Why 'When she loved me' makes me cry

* 'When she loved me' was written by Randy Newman for Pixar's third feature film, Toy Story 2. For me, and for so many people, this song is not only incedibly powerful in its original context, but also when taken away from the film, when played or heard by itself. In this video, I consider why, musically, it is so emotional, and what it means to me.

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FURTHER RESEARCH

[adic]

Part nostalgia, part personal memories, this iconic scene from a pixar film is a masterpiece that beautifully conveys human emotions. Tom Hanks, a voice actor for the film, was reportedly crying at the scene.

[richardmercer]

In the middle of the movie with no warning, comes the most beautiful song in any Disney or Pixar movie. It has more plays in my iTunes than any other song.

[kennyearthling]

Who is chopping onions in here, no YOU are crying!

[The_Burning_Sensation]

The animation with this music makes it twice as sad. When Jesse is riding in the car with an adult Emily, looking up at her with a euphoric smile and then closing her eyes in pure happiness, not realizing she's about to be abandoned... I'm a fifty year old man and I sob every time I see it.

[JaxJordan]

I used to skip the scene when I was a kid because I was so ashamed of crying, but nowadays, I always watch this scene and I always shed a tear.

[danw.]

"I'm saturated." This is the most apt description of this song that I've ever heard.

[DavidBennettPiano]

This song is so compelling! I totally agree that it moves me to tears every time! I remember rediscovering it about three years ago when I was learning Disney songs for my repertoire. I used to pair it with “You’ve got a friend in me” during my solo set!

[richteffekt]

"When somebody loved me everything was beautiful" is the closest you can get to an actual human truth. You don't want your music to cloud it, nor could you add anything meaningful. Say just that in words and melody and that's it.
Oh Pixar, every damn time you do this and every damn time we come back just for that.

[laxkid]

I came here to learn something about music.. I left crying like a little kid who lost his puppy ... unreal! This isn’t fair!

[pppy]

i don’t really understand music theory, but still I very enjoy your analysis

[olivierolivier]

4:20

It's not clean, it's not perfect, it's just the right amount of imperfection.

How everyone should want to be on this planet.

[rociellifernando]

I've never cried in a video essay until now

[clayton]

Randy Newman might be one of the most underrated songwriters of all time.

[PleiadesStarChild]

When I sing this I can get through the beginning and middle and when I get into the end I start getting all choked up and have to stop singing and I never understood why. The “lonely and forgotten” part is what always gets me

[kbee]

This song's discordant notes feels like when you start to speak, but choke on your words. It feels like when your words broke as you became too filled with emotion to speak properly. This song is essentially the musical emotions of Jessie telling Woody about Emily, and the use of discordant notes is so brilliant that it makes me cry. Simplicity is never a bad thing.

[Bebe-fqyb]

Randy Newman is a song writing genius, underappreciated and misunderstood by many, he's a treasure that deserves more praise

[DocBhoy]

Don't even get me started about the first five minutes of Up, or the bit at the end of Inside Out where the two lead emotions work things out....I'm a mess every time!

[storyarcher]

I deeply miss when Pixar was about telling moving and brilliant stories. We all lost something when they decided to leave that behind for other priorities...

[martinlagrange]

Randy is literally weeping as he sings his own song, and you can hear it clearly. It is transcendent, even for the composer.

[addictedfoolgamer]

I lost my black cat suddenly as a kid. She was taken to vets while I was at high school, as a check up to her sneezing. She was put under anaesthesia to check her nose. It wasn’t worth waking her up again due to the cancer.
That morning she crawled into my lap, looked up at me, and put her head down. It was unusual but I put her back down and headed off to school.

She had said goodbye and I didn’t even know.

Im 36 now and this song will always bring me to the strongest flowing tears.

I lost my best friend that day. When she was happy, so was I.