When love goes bad it's always been a common practice to turn to a song to assuage the melancholy. The Elvis Era had a good representation of heartbreak songs. Here are what I consider to be the twenty best of these breakup songs. Some great songs from the era have been excluded even thought they do express the proper sentiment because of their tempo. For example, Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" should be a natural, but its fast cadence keeps it from truly expressing any heartache. Sedaka remade the song in 1975 as a ballad -- that version might have made the list.

The top ranked heartbreak song of The Elvis Era is a country song. Patsy Cline's "Crazy" was ranked #2 by Rolling Stone magazine on its list of the "100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time" published in 2014. Its expression of unrequited love is classic: "I'm crazy for trying, and crazy for crying, and crazy for loving you."

"Crying" by Roy Orbison is a close second. It literally has you wallowing in sadness: "you left me all alone, alone and crying." Two other entries in the top ten also have the tears flowing. In "Raindrops," Dee Clark tells us "they must be raindrops, cause a man aint supposed to cry." Little Anthony & The Imperials lament "Tears on my pillow, pain in my heart, caused by you."

Brenda Lee places a whopping three songs in the top twenty with "I'm Sorry" the top ranked at #8. Roy Orbison gets two with "Only the Lonely" barely qualifying -- some might dismiss it due to its tempo, but I think it still evokes the sadness of a heartbreak song even at its slightly increased pace. Ray Charles also has two on the list with "You Don't Know Me" his best at #10. Patsy Cline is another multiple with "I Fall To Pieces" joining "Crazy" on the list.

There are other heartbreak songs that I would also give an A+ rating, but to continue to split hairs and rank them is too taxing an effort -- therefore they are listed in alphabetical order.