In the Summer of His Years was the first song that ever made me cry.

In the Summer of His Years was the first song that ever made me cry. 

It was written within days of the assassination of the President and first performed on the BBC television program, That Was the Week That Was (which broadcast a somber Kennedy tribute instead of their usual political satire).

Mahalia Jackson was the first U.S. artist to record the song on November 29, 1963. Several days later, Connie Francis followed with her own recording that made the Billboard charts making it a "hit" although many U.S. radio stations refused to broadcast it on the basis that it was either seeking to capitalize on a national tragedy or was simply in poor taste or of inferior quality. 

Regardless, the proceeds of the song were donated to the family of J.D. Tippett, the Dallas police officer shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald that day. 

It was the first song that I can remember making me cry. It still does.