Wherever You Will Go
2001
Kamin wrote it after a funeral, imagining the widower left behind; it then held Adult Top 40 for twenty-three weeks.
★ 2.0
The Songs canon
Sourced and sung.
Every song chosen by hand, with the recording to play it.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely
1999
Herbie Crichlow and Max Martin wrote it; the video's dedication to Denniz Pop turns the harmonies into mourning.
★ 2.7
The Living Years
1988
Rutherford and B.A. Robertson had both just lost their fathers; Carrack, who lost his young, sang it.
★ 2.9
The Good Stuff
2002
Seven weeks atop the country chart in 2002, and a bartender's story Jim Collins and Craig Wiseman wrote.
★ 3.1
Pardon Me
2000
Scott Litt produced it at NRG, and Boyd wrote the lyric amid two deaths and a collapsing relationship.
★ 3.2
When I Get Where I'm Going
2005
George Teren and Rivers Rutherford wrote it; Dolly Parton's harmony carries a song about grief and the afterlife.
★ 3.5
My Immortal
2003
Lee and Moody wrote it at fifteen; the album kept her raw demo vocal, radio got Campbell's grieving strings.
★ 4.0
If I Die Young
2010
Kimberly Perry wrote it alone, and banjo, fiddle and mandolin carry her meditation on mortality across fifty-three Hot 100 weeks.
★ 4.2
Hear You Me
2001
Trombino set it as a 6/8 waltz for two sisters who ran Weezer's fan club; never a single, sung everywhere.
★ 4.3
See You Again
2015
Puth turned a dance production into a piano ballad for Paul Walker; it spent twelve weeks atop the Hot 100.
★ 4.5
It's All Coming Back to Me NowCeline Dion
It's All Coming Back to Me Now
1996
Steinman wrote it out of Wuthering Heights for Pandora's Box in 1989, and Dion made it enormous.
★ 4.8
Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)
2001
Monahan woke from a dream of his late mother, and Paul Buckmaster's strings carry the whole ache.
★ 4.8
One Sweet Day
1995
Nathan Morris had written nearly the same song for his late road manager, Carey said; sixteen weeks at number one.
★ 5.2
I'll Be Missing YouSean Combs
I'll Be Missing You
1997
An uncleared Police sample handed Sting the royalties; Faith Evans and 112 turned mourning into eleven weeks at number one.
★ 5.2
Candle in the Wind 1997Elton John
Candle in the Wind 1997
1997
Taupin rewrote his Marilyn Monroe lyric for Diana, George Martin added strings hours after the funeral, and 33 million sold.
★ 5.5
Wake Me Up When September Ends
2005 · From American Idiot
Armstrong's father died in September 1982; by his account the words he said that day waited twenty years.
★ 5.5
Go Rest High on That Mountain
1995
Gill started it for Keith Whitley in 1989 and finished it after his half-brother died, Patty Loveless singing harmony.
★ 5.5
One Day
1996 · From Ridin' Dirty
Pimp C built it on an Isley Brothers loop, Ronnie Spencer sings the hook, and Texas rap found its elegy.
★ 5.9
Yellow Ledbetter
1991
McCready's riff was a Ten outtake, and Vedder improvised a lyric he has been rewriting onstage ever since.
★ 5.9
Tears in Heaven
1991
Will Jennings helped finish a lyric Clapton wrote after his four-year-old son died; three Grammys followed in 1993.
★ 5.9