History TearJerker / BillyJoel

** The accompanying scene from the music video just makes it sadder; John himself is a middle-aged, heavyset but jolly man, laughing with the customers as he fills their drinks and lights up their smokes...but as soon as he turns away from the crowd, he looks in a mirror and runs a hand through his receding hairline with a sad expression on his face.

-->Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
-->He gets me my drinks for free
-->And he's quick with a joke or to light up your smoke
-->But there's someplace that he'd rather be.
-->[[SadClown He says "Bill I believe this is killing me" as a smile ran away from his face]]
-->[[TragicDream "Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star, if I could get out of this place.]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9591zjK_n08 "Say Goodbye to Hollywood"]] is this, CMOA, and a CMOH (to Ronnie Spector who first sang it, as a reference to leaving her abusive marriage to Phil Spector). The tearjerker part comes in when the narrator sings about how many people come in and out of their life, and that even includes dear friends. No other song has captured the emotions of moving on from a relationship than this.

** Even more teary if you go to see one of his concerts -- when Billy does "Goodnight Saigon" live, he has all the roadies who were Vietnam veterans come out and sing with him on on that one bit.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG5H139_LaU "Downeaster Alexa"]], about a small Long Island fisherman who was finding it increasingly difficult to work the seas, particularly through commercial fishing fleets, restrictive policies and the conversion of his island home into a resort town.

--> Brenda and Eddie had had it already
By the summer of '75
From the high to the low to the end of the show
For the rest of their lives.

--> And here we are wavin' Brenda and Eddie goodbye.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9591zjK_n08 "Say Goodbye to Hollywood"]] is this, CMOA, and a CMOH (to Ronnie Specter who first sang it, as a reference to leaving her abusive marriage to Phil Spector). The tearjerker part comes in when the narrator sings about how many people come in and out of their life, and that even includes dear friends. No other song has captured the emotions of moving on from a relationship than this.

[[BillyJoel This legendary singer/songwriter]] has his fair share of songs that [[TearJerker can make one cry]].

* "And So It Goes"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHO6a2H-pqY]]. This song can affect anyone who is going through a tumultuous relationship with a loved one.

* Even grown men have cried at the end of "Goodnight Saigon"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6gZefW4yEA]] -- when all the voices, presumably of the soldier's lost comrades, join in with:

* "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcnd55tLCv8]]. Especially when combined with the video.

* "Leningrad"[[http://youtube.com/watch?v=LgD_-dRZPgs]], which is based on a true story.

* "Where's the Orchestra". [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX3nFG6Js-Y]]

* "James"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HXjtlDjdP4]]:

* "Honesty" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuFScoO4tb0]] is a pretty good description of what it feels like to have a depressive meltdown. If you've been there, this song stings.

* "Tomorrow is Today"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xN3hbJG2tc]], even more so because the lyrics were taken from Billy's suicide note.

* "Piano Man"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxEPV4kolz0]]. For such a [[LyricalDissonance cheerful]] song it has a surprising amount of depressing imagery.

* "She's Always A Woman"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI3MwwWYC3Q]]... especially if you've been in a relationship with someone who wasn't all that great to you, but you can't help but love them anyways.
* Taken by themselves, "Stop in Nevada"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diwthuGGkes]] and "If I Only Had the Words"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VNmAxAbJ50]] are pretty depressing in their own right - the first is an elegaic song about a woman finally escaping her loveless marriage and terrible life for California, [[TitleDrop stopping in Nevada]], but the song's melody implies that this, too, will be a mistake for her; the second is another slow song about how a man cannot explain everything he wants to towards the woman he loves, and can only offer physical comfort to her. However, the two songs are placed chronologically next to each other on the Piano Man album. Together, they can be seen as counterpoints to each other, and become about a billion times more depressing.
* The sheer depression of "Allentown"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHnJp0oyOxs]]. Dead end jobs, dead end lives, and the slow decay of everything in the town from the factories to the people. And as if that weren't bad enough, the song ends with the narrator either dying or killing himself.

* From "Innocent Man"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H23tUK3z17U]], seeing someone pull away and into themselves, not because of anything you've done, but because they can't find the strength to trust again. And knowing you can't fix it because they won't let you.

* "Downeaster Alexa"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG5H139_LaU]], about a small Long Island fisherman who was finding it increasingly difficult to work the seas, particularly through commercial fishing fleets, restrictive policies and the conversion of his island home into a resort town.