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Songs about Regret

As the old proverbs have it, if you have nothing to regret, you simply haven't lived long enough yet. These are bittersweet reminiscences of things that have gone wrong, times we wish we'd had back, and the should-a would-a could-a that everybody accumulates. We can't turn back time, and even if we could, we'd usually find out that we would just mess things up a different way and have the same regrets - possibly an even bigger regret.

The thing to do is get some heavy philosophy. A young Tibetan man wanted to join the Buddhist temple and become a monk, but a local farmer with a pregnant daughter stopped him saying that the baby was the young man's, and demanded by the village's code of honor that he marry her. He said, "Is that so?" and agreed to the marriage, forsaking his life's dream. He worked his whole life in the fields as a farmer, raising the child into a fine young man, and when the child had grown, the man's wife turned to him one morning and said, "It wasn't really your child. We knew it was someone else's, but we knew you were an honorable man who would make a good father." And the would-be monk said, "Is that so?"

• 
  Alone and Forsaken
  Social Distortion
• 
  Always on My Mind
  Willie Nelson

  "Maybe I didn't love you quite as often as I could have
  And maybe I didn't treat you quite as good as I should have
  If I made you feel second best girl I'm sorry I was blind
  You were always on my mind you were always on my mind"

• 
  Butterfly
  Weezer
• 
  Cat's in the Cradle
  Harry Chapin

  "And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,
  He'd grown up just like me.
  My boy was just like me"

• 
  Chasing Pavements
  Adele
• 
  Choices
  George Jones

  "I've had choices since the day that I was born
  There were voices that told me right from wrong
  If I had listened, no I wouldn't be here today
  Living and dying with the choices I've made"

• 
  Collapsed
  Aly & AJ
• 
  Disappointing Show
  They Might Be Giants
• 
  Don't Know Why
  Norah Jones

  "Something has to make you run
  I don't know why I didn't come
  I feel as empty as a drum
  I don't know why I didn't come"

• 
  Don't Regret
  t.A.T.u.
• 
  Dreaming From the Waist
  Who, The
• 
  Dreams of the Everyday Housewife
  Glen Campbell

  "She looks in the mirror and stares at the wrinkles that weren't there yesterday
  And thinks of the young man that she almost married
  What would he think if he saw her this way"

• 
  Eddie Walker
  Ben Folds Five
• 
  Evaporated
  Ben Folds Five

  "I can't cry and I can't see
  What I've done
  God...What have I done
  So don't you know I'm numb, man
  No I don't feel a thing at all"

• 
  Free Fallin
  Tom Petty

  "And I’m a bad boy cause I don’t even miss her
  I’m a bad boy for breakin’ her heart"

• 
  Here Is Gone
  Goo Goo Dolls
• 
  Hovering Sombrero
  They Might Be Giants

  "Don't be burdened by regrets
  Or make your failures an obsession
  Or become embittered or possessed
  By ruined hopes"

• 
  How to Save a Life
  Fray, The

  "Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
  Somewhere along in the bitterness
  And I would have stayed up with you all night
  Had I known how to save a life"

• 
  Hurt
  Nine Inch Nails
• 
  Hurt
  Johnny Cash
• 
  I Threw It All Away
  Bob Dylan
• 
  I've Got a Match
  They Might Be Giants
• 
  If I Could Turn Back Time
  Cher

  "If I could turn back time
  If I could find a way
  I'd take back those words that hurt you
  And you'd stay"

• 
  If I Knew Then
  Lady Antebellum
• 
  In Between
  Linkin Park
• 
  Jealous Guy
  John Lennon

  "I didn't mean to hurt you
  I'm sorry that I made you cry
  Oh no, I didn't want to hurt you
  I'm just a jealous guy"

• 
  Kiss the Bottle
  Jawbreaker
• 
  Landslide
  Fleetwood Mac
• 
  Last Resort
  Papa Roach
• 
  Leave Out All The Rest
  Linkin Park
• 
  Low Man's Lyric
  Metallica
• 
  Maggie May
  Rod Stewart

  "Oh Maggie, I wish that I'd never seen your face
  You made a first-class fool out of me
  But I'm as blind as a fool can be
  You stole my heart but I love you anyway"

• 
  Mary Jane's Last Dance
  Tom Petty
• 
  Me and Bobby McGee
  Janis Joplin
• 
  Mess
  Ben Folds Five

  "there was a time when i had nothing to explain
  oh, this mess i have made
  but then things got complicated
  my innocence has all but faded
  oh, this mess i have made"

• 
  Mockingbird
  Eminem
• 
  Mother
  John Lennon
• 
  My Back Pages
  Bob Dylan
• 
  My Way
  Frank Sinatra
• 
  Photograph
  Nickelback
• 
  Private Eye
  Alkaline Trio
• 
  Red Ragtop
  Tim McGraw
• 
  Regret
  New Order
• 
  Road Movie to Berlin
  They Might Be Giants
• 
  Rolling in the Deep
  Adele
• 
  Secrets and Regrets
  Pillar
• 
  Sentimental Guy
  Ben Folds

  "There's a moment in my mind
  I scribbled and erased a thousand times
  Like a letter never written or sent
  These conversations with the dead
  I used to be a sentimental guy
  Now I'm haunted by the left unsaid"

• 
  Shadows and Regrets
  Yellowcard
• 
  She Never Cried in Front of Me
  Toby Keith
• 
  Should've Kissed You
  Chris Brown
• 
  Sorry
  Buckcherry
• 
  The Bridge I Burned
  Elvis Costello
• 
  The House That Built Me
  Miranda Lambert
• 
  The Mercy Seat
  Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
• 
  Title and Registration
  Death Cab For Cutie

  "But there's no blame for how our love did slowly fade,
  And now that it's gone, it's like it wasn't there at all
  And here I rest where disappointment and regret collide
  Lying awake at night"

• 
  Tourniquet
  Evanescence
• 
  Welcome to My Life
  Simple Plan
• 
  What Hurts the Most
  Rascal Flatts

  "What hurts the most
  Was being so close
  And having so much to say
  And watching you walk away
  And never knowing
  What could have been"

• 
  What I've Done
  Linkin Park

  "'cause I’ve drawn regret,
  From the truth,
  Of a thousand lies."

• 
  What The Hell Did I Say
  Dierks Bentley

  "What the hell did I say when I called last night
  Dripping loads of whiskey honey in that message that she liked
  What the hell did I say? Gotta dial it up again
  I'm writing out those lines that fell out drunk at 3 AM
  What the hell did I, hell did I, hell did I say?"

• 
  Yesterday When I Was Young
  Dusty Springfield

  "And only I am left on stage to end the play.
  There are so many songs in me that won't be sung,
  I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue,
  The time has come for me to pay for Yesterday"

• 
  You Could Be Happy
  Snow Patrol
• 
  You Run Away
  Barenaked Ladies

  "I tried to be your brother
  You cried and ran for cover
  I made a mess, who doesn’t
  I did my best but it wasn’t enough"

• 
  You're Gonna Miss This
  Trace Adkins

  "You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
  These are some good times
  So take a good look around
  You may not know it now
  But you're gonna miss this"

• 
  Your Wildest Dreams
  Moody Blues, The

  "Once upon a time
  Once when you were mine
  I remember skies
  Mirrored in your eyes
  I wonder where you are
  I wonder if you"

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