What songs give you goosebumps?

The Star-Spangled Banner, when sung by a good vocalist in a live setting (before a race, at a ballgame, etc). I'm not usually very patriotic, but when a really good vocalist hits a great note in "land of the freeeeeee" - instant goosebumps.

Trampled by Turtles - Alone. The song builds to this amazing climax around 3 or 4 minutes in, with this amazing harmony and a cello behind all the other instruments.

Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine. This whole song is just one long goosebump-inducing piece of music. It's instrumental, yet they manage to convey more emotion just with music than most artists can do with lyrics.

Definitely a lot more, but those are the first three that immediately come to mind.

1. Opening riff of street fighting man - Rolling Stones

2. parts of I Will Always Love You - Houston/Parton

3. parts of Spirit of the Radio - Rush

4. The end of Nessun Dorma - Puccini

Goosebumps? From a song? WTF??? It's just a song...relax. Nothing worth getting excited about.

Atmosphere- Joy Division. Ian Curtis' voice is haunting.

grundlestiltskin wrote:

Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine. This whole song is just one long goosebump-inducing piece of music. It's instrumental, yet they manage to convey more emotion just with music than most artists can do with lyrics.

+1000

I'm dancing to this at my wedding, and I'd like to die with it playing in the background as well.

There's nothing like YHIM.

This song.. man every time... goosebumps makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Monster Mash. Man, that song is creepy.

An instrumental rendition of the song "Hector the Hero," performed by the Denver Brass and a pipe-and-drum band. Listening to it right now, in fact.

Two things make it work: first, it's a lament, and they play it as such--it's not meant to be up-tempo; second, I get goosebumps (and the hair on the back of my neck generally stands up) when the bagpipes come in.

But then I generally get goosebumps with anything that has pipes. Must be my Scots ethnic background, I suppose--pretty much anything with pipes makes me want to paint my face blue and go kill someone in the next valley.

BGuyJMilleniumXII wrote:

What songs have a powerful emotional resonance with you when you listen to them? In particular, these songs create such an emotional response that you have goosebumps when you listen to them.

Here are my top 3:

1. "I Believe I Can Fly" - R Kelly

2. Star Spangled Banner - various artists, especially Whitney Houston. The venue matters too.

3. How Do I say Goodbye - Boyz 2 Men

What are yours?

1) Amazing Grace (Newton)

2) His Eye Is On The Sparrow (Martin and Gabriel)

3) Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-A-Lot)

Father of Mine - Everclear

I feel for kids who were abandoned by their father and I can feel it when he sings it.

Father of mine

Tell me where have you been?

You know I just closed by eyes

My whole world disappeared

Father of mine

Take me back to the day

Yeah, when I was still your golden boy

Back before you went away

I remember blue skies walking the block

I loved it when you held me high

I loved to hear you talk

You would take me to the movie

You would take me to the beach

You would take me to a place inside

That\'s so hard to reach

Oh!

Father of mine

Tell me where did you go?

Yeah, you had the world inside your hand

But you did not seem to know

Father of mine

Tell me what do you see?

When you look back at your wasted life

And you don\'t see me

I was ten years old

Doin\' all that I could

It wasn\'t easy for me to be a scared white boy

In a black neighborhood

Sometimes you would send me a birthday card

With a five dollar bill

I never understood you then

And I guess I never will

Daddy gave me a name

(Then he walked away)

Daddy gave me a name

(Then he walked away)

Father of mine

Tell me where have you been?

Yeah, I just closed by eyes

And the world disappeared

Father of mine

Tell me how do you sleep?

With the children you abandoned

And the wife I saw you beat

I will never be safe

I will never be sane

I will always be weird inside

I will always be lame

Now I\'m a grown man

With a child of my own

And I swear, I\'ll never let her know

All the pain I have known

U2 BAD

The Edge wrote:

U2 BAD

+1

Corduroy by Pearl Jam

Flagpole wrote:

1) Amazing Grace (Newton)

This version certainly got me going:

It's a visceral reaction (helped again, no doubt, by the bagpipes), and independent of god-belief. As the man said: whatever your opinion of religion, ya gotta admit they got some of the music right.

Color My World by Chicago

agip wrote:

1. Opening riff of street fighting man - Rolling Stones

Agree. Also (sometimes) the opening of "Baba O'Reilly" (The Who).

The Cat Empire - Miserere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kpGOIqbHc

The Edge wrote:

U2 BAD

The intro to 'Where the Streets have no name'

Especially when played live

The theme song for "Cheers", when they hit the chorus:

Where everybody knows your name

And there always glad you came

Instant goosebumps, every time.