Question of the Week: What’s the saddest song you’ve ever heard?

Local Spins’ Question of the Week (April 25, 2024)

What’s the saddest song you’ve ever heard? What song makes you cry?

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THE READER RESPONSES:

Kyle Brown – Tracy Chapman is the ultimate sad songwriter. She has a few that make my top 10 list, but to me “Remember the Tinman” is the saddest song I’ve ever heard. Listen at your own risk.

Ronda Miller – “Radio Cure” by Wilco

Kim Masters – “‘52 Vincent Black Lightning” by Richard Thompson. Greatest tragic love song ever… and always brings a tear.

Lee Chase – The Band, “It Makes No Difference”

Dan Ouellette – “Elephant” by Jason Isbell. 😢

Devon Cunningham – “Mount Eerie” – Real Death

Martin E. Hannah – “Dreaming with a Broken Heart,” John Mayer. So well written but can leave you reaching for tissues when it hits.

Michael Packer – “”You must remember this, A kiss is still a kiss, A sigh is just a sigh, The fundamental things apply, As time goes by” – Composer: Herman Hupfeld; First made famous by Rudy Valee.

Diane Atanasoff – “This Woman’s Work” by Kate Bush.

Jeff Martin – Perhaps “Taxi” by Harry Chapin.

David Smith – “Sam Stone” by John Prine

Don Clapham – “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. A beautiful, but sad song that hopefully inspires people to hang on to life even “when your day is long, And the night, the night is yours alone, When you’re sure you’ve had enough, Of this life, well hang on; Don’t let yourself go, Cause everybody cries, Everybody hurts sometimes .”

Frank Tobin – Chi-Lites, “Have You Seen Her,” Roy Buchanan’s cover of “Can I Change my Mind,” Commander Cody’s “Seeds and Stems Again Blues” (I know its a parody, but damn! his dog died!); “Dark Night” by the Blasters, “Simple Twist of Fate” and “You’re A Big Girl Now” from “Blood on the Tracks.” Must stop. Too many sad songs.

Michael Larry Hamm – “No Hard Feelings” by the Avett Brothers

Greg S. Lewis- “Nutshell” by Alice in Chains

Chad Michael Wedeven – “A Rose for Emily” by The Zombies

Kim Clapham – The Cavaliers, “Last Kiss”

Ben Erhart – “Alone Again, Naturally” – Gilbert O’Sullivan. Just read the lyrics and you’ll weep.

Stacy Noonan – “ I Remember Everything”

Matt Kerwin- “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” Neil Younng

Alex Austin – “Waiting On June” by Holly Williams, makes me cry most times I’ve heard it. Very bittersweet and beautifully written.

Rich Landis – John Prine, “Sam Stone”

Michael Kroll – Leo Kottke’s cover of Buddy Holly’s “Learning the Game”.

Chris Andrus – “It’s Quiet Uptown” – Hamilton soundtrack.

John Sinkevics – Sad songs can draw us in with their combination of poignant lyrics and powerful melodies — and so many of them have affected me over the years, from Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s “Goodbye” (on “Madman”) and Harry Nilsson’s “Without You” to a whole slew of brilliantly touching songs by the masterful Patty Griffin — “Rain,” “Top of the World,” “Wild Old Dog” (I literally shed tears every time I hear “Wild Old Dog”) — and R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts.”

Matt Jarrells – John, you and me both

John Harvey – “Wicked Game”

Mike Ward – “Yesterday”

John Olszewski – Lucinda Williams, “Sweet Old World”

Mark Newman – Few songs are as poignant as “Old & Wise,” Alan Parsons Project

Scott Langford – Don McLean’s “Empty Chairs.”

Joshua Duggan – It didn’t become a sad song until I thought about it later in life, but I used to play “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young on the record player at my dad’s apartment when I would visit after my parents’ divorce. I was probably a teenager at the time. They were my dad’s favorite group.

Drew Charles Pentkowski – “Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part”- Ryan Adams

Bill Seppla – Phoebe Bridgers, “Funeral”

Craig Carrick – Hank Williams’ 1949 hit, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” so sad. “Elephant,” Jason Isbell touches a bit deeper, too.

Edwin Welke – “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” George Jones

Lani Jordan – Springsteen. The River. “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?”

John Sinkevics – Lani: Actually, several Springsteen songs on “The Rising” tug at the heartstrings (“Into the Fire,” “Empty Sky”)

Randy Scott Marsh – Keith Jarrett, “My Song”; “Beneath an Evening Sky,” Oregon

Drew Behringer – “Betty” by Hot Mulligan. I tear up almost every time.

Denny Gramza – “Marie,” Townes VanZandt; “Whiskey and You,” Chris Stapleton

AJ Dunning – Judee Sill, “The Kiss”

Paul Wyatt – Natalie Merchant, “Hello In There” (Live)

Chad Michael Wedeven – “Nobody’s Gonna Help You Now,” Midnight Caller

Virginia Detwiler – Cover of “Everybody Hurts” by Father Ray Kelly. This specific cover…I mean, the song does get me regardless, but with this guy singing it, it makes me bawl like a baby.

Rusty Vining – There’s so many classics and many of them have been mentioned here, I’d add “Vincent” by Don McLean to that list, but I think as a more modern example of a sad jam I’d ad “Winter In My Heart” by Avett Brothers for all my seasonally depressed Michiganders out there.

Jack Leaver – “Moon River” or “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.”

Carl Plantinga – Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons” sung by John Prine.

Jill Jack – “Remember (Christmas),” Harry Nilsson

Jim Marcusse – “I Can’t Make You Love Me”

Copyright 2024, Spins on Music LLC