color me lonely: the 5 saddest songs on earth
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There are songs that break the heart. They are commonplace. But there are those that go overboard, they crush the soul. They are more than just odes to a lover lost for they sing of pain, anguish and despair not necessarily inflicted by another. Below are five of some of the saddest, even tragic, songs on earth.
1. Everybody Hurts (R.E.M., Automatic for the People, 1993; In Time - The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003, 2003). The video for this shows people inside their cars, caught in a traffic jam, with their thoughts seen. At the end, they all got out of their cars and walked away and vanished. The video only furthered the already emotionally-charged tone of this #29 Billboard Hot 100-peaking song which was used in Great Britain for an advertising campaign to address the alarming suicide rate among young men.
2. All by Myself (Eric Carmen, Eric Carmen, 1975; Celine Dion, Falling Into You, 1996) Carmen wrote the song in 1975 and reached No 2 of the Billboard Hot 100 "samplihg" the second movement (Adagio Sostenuto) of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18. The title straightforwardly suggests what the song is about. It is anthemic of the alone or the lonely that the world has forgotten about.
3. I've Never Been to Me (Charlene, Songs of Love, 1977; I've Never Been to Me, 1982) Born Charlene Duncan, Charlene was Motown Records' first white woman singer who scored a Top Ten hit. Though the song is generally associated with issues relating to abortion because of the line "I've been to crying for unborn children that would have made me complete" it mostly recounts a woman's hollow existence despite having had experiences an ordinary housewife could only dream of.
4. At Seventeen (Janis Ian, Between the Lines, 1975) Ian's poignant description of teenage angst and alienation won for her the 1976 Grammy award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and nominations in the "Record of the Year" and "Song of the Year" categories. With cutting lines like "To those of us who knew the pain of valentines that never came", the song was referenced to in the movies, Mean Girls and The Virgin Suicides.
5. Victims (Boy George and The Culture Club, Colour by Numbers, 1983; At Worst...The Best of Boy George and Culture Club, 1993) Boy George has always been known for his autobiographical and candid songs, particularly those written about his turbulent relationship with drummer Jon Moss. But this one takes a step further, he offered a glimpse at how intimacy among a group of people can destroy them. That love alone cannot always save the day.
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Automatic for the People
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Eric Carmen
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Falling into You
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![I've never been to me [Import]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41SijeOHN9L._SL75_.jpg)
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I've never been to me [Import]
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Between the Lines
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Colour by Numbers
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At Worst...The Best of Boy George and Culture Club
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Comments
oh yeah, you're right. how could i have forgotten the story behind this one. it's even beyond sad. should have made it a top 10 list. anyway, thanks for dropping by :D
How can you be so knowledgeable? So now, I stand here in front of my computer with a hand salute. I like the info on "I've Never Been To Me".
writing is made easy when you love what you're writing about. i love music generally so research was no work but a lot of fun :D
this hub should be called "music you should never listen to with your buddies" I agree with the Tears in Heaven being a gut wrenching song, when you know the story behind it
Yeah you have the good ones there. I have another one--Honey, by Bobby Goldsboro.
Is this the song that goes "see the tree, how big it's grown...?"
yep!
I know that song! come to think of it, Honey did die, didn't she? Yep, quite tragic!
Terry Jacks-Seasons in the Sun (sappy, but sad)
the clincher is ...and Honey I'm being good..................
When my neighbor died he brought me that song as all I could think of was that song and I couldn't get it out of my head! I was never in love with him, but a past life we were an item and I had to tell him to go to his wife in this life that he left. Weird!
what about that Sinead O'Connor song, I just wanted to give her the blade and tell her, "hurry up and get it over with already."
LG: that was weird alright! and talk about the clincher! LOL
goldentoad: it's nothing compares 2U, it's an written by Prince, and he has his own version, i don't know which is better though!
Prince is great and his "When Doves Cry" was a sad one too.
Personally I like Dreamer by Kane.
The story behind it; He married the love of his life, and while she was pregnant they found out she had cancer and she died short after the birth of their son.
Why LG! I never would have thought you have "bad" in you! LOL I mean after reading those forums and running comments on you know what! I now see you in an entirely new light! :D i agree about when the doves cry but i like purple rain better :D
thats how well known that one is, you knew the one without me telling you! I didn't know though it was written by Prince. I was thinking of songs that my girlfriend in the past would cry to and try to make me listen, one for sure is the Celine Dion Titanic song, and the other one is from I think Sarah Maclaughlin(is that how you say/spell) on the City of Angels soundtrack. they use it now on those abused-animals-need-a-home commercials. the don't need the song to make it song but it really emphasizes it.
rockinjoe - and i thought that was a Boyzone (or was it Westlife?) original! Sappy is the word indeed!
Lazur - haven't heard of Dreamer, will look for it! thanks for sharing! :D
Celine's is called My Heart Will Go On - bet you cried a river watching Titanic! LOL, it's Sarah Maclachlan, Canadian, and it's called Angel. And if it's used in such commercials well it sure will drive home the point!
Thanks for this hub CrisA - I used to cry along with "At Seventeen" (?) but never "I 've never been to me" - w/out intending to be rude to those who do like it, always seemed to be a bit of a navel gazer to me - maybe I need to listen to it again. Julio used to be my undoing during the awful times...
At Seventeen used to be my sister's favorite song, that's why I guess it stuck to me, hearing her sing it all the time! You guessed it, she did not get invited to the prom! LOL we all have our soundtracks to our lives, don't we? :D
No, nonono my favorite is LOVE HURTS.
There is another one where they were getting married and it is Love Song it is a movie.
Oh and you have to remeber the one about the Football Player back in the 70's Brian's Song.
yep seen the hub! guess it's time for flashback! LOL I know Love Hurts, but i'm not quite with Brian's Song, will look for it! Thanks for sharing :D
I love each and every one of the songs in your hub! Im a sap, so I try not to listen to many of them - or I'd cry the whole time. (Im a huge REM fan)
Hey Ardie, wazzup? aren't we all a sap? LOL yeah I'm huge on REM too, Michael Stipe writes like no other! I would have included Nightswimming - i guess i'll make it my unofficial top 6 saddest song :D
LG: thanks for the links! Brian here I come! :D
Rabbit in The Headlights-Unkle featuring Thom Yorke
Radiohead-Scatterbrain
Johnny Cash- Hurt
Leonard Cohen- I'm Your Man
Jawbreaker- Friendly Fire
Brand New- Sowing Season (Yeah)
My picks. I love music, played in a band for quite some time, so I really dig these kind of articles. Interesting pieces, but I think R.E.M.'s Hurt has lost it's value, I've heard it so many times, that the sadness within the song is so incredibly familiar it feels like an old friend, not really fresh I suppose. Good stuff man.
I'm not familiar with songs 1,5&6 but as for the rest, they are sad indeed! I agree that REM's Somebody Hurts had become so mainstream but nevertheless, at least for me, sadness by any other name would still smell as sweet even if i share it with half the people on earth. thanks for posting your picks :D
Here is the story of Love Story: http://www.filmsite.org/love.html
Oh THAT love song! of course i know it, didn't we cry with Ryan O'Neal when Ali McGraw died? And now I'm on the link, with lyrics to boot! Hand me some tissue please! LOL thanks! :D
Oh and how we wanted to strangle her father!!!
Thanks LG, but a I have a copy of the movie! Thanks you've been most gracious :D
very nice collection
thanks, Lgali. Hope you find every single one to your liking - though they're all sad :C
How about "Unborn Child" by Seals&Crofts and also "Nobody's Child" by Dorothy Moore (?? I'm not sure. Very sad songs..
I enjoyed this hub very much. My sister just gave me a cd that she did for me with a lot of my favorite songs and many of them are sappy. If you have ever heard Mark Shultz singing Remember Me, makes me cry everytime. And my all time lonely song is Alone Again Naturally.......Naturally!
You got me curious about Remember Me, I'll look for it on YouTube. As for Alone Again... I know that song and you're right, it's as sad as they come. Thanks for reading :D
Heartnote says:
14 months ago
Tears In Heaven is pretty sad too :(