I ve Had This Hand All Dang Game Gonna Get It All Again Love Is Forever Anyway So Go All the Way

What makes a song a "breakup song"? Does it accept to be empowering, à la "I Will Survive" or most of the songs on Lemonade? Should it be for the lone, similar Carole King's "It's Also Late" or Bob Dylan's "If Yous See Her, Say Hello"? Does it have to accost the breakdown in the lyrics? (Taylor Swift has many entrants in this category, and Marvin Gaye penned an unabridged album near his divorce.) What nearly songs with a famous backstory, like "Cry Me a River" or any track off of Rumours?

Nosotros here at The Ringer believe that since heartache comes in many forms, so should the breakup song. And in honor of Valentine'due south Day, we decided to dig deep into the genre. Beneath, you'll find our ranking of the 50 greatest breakup songs of all fourth dimension, as voted on by our staff. The list spans several decades and many different moods, merely all are rooted in some type of pain. In that location was but one rule for the final ranking: only one song per artist was included to avoid Dolly Parton or even Drake from dominating.

And then if y'all're lonely, fire upward our playlist and cry along as yous read our thoughts on each entrant. If y'all're happily attached, you can still swoop in—these are some of the greatest songs ever recorded, and that'southward truthful whether you're in your feelings or not. Maybe yous'll proceeds a greater appreciation for your electric current relationship. Later on all, breakup songs resonate only when you know what it's similar to lose in love. —Justin Sayles

l. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," Taylor Swift

Most heartbreaking line: "You would hide abroad and find your peace of listen / With some indie record that's so much cooler than mine"

1 of the most savage breakup songs in history, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" encapsulates the severe "fuck that guy!" energy that follows a long-overdue parting of means. We've all had that post-fight bluster with our friends: "Ugh … so he calls me upwards and he's similar, 'I even so love you lot,' and I'yard similar … 'I just … I mean this is exhausting, you know, like, nosotros are never getting back together. Like, always.'" Flippant, triumphant, and entirely exhausted by All Men, Taylor Swift gave us the perfect soundtrack for breakup recovery. — Kate Halliwell

49. "I Miss You," Glimmer-182

Most heartbreaking line: "I demand somebody and e'er / This sick strange darkness / Comes creeping on so haunting every time"

"I Miss You lot" is like a minimalist/emo take on Meat Loaf. It rules. The two best things well-nigh this number are Travis Barker's simple but persistent drumbeat and Tom DeLonge's entrance on the 2d verse. It'due south role of the 1000 pop punk tradition of showing you mean business by going up an octave, of which "I Miss You lot" (forth with the Starting Line'south "The Best of Me") is the exemplar.

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

48. "It'due south Also Late," Carole Rex

Near heartbreaking line: "But we only can't stay together, don't y'all experience it, too? / Yet I'chiliad glad for what we had and how I in one case loved yous"

"Information technology'southward Too Tardily" is a burdensome ode to the most common kind of breakup. The natural process of two people growing apart is as heartbreaking equally it is commonplace, and King sings in a tone perfectly situated between her sorrow and the shrugging access that "we really did endeavour to make it." Her conversational commitment early in the song brings us into the living room, diner, or sidewalk where "the talk" between her and her virtually-to-be-ex is happening: "One of united states is changing, or mayhap nosotros but stopped trying," she sings, plainly laying out the central, blameless reasons for why virtually people cease upwards separating. The song is defined past its maturity and its conciliatory attitude, but every bit with actual breakdown conversations, that doesn't make it whatever easier to hear. —Cory McConnell

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

Most heartbreaking line: "I tin't forget the day you left / Time is and then unkind"

This is a perfect example of the kind of breakup song you lot hear on the radio (or, in the tardily '90s, possibly the club—the Frankie Knuckles house remix still goes) and, on a normal day, just hear another popular song, but when you're experiencing heartache, what originally sounded like songwriting clichés become the truest words you've ever heard. "I accept cried a lot of nights," you call up, getting out of bed for the get-go fourth dimension in days to catch a coil of toilet paper since you ran out of Kleenex. "Life is fell without you here abreast me," you murmur, staring into the bleak chasm of loneliness you at present know as life. "I would literally do annihilation on God'south greenish earth to hear you say you honey me once more," you realize with the greatest clarity you've ever experienced. Anyway, where are my altos at? This is our karaoke vocal. — Kjerstin Johnson

46. "Mr. Brightside," the Killers

Nearly heartbreaking line: "Now they're going to bed and my tum is sick / And information technology's all in my head"

Perchance it's not exactly right to call "Mr. Brightside" a breakup song; maybe information technology'southward more accurate to call it a right-earlier-the-breakup vocal, an I-imagined-my-girlfriend-was-cheating-on-me-so-intensely-that-she-really-started-cheating-on-me song. Merely that's all really clunky, so allow'south accept existence slightly incorrect for the sake of cleanliness. Either way, "Mr. Brightside" is an iconic mid-aughts song that's perfect for yell-karaoking and that pulls off the difficult play tricks of just repeating one verse over and over. Also, Eric Roberts in the video. —Andrew Gruttadaro

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Go upwardly in the morning, look in the mirror / Ane less toothbrush hanging in the stand up"

The dynamic duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates became feather-haired, MTV-borne superstars in the '80s, only their rising to greatness begins here, with the breakout hit from their second album, 1973's oddly/heartbreakingly named Abandoned Luncheonette. "She'south Gone" is luscious and silky and deceptively light, all Motown grandeur by way of blue-eyed Philly soul, just that lightness only underscores the exquisite heaviness of murmured verse lines like "Get up in the morning, wait in the mirror / Worn as the toothbrush hanging in the stand." (Or probably it's "Ane less toothbrush," which of course is even heavier.) The chorus, by contrast, is gigantic and majestic and crushing, punctuated past cloudbursting lamentations of "She's gone! / Oh why? / Oh why?" The boys just got bigger from here, but they certainly never got sadder. —Rob Harvilla

44. "Tyrone," Erykah Badu

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

The 2nd-best moment on this viciously sultry tiresome jam, the crown jewel of Erykah Badu's 1997 album Live, is the stupendous opening line: "I'm gettin' tired of your shit / You don't ever purchase me nothin'." The get-go-best moment is all the women in the oversupply immediately shrieking with delight and, one fears, recognition. "Tyrone" is named for 1 of an unnamed deadbeat lover's numerous deadbeat friends: "Every time we go somewhere," Badu purrs with lethal authorisation, "I gotta reach down in my pocketbook / To pay your style and your homeboy's manner and sometimes your cousin's way." It is the gender-flipped riposte to Friday's "Bye, Felicia," and in fact turned upwards as a joke in 2000's Adjacent Friday; it "followed me thru my career like an obsessed X beau," as Badu put it on Instagram in 2017, while shouting out her fill-in singers, whose sardonic and sublime "Telephone call him!" chant is the third-all-time moment. —Harvilla

43. "Love Is a Battlefield," Pat Benatar

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "Do I stand in your way / Or am I the best thing y'all've had?"

The agonizingly propulsive signature hitting from flamethrower-voiced '80s pop queen Pat Benatar laments not so much a breakdown as a most-breakup 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 you why / Merely I'g trapped by your dear / And I'm chained to your side." It'south a karaoke classic you have no business organisation attempting, a cheeseball Reagan-era smash of eternal profundity, and a striking declaration that sometimes the merely thing worse than splitting up is not splitting upwards: "Exercise I stand in your way / Or am I the best thing you've had?" she wails with genuine agony, and the respond, of grade, is both. —Harvilla

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

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

We're not even talking about the whole song—nosotros're talking nigh xx or so seconds of Bink production after Kanye's 2nd verse, merely earlier Rick Ross'southward only verse, arguably one of the best in his career. In it, he describes Due west'due south well-nigh-fatal car crash in 2002 as an aborted climb "up the Lord'south ladder," and honestly, that'south exactly what the collection of ability strings sound like on this bridge. A climb upwards the Lord's ladder, a departure from Earth, a one-way trip to anywhere but hither. —Micah Peters

41. "Suspicious Minds," Elvis Presley

Most heartbreaking line: "We can't go on together / With suspicious minds / And we can't build our dreams / On suspicious minds"

Y'all tin can see the ripples of "Suspicious Minds" throughout the course of breakup vocal history, from "Train in Vain" to "Dancing on My Own," which, you lot know, it'south Elvis. But beyond the juxtaposition of its relatively upbeat music and depressing-as-hell lyrics, I love the structure of this vocal, with a peppy guitar intro and verses that build into a chorus that goes from G major to very, very East minor and just doesn't ever really resolve. This might not be the simply reason the song fades out only at that place's no existent suitable ending indicate for the terminal notes of the chorus, and then it e'er drops back into a verse or a bridge or another chorus. "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" resolves more easily. Simply similar a broken relationship. —Baumann

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

Near heartbreaking lines: "Although she may exist beautiful, she'southward but a substitute / Because yous're the permanent one"

On this classic Motown tearjerker, Smokey embodies the idea of the sorry clown meliorate than whatsoever song ever has. He's 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, just he's not thinking of her. (Side annotation: I don't know who I'k sadder for here, Smokey or the rebound he's walking around town with.) He may have wiped away the tears, but they've left their mark. And the makeup only makes the tear tracks that much more apparent. —Justin Sayles

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

Most heartbreaking line: "So this is inevitable withdrawal / Even if I end wanting you / And perspective pushes through / I'll exist some next homo's other adult female before long"

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

38. "Needed Me," Rihanna

Nearly heartbreaking lines: "Fuck your white horse and a wagon / Bet you never could imagine / Never told you you could accept it / Yous needed me"

This vocal is so piffling and I love it. Rihanna basically made a hit off the "Sike, y'all idea!" meme and DJ Mustard added an unforgettable shell behind it. This is ane of those bangers that yous and your girls smash mail service-breakup, pre-going-out. Then, after y'all all sing in unison: "Don't go information technology twisted / You lot was merely another nigga on the hit list / Tryna fix your inner bug with a bad bowwow," you all burst into laughter thinking well-nigh the human being who is now barely a memory. Rihanna'southward conviction and savageness is really on an untouchable level. (Recall, this song is on the same album where she sings "sex with me is so amazing" over and over.) Long may she reign. —Jordan Ligons

37. "So Ill," Ne-Yo

Most heartbreaking line: "Gotta change my answering car, at present that I'm lone / 'Cause right at present it says that we can't come to the phone"

The earworm of a generation! Ne-Yo said no to sappy ballads in more than ways than 1 with "And so Sick," giving us an R&B smash hit for everyone sick of regular, schmegular dear songs. Prepare to the globe's catchiest vanquish, Ne-Yo mourns a past relationship and all the day-to-day changes that come with moving on. "Gotta alter my answering machine, at present that I'thou alone / 'Cause right now it says that we tin't come up to the phone … Gotta gear up that agenda I have that'south marked July 15 / Because since in that location's no more yous, there's no more anniversary." Fifteen years later, we still tin't plough off the radio. —Halliwell

36. "We Belong Together," Mariah Carey

Most heartbreaking line: "When you left I lost a part of me / Information technology'due south still so hard to believe / Come back baby, please / 'Crusade we vest together"

*Sighs.* This is easily the most played-out, sad breakup vocal of the early 2000s. Anybody thought virtually 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 will glaze over, guaranteed. When the start two seconds of the infamous vanquish come through my speakers, I'thou already changing the station. It's just and then abrasive, and so Mariah.

You lot may think that you lot won't discover someone else to lean on when times get rough or someone to talk to you on the phone until the dominicus comes up, simply let me tell you, you volition and you'll be fine. Breakups suck, merely please don't torture your broken heart (or your ears) by listening to this vocal on repeat. —Ligons

35. "If Y'all See Her, Say How-do-you-do," Bob Dylan

Nearly heartbreaking line: "Say for me that I'm all correct, though things go kind of slow / She might think that I've forgotten her, don't tell her it isn't so"

The inspiration for Bob Dylan's masterful Blood on the Tracks has ever been debated. Critics accept long assumed that the album is nigh Dylan'southward separation from his wife, Sara. The couple's son, Jakob, reportedly believes that Blood is near his parents. Merely Dylan himself has steadily denied that his masterpiece is autobiographical, even maxim 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. Blood strikes such a chord because the heartache it mines feels at once securely personal and universal.

That'southward about palpable on "If Y'all Encounter Her, Say Hello," which brings us into a fractured relationship in a style that'due south both effortlessly relatable ("We had a falling out, similar lovers often will") and hyper-specific ("And to think of how she left that night, it notwithstanding brings me a chill"). Information technology's non Dylan's flashiest or heaviest or best song, but it is my favorite, a gentle, intimate portrait of lost love and lasting ache. Like then much of his all-time work, it's propelled past its poesy, the raw insights nigh how it feels to be alive. The song cycles through the same phases that and so many of u.s. do while processing heartbreak: denial, despair, anger, desire. It floats on a current of remorse ("Sundown, yellowish moon, I replay the past / I know every scene by eye, they all went past and so fast") however manages to convey the kind of longing that leads, charily, dorsum toward hope ("If she'south passing back this way, I'thou not that hard to find / Tell her she can expect me up, if she's got the time"). After enough listens, and plenty heartache of your own, you realize that "If You Come across Her, Say Hello" isn't really a breakdown song. Information technology's a love letter. — Mallory Rubin

34. "Don't Look Back in Acrimony," Haven

Most heartbreaking line: "Stand up upwards beside the fireplace / Take that look from off your confront / 'Crusade you ain't ever gonna burn my heart out"

The closest I've ever come up to living in an episode of Glee was when my high school French class spontaneously broke out singing "Don't Await Back in Anger." I don't remember why, but it cemented this song (at least for me) as a ballad of communal weltschmerz, rather than personal sadness or regret, like a fin-de-siècle "Yous'll Never Walk Alone." (For instance: "Don't Await Back in Anger" became a kind of unofficial canticle after the Manchester bombing in 2017.) Haven knows a affair or 2 virtually writing for the communal sing-forth, the importance of the languid, memorable melody and the propulsive chord change—this vocal would conduct about the same emotional weight if information technology were but a title and a chorus. —Baumann

33. "Every Breath You Take," the Police

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

This spectacularly maudlin New Wave ballad, which anchored the Constabulary's 1983 goliath Synchronicity and reigned as ane 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 depict spurned love in terms of surveillance as it describes total land surveillance in terms of spurned love: "Every move you lot make / Every vow you suspension / Every smile you fake / Every claim you stake." And so on. "I'll exist watching you," Sting concludes a couple dozen times throughout, but it's the chest-pounding bridge where the trio's creepy-soulful frontman does some of his best belting, his all-time pleading, his best super-creepy emoting and enunciating: "I experience then cold and I long for your em-brace." Fun fact: He started writing the vocal at Ian Fleming'due south writing desk 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 Uncertainty

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

I mean, honestly, it takes a lot of guts to drop a Spanish classical guitar solo in the heart of an angsty '90s alt-rock song. It as well takes a lot of guts to write a song near breaking upward with the bass role player in your band and so make a music video for the song that has shots in it like the 1 below: Don't speak, literally.

No Doubt's first hit is a piece of work of art, full of raw, youthful emotion and complex arrangements. It'south cute, brutal, painful, and incendiary, all at one time. —Gruttadaro

31. "Thinkin Bout You lot," Frank Body of water

Nigh heartbreaking lines: "Do you not think then far ahead? / 'Cause I been thinkin' bout forever"

Sometimes yous accept to lie to yourself to get through heartache. They weren't adept plenty for me. I tin can do better. I didn't love them, I just thought they were cute. Frank Ocean'southward "Thinkin Tour You" exposes that kind of posturing for what information technology is: a facade. No, I wasn't crying nearly you, and past the way, I also own waterfront property in Idaho. Frank'due south clearly withal hung up on the past even if his quondam flame isn't. And the only way to work through the pain is to drop the lying and come make clean with himself. Information technology's tender, it's sweet, but most of all, it's honest. —Sayles

xxx. "I'grand Goin' Downwardly," Mary J. Blige

Most heartbreaking lines: "Why'd you take to say bye? / Look what you've done 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 exercise not care, I am Mary J. when the chorus hits. By the end of the song—a cover of Rose Royce'due south 1976 single—you lot've "gone downwardly" and so much that yous're on the flooring, optics closed, hoop earrings in, and belting, "My whole earth'south upwardly-[dramatic pause]-side down!" I tin can't exist the just one, right?

Also, recollect when Tamera sang this song for the talent prove on Sister, Sister? Iconic. —Ligons

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

Almost heartbreaking lines: "I could put my arms effectually every boy I see / Only they'd only remind me of you lot"

Breakups are freeing; breakups are imprisoning. When you come up out of a yearslong 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 lot encounter your ex's all-time friend at the bar, or y'all hear a song that you both loved. Sometimes, it's a minor annoyance. Other times, it's an earth-shattering issue. Yous're relearning how to live, but living is difficult.

I can't think of a song that better captures that duality than "Nothing Compares two U," the 1990 O'Connor striking originally penned past Prince in 1985. You lot can practise whatever you want: You tin political party all night, y'all can eat at a fancy restaurant, y'all can put your arms around all the boys and girls you lot'd similar, simply it doesn't matter. Information technology'due south not them, and cipher volition exist. Your best hope is just giving in and living for yourself. —Sayles

28. "Marvin'southward Room," Drake

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

Drake is at his best when he's destructive because he masks the gaslighting with a softer sadness. "The adult female that I would endeavour / Is happy with a good guy," he sings. Is he happy for her? The lines suggest that there's at least a chance. Drake pauses, then goes full Drizzy Deleterious: "But 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 skilful enough to replace what they had. It'southward the archetype overstep from an ex, only the longer he goes on, we realize it's more about his pride and conflicting emotions virtually his life choices than information technology is nearly her. Drake spirals, telling her he's "had sex four times this calendar week / I tin can explain," that he's sponsoring women, that he tin't terminate partying and asking for naked pictures. Exactly what your ex-girlfriend wants to hear, I'm sure. At least there'southward a voicemail interlude. —Haley O'Shaughnessy

27. "But a Friend," Biz Markie

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

Turns out this adult female did not accept what Biz Markie needed. As he singsplains, he became kitten smitten with a woman at 1 of his shows. Y'all'd think that this would have happened to him all the time, merely it did not. This was "the offset girl I ever talked to," Biz told EW last year. "Every fourth dimension I would call out to California, a dude would option upward and hand her the phone. I'd exist like, 'Yo, what's up [with him]?' She'd say, 'Oh, he's 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, in that location was a guy "tongue-kissing my girl in her oral fissure."

Biz. My guy. Sit downwardly. Let's talk. Kickoff off, she was non your girl. Y'all met her i time. Second, yous did non take hold of her tongue-kissing a dude. Y'all stalked her. Third, information technology 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 nigh his predicament. You know, a friend. —Danny Heifetz

26. "Fire," Conductor

Almost heartbreaking line: "But yous know, gotta let it become / 'Cause the political party ain't jumpin' like it used to / Even though this might bruise yous / Let 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 relationship has to come up to an finish; he says he's hurting and he'south not happy, just he's breaking down and crying. Deep downward he knows it'due south all-time, but he hates the idea of me existence with someone else. Get your shit together, Usher!

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

25. "Piece of My Heart," Big Blood brother & the Belongings Visitor

Nearly heartbreaking line: "But each fourth dimension I tell myself that I, well I tin can't stand the hurting / But when you concur me in your artillery, I'll sing information technology again"

If you're ever at your wits' end, tragically obsessed with someone who treats y'all like shit, yous can find some catharsis in the controlled chaos of Janis Joplin's vocal operation on "Slice of My Heart." Go ahead and scream along. You won't sound every bit good as Janis, simply y'all'll certainly feel a hell of a lot better after.

Once your acrimony fades a little, you tin can switch over to the original recording of this song, released a yr before in 1967 and sung by Erma Franklin (yes, that's Aretha's older sis). Or if you lot need some more twang accompanying your despair, you tin try the Faith Loma version. I also won't judge y'all if the merely person who can ease your hurting is Shaggy (or Beverley Knight, Melissa Etheridge, Steven Tyler, Kelly Clarkson, or 1 of countless other artists).

Written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, "Slice of My Eye" is one of the virtually relatable and enduring songs about Some Fuckboi in the history of fuckbois. The telephone call-and-response structure of the chorus builds those simmering resentments and releases them with a precipitous, primal weep. Undoubtedly, there will be new versions of this song until the end of time⁠—because it's an absolute banger—but also because … men. —Matt James

24. "Skinny Love," Bon Iver

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

A good rule for breakup songs is that at that place has to exist a office that you tin yell along to, unencumbered by empty-headed things like constraint and self-awareness. The chorus of Bon Iver'southward "Skinny Love" has a corking i, especially for anyone who'south just exited a human relationship and feels compelled to heap all the blame on the other political party.

Yous know the story by now: In 2006, Justin Vernon broke upwardly with his girlfriend, packed upwards his auto, and drove into the Wisconsin wilderness, emerging only after recording an album of weepy breakup songs. That origin tale has been repeated so ofttimes that it'south become soft mush, obscuring the real truth: That For Emma, Forever Ago—and peculiarly "Skinny Love"—are greatly cogitating, intelligent, moving documents nearly the breakdown of a relationship. —Gruttadaro

23. "Agree Upwards," Beyoncé

Most heartbreaking line: "Tin't you see at that place's no other man in a higher place you lot? / What a wicked way to care for the girl that loves you"

Information technology's hard to limited real hurt over an uptempo beat and make the heartbreak convincing. Yet Beyoncé is believable in "Concord Up," a painful accounting of the emotions that come after discovering that your partner has cheated. Lemonade was inspired by true events—i.east., 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; you're humiliated. You switch from 1 emotion to another in a matter of minutes. She opens the vocal with confidence: No other woman can give what she can. "Hold up, they don't dearest you like I love you." In a breath, she'due south less sure of herself: "What's worse, looking jealous or crazy?" Beyoncé settles on crazy, then returns to anger. "Y'all permit this skilful love go to waste product." —O'Shaughnessy

22. "Cry Me a River," Justin Timberlake

Most breaking lyric: "You didn't know all the ways I loved you, no / And so y'all 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 boy band era, and he was its charismatic face. (The cute one, if you lot 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 broke up, JT split from 'NSync, and "Cry Me a River" happened.

In his showtime solo megahit, Justin insinuates his dear has cheated on him ("You don't accept to say what y'all did / I already know, I found out from him") and writes her off for skilful. He's already cried near it, and now it'due south her turn. But no amount of her tears can disengage the harm; he'due south gone. You lot didn't take to do much sleuthing to figure out he was singing nigh Britney. That celebrity intrigue, Timbaland'due south sharp production, and an instantly memorable music video combined to brand "Cry Me a River" the most iconic breakdown song of the early 2000s, catapulting him to another level of distinction. He had split with non only Britney, but also his by, and he was prepare for the world. —Sayles

21. "With or Without You lot," U2

Near heartbreaking line: "She got me with zilch to win / And nothing left to lose"

Aught changes if zip changes, as they say, and "With or Without You" exists in that hopelessly recursive "I hate that I love you" space. This song was U2'southward beginning no. one hit in the U.S., even though, Bono has said, "it'southward a very odd-sounding song … it kind of whispers its way into the world." But it'south not the whispers that resonate nearly, nonetheless, it'due south 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 hold 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 Bakery

20. "Jolene," Dolly Parton

Nigh heartbreaking line: "And I tin easily understand / How you could hands take my homo / But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene"

While other female country singers might've handled their human being'south newfound fascination with a beautiful redhead by, say, digging a key into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-wheel bulldoze, or—just spitballing hither—threatening to send her to Fist City, Parton simply pleads for mercy. The desperate pitch of her entreatment, set against a frantic Dorian-way guitar riff, sets the stakes far college than those you lot might find in mostly 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 inside marketable diddies about everyday experiences. I've always taken the vocal'southward urgency to imply something that every woman learns eventually: Relationships can exist both romantically fulfilling, and, too often, an economic lifeboat to a improve life. In "Jolene," our narrator isn't just grasping onto her man, she's grasping for survival. —Alyssa Bereznak

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Do you plan to allow me get / For the other guy you loved before?"

This vocal was first released by Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1967. A year after Marvin Gaye released a slower version of information technology on his album In the Groove. Maybe the vocal resonated with Gaye because he married a 41-year-onetime adult female when he was merely 24, and their marriage was full of infidelities. "I was in love with the idea of dearest," Gaye once said. Or at least that's what I heard through the grapevine. —Heifetz

18. "Ex-Factor," Lauryn Hill

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

"Ex-Cistron" is more than a breakdown song, it's virtually recognizing a toxic relationship before you accept the words to telephone call it a toxic relationship. Each line, and then honest information technology hurts, is most the fruitless search for reason in a scenario devoid of it. Hill'due south lyrics capture the worst of the worst of a relationship on the rocks: the hurting, the complicity, and the unwillingness to surrender on a love you lot think is still there, buried beneath the bullshit.

When it hitting airwaves over again in 2022 on Drake's pandering nonetheless irresistible "Squeamish for What," it was almost like recognizing and reclaiming a past self—one who might take cried along to the original. At present, every bit wiser, more Empowered™ listeners, nosotros heard the remixed, tricky hook devoid of its devastating verses and bopped our heads as Drake reminded us of how short life is. Still, no one can capture the raw, uncomfortable emotion that Lauryn originally did—and no one ever volition. —Johnson

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

Most heartbreaking line: "Well, you said that we fabricated such a pretty pair / And that you would never leave / But you gave away the things you loved / And one 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 cocky-referential chorus, left the world wondering whom information technology was about and what they could've possibly done to anger her. More than 40 years of speculation later, we now know that the singer was describing the actor Warren Beatty. (She added in a recent, withering interview that, although the song describes three dissever men, Beatty "thinks the whole thing is about him.") We may never know what company he kept (cough: Mick Jagger?), simply the lasting power of Simon'southward articulate-eyed takedown stands as a plebiscite on the unchecked male ego, whether its independent in the torso of a dashing thespian or a moody fuckboy. —Bereznak

16. "Dancing on My Own," Robyn

Most heartbreaking line: "Aye, I know it'south stupid, I just gotta see it for myself"

Concluding twelvemonth, following a Robyn show at Madison Foursquare Garden, elated concertgoers continued the party on the A/C/E railroad train subway platform, breaking into a giddy public functioning of "Dancing on My Ain." You wouldn't typically expect a breakup vocal to be the one that leads New Yorkers to such displays of collective joy, but most breakdown songs aren't like this one: a song y'all tin strut to, a club anthem, a scene-stealer, a story of lonesomeness that still finds its solace in a crowd. It's a song about moving on—I just came to say goodbye—but too about, just, moving. The singer might be alone in the corner, and she might know information technology's stupid, simply she's out in that location dancing, at least. —Baker

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

Nigh 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 only rehearse past losses but to envision time to come victories, and also to live in the moment, to be here now.

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

14. "End of the Road," Boyz II Men

Near heartbreaking line: "Information technology's unnatural"

Both the joyous genesis and apple-polishing death knell for billions of '90s junior-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 i of the biggest hits in popular-music history. Similar, "13 straight weeks atop the Hot 100" large. Like, "The 'One-time Town Road' of Its Day" large, a tearjerking shout-forth anthem for lovelorn belters as well devastated to even take their horses and leave the house. The concluding a capella chorus is a signature moment in American cultural history, at in one case exhilarating and devastating: "It's unnatural / Yous vest to me / I belong to you." The discussion unnatural has never sounded then natural, and then miserable. —Harvilla

13. "Dreams," Fleetwood Mac

Most heartbreaking line: "Now hither you go again, y'all say you want your liberty / Well, who am I to keep you down?"

Even xl-plus years on, to hear Stevie Nicks softly moaning, "What you had ... and what yous lost / And what you had ... and what you lost" to the guy playing guitar is to alive forever, and to imagine that guitar player dropping expressionless from remorse on the spot. (Lindsey Buckingham, of course, has been known to belt out a sweetly caustic breakup canticle or ii himself.) Every bit the second (and best!) track on 1977's zillions-selling Rumours, "Dreams" is both radically overexposed and still somehow criminally underrated, fixed to its iconic place, time, and circumstances merely as well shockingly timeless. (Zoë Kravitz rhapsodizes it in the pilot of Hulu's new High Allegiance remake serial to prove her rock-nerd bona fides.) Pair information technology with "Argent Springs" for maximum event. —Harvilla

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

Near heartbreaking line: "Let me live again"

At that place's heartbreak, and and so there'due south Al Green heartbreak. (Not to slight the original Bee Gees version—Green is all I know when I'm going through it.) He's exasperated from the get-go, wondering whether he'll ever recover from the dear that went away. The desperation is enough to contemplate nature itself in the chorus: "How can you mend a broken middle? / How tin you stop the pelting from falling down? / How tin can you stop the dominicus from shining? / What makes the globe become round?" Green is begging for answers, for "somebody, please" to come up gear up him. He pleads, "Let me live again." Life equally he knew it is over without this person, and as long as the vocal is on, information technology feels over for united states of america, too. —O'Shaughnessy

11. "Torn," Natalie Imbruglia

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "I'm all out of religion / This is how I feel, I'thousand cold and I am shamed / Lying naked on the flooring"

There's a bad breakup, there'southward rock bottom, and so in that location's beingness "cold and shamed, lying naked on the flooring." Natalie Imbruglia's 1997 one-striking wonder (and sneaky cover) doesn't mince words in describing exactly how shitty it feels to put your faith in the incorrect man. (Or any human being, depending on how hard you vibe with this song.) "Torn" has taken a turn for the over-covered and over-memed these days, merely you're lying if you say you don't still hit that chorus every time. —Halliwell

ten. "I Volition Survive," Gloria Gaynor

Most heartbreaking line: "And so yous felt similar dropping in and only await me to be gratuitous / Well at present I'chiliad saving all my lovin' for someone who's lovin' me"

This 1978 disco colossus is so singular, so monolithic, then wedding ceremony-dancefloor-ingrained that it hardly scans every bit a breakdown song at all: As ecstatic and empowering fuck-you anthems go, it is the glamorous grandmother to Lizzo'south "Truth Hurts" and Ariana Grande'southward "Give thanks U, Adjacent" and Beyoncé'south "Irreplaceable" and roughly fifty,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 battle hymn for the LGBTQ community, for survivors of domestic violence, for anyone who tin relate in any way, frivolously or otherwise, to the bluntly iconic line "I'grand saving all my lovin' for someone who'south lovin' me," which of form is everybody. She knows you're agape; she knows you lot're petrified. But she besides knows you won't stay that way for long. —Harvilla

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

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

To brand a vocal from 1971 about a video game from 2010: Dante's Inferno is an RPG based loosely on the first 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 beloved Beatrice. I never played it, just a friend who did described his frustration with the game: It's as if its decision got further away the more time he devoted to it. A Super Bowl commercial showed Dante sprinting toward Hell'south gaping mouth determined but, yous know, definitely doomed. As he descends you lot hear the low croak of Pecker Withers's voice, pining afterwards a lost lover: "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, only darkness everyday." My final breakup didn't involve a giant flaming devil monster, but it did experience like a similarly hopeless uphill battle. —Peters

viii. "Someone Similar You," Adele

Most heartbreaking line: "Sometimes it lasts in love, only 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 Like You." Adele's ode to the one who got abroad is perhaps the most universally adored tearjerker of the past decade; starting with that elementary pianoforte line and ending in that crushing hook: "Sometimes it lasts in love, simply sometimes it hurts instead." And of form, that vocalization! Watching the elementary black and white music video now, it's hit how baby-faced Adele was at 21, despite her delivery of a song that displays so much emotional maturity. She wishes the best for her ex ("Erstwhile friend, why are you and so shy?"), just damn, she'southward still hurting. Aren't we all! —Halliwell

seven. "I Want Yous Back," The Jackson five

Most heartbreaking lyrics: "Someone picked you from the bunch, one glance was all it took / At present it's much likewise late for me to take a 2nd wait"

Possibly the virtually outwardly joyous song in this unabridged ranking, "I Want You Dorsum" spins a tale that anyone who'due south always taken someone for granted will understand. An 11-yr-one-time Michael Jackson is at his virtually precocious hither, singing nigh the girl whom he didn't fully capeesh until someone else stole her heart. Now he just wants another hazard to prove that he knows how to treat her right. Michael, of class, didn't write the song—it was penned by Berry Gordy and Co.—but he sells it in a mode that someone 2 or three times his age never could. A leopard tin't change its spots, but if information technology sounds this expert trying to convince you it tin, why non requite it one more gamble? —Sayles

six. "Since U Been Gone," Kelly Clarkson

Most heartbreaking line: "How come up I'd never hear you say / 'I simply wanna be with you lot' (be with you) / I estimate you never felt that way"

In that location is a moment in every breakdown where, after a few weeks of self-pity, you lot shed your sweatpant cocoon, step exterior, and, with the instantaneity of a rubber band snap, of a sudden know deep within your heart that your ex was an insufferable blowhard. Kelly Clarkson's mosh-adjacent power popular ballad embodies the newfound self-assurance that comes with that realization. It also happens to exist enshrined in a pop culture moment that I volition forever associate with beingness a melodramatic 16-yr-onetime millennial: "Since U Been Gone" was written by pop lords Max Martin and Dr. Luke, who ripped its unabridged musical structure from the far more than poetic Yeah Yeah Yeahs hit, "Maps," and then—after being passed up past both Pink and Hilary Duff—was sung past the very first winner of the then-fledgling reality Boob tube show American Idol. The AIM-friendly "U" in the title is merely the icing on the cake. —Bereznak

5. "Ms. Jackson," Outkast

Almost heartbreaking lyric: "Forever never seems that long until you're grown / And notice that the day-past-twenty-four hour period ruler can't be as well wrong"

Sometimes breaking up with your significant other's family is just equally difficult as breaking up with them. Big Boi and André 3000 understood that on "Ms. Jackson," a vocal dedicated to Kolleen Maria Wright, the mother of Erykah Badu, with whom André had a kid. Three Stacks's verse is particularly poignant—his intentions were adept, but things took a plow 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. As far equally apology songs go, it's pretty nuanced and sincere. And Wright seems to have bought information technology: Erykah said in 2022 that her mother even has a "MSJACKSON" license plate. —Sayles

four. "I Will E'er Love You," Whitney Houston

Virtually heartbreaking line: "Delight don't cry / Nosotros both know I'grand not what you, you lot need"

Dolly Parton wrote ane of the well-nigh dynamic love songs ever with "I Will Ever Love You." Whitney Houston, who sang a cover for the movie The Bodyguard, made a worldwide hit with her astounding range. Both versions are wonderful for different reasons, though Parton's honeyed, wobbly original is all-time for heartbreak. For one, it's authentic: She wrote the vocal for her former manager and professional partner, Porter Wagoner, after she decided to leave him. Parton is sympathetic, notwithstanding determined to go. Equally she sings in the bridge, it'southward bittersweet. They are both improve off this way, she argues, just wishes him zip but "joy and happiness." I of the hardest relationship lessons is that 2 people can honey each other and it still not be correct for either—cheers to Dolly and Whitney, information technology was one learned early on. —O'Shaughnessy

3. "I Can't Make You Love Me," Bonnie Raitt

Virtually heartbreaking line: "I'll shut my optics / Then I won't see / The love you don't feel when you're holding me"

You might exist a girlfriend, a husband, a partner, or fifty-fifty a friend with benefits. Whatever role yous 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. But despite all of our semantics and promises, the terrifying reality of our dearest lives is that beloved itself can be a ruthlessly nonbinding understanding, an at-volition organization. Even more frightening is that it's frequently our hearts—not united states—calling the shots.

What sets "I Can't Make You Love Me" autonomously from most breakdown songs is that it takes place at the most painful point of a breakup: acceptance. Information technology'south not a post-breakup canticle of empowerment or a desperate plea to stay together. It's the full force of the disorienting one-two punch of loss and loneliness. Information technology's the world-shattering moment when you give up the fight.

Bonnie Raitt's arresting 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 piano, 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's first take. "I Tin'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 united states well-nigh securely are the ones that unite us through the about human being of shared experiences. Eventually, we all acquire that you can't make someone's eye experience "something it won't." But should you one day detect yourself at rock bottom, suddenly alone in darkness—whether it'southward your first time or your 14th—y'all can feel a little bit less lonely knowing that Bonnie's been there, too. —James

2. "You Oughta Know," Alanis Morissette

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "Does she know how you told me y'all'd concord me until yous died, till you died / But you're still alive"

Alanis Morrisette was xix years old when she recorded that ballad of bitterness "Y'all Oughta Know" in one accept at 11 p.k. "All those vocals are just her at the cease of the dark," said her cowriter Glen Ballard in an oral history of the album Jagged Little Pill, "singing something she only 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 past Uncle Joey remains both iconic and deeply weird, but also makes ill sense: You lot haven't truly been jilted until you've been jilted past someone who's non even that cool, you lot know?) "You Oughta Know" totally scandalized my mom every fourth dimension information technology came on the radio in the '90s, and what's more, information technology features both Flea on bass and Dave Navarro on the guitar. What more could you lot desire—other than sweetness, sweetness vengeance? —Bakery

1. "Majestic Pelting," Prince

Well-nigh heartbreaking line: "I never meant to cause you any sorrow / I never meant to cause you lot whatever pain"

Purple rain, according to an unsourced quote that'southward widely attributed to Prince Rogers Nelson, is the upshot of blood mixing with the heaven, which is a sort of apocalyptic drama that simply Prince could conjure. But you lot don't even need to understand what imperial rain is to feel "Purple Rain," a power carol to end all power ballads.

Some breakdown songs are hateful, some are mournful, others are empowering. Only "Purple Pelting" has the power to feel like everything all at once, a near-religious experience of a song that has the ability to heal like no other. In times of trouble, put "Imperial Pelting" on, and allow him guide you. —Gruttadaro

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