Grace And Danger album by John Martyn. Every track - especially Hurt In Your Heart.

Tony Joe White - For Ol' Times Sake

The Temptations - Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)

The Smiths - There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

Paul McCartney and Wings - My Love

and the one that tells you to stop feeling so bloody sorry for yourself...

Peter Hammill - Crying Wolf

"Lover You Should've Come Over" Jeff Buckley

"A Case of You" Joni Mitchell

"Let Me Down Easy" Bettye Lavette

"Do What You Do Gotta" Four Tops

"In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" Frank Sinatra

I Can Let Go Now -- Michael McDonald

It Makes No Difference -- The Band

It's the Same Old Song -- Four Tops

Funny How Time Slips Away -- (choose your version, but I'll go for Joe Hinton)

Go Now -- Bessie Banks

In the time before downloads, iPod or even computer ownership I made a heartbroken tape that I called Catharsis.

I should still have it (what? chuck tapes away? are you MAD??) it included such gems as:

I Want You - Elvis Costello
Drown In My Own Tears - Ray Charles
Wee Small Hours - Sinatra
Are You Happy Now? - Thomas Lang
The Other Me - Joe Jackson
Last Night I Dreamt - Smiths
How Soon Is Now - Smiths
You Were Made For me - Jewel

I know that's more than 5.....

And I think I would have to add:

Forget Her - Jeff Buckley.

Blimey there are some great things chosen so far. Here's another five.

"Nothing Compares To You" - Sinead O'Connor
"What'll I Do ?" - The Garrigle Family (or indeed anyone)
"You've Changed" - Billie Holiday
"Golden Rings" - George Jones & Tammy Wynette (edging out George's "The Grand Tour". And the wonderful "He Stopped Loving Her Today", which hovers just on the right side of bathos.)
"Loving Arms" - Millie Jackson ("I'd like to dedicate this song to my husband, wherever he is"...ooops)

Long Distance Love - Little Feat
Dry Your Eyes Mate - The Streets
A Rainy Night In Soho - The Pogues
Can We Still Be Friends - Todd Rundgren
Boulder To Birmingham - Emmylou Harris

Sad - very,very sad.

He's always being chucked! Even his greatest detractors will acknowledge that these are great songs:

Bed's too Big Without You
Can't Stand Losing You
Every Breath You Take
So Lonely

But...No Regrets by The Walker Brothers wins it for me because it is restrained, dignified and stoic even though heartbreak is going on.

Oh, and every other ABBA song is seemingly about them splitting up with each other.

Best break up Album…

‘Car Wheels on gravel Road’. I’d been a fan of Lucinda Williams before my D.I.V.O.R.C.E, but almost every track on this album seemed to soundtrack my heartbreak. Because she knew what I was going through it was a genuine… er… comfort. The one song that had me sobbing when I heard it for 1st time at live show, was Richard Thompsons ‘The Uninhabited Man’.. “who’s been sleeping in my bed”, indeed!!!

she thinks I still care -george jones
best friends girl friend - cars

Some examples.

* I Keep Forgettin' I Forgot About You
* I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well
* Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissing You Goodbye
* Mama Get A Hammer, (There's A Fly On Papa's Head)
* Her Teeth Was Stained, But Her Heart Was Pure
* How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?
* I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling
* I Just Bought A Car From A Guy That Stole My Girl, But The Car Don't Run So I Figure We Got An
Even Deal
* I Still Miss You Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better
* I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win
* I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like Having You Here
* If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You
* If I Had Shot You When I Wanted To, I'd Be Out By Now
* I Can't Get Over You, So Why Don't You Get Under Me?
* My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, and I Sure Do Miss Him
* She Got the Ring and I Got the Finger
* I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except For Mine
* She Got the Goldmine and I Got the Shaft
* You Done Tore Out My Heart and Stomped that Sucker Flat
* If The Phone Don't Ring, It's Me
* Tennis Must Be Your Racket 'Cause Love Means Nothin' To You
* Thank God And Greyhound She's Gone
* How Can You Believe Me When I Say I Love You When You Know I've
Been A Liar All My Life?
* I Would Have Wrote You A Letter, But I Couldn't Spell Yuck
* If You Don't Leave Me Alone, I'll Go And Find Someone Else Who Will
* My John Deere Was Breaking Your Field, While Your Dear John Was Breaking My Heart
* Oh, I've Got Hair Oil On My Ears And My Glasses Are Slipping Down, But Baby I Can See Through You
* Velcro Arms, Teflon Heart
* You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly
* If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?

I Eat Dinner - Kate (RIP) & Anna McGarrigle
Waiting for the Moving Van - David Ackles

... oh, and Marvin's "Here, My Dear" album, sort of taken as a whole.

The Magnetic Fields - I Thought You Were My Boyfriend

Desperation, self loathing, a certain undignified clinginess and a sense of wounded pride being salvaged with white lies and the selective rewriting of history, all wrapped up in pulsing 80s-inpsired synth pop. I Will Survive has long since descended into the realms of cliché. This is the new break up song that you can dance to.

Dana & Karen Kletter - Father Song

A young girl mournfully ponders the systematic removal of her father from her life: His initial departure from the family home disguised as a vacation, and the subsequent attempts to evict his memory, while she wonders how she will find her way without him and whether, in his absence, he will forget about her.

Concrete Blonde - Long Time Ago...

This succinct, acid-tongued kiss-off played at the end of The Shield series finale as the last word on Detective Vic Mackey’s seven seasons of criminal misdeeds. It was a good choice even if the lyrics didn’t completely match the events on the screen. “You think there’s some connection, that I’m your female reflection, but no...” sings Johnette Napolitano.

Ben Folds – Landed

Ben Folds wrote this song about a close friend emerging in a daze from a toxic relationship that saw him isolated from friends and family and forced to inhabit his partner’s reality; “the daily dramas she made from nothing so nothing ever made them right.”

Belle & Sebastian - Jonathan David

Stuart Murdoch contemplates the double blow of losing the woman he loves to his best friend, and the even more devastating prospect of losing his best friend to the ensuing relationship.

1) She Thinks I Still Care - George Jones
2) Please Send Me Someone To Love - Fred Neil
3) I Am Lonely - Bert Jansch
4) Everybody Dance - Chic (I am serious here. "Dancing helps relieve the pain, soothes your mind, makes you happy again etc")
5) Get Out My Life Woman - Lee Dorsey

1. Don't Think Twice It's Alright
2. Boots Of Spanish Leather
3. I Threw It All Away
4. Not Dark Yet
5. If You See Her Say Hello

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - Al Green.
Cry Me a River - Julie London.
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Cowboy Junkies.
Fool That I am - Etta James.
I've Been Loving You Too Long -Otis Redding.

That's more than enough.

Boo Hewerdine's album Ignorance is a rather brilliant break-up album, full of tracks detailing the pain, longing, recriminations, and regret of failed relationships.
http://open.spotify.com/album/20TH9qga3gM7Wo6NFh8UtN

.....Queen are not a band I associate with break-up songs but I remember hearing ‘It’s a Hard Life’ on the radio when I’d just been dumped many years back and the lyrics really did knock me for six. It would make my own top 5.

Queen – It’s A Hard Life
Al Green – How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate
Nilsson – Without You
Level 42 – It’s Over

(apologies for the Level 42, couldn’t help myself, decent tune though……………..i’ll get me coat;o)

Rather ambiguous, but that makes it even better - it suits the situation perfectly nevertheless. Resigned and acceptant but also wistful and nostalgic. Genius is present here I believe.

I love both Steve Earle's original version of Goodbye and Emmylou Harris's cover. What could be better than the two of them singing the song together?

My favourite break up song is Hasn't Hit Me Yet by Blue Rodeo. I would guess 99% of the Massive don't know this song, so give it a try:

Neither of these songs have been required to help me through a break up as Mrs P and I have been together longer than either of these songs.

is something of a master on these matters (with of course Bacharach supplying the marvellous melodies). How about

Walk on by (Dionne Warwick)
Make it easy on yourself (Walker Brothers)
Just don't know what to do with myself (Dusty)
Anyone who had a heart (Dionne or Cilla)
Always something there to remind me (Sandie Shaw)

But nothing really tops Sinatra's Wee Small Hours (above) for sheer heart-wrenching melencholy.
Sob! (It's happening to me..)

KD Lang: Constant Craving. She used to sing it to me in bed.... when we split up, took on an etirely different meaning.

- With You, Without You
What Matters Isn't Easy Any More (Micky Greaney)
I Can't Stand The Rain (Ann Peebles)
Couldn't Do Nothing Right (Various versions but I like Tracey Nelson's)
Walk Away Renee (Left Banke or The Truth)

All the Rage
"So don't try to touch my heart, it's darker than you think
And don't try to read my mind because it's full of disappearing ink"

Just About Glad
"And though the passion still flutters and flickers
It never got into our knickers
For all of the courage that we never had
I'm just about glad"

So Like Candy
"Here lie the records that she scratched
And on the sleeve I find a note attached
And it's so like Candy
"My Darling Dear it's such a waste"
She couldn't say "goodbye", but "I admire your taste"

I Hope You're Happy Now
"I knew then what I know now I never loved you anyhow
And I hope you're happy now"

No Action
"I don't wanna kiss you. I don't wanna touch.
I don't wanna see you 'cause I don't miss you that much"

My Dictionary - XTC (AP's attempt not to write a bitter divorce song)
When She Loved Me - Randy Newman (the 3rd Toy Story film isn't the only one people cry at)
You Little Theif - Fergal Sharkey (and yes, the other one)
Pretty much all of Blood On teh Tracks but to pick one -'Idiot Wind'
Broken Heart - Spiritualized

I can't make you love me - Bonnie Raitt. A real 'once more for old times' sake' song.
If I can't change your mind - Sugar.
I'd rather be blind - Chicken Shack.
You on my mind - Swing Out Sister. It's sounds happy but it's broken inside. Just like you and your shattered heart...

And when you're feeling a bit more together then Baby Bitch by Ween is a perfect 'f*ck you'!

Looking for Astronauts

* The XX - 'Heart Skipped A Beat'
* Blur - 'No Distance Left To Run'
* Bob Dylan - 'Simple Twist Of Fate'
* The National - 'About Today'
* Sinéad O'Connor - 'Nothing Compares 2 U'

And the (shared) prize for wittiest break up song goes to...
Jens Lekman - 'I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You'
Whiskeytown - 'Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight'