My Top 100, No. 54: "If I Can't Love Her" from the Beauty and the Beast Broadway Soundtrack

Going from pop punk to the Broadway adaptation of a Disney musical is a tonal shift.

But regardless of the provenance of this song (I heard it for the first time on one of those Disney's Greatest Hits tapes that my parents played on long car rides), it's just monumentally sad and beautiful.

It's sad because of the smooth, warm baritone of Terrence Mann, who is not James Earl Jones' character from Field of Dreams, and it's beautiful because 1) It leans heavily on French horns and and strings, and any moron can make those sound good 2) It does the same-rhythmic-pattern-repeated-with-different-melody trick from several songs I've already discussed on this list and 3) The whole thing's a big crescendo.

Anyway, give it a listen if you don't know the song already. I'll be here with a box of tissues if you need me.