"Teardrops in the night: a discography of crying theme recordings, 1950-2000"

English teachers often discover that their students harbor strong emotions and deep sensitivities when they read tales of human pain and suffering. Beyond literary tragedies, instructors should consider utilizing commercial recording lyrics that depict situations where relationships degenerate into sorrow and anguish, leaving feelings of insecurity and remorse. Popular music abounds with crying themes. This study explores the remarkable variety of songs and singers that report reasons for tears, that assess the seemingly endless duration of weeping and wailing, and that seek a resolution to crying and moaning through a renewal of the same romantic cycle that prompted the original heartache. A selected discography of more that 120 recordings and a brief resource bibliography are provided at the end of the essay.