I know I’m totally biased when I say I’m excited for Valentine’s Day this year, because for the first time in four years I won’t be single. However, I know many of my fellow human beings will be. Worse, a lot of you will recovering from a break up.
Unfortunately, I don’t know any magic so I can’t cure you of your heart ache. What I can do, however, is provide you some tracks to help you on your road to romantic recovery, or at least get through the Valentine’s Day hump. These are not your mama’s “I’m so sad” break up songs. These are the songs you feel better after listening to them, not worse.
So buckle up, kids, and here we go!
20. “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”, Green Day
The History: Hands down, this song is in the top three of Green Day’s most popular songs. The song was released in 1997 on the band’s fifth album, Nimrod. It peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and eleven on the Billboard Top 40. Since then, it’s been used at every other graduation, and probably will be until the end of time.
Why it’s Great: This song has been used at more graduations than I could count, including one of my own, which has universally defined this song for a long time. However, I’d like to think that isn’t the only situation this song can be used and this is why. Not all break ups end up badly and end up in one or both parties wanting to slash the other’s tires. Sometimes, after some time has passed we can mend your relationship with this person to have a friendship. For those people (The rest of us are giving you jealous looks, just so you know.), this is the song for you. The song talks about being at a fork in the road, that it’s unpredictable (much like a break up). However, ultimately whatever road we chose was the right one. There are no hard feelings in this song, just a simple but wonderfully compelling message of “I hope you had the time of your life.” To have nothing but good wishes for your ex is something rare, and a song that shows them off is more rare than that.
We are currently seeking Music contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Music contributor, click here.
11 Comments
Song for the Dumped, by Ben Folds Five would easily be near the top of my list.
Totally agree with Song for the Dumped, which is funny considering how utterly depressing Ben Folds’ Brick is. He really runs the gamut.
Depressing song, after youve broken up, Here with me – the Killers
Just reading the titles of many of those songs has put me in a good mood.
FUN FACT – I will survive is actually about a break with a manager, not a partner. That it’s become a breakup classic is a great testament to the fact that, once it’s been released, a song belongs to the listener. It can be about whatever you want.
I remember reading somewhere that she was happily married at the time this song came out, which makes it even more ironic that most people view it as a break up song.
Ironic, certainly. But that’s one of my favourite things about music. Different people can hear different things.
It’s like Perfect Day by Lou Reed. That song really is just about a perfect day at the zoo. But people want it to be a drug song, so it becomes a drug song.
It says more about the people who apply such meanings than about the songs itself, but in the case of I Will Survive, I think it’s beautiful. People hear something that sounds inspirational so it becomes inspirational. The “true” meaning of the song does nothing to diminish their response.
I cannot believe Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” or “Stronger” (more like the former, really) did not make it anywhere on this list.
There were multiple versions of the list, which ultimately boiled down to what you see here. I wanted to have variety and didn’t want the list to just representative of the past 10-20 years, which would be be very easy to do considering how many pop songs are “moving on” break up songs. In my opinion, there are better songs than those two. However, I still think that Miss Clarkson is talented.
No Children by The Mountain Goats is just fantastic. A sincere, venom laced breakup song.
Quite disappointing that there is not a single song by The Cure. Songs like ‘Cut’, ‘How beautiful you are’ and loads of others are powerful and more emotional than some of the songs on this list.
My fav is “another me” by The Cab. Basically the lyrics are … I gave you everything u ever wanted. U gave me nothing but grief, well good luck finding another me. Also, “live and let die” by Wings.