What are some of your favorite sad love songs? I'm taking requests. Here are some of mine...

"Come Back to Me", Janet
"Take a Bow", Madonna
"The One I Gave My Heart To", Aaliyah
"Walk Away", Christina Aguilera
"On Bended Knee", Boyz II Men
"Anytime", Brian McKnight
"Love Takes Time", Mariah Carey
"If I'm Not in Love", Faith Hill
"Always", Bon Jovi
"I Miss You So Much", TLC
"I Get Lonely", Janet

Wishing on a Star -- Rose Royce.

Crash and Burn -- Sheryl Crow

I wrote a letter that I never mailed
I rehearsed a dialogue in my head
In case you ever wanted to track me down
I'll take mycell phone to bed

And it's laughter that I hear when I close my eyes
And it's one more punchline I forgot to learn
I call you up when my bottle's dry
I'm on my way to crash and burn

Antigone laid across the road
And let a mack truck leave her there for dead
Just because her lover split the scene
Well love might be great but why lose your head

Tim Hardin

How can we hang on to a dream

What can I say, she's walking away
From what we've seen
What can I do, still loving you
It's all a dream

How can we hang on to a dream
How can it ever be the way it seems

What can I do, she's saying we're through
With how it was
What will I try, I still don't see why
She says what she does

How can we hang on to a dream
How can it ever be the way it seems

What can I say, she's walking away
From what we've seen
What can I do, still loving you
It's all a dream

How can we hang on to a dream
How can it ever be the way it seems
How can we hang on to a dream

What can I say, she's walking away
From what we've seen
What can I do, still loving you
It's all a dream

How can we hang on to a dream
How can it will it be the way it seems
How can we hang on to a dream

"Lover You Should've Come Over" Jeff Buckley hell the whole
Grace album for that matter

Lookin' for Another Pure Love -- Stevie Wonder

Sincerity -- Me'Shell Ndegeocello

What A Fool Believes -- The Doobie Brothers

Something In The Water (Does Not Compute) -- Prince

Can't We Just Be Friends? -- Frank Sinatra

Superwoman/Where Were You . . . -- Stevie Wonder

Minute By Minute -- The Doobie Brothers

Guess I'm Doing Fine -- Beck

My master list:

"Take A Bow" - Madonna
"Come Back To Me" - Janet Jackson
"Rain" - Madonna
"Voices Carry" - 'Til Tuesday
"Coming Up Close" - 'Til Tuesday
"Miss You" - Aaliyah (just because it's so poignant)
"Honestly" - Annie Lennox
"Why" - Annie Lennox
"How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" - Bee Gees/Al Green versions
"Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" - Culture Club
"Time (Clock Of The Heart)" - Culture Club
"That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" - Carly Simon
"Too Many Walls" - Cathy Dennis
"Yellow" - Coldplay
"Mistake No. 3" - Culture Club
"When You Were Mine" - Prince/Cyndi Lauper versions
"Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper
"Breakdown" - Donna Summer
"Don't Ask Me Why" - Eurythmics
"Here Comes The Rain Again" - Eurythmics (a song of yearning, but with a haunting, sad melody, if that qualifies)
"Seasons Change" - Exposé
"Dreams" - Fleetwood Mac
"Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid" - Hall & Oates
"Say It Isn't So" - Hall & Oates
"She's Gone" - Hall & Oates
"Again" - Janet Jackson
"The Man That Got Away" - Judy Garland
"Cloudbusting" - Kate Bush (about love for a father)
"Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" - Kate Bush
"Millionaire" - Kelis (feat. Andre 3000) (a tale of wealth and lost love)
"Where Has The Love Gone" - Kylie Minogue (a curiously sparse dance track but haunting nonetheless)
"What Did I Do To You" - Lisa Stansfield
"When Are You Coming Back" - Lisa Stansfield
"All Around The World" - Lisa Stansfield
"Bad Girl" - Madonna ("Is it me or you that I'm afraid of/I tell myself I'll show you what I'm made of/ Can't bring myself to let you go/ Don't want to cause you any pain but I love you just the same/ In my heart I know we've come apart and I don't know where to start/ What can I do/ I don't wanna feel blue")
"Love Tried To Welcome Me" - Madonna
"Frozen" - Madonna
"The Power Of Goodbye" - Madonna
"I Don't Wanna Cry" - Mariah Carey
"Jimmy Mack" - Martha & The Vandellas (It's a Motown dance track, sure, but it's about the loss of a lover who perished in Vietnam; there's a kind of desperate longing to Martha's performance that drives it home, and we feel that he's dead but she's unwilling to accept it)
"You Beat Me To The Punch" - Mary Wells (sad until the role-switching final verse that is pure Smokey magic)
"My Smile Is Just A Frown (Turned Upside Down)" - Carolyn Crawford
"Blue Monday" - New Order (listen to the cryptic lyrics)
"Don't Speak" - No Doubt
"Everytime You Go Away" - Paul Young/Hall & Oates versions
"Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)" - Prince
"Purple Rain" - Prince (still makes me go "wow")
"If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time" - R. Kelly
"More Than This" - Roxy Music ("It was fun for awhile/There was no way of knowing/Like a dream in the night/Who can say where we're going...No care in the world/Maybe I'm learning why the sea on the tide has no way of turning")
"Crying" - Roy Orbison
"Only The Lonely" - Roy Orbison
"Adia" - Sarah McLachlan (her best song, probably)
"If It Makes You Happy" - Sheryl Crow
"Nothing Compares 2 U" - Sinead O' Connor (because her version is definitive)
"Ooo Baby Baby" - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (their best ballad)
"Pale Shelter" - Tears For Fears
"Swing Swing" - The All-American Rejects (killer hook)
"I Can't Let Go" - Evie Sands/The Hollies versions
"Don't You Want Me" - Human League (a dark song of obsessive, unreturned love)
"The Great Pretender" - The Platters
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" - The Platters (one of the best vocal performances I've ever heard)
"Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)" - The Shangri-Las (theatrical music at its best)
"Yesterday" - The Beatles
"Someday We'll Be Together" - The Supremes
"One More Chance" - Diana Ross
ANYTHING by the Temptations that falls under this category
"Fast Car" - Tracy Chapman
"I Can't Stand The Rain" - Tina Turner
"Owner Of A Lonely Heart" - Yes
"Insensitive" - Jann Arden
"Together Again" - Janet Jackson
"Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)" - Donna Summer
"Heroes" - David Bowie
"Money Changes Everything" - Cyndi Lauper
"It's Too Late" - Carole King
"The Crying Game" - Boy George
"Union City Blue" - Blondie
"I Still Believe" - Mariah Carey
"Hunting High And Low" - A-Ha

Date With the Rain--Eddie Kendricks. Yeah, okay, so it's upbeat, and you can dance to it, but the brotha has to hide his tears in the rain.

VoicesCarry said:

I have NEVER really thought about the words to that song.

"Jimmy Mack, when are you coming back"

!!! I thought that song was pure fluff but your explanation gave me chills. Holy shit!

I miss you-David Ruffin
(the original with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
feat.Teddy Pendergrass is also good but I prefer this version)
/peace Manki

CinisterCee said:

It's hard to say whether it was originally written specifically about the Vietnam conflict (some Motown sources say yes, some say no), but it's release was delayed until 1967 (it was cut in '64) because of the lyrical content and the Vietnam situation.

VoicesCarry said:

That's a great list, though I would never put "Together Again" on there as a sad song. I'm going to be downlaoding a bunch of them.

theVelvetRoper said:

That's interesting...It's hard to classify, I think. I sense an underlying melancholy to both the lyrics and the instrumentation, though, so that's why I slotted it in there.

VoicesCarry said:

I see what you're saying, the lyrics can be interpreted that way. For me, it's more of a celebration of life after losing a loved one. Janet wrote the lyrics for some friends of hers that passed away to AIDS, and if you look on The Velvet Rope, there is an AIDS ribbon next to the song title.

There are so many great songs that you put on the list, I'm looking some of them up and putting them on a CD.

CinisterCee said:

Also, it's interesting because the heavy hand-clapping rhythm that you hear on the single mix (1967) was supposedly augmented to sound like a military marching theme. The album version (1964) is a wistful, much more subdued track - Martha almost sounds depressed on it.
[This message was edited Thu Jan 8 14:25:16 PST 2004 by VoicesCarry]

First Choice - All I Need Is Time
Mary J. Blige - I Love You [1994]
Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U

madartista said:

I'm wishing on a star
to follow where you are
I'm wishing on a dream
to follow what it means

I'm wishing on a star
to follow where you are
I'm wishing on a dream
to follow what it means


And I wish on all the rainbows that I see
I wish on all the people who really dream
And I'm wishing on tomorrow,praying it'll come
And I'm wishing on all the lovin' we've ever done

I never thought I'd see
A time when you would be
So far away from home
so far away from me

Just think of all the moments that we've spent
I just can't let you go,for me you were meant
And I didn't mean to hurt you,but I know
that in the game of love,you reap what you sow

I feel it's time we should make up,baby
I feel it's time for us to get back together
And make the best of things,oh baby
when we're together,whether or never

I feel it's time we should make up,baby
I feel it's time for us to get back together
and make the best of things,oh baby
when we're together,whether or never

I'm wishing on a star
to follow where you are
I'm wishing on a dream
to follow what it means

and I wish on all the rainbows that I see
I wish on all the people we've ever been
And I'm hopin' on all the days to come and days to go
and I'm hopin' on days of lovin' you so

I'm wishing on a star
to follow where you are
I'm wishing on a star...oh whoa
and I wish on all the rainbows that I see


(written by Billie Calvin)

many Chris Isaak songs: This Love Will Last - Somebody's Crying..
Cryin by Vonda Shepard
Ain't That A Shame by The B52's
Don' Try To Tell Me Wendy & Lisa
2 Hearts Randy Crawford
...
[This message was edited Fri Jan 9 4:07:16 PST 2004 by jn2]

'The Shadowlands' - Ryan Adams

DavidEye said:

very nice -- i've been meaning to pull up the lyrics. thanks!

Tom Waits: I hope that i don't fall in love with you
Nick Cave: do you love me?
Beck: Lost Cause
Tindersticks: this heart of mine
ABC: Poison Arrow
Morphine: gone for good
Prince: i could never take the place of your man
Tom Petty: a face in the crowd
Bill Withers: ain't no sunshine
Tim Hardin: How can we hang on to a dream
AC/DC: baby, please don't go
Slick Rick; A teenage love
Bruce Springsteen: Bobby Jean
Chris Isaak: Forever Blue
Jimi Hendrix: Red House

Favourite Sad love songs...here is my list:

'How Could An Angel Break My Heart' - Toni Braxton
'I Don't Want To' - Toni Braxton
'Never Too Far' - Mariah
'Forever' - Mariah
'Never Forget You' - Mariah
'I Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer' - Stevie Wonder
'6, 8, 12" - Brian McKnight
'One Last Cry' - Brian McKnight
'Again' - Janet Jackson
'Nothin' Compares 2 U' - Prince & Rosie Gaines
'Don't Talk 2 Strangers' - Prince
'Goodbye' - Prince
'End Of The Road' - Boyz II Men
'On Bended Knee' - Boyz II Men

and many more!!!

The Bee Gees have so many to choose from. How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, which has been mentioned here, also To Love Somebody, Loney Days, Heartbreaker, etc. But here are a couple of lesser known Bee Gees songs with some powerful lyrics:

The Longest Night

You know a love so fine
So high above
Goes on forever but the road is rough
Reaching for another
As truth will show
Try to live without it
But you can't let go

We don't talk about it
We got no doubt
We can love each other when the lights go out
I got nobody, my bird has flown
Anyone can see I'm walking alone
Walking alone

(CHORUS)
In your quiet moments
In your silent prayer
I'll be with you baby
I'll be there
In your darkest hour
On your longest night
I'll be with you baby
Make it right
On your longest night

You know it breaks my heart
And it hurts my pride
To know I lost you to the world outside
Feeling when you touch me
They rise and fall
Try to live without it
Ain't no love at all

We don't talk about it
But somebody knows
We can love each other
When the candle glows
Open my eyes
And the moment is gone
Anyone can see
I'm walking alone
Walking alone

In your darkest hour
On your longest night
I'll be with you baby
Make it right

Nobody cries
Nobody cries, cries
For the pain I feel
Nobody knows, nobody knows
And it makes me wanna die

(Repeat Chorus)

And then there's For Whom the Bell Tolls - simply one of the best songs ever written period.

I stumble in the night
Never really knew what it would've been like
You're no longer there to
Break my fall
The heartache over you
I gave it everything but I couldn't get through
I never saw the signs
You're the last to know when love is blind

All the tears and the turbulent years
When I would not wait for no one
I didn't stop, take a look at myself
And see me losing you

(CHORUS)
When the lonely heart breaks
It's the one that forsakes
It's the dream that we stole
And I'm missing you more
And the fire that will roar
There's a hole in my soul
For you it's goodbye
And for me it's to cry
For whom the bell tolls

Seen you in a magazine
A picture at a party
Where you shouldn't have been
Hangin' on the arm of someone else
I'm still in love with you
Won't you come back to your little boy blue
I've come to feel inside
This precious love was never mine
Now I know but a little too late
That I could not live without you
In the dark of the broad daylight
I promise I'll be there

(CHORUS)

I never knew there'd be times like this
When I couldn't reach out to no one
Am I never gonna find someone
That knows me like you do
Are you leaving me a helpless child
When it took so long to save me
Fight the devil and the deep blue sea
I'll follow you anywhere
I promise I'll be there

(REPEAT CHORUS/FADE)

Nothing Compares to You -- Sinead O'Connor
I Ain't Missing You -- John Waite
I Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer -- Stevie Wonder
One More Try -- George Michael
Congratulations -- Vesta
Now and Forever -- Carole King
White Flag -- Dido
Still -- Macy Gray
17 Days -- Prince
Where Are You Now -- Janet Jackson
One Fine Day -- slow version by Natalie Merchant
Vanishing -- Mariah Carey
Love Takes Time -- Mariah Carey
Always Be My Baby-- Mariah Carey
Forever -- Mariah Carey
It's So Hard to say Goodbye to Yesterday -- Original version by G.C. Cameron.
All At Once -- Whitney Houston
Didn't We Almost Have it All -- Whitney Houston
Where Do Broken Hearts Go -- Whitney Houston
I Will Always Love You -- Whitney Houston
I'm Going Down -- Rose Royce
At This Moment -- Billy Vera and the Beaters
In My Life -- Chantal Kreviazuk's version
I Miss You - Klymaxx
Anything For You -- Gloria Estefan
[This message was edited Sat Jan 10 0:49:29 PST 2004 by SynthiaRose]

"I Love You But I Don't Trust You.."-Prince
"When We Dance" Sting
"Every Breath You Take" The Police

alandail said:

I absolutely adore that song. It's beautiful. And Robin's vocal on the first chorus is awesome. I'm gonna listen to it now.

guitarslinger44 said:

FINALLY someone mentioned this!

This song is devastating.

A couple off the top of my head:

Pictures of You - The Cure
China - Tori Amos

Never Be Mine - Kate Bush.

Cloudbuster said:

I hope you're listening to the full version from Size and not the edit from "their greatest hits - the record"

http://phobos.apple.com/W...mId=119250