What do you think is the saddest song ever?

Bonnie Riatt
I Can't Make You Love Me

 

Sufjan Stevens "Fourth Of July"

 

At this moment the one that comes to mind is “ She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye “ by Mickey Newbury. And it has to be his version off Looks Like Rain produced by Jerry Kennedy. Complete with rainfall sound effects.

That will tear you up if you’re alone at one in the morning.

 

'Telstar' by The Tornados - o.k. it's not a song but an instrumental, and it's not the number itself, tho' a sad sounding melody, but what is forever linked to it




The Tornados became the first British group to have a USA no.1 with it....

but it directly led to a tragic murder and a suicide (of it's composer/producer Joe Meek) in 1967

I can never hear this wonderful instrumental without thinking about it's so sad legacy...

one irony re that Hollies cover of Judee Sill's 'Jesus Was A Crossmaker' (sung by Terry Sylvester) was that Hollies co-founder Graham Nash produced Judee's original version of the superb song

The Hollies version was on their 1972 album 'Romany' and features in the film 'Elizabethtown' because the film's director loved that version so much !

 

no discussion, just translate in english "avec le temps" by leo ferré!

 

The saddest performance

 

Norah Jones
"Good Morning" from "Little Broken Hearts"

 

Here's some Christmas tunes.

Warning: You will need tissues for these.

 

Happy Birthday.
It means one year closer to the grave for me and I should never have been born in the first place.

 

You're definitely right about The Birthday.

 

Since Neil opened up his archive -

Bad Fog of Loneliness

 

Someone Who Cares, by the Only Ones. Weirdly, it’s a tale of a relationship from tentative beginnings to its tortured conclusion written by a man who’s now two years shy of his golden wedding anniversary with the woman to whom he was already married when he wrote it. Peter Perrett’s flair for lyrical projection is just one of many reasons why it’s pity he’s only put out five albums in 40 years. I love the double edge ending, too; depending on my mood when I listen to it, it’s either magnanimous or spiteful-Robert Mitchum in Ryan’s Daughter or Cape Fear, if you will.

 

A couple of others have sprung to mind now. The first is one I don’t listen to anywhere near as often as I should, because it’s hidden in a soundtrack album but it’s probably the most moving song Stephin Merritt has ever written, even if it is basically Babushka for boys.

 

Childhood favourite !, Still brings a tear to my eye!

 

Rainy Night in Georgia by Brook Benton is pretty sad.

 

Carpenters with We've Only Just Begun...such a hopeful song, but you know how it ended

 

Yes, sadly, we do.

It's interesting because on this song - more than on "Close To You" - I can really hear how The Carpenters were stylistically an evolution of the sound of acts like Spanky & Our Gang or The Cowsills and sorta filled the niche vacated by The Mamas and The Papas upon their demise.

 

"When She Loved Me" by Sarah McLachlan from Toy Story 2.

 

Pink Floyd - Hey You.

 

contrived cannot be sad.....that's a whole other something...i never "feel" anything when i hear that song.....tho i do hear an ego and a something statement and some production....and manipulation...but sadness?...hardly......the pink floyd never had a sad song...i mean..just a sad song?......not the floyd...

 

For me...
I've never bothered with sad songs as such...they just didn't do anything for me.
However since separating from my wife in 2014 and subsequently getting divorced 2 years later....the whole rollercoaster of losing a near 30 year relationship and trying to start again is captured by A Great Big World ft Christina Aguilera - Say Something.
It's from the timescale that my wife decided the grass was perhaps greener on the other side.....
That song...will live with me forever.