Celluloid Heroes, by the Kinks.

Time Stand Still by Rush.

"Summer's going fast, nights growing colder
Children growing up, old friends growing older"

Haunting guest vocals by Aimee Mann, as well.

When I was in high school, we used to sit on the stage in the auditorium between rehearsals and drink Cokes and play Come Sail Away on the sound system.

Wenn es passiert by German band Wir sind Helden

Oh, and Peter Gabriels In your eyes still gets me.

Wish you Were Here, by Pink Floyd.

I'm immediately transported back to my graduate school bar, The Robbie Burns, sitting with my friend T, drinking red wine in the corner and listening to her ramble about poetry and philosophy, which was a nice break from my labwork. The bar owner *loved* Pink Floyd and would play it every damned night.

The Final Cut

Pink Floyd

through the fish eyed lens of tear stained eyes
i can barely define the shape of this moment in time
and far from flying high in clear blue skies
i'm spiralling down to the hole in the ground where i hide
if you negotiate the minefield in the drive
and beat the dogs and cheat the cold electronic eyes
and if you make it past the shotgun in the hall
dial the combination. open the priesthole
and if i'm in i'll tell you what's behind the wall
there's a kid who had a big hallucination
making love to girls in magazines
he wonders if you're sleeping with your new found faith
could anybody love him
or is it just a crazy dream
and if i show you my dark side
will you still hold me tonight
and if i open my heart to you
and show you my weak side
what would you do
would you sell your story to rolling stone
would you take the children away
and leave me alone
and smile in reassurance
as you whisper down the phone
would you send me packing
or would you take me home
thought i oughta bare my naked feelings
thought i oughta tear the curtain down
i held the blade in trembling hands
prepared to make it but just then the phone rang
i never had the nerve to make the final cut

The Replacements' "Little Mascara" was the soundtrack to a broken heart I had a very long time ago. I played the cassette in my father's car, driving at speeds that would terrify me today, singing my misheard version of the lyrics at the top of my voice.

There are only two songs that used to hit me - and it's been a long time since either did. Both really struck a nerve when I lost my dad at the age of 13. One was (various folks doing) Always Something There to Remind Me - I think the Naked Eyes' version was out around then, so it's likely the most likely candidate to have got me.

The other was Wilie Nelson's version of "Always on my Mind".

It's funny, really, because neither song was particularly aimed at a thirteen year old boy who's dad had died, but man alive...they sure tugged at my heartstrings.

After a particularly bad breakup, I couldn't listen to the Ben Folds Five album Whatever and Ever Amen for years. YEARS. Which sucked, because I had just discovered how amazingly awesome it was.

I'm much better now -- down to one pangs-after-another-breakup song, World Spins Madly On by the Weepies. (Aaaaand okay... remembering how I jokingly referred to that boyfriend as an ogre, both while dating and not, that video doesn't help.)

BUT!

"More Than A Feeling" is THE song evoking all those rides home from hockey practice in high school. Freshman girl, senior boys -- ooh la la!

Oh man, trurl. Soundtrack to a broken heart. I've got some of those. In my 'sentimental song' example the sentimentality was more a quality of the song itself and of me being a straight guy. Not a trigger for a personal memory.

This tearjerker is something that cut me to the bone when I had a broken heart a long time ago. The Dutch text is unintelligible to you peeps. So I'm imagining I'm safe from the Judgement from the Indie Inquisition. :-)
So here's my embarrassing heartbreak song.
Looking back my total devastation is rather pathetic. But then any broken heart essentially is.

Heh. Janet, I've never heard that song. It has some baroque elements in the piano accompaniment.

Karel, that Wir sind Helden song is an interesting choice. I'll put that on rotation for a while.
I have to admit that German lyrics can touch me.

Ultravox - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes

Rainy Night in Georgia, by Brook Benton. I'm not really sure why; I'm sure it has something to do with still being in radio rotation when I was four and my parents divorced.

rollick: that Ultravox tune is on my list, too.

There's songs that make me sentimental because I remember listening to them in the past, but I can't think of any of the top of my head.

Then there's this song, which is new but which makes me sentimental in and of itself because it's so damn wistful: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Continued), the last track on the album of the same name and a sort of coda to the title track.

If I could have it back
All the time that we wasted
I'd only waste it again
If I could have it back
You know I would love to waste it again
Waste it again and again and again

Mentioned it among my All Time Top 40:
"That's the Way I Always Heard It Should Be" by Carly Simon

Lo-o-o-o-ong story (even too long for me?)

Oh, easy one. No song beats Baby, It's You for the opportunity for pure, banshee-wailing, naked emotion. The breakdown leading into that third chorus, uh. Originally done by the Shirelles.

Except maybe Without You. Originally done by Badfinger.

You can only write the song. The performer brings it alive.

Sentimental Songs.

This guy was a huge star when I was a kid. Seriously.

Richard Thompson, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning

The Replacements, Kiss Me On The Bus

Stiff Little Fingers, Suspect Device

Gun Club, Jack On Fire

Minutemen, History Lesson Part 2

Drive-By Truckers, Gravity's Gone

Each one conjures a place, a time, a feeling, a person, an event. Mr. Narrator, this is Bob Dylan to me.