Saddest song ever?

“Goodbye my lover” by James Blunt. It’s very intense.

heartbreak
I Can’t Make You Love Me
Bonnie Raitt

aging
I Don’t Want Anything to Change
Bonnie Raitt

death
Hush, Hush, Hush
Herbie Hancock with Annie Lennox

A quadrilogy.

Plea From A Cat Named Virtue

Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure

17th Street Treatment Centre

Virtute at Rest

good luck

I know it’s very sappy, but Bobby Goldsboro’s song Honey came out very soon after my mum died. I was only a little tacker and I remember hearing it and hiding behind the sofa crying. It’s a good lesson in how much little people pick up. I was quite cognizant that this song was about someone he loved dying and I could relate to his grief even at that age. So it still brings back that memory and can have me in tears.

@Earthbound_Misfit Sorry for your loss, and I feel like a heel now. Didn’t intend to bring on any bad memories, ‘specially on Mothers Day. Open mouth, insert foot. Again.

It’s okay @NomoreY_A! Sad songs are always going to affect someone. That’s why they’re sad songs :D I’m fine. Nothing you did has caused me pain. Took me back to a sad place, but given Mother’s Day, I was already there. Don’t feel bad!

Well, ok. Maybe my next question will get a few chuckles. Or not…

Gilbert O’Sullivan’s post mortem by a suicide, Alone Again

It would have to be And the Band Played Waltzing Mathilda, especially as sung by John McCormack, the Irish tenor. I don’t have a convenient way to give you the link right now, but you can easily find it on YouTube. Try to find the version that displays the lyrics. Incredibly sad.
Note: this is not the same song as the one known simply as Waltzing Mathilda.

Clearly this one

I’m Through – Vic Chesnutt

Marie by Townes Van Zandt & Willie Nelson is extremely sad and depressing.

“Gravedigger” – Dave Matthews
Schindler’s List theme song
Requiem for a dream theme song

@NomoreY_One Dying and Burying Roger Miller

Romeo and Juliet.

@NomoreY_A The Dance Garth Brooks

I really relate to @cookieman‘s first choice. Based on my personal experience, I think “I Can’t Make You Love Me” is one of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard. There are sadder events than unrequited love, but the hurt in Bonnie Raitt’s voice makes me feel like I’m breaking the heart of someone who’s so deserving of love. I first heard it shortly after my wife-to-be told me that she loved me. I wasn’t quite there yet, but subconsciously I knew I was falling in love with her. Rather than possibly destroy a relationship I wanted so much, I told her that I loved her too. About 2 weeks later I felt the same. Love is still love, even if the feelings aren’t perfectly synchronous.

My choice is “To the Last Whale”, by Crosby and Nash:

Over the years you have been hunted
by the men who throw harpoons
And in the long run he will kill you
jus to feed the pets we raise,
put the flowers in your vase
and make the lipstick for your face.

Over the years you swam the ocean
Following feelings of your own
Now you are washed up on the shoreline
I can see your body lie
It’s a shame you have to die
to put the shadow on our eye

Maybe we’ll go,
Maybe we’ll disappear
It’s not that we don’t know,
It’s just that we don’t want to care.
Under the bridge
Over the foam
Wind on the water,
Carry me home.

I think the most unintentionally funny sad song I’ve ever heard, is New York’s a Lonely-Ass Town by the Tradewinds:

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh, ahh
My folks moved to New York from California
I should have listened when my buddy said “I warn ya” (warn ya)
“There’ll be no surfin’ there and no one even ca-a-ares”
(My woody’s outside) covered with snow
(Nowhere to go now)
New York’s a lonely town
When you’re the only surfer boy around
From Central Park to Pasadena’s such a long way
I feel so out of it walkin’ down Broadway (Broadway)
I feel so bad each time I look out there and fi-i-ind
(My woody’s outside) covered with snow
(Nowhere to go now)
New York’s a lonely town
When you’re the only surfer boy around
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh
I feel so bad each time I look out there and fi-i-ind
(My woody’s outside) covered with snow
(Nowhere to go now)
New York’s a lonely town
When you’re the only surfer boy around
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh, ahh
Ooh, ooh, ooh
FADE
Ahh, ahh

Smoke Gets in my Eyes: Joan of Arc

OK, here’s the link to And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Sorry, the singer’s name is John McDermott, not McCormack.
The song reminded me of my visit to Gallipoli, Turkey. Today, the place is peaceful and well-kept, but somehow you can still feel a great sadness in the air.
If you don’t know what happened in Gallipoli, just look it up in Wikipedia.

Save by Tyler Joseph always makes me cry. The lyrics aren’t too sad but just the emotion in his voice really hits me.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yz8b7GaYcFg

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JO7wFGY81iY

She Moved Through the Fair

My love said to me
My Mother won’t mind
And me Father won’t slight you
For your lack of kind
Then she stepped away from me
And this she did say
It will not be long love
Till our wedding day.

She stepped away from me
And she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there
And she went her way homeward
With one star awake
As the swans in the evening
Move over the lake.

The people were saying
No two e’er were wed
But one has a sorrow
That never was said
And she smiled as she passed me
With her goods and her gear
And that was the last
That I saw of my dear.

I dreamed it last night
That my true love came in
So softly she entered
Her feet made no din
She came close beside me
And this she did say
It would not be long love
Till our wedding day.

The tune is also sad but beautiful.

I am Stretched on your Grave – Old Irish Poem “Táim sínte ar do thuama” this version by Antje Duvkot