What's the saddest song?

Question

Some of the most moving songs are also often the most saddest of all.. songs with power to drop you to your knees weeping..

So far some pretty songs, and some sad.. but nothing on the scale i'm feelin...

Answer 1

I find some songs and music pieces to be so overwhelming in their passion they move me beyond tears.

The Flower Duet" from Lakme.

Many symphonic pieces, especially some from Mahler, Beethoven, Bach, Barber - to name but a few.

Many heart-wrenching ballads from most simple to most sublime.

The old traditional ballad "For the Love of Barbara Allen"

In the song, a young man is dying of unrequited love for Barbara Allen; she is called to his deathbed but all she can say is, 'Young man, I think you're dying.' When he dies, she is stricken with grief and dies soon after. A briar grows from her grave and a rose from his, until they grow together.

(I love Joan Baez' recording of this ballad, arranged by Robbie Robertson of The Band, no less!)

"I Shall Be Released" (written and first performed by Bob Dylan, also recorded by The Band as well as Dylan with The Band. This song is very poignant for me as I attended one of the last few shows at which Richard Manuel (The Band) sang this song before his tragic death mere weeks later.

And this brings me to my second observation -- that so many songs have more power to move by right of strong associations we hold. Not surprisingly, many posters here name songs with strong associations -- just as I mentioned the song "I Shall Be Released."

Jane Siberry's beautiful song "Calling All Angels" can move many people to tears simply by the fact that it was played in the movie "Pay It Forward" - during the heart-wrenching emotional climax of that film; while in and of its own right, it is a very powerfully moving song.

"The Flower Duet" -- used in several films, at an emotional climax or crescendo.

Samuel Barber's "Adagio in Strings" -- used widely in the score to the film Platoon, including the death scene of Sgt. Elias and in the end scene when Pvt. Taylor is airlifted off the battlefield - a profoundly saddened and forever changed man, cognisant of the eternal debt now upon him and by extension for the audience - to those who fell on the field.

More, as this was Director Stone's attempt to address his own experiences in Viet Nam, to pay tribute to those fallen there, and most of all to show the grim toll of war, so the final scene was one of rebirth from the blood and ashes, or as Taylor said in the voice-over, "the son of two fathers, Barnes and Elias..." and the audience emerges from this film with a vivid, compelling sense of life born in, from and of life struggle.

I end my post with Barber's Adagio because it is one of the most widely recognized works of music so often associated with great tragedies, from its inclusion in funeral processions such as those of JFK to its performance in the prayer service at Ground Zero, six weeks after 9/11.


*very humbly submitted*

Answer 2

I don't know if you've heard this song baby, but for me, this is a very very sad song..

Midnight Blue
by Electric Light Orchestra
album: Discovery (1979)
I see the lonely road that leads so far away,
I see the distant lights that left behind the day
But what I see is so much more than I can say
And I see you in midnight blue.

I see you cryin' now you've found a lot of pain,
And what you're searchin' for can never be the same,
But what's the difference cos' they say what's in a name.
And I see you in midnight blue.

I will love you tonight
and I will stay by your side
lovin' you, I'm feelin' midnight blue.

I see you standing there far out along the way,
I want to touch you but the night becomes the day,
I count the words that I am never gonna say
And I see you in midnight blue.

Can't you feel the love that I'm offering you,
Can't you see how it's meant to be,
Can't you hear the words that I'm saying to you,
Can't you believe like I believe,
It's only one and one it's true
Still I see you in midnight blue.

I see beautiful days and I feel beautiful ways
Of loving you, everything's midnight blue.

Answer 3

All Women......... Lisa Stansfield
every women feels this one at some point.....

He's home again from another day
She smiles at him as he walks through the door
She wonders if it will be okay
It's hard for her when he doesn't respond

He says babe you look a mess
You look dowdy in that dress
It's just not like it used to be
Then she says...

Chorus:
I may not be a lady
But I'm all woman
From monday to sunday I work harder than you know
I'm no classy lady
But I'm all woman
And this woman needs a little love to make her strong
You're not the only one

She stands there and lets the tears flow
Tears that she's been holding back so long
She wonders where did all the loving go
The love they used to share when they were strong

She says yes I look a mess
But I don't love any less
I thought you always thought enough of me to always be impressed

Answer 4

Emotions by destiny's child - I was at work the day after my Nan died and it came on the radio, I was so sad and that same feeling comes back everytime I hear it.

The saddest lyrics have to be in 'how come the world won't stop' by anastacia, it's on her album freak of nature. It's about someone you love dying and is so sad!

Answer 5

Friends By Michael W. Smith

Answer 6

What's Another Year by Johnny Logan

or


Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers

Answer 7

Feed the World / Do They Know Its Christmas - Band Aid charity song for the starving children in Africa. I will never forget the pictures of those poor children that I saw on the TV when I was young.

Answer 8

The Living Years, Mike and the Mechanix

Answer 9

The saddest I have ever heard is Hurt by Johnny Cash,the most sorrowful!

Answer 10

Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton

Answer 11

For me one of them is I DON`T WANT TO by toni braxton. It came out when my mum was terminally ill and she liked it. When they were carrying her coffin out the house it came on the radio ! It might sound mad having your dead mother in the house and the radio on - but my mum LOVED music - she sang all the time - all her life. I made them put the coffin down and i wouldn`t let them take her until the song was over.
Yes that could bring me to my knees if i heard it now........