50 Best Sad Songs About Summer Ending
End-of-Summer Songs That Hit Like a Gut Punch
There’s a strange kind of ache that settles in once the light starts changing. The heat sticks around, but everything feels slightly off, like the season’s pretending it hasn’t packed up yet. You catch it in the way the wind slips through the blinds at night or how your favorite diner playlist suddenly sounds moodier. August starts to drag, September taps its foot. You keep telling yourself you’ve still got time, but there’s this quiet ticking behind it all. And when that song hits, the one that sounds like something slipping through your hands, it lands harder than it should.
You’re sitting in the backseat with your knees pulled up, watching the trees blur while someone up front argues with the GPS. Or maybe you’re at the tail end of a beach day, skin sunburned and towel-damp, staring at a horizon that feels too wide. The voices feel far away. The summer that felt endless two weeks ago suddenly feels like it ended yesterday. These pop, rock, country, and R&B songs get that weird blur. The kind of tracks that don’t try to sum anything up, they just sit in the haze and let it all hang heavy.
Some songs sting. Some feel like a shrug and a deep breath. Some don’t say much at all but still leave a dent. That mix of endings you weren’t ready for and moments you didn’t realize mattered until they were overthat’s where these live. Here are the best sad songs for when summer fades out and the next thing hasn’t quite started.
Top 10 End of Summer Songs
1. 'Summertime Sadness'—Lana Del Rey
2. 'Boys of Summer'—Don Henley
3. 'Wake Me Up When September Ends'—Green Day
4. 'Summer's End'—John Prine
5. 'The Last Day of Summer'—The Cure
6. 'Summer's Almost Gone'—The Doors
7. 'August Is Over'—We The Kings
8. 'Summer Love'—One Direction
9. 'Blame It on September'—Allstar Weekend
10. 'Night Moves'—Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Melancholy Summer Season Songs #11—20
11. 'All Summer Long'—The Beach Boys
12. 'Indian Summer'—Poco
13. 'Summer Soft'—Stevie Wonder
14. 'Come Monday'—Jimmy Buffett
15. 'Summer Is Over'—Dusty Springfield
16. 'The End of Summer'—Frank Black
17. 'The Other Side of Summer'—Elvis Costello
18. 'Nightswimming'—R.E.M.
19. 'Summer's Gone'—The Kinks
20. 'Time of No Reply'—Nick Drake
Songs About The Close of Summer #21—30
21. 'Urge for Going'—Joni Mitchell
22. 'September Song'—Lou Reed
23. 'Flaming September'—Marianne Faithfull
24. 'Leaves That Are Green'—Simon & Garfunkel
25. 'Famous Last Words'—Billy Joel
26. 'These Are the Days'—Van Morrison
27. 'Footprints'—Squeeze
28. 'We Just Got Here'—Carly Simon
29. 'Kingdom of Days'—Bruce Springsteen
30. 'End of the Summer'—New York Dolls
Emotional Summer Finale Songs #31—40
31. 'The Last of the Summer Wine'—Palma Violets
32. 'Summer Mood'—Best Coast
33. 'It's Summertime'—The Flaming Lips
34. 'Summer Well'—Interpol
35. 'Knives Of Summer'—Sparklehorse
36. 'The New Cobweb Summer'—Lambchop
37. 'July, July'—The Decemberists
38. 'Here Comes The Summer'—The Fiery Furnaces
39. 'Summer in Savannah'—Iron & Wine
40. 'Oslo In The Summertime'—of Montreal
Reflective Summer Closure Songs #41—50
41. 'Grandaddy'—Summer Here Kids
42. 'My Own Summer (Shove It)'—Deftones
43. 'This Summer'—Superchunk
44. 'I Hate Summer'—Fucked Up
45. 'A Little More Summertime'—Jason Aldean
46. 'Fall of Summer'—Scotty McCreery
47. 'Break It on a Beach'—Dustin Lynch
48. 'Like a Summer Thursday'—Townes Van Zandt
49. 'The Dreaming Fields'—Trisha Yearwood
50. 'Lonely Weekend'—Kacey Musgraves
© 2025 Carson McQueen
