its contained in the body of a dashing role player or a moody fuckboy. —Bereznak

16. "Dancing on My Ain," Robyn

Most heartbreaking line: "Yeah, I know it's stupid, I only gotta come across it for myself"

Concluding twelvemonth, post-obit a Robyn show at Madison Square Garden, elated concertgoers continued the party on the A/C/E train subway platform, breaking into a giddy public performance of "Dancing on My Own." You wouldn't typically expect a breakup song to exist the i that leads New Yorkers to such displays of collective joy, but most breakup songs aren't like this one: a song you can strut to, a club anthem, a scene-stealer, a story of lonesomeness that withal finds its solace in a crowd. Information technology's a vocal about moving on—I just came to say goodbye—just likewise about, just, moving. The vocaliser might exist lonely in the corner, and she might know it's stupid, but she's out there dancing, at least. —Bakery

15. "Give thanks U, Next," Ariana Grande

Near heartbreaking line: "Wish I could say, 'Thank you' to Malcolm / 'Cause he was an angel"

This song is a decision to be done with suffering over a relationship, to recommit to oneself, to focus on healing and establishing new patterns. To not merely rehearse past losses but to envision future victories, and also to live in the moment, to be here now.

This to exercise the actual, 24-hour interval-in, mean solar day-out work of being happy. —Peters

fourteen. "Stop of the Road," Boyz II Men

Near heartbreaking line: "It'south 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 ability on 1992's Boomerang soundtrack, is ane of the biggest hits in popular-music history. Similar, "thirteen straight weeks atop the Hot 100" big. Like, "The 'Old Town Route' of Its Day" large, 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 once exhilarating and devastating: "It's unnatural / You belong to me / I belong to y'all." The word unnatural has never sounded and so natural, and so miserable. —Harvilla

13. "Dreams," Fleetwood Mac

Near heartbreaking line: "Now here you lot become again, you say you desire your freedom / Well, who am I to go on you down?"

Even 40-plus years on, to hear Stevie Nicks softly moaning, "What yous had ... and what you lost / And what you had ... and what you lost" to the guy playing guitar is to alive forever, and to imagine that guitar thespian dropping dead from remorse on the spot. (Lindsey Buckingham, of class, has been known to chugalug out a sweetly caustic breakdown canticle or two himself.) Every bit the 2nd (and all-time!) track on 1977's zillions-selling Rumours, "Dreams" is both radically overexposed and still somehow criminally underrated, fixed to its iconic identify, time, and circumstances merely also shockingly timeless. (Zoë Kravitz rhapsodizes information technology in the pilot of Hulu'southward new High Fidelity remake series to prove her rock-nerd bona fides.) Pair it with "Silverish Springs" for maximum event. —Harvilla

12. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," Al Greenish

Virtually heartbreaking line: "Let me live again"

In that location'southward heartbreak, and then there's Al Light-green heartbreak. (Not to slight the original Bee Gees version—Green is all I know when I'thousand going through it.) He's exasperated from the beginning, wondering whether he'll e'er recover from the love that went away. The agony is enough to contemplate nature itself in the chorus: "How can you mend a broken heart? / How can you lot stop the rain from falling downwards? / How tin can you stop the sunday from shining? / What makes the world become circular?" Green is begging for answers, for "somebody, please" to come gear up him. He pleads, "Let me live once more." Life as he knew it is over without this person, and as long equally the song 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'm common cold and I am shamed / Lying naked on the floor"

There'due south a bad breakup, there'southward rock lesser, and so in that location's being "cold and shamed, lying naked on the floor." Natalie Imbruglia'southward 1997 ane-hit wonder (and sneaky cover) 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 hard you vibe with this song.) "Torn" has taken a turn for the over-covered and over-memed these days, but you're lying if you say you lot don't yet hit that chorus every fourth dimension. —Halliwell

ten. "I Volition Survive," Gloria Gaynor

Most heartbreaking line: "And so you felt like dropping in and merely wait me to be gratuitous / Well now I'm saving all my lovin' for someone who'southward lovin' me"

This 1978 disco colossus is so singular, so monolithic, so hymeneals-dancefloor-ingrained that it hardly scans equally a breakup song at all: Equally ecstatic and empowering fuck-you lot anthems go, it is the glamorous grandmother to Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" and Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Side by side" and Beyoncé'southward "Irreplaceable" and roughly 50,000 other self-affirming pop hits. What truly elevates New Jersey diva Gloria Gaynor's all-timer, though, is its sociopolitical import: "I Will Survive" has long been a stirring boxing hymn for the LGBTQ community, for survivors of domestic violence, for anyone who tin can relate in any way, frivolously or otherwise, to the bluntly iconic line "I'thousand saving all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me," which of course is everybody. She knows you lot're afraid; she knows you're petrified. But she also knows y'all won't stay that way for long. —Harvilla

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Wonder this time where she'southward gone / Wonder if she'due south gone to stay"

To make a song from 1971 most a video game from 2010: Dante's Inferno is an RPG based loosely on the beginning anthem 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 beloved Beatrice. I never played it, just a friend who did described his frustration with the game: It's as if its conclusion got further abroad the more than time he devoted to it. A Super Basin commercial showed Dante sprinting toward Hell'south gaping oral fissure determined but, y'all know, definitely doomed. As he descends y'all hear the low croak of Bill Withers'southward voice, pining afterwards a lost lover: "Ain't no sunshine when she'southward gone, only darkness everyday." My concluding breakup didn't involve a giant flaming devil monster, only information technology did experience like a similarly hopeless uphill battle. —Peters

8. "Someone Like You," Adele

About heartbreaking line: "Sometimes it lasts in beloved, merely sometimes it hurts instead"

The queen of heartbreak has never been better than on sophomore anthology 21, and 21 doesn't get much amend than "Someone Like You." Adele's ode to the one who got away is maybe the near universally adored tearjerker of the past decade; starting with that simple piano line and ending in that crushing claw: "Sometimes it lasts in dearest, merely sometimes it hurts instead." And of class, that voice! Watching the simple black and white music video now, it'south striking how baby-faced Adele was at 21, despite her delivery of a vocal that displays then much emotional maturity. She wishes the all-time for her ex ("Quondam friend, why are yous so shy?"), but damn, she's notwithstanding hurting. Aren't we all! —Halliwell

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

Most heartbreaking lyrics: "Someone picked yous from the bunch, one glance was all it took / Now it's much too late for me to take a 2d wait"

Perhaps the most outwardly joyous song in this entire ranking, "I Desire 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 well-nigh the girl whom he didn't fully appreciate until someone else stole her heart. Now he merely wants another chance to show that he knows how to treat her right. Michael, of course, didn't write the song—it was penned by Berry Gordy and Co.—simply he sells it in a manner that someone 2 or iii times his age never could. A leopard can't change its spots, but if it sounds this good trying to convince you it can, why non give information technology i more adventure? —Sayles

vi. "Since U Been Gone," Kelly Clarkson

Almost heartbreaking line: "How come I'd never hear yous say / 'I just wanna be with you lot' (be with you lot) / I guess you never felt that way"

In that location is a moment in every breakup where, later a few weeks of self-pity, y'all shed your sweatpant cocoon, step outside, and, with the instantaneity of a safety band snap, suddenly know deep within your eye that your ex was an insufferable grandstanding. Kelly Clarkson's mosh-side by side ability pop ballad embodies the newfound self-balls that comes with that realization. Information technology also happens to exist enshrined in a popular civilisation moment that I will forever associate 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 construction from the far more poetic Yeah Aye Yeahs hit, "Maps," then—after beingness passed upward by both Pinkish and Hilary Duff—was sung by the very first winner of the and then-fledgling reality Television set evidence American Idol. The AIM-friendly "U" in the championship is just the icing on the cake. —Bereznak

5. "Ms. Jackson," Outkast

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

Sometimes breaking up with your significant other'due south family is only as hard every bit breaking upwards with them. Big Boi and André 3000 understood that on "Ms. Jackson," a song dedicated to Kolleen Maria Wright, the female parent of Erykah Badu, with whom André had a child. Three Stacks'south verse is peculiarly poignant—his intentions were good, only things took a plough 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 equally apology songs become, information technology's pretty nuanced and sincere. And Wright seems to have bought information technology: Erykah said in 2022 that her female parent even has a "MSJACKSON" license plate. —Sayles

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Please don't weep / We both know I'm non what you, you need"

Dolly Parton wrote one of the virtually dynamic love songs ever with "I Will Always Love You." Whitney Houston, who sang a cover for the picture show 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 one, it's accurate: She wrote the song for her old managing director and professional partner, Porter Wagoner, after she decided to leave him. Parton is sympathetic, yet determined to become. Equally she sings in the span, it's bittersweet. They are both amend off this style, she argues, but wishes him naught but "joy and happiness." One of the hardest relationship lessons is that two people can love each other and it yet not be correct for either—thanks to Dolly and Whitney, it was one learned early on. —O'Shaughnessy

three. "I Can't Make Yous Dear Me," Bonnie Raitt

Most heartbreaking line: "I'll close my eyes / Then I won't see / The love you lot don't experience when you lot're holding me"

Yous might exist a girlfriend, a hubby, a partner, or even a friend with benefits. Whatever function you play in service of love, it comes with a label that sets expectations. There is clarity and condolement in knowing where you stand up with someone. But despite all of our semantics and promises, the terrifying reality of our love lives is that love itself can be a ruthlessly nonbinding agreement, an at-will arrangement. Even more frightening is that it's oft our hearts—not us—calling the shots.

What sets "I Can't Make Y'all Dearest Me" apart from most breakup songs is that it takes place at the most painful betoken of a breakdown: credence. It's not a postal service-breakup anthem of empowerment or a desperate plea to stay together. It'due south the full force of the disorienting ane-two punch of loss and loneliness. It'southward the world-shattering moment when you lot surrender the fight.

Bonnie Raitt's absorbing performance of this song (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 pianoforte, and sings the accented fuck out of this song with confidence and grace. The vocal used on the Luck of the Draw album recording was Bonnie'southward outset take. "I Tin can't Brand You 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 us most deeply are the ones that unite the states through the well-nigh human of shared experiences. Somewhen, we all learn that you can't brand someone'southward center experience "something information technology won't." Just should you one day find yourself at rock bottom, suddenly alone in darkness—whether it's your starting time fourth dimension or your 14th—you tin can feel a piddling flake less solitary knowing that Bonnie's been in that location, too. —James

ii. "You Oughta Know," Alanis Morissette

Most heartbreaking line: "Does she know how you told me you'd concur me until you died, till you died / Simply you're notwithstanding alive"

Alanis Morrisette was xix years old when she recorded that ballad of bitterness "Y'all Oughta Know" in 1 take at 11 p.m. "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 Little Pill, "singing something she merely wrote." The result 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 possibly inspired by Uncle Joey remains both iconic and deeply weird, just also makes sick sense: You haven'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 time information technology came on the radio in the '90s, and what's more than, information technology features both Flea on bass and Dave Navarro on the guitar. What more could you want—other than sweet, sweet vengeance? —Bakery

1. "Purple Rain," Prince

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

Purple rain, according to an unsourced quote that's widely attributed to Prince Rogers Nelson, is the result of blood mixing with the sky, which is a sort of apocalyptic drama that only Prince could conjure. But you don't even need to understand what purple rain is to feel "Majestic Rain," a ability ballad to cease all ability ballads.

Some breakup songs are hateful, some are mournful, others are empowering. Merely "Purple Rain" has the power to feel like everything all at in one case, a near-religious experience of a song that has the power to heal similar no other. In times of problem, put "Purple Rain" on, and let him guide you. —Gruttadaro

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