Several of Conway Twitty's biggest and best known hits are tearjerkers ... and not just classic heartbreakers:
- "I Can't Stop Loving You," a Don Gibson-composed song which Twitty recorded in 1972 and took to No. 1 late that summernote ."They say that time heals a broken heart
But time has stood still since we've been apart..." - "Don't Cry Joni," an I Will Wait for You tale from 1975 featuring Twitty's daughter, Joni Lee James, as a lovestruck 15-year-old girl who has an impossible crush on her 22-year-old neighbor, Jerry. Jerry tries to explain that he is too old for her, that if they were to consummate a relationship it would be inappropriate and that he need to find someone his age. Joni is not discouraged ... she'll simply wait until she is old enough and then she can marry Jerry. Time passes several years, when Joni is now in her early 20s and Jerry realizes that maybe she was the woman for him all along, so he returns to their hometown to see if she's available and if they want to marry. Joni is flattered ... then she reveals that she is now married to Jerry's best friend, John, making this heartbreak for Jerry.
- "The Games That Daddies Play," a Disappeared Dad song about a 7-year-old boy longing for a positive male role model in his life, and potentially has one in his friend Billy Parker's father. Billy and his father, Mr. Parker, have planned a weekend camping trip and have invited the boy along, and the boy explains excitedly to his mother they'd be engaged in traditional male activities – those such as hiking, fishing, talking "man-to-man" ... all that good stuff and thus "games that daddies play." The trope kicks in during the final verse: The mother reveals that six years earlier, the man in their lives (the boy's biological father) had abandoned them and has never even so much as attempted to contact them, making them "a victim of another kind of games that daddies play." What this means – and perhaps deliberately so – is never made clear; was he allowed to go camping, seeing that this guy can fill the void left by his absent father ... or did mother refuse, wanting to shield her son from (perceived) negative influence from any man, even if Mr. Parker is (as he appears to be) a positive role model? "The Games That Daddies Play" reached No. 1 in October 1976.
- "That's My Job," the story of a volatile relationship between a young man and his father, fighting over who he wants to be and to follow his dreams. Late in the song, the father passes away, leaving the young man – perhaps he had been estranged from father for a significant period of time – to reflect on their relationship ... and realize that perhaps he had it good all along and that he had lost many years with him because of both of their stubbornness, pride and refusal to apologize. "That's My Job" was a top-5 hit in January 1988.
