Most moving songs you ever listened to?

So many excellent choices on this list (really liked Ken's nod to Singing in the Rain). I'd add:

"Time in a Bottle" - Jim Croce
"Hurt" - Johnny Cash
"Dancing Cheek to Cheek" - duet between Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
"Pussywillows, Cattails" - Gordon Lightfoot
"Don't Take the Girl" - Tim McGraw
"Last Kiss" - Pearl Jam
"Say Something" - Great Big World
"I Want You Here" - Plumb
The Schindler's List soundtrack

(Yeah, I know, I have an eclectic taste.)

Loving You - Minnie Riperton

Sailing Round The Room by Emmy Lou Harris - a song about dying that is both sad and comforting.

The Scientist by Coldplay always gets me. It's been one of my favourites since I was a teenager, and still today if I listen to it when I'm feeling low, it moves me to tears.

I always end up in tears when I listen to the song Kokoro by the Vocaloid Rin Kagamine. the translation is so sad and the video is heart breaking at the end.

I have three:

One, about a real fire in Montana in the 40s. "Cold Missouri Waters"-- (the version done by Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, and Lucy Kaplansky). The lyrics themselves are sad and true, and the harmonies are heartbreakingly beautiful:

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Cold+Missouri+Waters/1f8CzV?src=5

Also, Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Stones in the Road." I like the version by Joan Baez-- her voice is so measured and mature, like roughed up velvet.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Stones+In+The+Road/4vH6TX?src=5

Randy Newman's "Baltimore," done by Nina Simone...so beautiful:
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Baltimore/3Yp4Xs?src=5

All these songs give me chills, and bring tears to my eyes.

Driving. Radio on. And this came on. Stevie Wonder: All About You. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ9Pa41KJjM

Turned the volume full blast. Cried with arms flying out the window, driving with knees. Up and down a dirt road.

Anything Stevie. He cuts right to my heart. Always has.

Delta Rae's Dance in the Graveyards ("When I die, I don't wanna rest in peace. I wanna dance in joy. I wanna dance in the graveyards, the graveyards.")

Hazel O'Connor's Will You and its amazing, heartbreaking saxophone solo at the end. ("I wonder if you'll stay now, stay now, stay now, stay now or will you just politely say good night.")

Eels' Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) ("Now what you say if I told you that everyone thinks you're a crazy old cat?"). This is the one I go to when I need to be lifted up from the ground and need to be reminded everything's fine.

"Abraham, Martin and John", recorded by Dion, don't know who the composer was.

Several by Neil Young: "Birds", "Here We Are in the Years", "The Old Laughing Lady", "After the Gold Rush", "On the Way Home".

And I'll throw in a couple of instrumentals: "The Supernatural", by Peter Green, recorded only on an album of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers from around 1968, and even earlier, "Apache", by Danish Guitarist Jorgen Ingmann.

caw

My Sweet Lord - George Harrison

(and I'm not even religious)

Amazing Grace (when done right) has to be one of the original tearjerkers. I agree with Cat's in the Cradle, especially now that my kids are grown and it reminds me that I sometimes failed as a parent too. Others:

Red Dirt Girl, by Emmylou Harris
Losing My Religion, by R.E.M.
Once I Was, by Tim Buckley
Our Town, by Iris DeMent (I first heard it in the very least scene of the very last episode of Northern Exposure and bawled).

Not the best song, but the one that moved me the most: "One Tin Soldier"; the Coven version used in the movie "Billy Jack." I felt the song and the movie matched each other perfectly.

Yikes! I have hundreds in my head, but to name a few:

Shinedown: Call Me
Led Zeppelin: Going to California
Death: Without Judgement

A Boy and His Frog by Tom Smith, about Jim Henson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9kT1xIpZ4E

Desperado by the Eagles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDNtqy0zjJA but the first time I heard this song, I was making a mix-cd for my dad's wake. So it stuck with me.

Push The Sky Away by Nick Cave, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzTCbaZj5HA seeing it live made me tear up.

I was more familiar with the Rolling Stones' version but one day, a friend of mine played Marianne Faithfull's As Tears Go By from 1965. He then played her 1987 version without telling me who it was. When he told me it was the same person, I was floored and could then hear that yes, it was the same person singing both versions. The 1987 version is heartbreaking for me because it reminds me of his death in 1993 and the opportunities I missed.

And I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it, but Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah is nothing short of amazing.

And there are just too many versions of Shubert's Ave Maria to count so I'm going to single out Chris Cornell, Deanna Durbin, and Nina Hagen.

BenPanced said:

And I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it, but Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah is nothing short of amazing.

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It is, but I'm annoyed that's the only song anyone ever mentions off "Grace." That entire album is brilliant.

Gotta agree on "My Sweet Lord." Sang it at a funeral once, really hit home.

"She's Always a Woman" by Billy Joel. I love how he flips it into minor for a little tiny bit.
"Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" by Flaming Lips
"Man Like You" by Patrick Watson. Actually, the whole Wooden Arms album is golden.
Ray Charles and Count Basie's version of "The Long and Winding Road."

And a whole slew of classical music. Particularly, the opening 10 minutes of Mahler's 10th, Rachmaninov's Prelude in D, and John Adams' Grand Pianola Music.

"O re Piya" A great love song, but not in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5awZ9sOTA54
And a few of Nusrat. Not that I understand it, but then, a lot of his fans don't. For those who don't know, he is considered to be the greatest Southeast Asian singer, and one of the best singers in recorded history. The "raagas" are just amazing. No words, just pure vocal notes and emotion, transcending language all together. (To be honest, I just skip most of the song just to get to those bits.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvQVxrMZB18 I just skip to 8:10 and listen over and over. Although there are others more emotional, this is my favorite one.

blacbird said:

... and even earlier, "Apache", by Danish Guitarist Jorgen Ingmann.

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And even earlier, by The Shadows.

And, speaking of instrumentals, what about Albatross?

Wait a second, I mean Albatross.

So many to choose...

"Don't take the Girl" by Tim McGraw
"The River" by Garth Brooks
"Sober" by P!nk
"Hurt" by Christina Aguilera
"Without You" by Hinder
"Alive" by SR-71
"Simple Man" by Shinedown


I've got lots more, but those come to mind immediately.

Just realised I didn't mention The Wall by Pink Floyd. As in, the whole thing. It's an emotional roller-coaster from beginning to end, imo.

It's not the most moving song I have ever heard, but Fast Car by Tracy Chapman came on while I was at work yesterday, and it just stopped me in my tracks. I had to listen to every word and couldn't do anything else until it was over.
As a novel writer, I find the ability to tell a complete story that touches your soul in something as short as a song is such an art.

Saddest has to be 'Casimir Pulaski Day' by Sufjan Stevens.

But I want euphoric then I guess it's 'Mr Blue Sky' by the Electric Light Orchestra.