3 Rock Songs From 1985 That Still Make Tough Guys Cry

These three rock songs from 1985 will bring tears to your eyes. Whether they are painfully poignant love songs or odes to loneliness, no one is safe when these songs come on. If you’re looking for an emotional release, revisit these three tracks.

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“I Want To Know What Love Is” — Foreigner

Rockers in the 80s were able to drum up emotion that modern artists can’t touch. There was a freedom of expression back then that made every song feel like an outpouring from the soul. Take Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is” for example. This high-flying, sanguine song hits the listener at full force.

“Can’t stop now, I’ve traveled so far / To change this lonely life,” the lyrics read. The listener is washed in frontman Lou Gramm’s passion as he sings about finally finding love. If you let yourself really sink into these lyrics, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with emotions.

“Home Sweet Home” — Mötley Crüe

Homesickness has never sounded as rock & roll as it does on Mötley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home.” “Just take this song / And you’ll never feel left all alone / Take me to your heart / Feel me in your bones,” the lyrics read. Sure, we’re not all famous rock stars traveling the world, but that sense of loneliness and longing will undoubtedly be a familiar feeling.

The lines “I’m on my way / Home sweet home” hit the listener right in the gut. You can feel the band’s desperation to leave behind life on the road for something more stable. Anyone longing for home will struggle not to get emotional while listening to this track.

“Every Time You Go Away” — Paul Young

Paul Young’s “Every Time You Go Away” is a famous cover of a Daryl Hall track. This is the kind of love song that feels like a knife in the gut. “Every time you go away / You take a piece of me with you,” Young sings in this heartbreaking track.

If you’ve ever had to be separated from someone you love, you’ll know the painful reality he’s singing about here. “Go on and go free, yeah / Maybe you’re too close to see / I can feel your body move / Doesn’t mean that much to me,” the lyrics read, filling the listener with existential views on love.

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