Can you recommend some sad songs?

Hey Jude Beatles
Mad World Michael Andrews
Angels on the Moon Thriving Ivory

Blues in the Night Cab Calloway

Hallelujah Jeff Buckley

Sukiyaki by 4 pm.
All By Myself Eric Carmen
Tears In Heaven
Could’ve Been

Sia’s Breathe Me comes to mind because of a recent question about tv series finales. Six Feet Under’s final episode uses this song. Not sure about the lyrics of if I would feel it was a sad song if it were not for the association with this last episode of an amazing show.

Also, not necessarily a sad song, but for some reason Tom Waits’ Tango Till They’re Sore finds it’s way to my ipod when I’m feeling a bit down. Same goes for Iron and Wine’s Sea and the Rhythm. And Neutral Milk Hotel’s April 8th. Oh, and Elvis Perkins’ While You Were Sleeping

Ne me quitte pas by Jacques Brel is the saddest song I know.

Tom Traubert’s Blues by Tom Waits is crushingly sad as well.

These are really perscription strength sad songs. If you want something over the counter, you might try Neil Young’s After the Goldrush

“Time to Say Goodbye” by Andrea Boccelli & Sarah Brightman (or “Con Te Partiro” if you go with the straight Italian versin)

“It Only Rains on Me” by Don Williams

“That’s Just the Way It Is” by Phil Collins

About half of Chris Isaak’s song list

A great site for times such as these is www.stereomood.com! You can choose playlists of music based upon mood or your feelings at the moment.

Everybody Hurts R.E.M. (a song to discourage suicide)

The Killing of Georgie Rod Stewart (a ballad to a murdered friend)

Sand and Water Beth Nielsen Chapman (a song mourning her deceased husband)

Surrounded Chantal Kreviazuk (a song mourning her deceased friend)

smoke – natalie imbruglia

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, by Bob Dylan.

Only the Lonely, by Roy Orbitson.

Fix You by Coldplay. Their music is usually so sad, especially this song and also The Scientist

Try, Try, Try by Smashing Pumpkins
Have You Ever Seen the Rain? by Creedence Clearwater Revival It’s more melancholic-sounding than sad.
El Manana by Gorillaz
Pink Bullets by The Shins

Another song that seems sad to me, by an a rather upbeat band – Cake’s End of the Movie. Radiohead’s Pyramid Song. Mogwai’s May Nothing But Happiness Come.

If you want the Beatles, the song to play is Eleanor Rigby.

I can’t remember at the moment who sang “Sad Songs Say So Much”. I want to say Elton John, but I don’t want to be wrong.

@Seek_Kolinahr you’re not wrong. It was Elton John.

That is Elton.

9 Crimes by Damien Rice

Yay! I love not being wrong!

The Sounds of Silence—Simon and Garfunkel

Hard Times Come Again No More—Its a real oldie Written by Stephen Foster.

But there was a contemporary version sung by Brett Dennen in the finale last season of Parenthood.

@King_Pariah Damien Rice is a treasure trove of sad songs. My favorite is Volcano, but I also love Cannonball and the Blowers Daughter.

well, for sadness, it’s certainly not this

@filmfann I love The Blower’s Daughter.

@JonnyCeltics Is that the Urban version of a Rick Roll?

Hallelujah Jeff Buckley
My Man Billie Holliday
Jesse Janis Ian

All guaranteed to make me bawl. In particular, the song “Jesse” makes me think of my brother who died.

A Beautiful Lie by 30 Seconds to Mars

Sorry but these are coming to me one at a time.

Life is Beautiful by Sixx AM (acoustic version is the best)

Rainy Night in Georgia Brook Benton

Anything by Adele.

Two instrumentals from Russia with love:
Lara’s theme
Midnight in Moscow, played sad and slow as it was meant to be played (even if the guy in the video looks a bit dorky)

Siuil a Ruin Irish traditional Song Performed by Connie Dover

If you want rap/hiphop

you never know-immortal technique.

and a couple of people beat me to jeff buckley.
Neutral milk hotel has some heartwrenching tracks-
or
Okkervil River- A stone.

Canadian Girl The Walkmen
Another One Goes By Mazarin
Lost Cause Beck
Dr.Blind Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
Lonely, Lonely Feist
Whale Bones Man Man
Two Headed Boy Part 2 Neutral Milk Hotel
Sentimental Heart She & Him
Get Lonely The Mountain Goats

@amujinx . great choices. shit.

Standing In The Shadow of Love

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Hope She’ll Be Happier With Him

Badge

Magnet and Steel

Any Major Dude

also @Telenmar, I hope you feel better :]

LIli Marleen Marlene Deitrich (this will melt your hard drive.)

Non, Je ne regrette rien Edith Piaf (if Gernman doesn’t do it for you)

Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Peter, Paul and Mary

Blowin’ in the Wind Joan Baez… a weeper if you were around in the 60’s and 70’s

Blowin’ in the Wind Bob Dylan (three hankies)

This Land is Your Land Woodie Guthrie. Particularly å propos today.

Le temps des cerises Yves Montand

MiLord Piaf encore.

Well, that uses up my box of kleenex. Time to wipe my eyes and face the day. Thanks for this question.

Those were great answers, thanks a lot :)

Neko Case – I Wish I Was The Moon

Neko Case – Furnace Room Lullaby

Those songs are my favorite by Neko Case and jumped into my head first. She’s a little bit country, but I am begging you to give her a chance if you’re not a country fan. She crosses lots of people’s music boundaries. :)

cat power-islands , I don’t blame you, Fool….or anything from her really

I’ve been loving Neko Case’s music for several months now.

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Gordon Lightfoot
The Last Song – Elton John
Don’t Take the Girl – Tim Mcgraw

Listen to Best of Bread Vol 1.

I thought the request was just for “sad” meaning “melancholy”, @zenvelo… not “awful”.

Sad Songs and Waltzes Cake
I Need You America
It Don’t Matter to Me – Bread
I am a Rock Simon and Garfunkel
Alone Again Gilbert O’Sullivan

A lot of stuff by The Smiths and Morrissey. Elliott Smith.

17
Always makes me cry. I was 16 when this was recorded. I could relate.

Any country song will do.

No Expectations by The Rolling Stones

Mad World – Tears for Fears
Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen

Lets rembemer who wrote this songs not just who happened to sing them last.

Rabbit in Your Headlights – UNKLE
There’s No Way Out of Here – David Gilmour
Darkness, Darkness – The Youngbloods
Dust in the Wind – Kansas
Crosses – Jose Gonzalez
Roman Candle – Elliott Smith
Hurt – both the NIN original and the Johnny Cash cover get to me, but I included the latter because it means more to me.
Manifest – The Fugees
Sad Lisa – Cat Stevens

White Trash Beautiful by Everlast

I hope you like them. Usually I get sad when I listen to them.

Kansas – Dust in the Wind

The Fray – How to save a Life

Whisky Lullaby by Alison Krauss & Brad Paisley

Stealing Electricity by Tom Russell.

The Death of Jimmy Martin, also by Tom Russell.

Van Nuys by Sixx AM

it’s subtitled, don’t worry. Also: this is going to get pretty personal. I’m sorry to be this way, but hearing it has put me in that kind of mood…

One more time, One more chance — 山崎まさよし

I simply cannot handle this song. The mere thought of it can bring me to tears.

I first heard it in 2006. Couldn’t understand the lyrics, never bothered looking up a translation either. But I had a feeling I knew what it as about. At the time, I was still recovering over a heavy breakup that happened a year prior. First person I ever loved like that. And this song was included in the soundtrack of that period.

February, 2008. I took the train to NYC to see an anime movie called “5 Centimeters Per Second” (which is what the footage in the included link is from.) The movie is told in three acts; it opens with an instrumental arrangement of this song, and closes with the actual version, subtitled.

On that day, I learned what the lyrics meant, and the song was about everything I thought it was; everything I felt at that time in 2006. It will forever remind me of my first love.

I’ve never cried that much in public, and haven’t since.
again, sorry. but I felt a dire need to express all of this.

This Hard Land – Springsteen

Same Oul’ Town – Saw Doctors

If I Die Young—the Band Perry
Miserable at Best—Mayday Parade

Mayday Parade has a lot of sad songs. Personally, I LOVE them. If you like them, I can recommend some more. Just didn’t want to go into ALL of them if you weren’t a fan(:

Oh, have I got one here…

Wisconsin by Bon Iver. In fact, most of his intro album “For Emma, Forever Ago” (and the story behind it, how he lived alone in a cabin in a Wisconsin winter to get over the heartbreak… and came up with the songs on the CD).

She’s Gone by Hall and Oates

Richard Shindell – Fishing (he even explains in the intro to the song that before he modified it, it was “unrelentingly depressing” – the modification makes it totally work) and Cold Missouri Waters

Here’s a better version of Cold Missouri Waters by the songwriter, James Keelaghan.

Like We Used To by A Rocket To The Moon.
This song is like ten minutes long, but Death Bed by Reliant K.

Ray Charles songs:
You Don’t Know Me
Crying Time
I Can’t Stop Loving You

“This Nearly Was Mine” from South Pacific. It gets to ‘Now, now I’m alone’, and the tears start.

This Is Me You’re Talking To – Trisha Yearwood.

@CWOTUS ; That’s why I don’t listen to country music. I would be a blubbering idiot all the time.

Straight from the 70’s, the king of melancholy Walter Jackson
Gotta Find Me An Angel
If I Had My Way
One Heart Lonely
I Won’t Remember Ever Loving You (If this one don’t enhance your blues, I don’t know what will. It’ my all time favorite).:)

@john65pennington
And any others who perpetuate Country music stereotypes (you know who you are :)

Any country song ? ? Really ?

Clearly you’ve forgotten some of the old standards that will put a spring in anybody’s step. I dare anybody to listen to the following and be able to resist tapping your toes while any of these are playing.

A few off the top of my head:

The Yellow Rose of Texas
The Orange Blossom Special
Wabash Cannonball
Hillbilly Auctioneer
Thank God I’m a Country Boy
The Devil Went Down to Georgia

And even ol’ Hank who was no stranger to melancholy managed to come up with:

Move It On Over :)

@Buttonstc

That’s a good list. :)

I would also include I Hope You Dance.

@Brian1946

That’s definitely a worthy addition. I was focusing more on the ones that have been around half of forever :)

But contemporary country artists are adding some really great songs also.

And let’s not forget Ragtime Cowboy Joe and
Just Because :)

After all, people might need some relief after overdosing on all the melancholy in the rest of the Q.

But there are some really fantastic sad songs in this list.

@Lightlyseared – How about the version of Mad World from Donnie Darko?

@tom_g that one’s by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews

One of my favorite sad songs is “Sam Stone” by John Prine. Also, check out Johnny Cash’s version.

@Seek_Kolinahr check out this really sad version of Eleanor Rigby by Vanilla Fudge.

I think Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone” is sad for a pop song. I mean, she obviously loves the guy. So why is she dumping him? :(

@tom_g Did you not read the whisper at the bottom of my post? I was reminding people who wrote the song.

“Touch me in the morning (then just walk away. We don’t have tomorrow, but we had yesterday.)”....Diannah Ross.

“Bobby McGee”—Janis Joplin. “I’d trade all of my tomorrows, for one single yesterday..to be holdin’ Bobby’s body next to mine.”

@tom_g I linked that version on the first post.

I suck.

^No, not totally. :-)

@Brian1946 @Buttonstc @john65pennington And who can forget “I Got Tears in My Ears from Lyin’ on My Back in My Bed as I Cry over You”?

2Pac- Dear Mama
Christina Aguilera- Hurt

In the country genre, there’s Is Anyone Goin’ to San Antone?, made famous by Charley Pride.

Also, this gem from 1906, Won’t You Come Over to My House. I include it because my mother used to sing it to me when I was very young. The lyrics are very touching.

This One!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEyU24M_-8s

Stay Shakespears Sister

@Lightlyseared Great choice!

the pretenders i’ll stand by you

How could I forget You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’? One of the all-time best sad songs.

Snuff by Slipknot. And no it’s not the loud hard “noisy” stuff they’re known for

Breakeven – Script
Cars – Snow Patrol
Pyro – Kings of Leon
Wicked game – Chris isaac
wish I could fly – Roxette
Torn – Natalie Embruglia
i will remember you – sarah mclachlan (super sad) :(!