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Kury Akin's avatar

#1. John Prine ~ I Remember Everything. #2. Blaze Foley ~ If I Could Only Fly. #3. Joey ~ Concrete Blonde.

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Satisfying Click's avatar

I'd put Prine's 'Sam Stone' right there. And 'Tecumseh Valley' by TVZ

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Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

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man of aran's avatar

Vic Chestnutt - Flirted With You All My Life

Antony and The Johnsons - Hope There’s Someone

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Tom McGrath's avatar

I agree on Winner Takes It All. I listened to it for years on my ABBA Greatest Hits CD, but it wasn’t until I saw the movie version with Meryl Streep performing the song that I was really struck by the sadness of it.

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Cheryl Freeman's avatar

I'm a Slade fan, and Dapple Rose makes me cry. It's about an old racehorse who is of no further use and neglected.

Others would be Can't Live, my friends and I screeching that chorus.

And Seasons in the Sun. I remember singing it with my school friends when we were on a trip to Paris, not really knowing what it was about then.

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Dee2757's avatar

My earliest memory of a melancholic song would probably be, Walking After Midnight, by Patsy Cline. More recently I like, The Story, by LeAnn Rimes.

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Steve Boronski's avatar

Number 1 sad song: unchained melody by the Righteous Brothers

Number 2: ABBA The winner takes it all, I sing this in a choir called Little Voices and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Number 3: I’ll never fall in love again by the greatest singer of all, Tom Jones.

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Ben L.'s avatar

Sad Songs

With Jim Groce, "Time In a Bottle" seems the easy choice, but "Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)" is much more intense.

The reworking of Tears for Fears' upbeat "Mad World" by Gary Jules into a sad ballad starts the waterworks here.

More recently, Billie Eilish's original "What Was I Made For?" and the "Meowed" version of same by "Bongo Cat" both hit hard.

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Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

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David Vance's avatar

Those are great choices!!’

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Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

Expand full comment
Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

Expand full comment
Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

Expand full comment
Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

Expand full comment
Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

Expand full comment
Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

Expand full comment
Kat Harvey's avatar

Great idea! My No.1 has to be Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” which at 12 years old my bestie and I wept at hearing for the first time! Years before coming to romance for ourselves, we understood the terrible drama of it all.

Coming in at No.2 “Fields of Gold”, the wonderful Sting song, sung by plaintively by Eva Cassidy who died young just to add to the pathos. No one can sing it like she did. Even now it moves me to tears.

Finally, at No.3, are Simon & Garfunkel, the first of their numbers I ever bought still gets me, “Homeward Bound”. For are we not all at sometime homeward bound? It’s more than a love song or a lost love song; it’s about that lonely pilgrimage we all make, waiting, longing, cold and lonely and unloved but still hoping. Yup, I can feel a little tear coming on!

Expand full comment