Best Songs About Crying

I'm in a great mood because I have a good group of students this summer. The pooch is mopey, though, because he wants to go outside and it's raining — Franco hates getting wet almost as much as I hate Jimmy Buffett's music.

So, to taunt the little hellhound, and to amuse myself, I've compiled a list of my favorite songs about crying. It wasn't easy; I have several hundred songs on my iTunes players that include some form of crying in the title.

My ground rules:
• No more than one song by an artist (thus, both The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Cry Baby Cry" couldn't make the list.)
• Only one version of a song.
• Each song must have a form of "cry," "tears," "weep" or "sob" in the title, which is the only reason I'm not including James Carr's "These Aren't Raindrops," which is, in fact, about crying.
• All songs must have lyrics, which eliminates scores of instrumental jazz tunes I love.
• No songs by Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel and Celine Dion would be considered.

That said, here's my list:
1. Hank Williams: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
2. O.V. Wright: "You're Gonna Make Me Cry"
3. Dinah Washington: "Cry Me a River"
4. Alejandro Escovedo: "Pyramid of Tears"
5. Patsy Cline: "I Cried All the Way to the Altar"
6. Aretha Franklin: "Mary, Don't You Weep"
7. Big Maybelle: "I Don't Want to Cry"
8. Elmore James: "The Sky is Crying"
9. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles: "Tracks of My Tears"
10. Ray Charles: "Drown in My Own Tears"
11. Bob Marley: "No Woman No Cry"
12. Gatemouth Moore: "Cryin' and Singin' The Blues"
13. Son Volt: "Tear Stained Eye"
14. Howling Wolf: Crying at Daybreak"
15. The Kinks: "Stop Your Sobbing"
16. Etta James: "Losers Weepers"
17. Solomon Burke and Gillian Welch: "Valley of Tears"
18. Bettye LaVette: "Your Turn to Cry"
19. Roy Orbison: "Crying"
20. The Beatles: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
21. Chris Gaffney: "See the Big Man Cry"
22. Otis Spann: "Crying Time"
23. Gladys Knight: "Didn't You Know (You'd Have to Cry Sometime)"
24. Hank Thompson: "Cryin' in the Deep Blue Sea"
25. Ernie K-Doe: "I Cried My Last Tear"
26. Jackie Wilson: "Lonely Teardrops"
27. Bob Dylan, "Baby Stop Crying"
28. Billie Holiday: "I Cried for You"
29. Rockpile: "Crying in the Rain"
30. Conway Twitty: "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain"
31. Jimmy Reed: "Cry Before I Go"
32. Betty Harris: "Cry Baby"
33. The Rolling Stones: "Fool to Cry"
34. Shirley Horn: "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying"
35. The Jacobites: "It'll All End Up in Tears"
36. Gram Parsons: "Cry One More Time"
37. Ofer Golany: "A Weeping Eye"
38. Bobby "Blue" Bland: "Don't Cry No More"
39. Teddy Thompson: "My Blue Tears"
40. Bob Mould: "Stop Your Crying"
41. William Bell: "Crying All By Myself"
42. Mary Gauthier: "Your Sister Cried"
43. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys: "I Laugh When I Think How I Cried Over You"
44. Johnny Dynamite: "The Night the Angels Cried"
45. The Intruders: "Teardrops"
46. Elvis Presley: "Crying in the Chapel"
47. Roger Miller: "Lock, Stock and Teardrops"
48. Charles Brown: "I Cried Last Night"
49. Koko Taylor: "That's Why I'm Crying"
50. Al Green: "Keep Me Crying"
51. INXS: "Bitter Tears"
52. Jessie Mae Hemphill: "Standing in My Doorway Crying"
53. Bessie Smith: "Sobbing Hearted Blues"
54. Sweet Betty: "Your Tears Become My Tears"
55. ? and the Mysterians: "96 Tears"
56. Los Lobos: "Tears Inside"
57. Teenage Fanclub: "Tears"
58. Sonnyboy Williamson: "The Sun is Crying"
59. Garnet Mims: "Baby Don't You Weep"
60. Irma Thomas: "Somewhere Crying"
61. Buddy Miller: "Sometimes I Cry"
62. Marah: Crying on an Airplane"
63. Betty Everett: "Ain't Gonna Cry"
64. Van Morrison: "Don't Start Crying Now/Custard Pie"
65. Otis Clay: "Cry Cry Cry"
66. Tammi Terrell: "Tears at the End of a Love Affair"
67. John Primer: "Crying for Your Love"
68. Annie Ross and Zoot Sims: "I Don't Want to Cry Anymore"
69. Janiva Magness: "I Can't Stop Crying"
70. Jimmy D. Lane: "Tears Without a Shoulder"
71. Brenda Lee: "The Crying Game"
72. Robbie Fulks: "Busy Not Crying"
73. The Skeletons: "Teardrop City"
74. Paul Westerberg: "Tears Rolling Up Our Sleeves"
75. The Gizmos: "Cry Real Tears"
76. Little Anthony and the Imperials: "Tears on My Pillow"
77. Darrell Banks: "I'm Gonna Hang My Head and Cry
78. Lucero: "Tears Don't Matter Much"
79. Dusty Springfield: "Every Day I Have to Cry"
80. Jason Ringenberg: "Trail of Tears"
81. The Spanic Boys: "Tears of Happiness"
82. Pavement: "Ann Don't Cry"
83. Mississippi John Hurt: "Blind Man Sit in the Way and Cried"
84. Steve Earle: "The Boy Who Never Cried"
85. Lavern Baker: "I Cried a Tear"
86. B.B. King: "Crying Won't Help You Now"
87. Golden Smog: "Yesterday Cried"
88. Ruth Brown: "Don't Cry"
89. Lou Rawls: "So Hard to Laugh, So Hard to Cry"
90. Beck: "Lonesome Tears"
91. The Jayhawks: "Sister Cry"
92. Buzz Busby: "I'll Cry Tomorrow"
93. The Shangri-las: "He Cried"
94. The Gentlemen: "It's a Crying Shame"
95. The Ramones: "Come Back, She Cried a.ka. I Walked Out"
96. John Hammond: "Standing Around Crying"
97. Buddy Guy: "Sit and Cry (The Blues)"
98. Jim Lauderdale: "When the Devil Starts Crying"
99. The 5 Royales: "Tears of Joy"
100. Erma Franklin: "Don't Have the Right to Cry"