"Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.
or
"Let It Be" by the Beatles

Both have epic and beautiful melodies put to lyrics about how to make it through tough times. Both are from what many consider to be the best band of their eras. Both are written by fantastic songwriters. Both have a philosophical phrase that are repeated throughout the song.

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sample lyric from "Everybody Hurts"

"When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone/When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on/Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes."

sample lyric from "Let It Be"

"When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me/Speaking words of wisdom, let it be/And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me/Speaking words of wisdom, let it be."

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Theme:

I have to give a slight edge to "Let It Be" because I think it digs deeper into the nature of suffering. And not only does it dig deeper into the nature of suffering, it gives an answer that is more difficult to grasp without a little thought. Everybody hurts sure, but anyone could tell you that.

What I love about "Everybody Hurts" is that can really pick me up when things are tough. While "Let It Be" digs deeper into the nature of suffering, "Everybody Hurts" gives a more day to day approach on how to get through. While it's great to think about the advice of just letting things be, you really can't beat the advice of "taking comfort in your friends."

Both "Let It Be" and "Everybody Hurts" have beautiful orchestrational arrangements behind the main melody. I can't pick one song over another in this category, although can you beat Billy Preston's organ, George Harrison's guitar solo, and the Beatles doing their best choir boys impression? The only way to even match that is to listen to the subdued orchestration behind "Everybody Hurts." You can't have a more textbook example at how to orchestrate a pop song than by listening to the orchestrations behind these two songs.

If I'm giving a score here, I think "Let It Be" gets the slight edge over "Everybody Hurts." But we're talking about 97/100 for "Let It Be" and 95/100 for "Everybody Hurts."

matt out