Funeral: Songs of Mourning

Public figures' private loss led to two quintessential songs of mourning and faith in Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven" (written with lyricist Will Jennings after the fatal fall of Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor) and Faith Evans with 112 and P. Diddy on "I'll Be Missing You" (a reworking of the Police's "I'll Be Watching You" after the ambush shooting of Evans' husband, rapper Biggie Smalls). Celine Dion's performance of "My Heart Will Go On," in contrast, grew not from real life, but out of the sweeping movie melodrama of Titanic — though Jennings gets credit here, too, for putting the emotions into words.

The Williams Brothers' "Can't Cry Hard Enough" may not have been a big pop hit, but the poetic portrayal of the struggle to let go is perhaps the most moving, sure-fire tear-bringer on our entire playlist. But the ache of loss is not always in the heart, as the Tony Rich Project notes with "My Stomach Hurts." And among recent rockers, Jimmy Eat World sets the tone for emo regrets with the wondering "Hear You Me." But what to make of Ted Nugent going gooey while lamenting being "Alone"?

When a song is emotionally entwined with the loss of the artist behind it, the impact is doubled. Warren Zevon wrote and recorded "Keep Me in Your Heart" in the months before succumbing to lung cancer in 2003, exposing the tender heart that his fans always knew was under his curmudgeonly exterior.

Some songs of loss are also songs of hope. Others are songs of celebration. Others, still, are songs of acceptance. In any case, sorrow has inspired a lot of music, from massive requiems to New Orleans funeral second-lines. In the context of pop, rock, and country hits, a tendency toward maudlin sentimentality can be offset by wistfulness and simplicity of images and melody, whether from Eric Clapton or Master P, tapping what may be the most basic emotion. And they're not all about death — just as often mourning lost love, lost friendship, even lost youth and innocence. And with the best of them, you don't have to be feeling what the artists are in order to appreciate the expression.