Music Blogs

Rock's Backpages wishes to thank all Yahoo music fans for the thousands of comments provoked by the 100 Heartbreakers feature we ran late last year. Even the abusive ones brought smiles to our lips. More importantly, the comments produced a slew of missing classics that we appreciated, and we've decided to run a few of them here…--Barney Hoskyns, Editorial Director, Rock's Backpages

The V - Thu Nov 27, 2008 5:53pm PST Nina Simone...seriously. "Little Girl Blue" belongs on this list.

matterpimp69 - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:32pm PST OMG! Is there really a sadder song then Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton? Especially considering the story behind it?  

Fonzie - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:40pm PST Excuse me- "All By Myself"- Eric Carmen, dammit!

liz95818 - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:40pm PST Natalie Merchant... Beloved Wife... from Tigerlily. It's so sad her voice cracks as she sings it.

Blkwarrior71 - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:41pm PST the DRAMATICS' " I CANT GET OVER YOU....IS STILL MY BEST HEARTBREAK SONG....U CAN JUST FEEL THE HURT....THE MANHATTANS' "THERE IS NO ME, WITHOUT YOU"...I COULD GO ON AND ON....  

Growling Cougar - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:44pm PST Sleepwalk by Santo and Johnny? Love, Reign O'er Me by The Who? Hmmm maybe not.. and wow I cannot believe Journey is not on this list - Open Arms?

nelly - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:44pm PST Sorry but Bonnie Raitt takes the cake. I cried my eyes out when this song came on. it happened after my girlfriend and i broke up. a real true heartbreaker.

BCofUIamhere - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:47pm PST I can't believe the uber-heartbreak song isn't on this list - Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again, Naturally"  

withasixgun@sbcglobal.net - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:47pm PST There's a good few that are much sadder than this. Billy Bragg's To Have and Have Not, Bob Dylan's Don't Think Twice, It's Alright, pretty much any version of Hallelujah, Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come, and that's just to name a few, not including anything close to recent.

edwrdsisrnds - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:49pm PST HOW ABOUT THE CURE'S "PICTURES OF YOU" probably one of the saddest songs of all time.

ThisQuack'sNoDoc! - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:49pm PST Sorry to go into the vault again, folks, but I promise you the song "If" by Bread is hands down the saddest song ever recorded. A bit more recently, how about "Drive" by The Cars?

Yahoo! Music User - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:52pm PST Where's Pete Townshend's "Slit Skirts"? A beautifully heartbreaking portrait of a couple's fading love.

Yahoo! Music User - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:52pm PST Storms or Beautiful Child by Fleetwood Mac...Stevie Nicks at her most personal, fragile and heartbreakingly poetic.  

JOHN W - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:53pm PST If you want a sad song: "TELL LAURA I LOVE HER." The girl's boyfriend dies trying to get money to buy her a ring! That is sad.  

RobertS - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:53pm PST 1. Theme from Love Story 2. Streisand: The way we were 3. George Jones: He stopped loving her today 4. Diana Ross: Theme from mahogany 5. Eric Carmen: All By Myself 6. Harry Nilsson: Without You 7. Diana Ross: Touch me in the morning 8. 5th Dimension: One less bell to answer 9. BB King: The thrill is gone 10. Barry Manilow: Mandy 11. Bread: Lost Without your love 12. The Carpenters: Superstar

Jim D - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:54pm PST You forgot the best one of all time..I Wish That It Would Rain by the Temptations.

clairedaix68 - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:54pm PST I think that Pearl Jam has earned a place on the list with their song "Black." It helped me cry over a break up at the time, singing this line over and over: I know some day you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky, but why can't it be mine? I could almost cry just writing it!

Sturm - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:55pm PST I always thought "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro was the saddest song ever!

Daniel D - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:56pm PST Bobbie Gentry's Southern gothic suicide lament. 'Ode to Billie Joe' should have been in the top five.

Brian L - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:56pm PST Last Kiss? Re-recorded by Pearl Jam, originally written and recorded by Wayne Cochran in 1962.

Jason C - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:56pm PST if you've just been dumped nothing makes you wanna put a bullet in your head more then... Every rose has its thorn...by Poison....or Creep by Radiohead..

Uponthemyohmy - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:58pm PST One of the most saddest and angriest songs I've ever heard is Van Der Graaf Generator: "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers".

Jennifer - Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:58pm PST "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling is one of the saddest songs I've ever heard.

Yahoo! Music User - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:00am PST Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald" is the saddest song I know. What man knows where the love of God goes when the gales of November come early.

lonestarlola - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:06am PST My two cents - "I'm Not In Love" by 10cc. And where's Nazareth's "Love Hurts"? I listened to that one over and over again when my college boyfriend and I broke up. It was on the Dazed and Confused soundtrack and the movie had just come out then. Truly an ode to the angst of young love.

lovethisgame - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:07am PST You missed Tracy Nelson's "Down So Low." Esquire magazine called it "One of the five saddest songs ever written." It's a masterpiece. Sung by the greatest white female singer of all time.

Yahoo! Music User - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:08am PST Some others: The Promise by Tracy Chapman Dust in The Wind by Kansas Julia by the Beatles Welcome to My Heart by Backstreet Boys Here Comes the Flood by Peter Gabriel I'll Find A Way by Rachael Yamagata Fix You by Coldplay (the beginning organ always strikes a chord with me) Strong by Sade Try Again by Keane It's so Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday by Boys II Men Goodnight My Angel by Billy Joel

j morrison - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:08am PST No Tom Waits? What the Hell is wrong with you? Bad Liver and A Broken Heart , Blue Valentines Warm Beer and Cold Women...and of course, Well, I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With you are classics.

Lawrence L - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:08am PST "Withered and Died" by Richard and Linda Thompson, from their album, "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight." Nothing is sadder.

vaughnhaight - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:09am PST Hard to believe that you left off what many is consider to be the saddest song ever "Since I Don't Have You," by The Skyliners. In 1958 the group and their soon to be Hit was turned down by 13 labels becauase it was too sad. This is a beautiful harmonized tune by the ever great Jimmy Beaumont and his Skyliners.

phipps.glenn - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:13am PST Of course everyone has a favorites list... mine would include almost anything sung by the great lady day..and the sappiest divorce song ever, bobby goldsboro's "with pen in hand".. along that same line i would include sonny and cher's "you better sit down kids."

Ana N - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:13am PST 1. Hurt (Johnny Cash ver) 2. Landslide (Stevie Nicks) 3. Always on my mind (Willie Nelson) 4. Yesterday (Beatles) 5. One/fade to black (tie) (metallica) 6. Wildwood flower (Carter family) 7. Poncho and Lefty (Willie Nelson) 8. Changes (Black Sabbath) 9. drive (the Cars) 10.anything from (the cure) Where's my check??

bileggeddog - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:17am PST Bird on a Wire by Leonard Cohen, Goodbye Cruel World by Pink Floyd, Something in the Way by Nirvana, Morning Bell by Radiohead. Those will blow those corny ballads out of the water.

dreaded - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:19am PST lots of very sad songs missed on this list: 1. ain't no sunshine when she's gone-bill withers 2. everybody hurts-REM 3. if you leave me now-chicago 4. time after time-cyndi lauper 5. all apologies- nirvana 6. end of the world-skeeter davis

Habeat Muhamid - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:21am PST ok... if brad paisley and whisky lullaby didnt make this list you are RETARDED

ecwh4 - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:23am PST How can you not have Lenny Williams "Because I Love You" on here.. Easily one of the saddest and most beautiful soul songs ever!! I mean the man cries during the song for pete's sake...

selkie.0408 - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:23am PST If you had seen Bonnie Raitt's rendition of "I Can't Make You Love Me" on SNL the day her producer died in a plane crash, you would make that the number one heartbreak song of all time.....I'll never forget the sorrow in her voice.

Bill - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:25am PST Carrickfergus - Van Morrison & the Chieftains River of Tears - Eric Clapton You Take Me for Granted - Merle Haggard Company - Rickie Lee Jones Faithless Love - J.D. Souther

msfryepy - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:27am PST "Angel", by Sarah Mclachlan is bittersweet, not utterly being devastated, and alone with no hope.. Maybe not real pain and emptiness as #19 writes, but it is sad, tempered by hope and a resolution. My # 1---"I'll Be Home for Christmas", and thinking of especially all the generations of soldiers who did not make it home, ever. Pray for peace, and spritual healing

ursie_mcd777 - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:31am PST I want to share one with you, because this list is fantastic. Try Janis Joplin's Work Me Lord. OMG, this song is major fall in my beer and leave a suicide note.

rainierman - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:38am PST A Man I'll Never Be - Boston (1978) The most beautiful sad breakup/on-the-rocks song. One of my all-time favorites since my youth in NJ. I still crank Boston in my car leaving my west coast GenY friends baffled. Killers and Linkin Park are girly-men compared to Boston.

Thunderpeel - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:41am PST I threw this 20 song list together (not in a specific order) in just 3 minutes. Beck - Beautiful Way Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have The Cure - Love Song R.E.M. The One I Love En Vogue - Don't Let Go (Love) Prince - The Beautiful Ones Public Image Limited - The Order Of Death Tori Amos - Hey Jupiter [Dakota Version] Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground Soft Cell - Tainted Love INXS - Never Tear Us Apart U2 - One Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time New Order - True Faith Billie Holiday - Gloomy Sunday The Beatles - Yesterday The Cure - Fear Of Ghosts Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Garbage – Milk

rickybernardo115 - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:45am PST Wedding Song by Bob Dylan Adrian by Mason Jennings If you want to sing out, sing out by Cat Stevens Somewhere only we know by Keane Nothing Better bu the Postal Service

Drew - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:56am PST How about these tunes instead: Goldfrapp - Let it take you Incredible Hulk - Lonely man theme John Prine - Hello in there Johnny Cash - Hurt Luciano Pavarotti - Vesti la giubba The Smiths - Unlovable Roy Orbison - Crying Santo & Johnny - Sleepwalk The Cure - To wish impossible things Frank Sinatra - Don't worry 'bout me Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm gonna leave you

Yahoo! Music User - Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:56am PST Mazzy Star, Into Dust, I bet you can't listen to Hope Sandoval's awesomely sad voice in this one and not at least get choked up.

Yahoo! Music User - Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:00am PST Hmm pretty bad stuff. 2 maybe 3 of these are decent. Here are some real sad songs: 1. Don't Cry-Guns N' Roses 2. Seize the Day- Avenged Sevenfold 3. Runaround Sue- Dion 4. One Headlight- The Wallflowers 5. Runaway- Del Shannon 6. The Way- Fastball

handyman15090 - Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:22am PST I really thought "Its Over" would be #1. Warning: Do not listen to this if you are going through a breakup unless you are alone in a padded room. Otherwise you WILL hurt yourself.

Joe S - Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:39am PST Some others- 1. Can We Still be Friends? Todd Rundgren (1978) 2. I'm Not in Love- 10cc (1976) 3. I've Been In Love Before- The Cutting Crew (1986) 4. Make Love Stay- Dan Fogelberg (1984) 5. Love Is Just a Mystery- The Babys (1980) 6. Wildflower- Skylark (1973) 7. We Just Disagree- Dave Mason (1977) 8. Isn't It a Pity- George Harrison (1970) 9. Lost Without Your Love- Bread (1977) 10. Every Little Bit Hurts- Brenda Holloway (1967) Brian A -

Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:41am PST Thank you. That was very insightful. Agree or disagree, this is why people who truely love music listen to music...looking for that perfect expresion...the time when an artist, regardless of genre, makes you understand...if you didn't like the article...listen to the music and read it again...

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