The Sad Songs thread

[Dave]

OK, here's a long-overdue topic for all "Crybabies" out there:

What songs A&M or otherwise, make you feel "misty"?

Here is my list of "tear-jerkers":

1. Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends: Kinda Wasted Without You -- No wonder I wanted to "get rid of this record" after I bought it, yet this song (also) made the LP a "keeper"!

Runner-Up:

Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends: I'll Be Back -- Both the "album version" on SP 4139 and the "single version" I have on The Complete... CD, POCM 1065, along with the "album version".

2. Frankie Valli: There's Always A Goodbye -- Forshadowed my break-up with my ex-. My mom scolded me for playing my guitar too LOUD with it...just the instrumentation makes me weep...!

Randy Richards is actually the writer of it and it's the first track on his self-titled album, A&M SP 4678, but it is not quite as sad. Anne Murray covered it, too, but her version, I never heard.

Runner-Up:

Other tracks on Side 2 of that Frankie Valli album Lady, Put The Light Out, such as Lady, Put The Light Out, Boats Against The Current, Rainstorm and I'm Gonna Love You, which lead up to that last track, ...Goodbye, forshadowing the obvious "sadness". Good thing he followed it up with the more positive "Grease" from Frankie Valli Is The Word, featuring the hit song from the movie, GREASE, but made the rest of that album just as "melancholy", as well.

3. The Andre Konstalentz Singers: Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head -- Have it on my 3-Record-Set: Theme from Love Story and 30 other hits! featuring Various Artists on Columbia's Musical Treasures series. With Konstalentz's "Double-Orchestra" of strings & horns and the female singers who backed Jerry Vale, Walter Wanderley and even appeared on Jimi Hendrix's posthumous Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning albums (er, I think... ). And that ORGAN SOLO...!! The last song on Side 2 of Record 3...Makes me want to play the whole set over again!

Runner-Up: Hey, There Lonely Girl by The Andre Konstalentz Singers appears on there, too. Tried some of the original albums, including the "home" of those two, but they just...ZZZzzz...put me to sleep...!

Dave

...hoping youse can come up with more...

 

[DAN BOLTON]

The Browns singing THE THREE BELLS, and anybody that sings SCARLETT RIBBONS...



Dan

 

[Mike]

Other than, "I'm so lonesome I could cry"

Bobby Goldsboro - "Honey"

 

[Steven J. Gross]

skip message

 

[Dave]

Eh, played John Denver's Double-Live Album and thought (remake of Michael Murphy song) "Boy FromThe Country" was sad! I kinda cried the first time I heard it.

"I'm Sorry" is one that's almost just as sad...

Dave

 

[LPJim]

It's hard to listen to "Angelica" from the Sandpipers' GUANTANAMERA without getting a little misty-eyed:
JB

".... the shadow had been cast; too many springs had passed, for Angelica ...."

 

[Dave]

It's hard to listen to "Angelica" from the Sandpipers' GUANTANAMERA without getting a little misty-eyed:
JB

".... the shadow had been cast; too many springs had passed, for Angelica ...."

Right On, Jim! A real Tear-Jerker, there...!! ...And the very First I bought on A&M...!

"...Now in my silent room...I tend the flowers that I buy...as they slowly fade and die...watered by the tears I cry...for my Angelica...my Angelica..."

My 2nd was Paul Williams' "When I Was All Alone"...

"...People looked right through me...When I was all alone...And if I could just hold you...And if I could just make you stay..."

Dave

...and my 1000th Post...!!!

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Alright Dave!
(...hoping I will not get hit by a bus before I hit 1000!) :goofygrin:

 

[Dave]

Roger Nichols and The Small Circle Of Friends' "Kind'a Wasted Without You" is sad, too! Thought it would be more of a kind of "drug song" between the time I saw it on the LP Inner-Sleeve and actually heard the song, years later! Wonder what the Instrumental Backing Track must have sounded like?

The Non-LP Tracks, "Love Song, Love Song", "Drifter" and "Trust", have a pretty melancholy quality, too!

Alright, Dave!
(...hoping I will not get hit by a bus before I hit 1000!) :goofygrin:

Thanks, Steve...! Eh, you'll get there...!!

Dave

...It's lonely out tonight...And the feelin' just got right...For a brand-new love song...Somebody Done Somebody Wrong...Hey, won't you play...Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song...And make me feel at home...While I miss my baby...So, please, play for me...A sad melody...so sad that it makes everybody cry...A real hurtin' song...'Bout love that's gone wrong...'Cause I don't wanna cry all alone...

 

[Dave]

It's hard to listen to "Angelica" from the Sandpipers' GUANTANAMERA without getting a little misty-eyed:

JB

".... the shadow had been cast; too many springs had passed, for Angelica ...."

I think a good runner-up should be "Stasera Gli Angeli Non Volano (For the Last Time)"... With Nick DeCaro's accordian, it's a minor tear-jerker, too... :|

And "Softly As I Leave You" from The Second LP, Sandpipers, as well as the Foursider compilation, seems to also be a "final farewell"...

And what about...Jimmie Rodgers' "Father Paul (Without Her)"...??!!

Dave

 

[Mr Bill]

The title cut of Herb's Just You & Me makes me cry...

--Mr Bill
...of course, not for the same reasons we're discussing in this thread!

 

[Mike]

Hey Mr. Bill,
We missed you at your going away party. Lets get together next time you`re in Japan.
Regards,
Mike

 

[LPJim]

Almost forgot; another really sad one is Phil Ochs' "No More Songs" from SP 4253 GREATEST HITS. The tune is unforgettably haunting; but the title was (with the exception of some singles) pretty much the literal truth.
JB

"Hello, hello, hello
is there anybody here
I only called to say I'm sorry ..."

 

[bob knack]

You kids aren't very sentimental.

"I'll Be Seeing You", "Early Autumn"(Johnny Mercer lyric), the vocal version of "Moonlight Serenade" (recently recorded by Chicago with a lyric by Mitchell Parish), and anything by Marilyn and Alan Bergman (like "How Do You Keep the Music Playing") would qualify for those of us with a couple of years on us.

 

[mikeargo]

From the early TjB and BMB albums, I always felt a little sad (nicely so) listening to "Lagrima Quieta," "December's Child," and "A Spanish Rose"...

But buddy, if you want to cry, Sinatra's For Only the Lonely is the place.

Mike A

 

[Dave]

For the many Carpenters fans we have, Richard & Karen "made us cry", (or at least SHOULD HAVE!) with:

A SONG FOR YOU

ROAD ODE

FOR ALL WE KNOW

and of course...

RAINY DAYS & MONDAYS

Dave

 

[Dave]

I thought the Yes album, Close To The Edge was REAL sad, too...!! The LAST song there, especially got the tears to flow...!!!

As did:

"You See Me Cry" by Aerosmith from Toys In The Attic; used to skip this track, 'cause it sounded a bit sappy...but one day gave it a good listen...! Runner up: "Uncle Salty" from same LP!

"Jump, Jump, Jump"-- The last song by Rick Derringer on his All American Boy album... If not for all those other LP's he made afterwards, I would'a thought he did...!!

Now we're REALLY goin' back:

Madonna -- "Borderline": ...Just try to understand, I've given all I can...'Cause you got the best of me...

First song I heard that I was REALLY sentimental about! Tried it on a '45', first, before buying her debut album through... (Forgot where I stopped...Really! ) ...and more '45's, as well as, all those 12" discs...!! Definitely "The Claudine Longet" of my time...!!

Runner-Up: "Get Into The Groove"; from her movie, Desperately Seeking Susan, of which there is finally a soundtrack for...! The credits roll at the end of the movie to a "different mix" of the song, too, that I tried to capture on tape...! Different from the other-wise only available 12"...!


Dave

 

[AM Matt]

The song "Promise Me" by Beverley Craven (debut) (Epic) from 1990 which is no longer made in the U.S. (which was a big hit in London) & the song called "Falling Leaves" by singer Frances Black (Mary Black's sister) from the CD "The Sky Road" (Celtic Heartbeat/Universal) from 1995 but the CD is no longer made in U.S.. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Dave]

I think Dusty Springfield's entire Cameo album is a real weeper... Especially when it was released as a bit of a comeback when she didn't quite know which direction to turn to in her career...

It was produced by and features songs by Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter and gets augmented by The Sid Sharp Strings arranged and conducted by Jimmie Haskell.

In fact, just about every song Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter have written and had sung by other performers have had a sad and melancholy tone to them. Like "You Can't Dress Up A Broken Heart" and "Put A Little Love Away" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77...

But Dusty, singing Lambert & Potter's "Of All The Things", (which Dennis did on a solo LP of his) "Comin' And Goin'", "Breakin' Up A Happy Home" and "Who Gets Your Love?", as well as the Hugo Montenegro-written, "Learn To Say Goodbye", really makes me misty, each time I put this record on!

Dave

"The Best Album To Hear On A Night At Home, Alone!" :|

 

[AM Matt]

The song "Put A Little Love Away" was also done by The Four Tops on the album "Keeper Of The Castle" (wish Hip-O will hopefully release someday on CD) & a female trio called Rock Flowers also did that song in which is available at: www.wingnuttoons.com. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Mike Blakesley]

It's not on A&M but it has an A&M connection: Pretty much the whole album PAINTED FROM MEMORY by Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello can choke me up. The song "This House is Empty Now" is particularly potent.

 

[seashorepiano]

For what it's worth my saying it, I will honestly submit that one song that has moved me greatly is "Brazil" from A.C. Jobim's Stone Flower. The haunting electric piano introduction, with the percussion (cymbal?) rattle from Airto in the beginning, immediately puts me in a different place. His smoky vocals seem to be saturated in sadness, not the sappy kind, but a more sincere expression of loss. It hearkens back to the age before bossa nova began, when it was written. What I find particularly ponderous is that this album was recorded in 1970, right around the time when electrified jazz was skyrocketing and basically going out of control. His cover of "Brazil," with its electric and acoustic components, is a place to be comfortable listening, where for at least a few minutes you can avoid the other things going on in life and think about the past. A very melancholic song that made me weep.[/b]

 

[Dave]

I think a lot of Jobim's stuff is pretty much meant to make you weep! The strumming guitar and pounding piano and all those gushing strings have quite an effect on me, when I listen real hard...or seem to be in the "Mood"...!

Paul Desmond can put you under a "sad spell", too, and I'm sure Wes Montgomery wanted to create that kind of "effect", himself!

Bobby Goldsboro - "Honey"

I have Bobby Goldsboro's Tenth Anniversary Album -- From start to finish: a "Foursider" of Tear-Jerkers, that one is...!


Dave

 

[Dave]

Yeah, Starbuck's "Moonlight Feels Right" is also one that once made me cry! I'll never forget hearing it on the radio and then, long after it finished, I couldn't shake the sad feeling it gave me... I picked up an issue of Song Hits, which has lyrics to Popular Songs and had "Moonlight" in it; Sang the lyrics to myself and wondered what was so sad about it... The Marimba...? The Synthesizers...? ...The Singing, or the Vocals? And my big white cat, :cat: the late Fluffy, came along and cheered me up, too!

Other Sad Sandpipers Songs:

Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls -- Which I once had on a '45' B/W the equally tearful Santo Domingo, long before buying the Come Saturday Morning LP, which is almost in its entirety, just as sad... (In fact, The Saddest Sandpipers ALBUM-- "Drifter", "Free To Carry On", "Sound Of Love", "Autumn Afternoon"...) "Valley Of The Dolls" is a pretty sad way to end what was their last album as a trio and the chorus sounds so melancholy...

I'll Remember You and especially, Softly As I Leave You are both real heart-felt "farewell" numbers, too...

Dave

 

[jfiedler17]

I picked up an issue of Song Hits, which has lyrics to Popular Songs and had "Moonlight" in it; Sang the lyrics to myself and wondered what was so sad about it...

Wow, Song Hits! I had forgotten about that magazine! I used to love that mag when I was younger!
I'd say it'd be great if that mag were still in existence, but then, given the torrent of songs on the charts these days that have to be cleaned up for radio play ...

Jeff F.