Songs that reliably make you happy-cry - or just make you happy

I actually have whole playlists of songs like this. Am I the only one?

Can’t pick an absolute favorite but the Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost in You” is right up there. Anybody else?

Danny’s Song by Loggins & Messina makes me cry.

Gets me “right there”. Every time.

Sinead O’Connor, “This is to Mother You”

Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, reliably makes every Virginia Tech student, faculty, alumni and fan very happy. Very puzzling for psychologists

Ha. That works.

The Pretenders’ “Hymn to Her”

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole

^^LOVE that version!

Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love”

Richard Thompson’s “Vincent Black Lightening 1952.”

Bobby Gentry “Ode to Billy Jo.”

Johnny Cash’s cover of The Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.”

Gordon Lightfoot “Sundown”.

Nanci Griffith’s version of “From Clare to Here”

Danny boy. Absolutely

Beatles’ Wednesday Child

Now I detour to just a few musicals. I know I could include so many more, at least one favorite from each .

Brigadoon:
come to me, bend to me
it’s almost like being in love

Miss Saigon:

 I’d give my life to you 
 I still believe
 Now that I’ve seen her

Les miserables:
Castle on a cloud
I dreamed a dream
Fantine’s death: Come to me

Sure, musicals are fair game. :smile: “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was my mom’s go-to for a good sob.

Patty Griffin’s “Be Careful.”

Pretty much all Eliza Gilkyson. . . .

Tears: ABBA’s ‘Slipping through my fingers’. Reduces me to tears every time, even thinking of it makes my eyes water.

Dance, sing, smile:

Men without Hats - You can dance if you want to’
Van Morrison/J. Buffet - Brown eyed girl
ABBA - Waterloo, Take a Chance and many more (A big fan long before the Mama Mia crazy)

And…yes… I’ll admit it…Y.M.C.A …can’t sit thru that one.

One that makes me smile and cry - and already mentioned

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole

It was the father/daughter and extended family dance at D’s wedding.

Pomp and Circumstance at my kids’ graduations.

Joni Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning” - such a joyous vision of a perfect morning. My favorite verse:

“Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses
Oh, won’t you stay
We’ll put on the day
And we’ll talk in present tenses”

Paul Simon’s “Father and Daughter,” if we’re going there.

I agree with many upthread.

For me another that makes me cry is Chris Cornell singing Ave Maria.

Happyish, nostalgic feels:

REM, Night Swimming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahJ6Kh8klM4

Ben Howard, Old Pine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8ccDb6n5Wg

Avett Brothers, Laundry Room
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C77DFsPKxv0

There’s a Place for Us (West Side Story) pretty much any version, but the Tom Waits one almost guarantees my tears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO150w6iFwQ

Not happy, but gets me every time.

Cats in the Cradle by Henry Chapin. Incredibly sad song about a father son relationship.

Jobim’s Aguas de Marco, especially David Byrne’s rendition, always makes me happy and a reminder to focus on beauty around me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US1f_XSuRAA

Honestly, Jobim’s and David Lynch’s bodies of work makes me happy so no surprise that this piece of both of them pleases me so much.