Monday, December 01, 2008

The 20 Most Heartbreaking Songs Of All Time

Cry Me A River: The 20 Most Heartbreaking Songs Of All Time! - Rock's Backpages: "For the last month Rock's Backpages has offered up a slew of sobworthy classics from all walks of pop. Country, soul, AOR, dance: you name the genre, we've scoured it for heartbreak greats. So get yer handkerchiefs ready... here's our tearjerking Top 20 , from the Everly Brothers to George Jones via Lorraine Ellison and Little Feat. --Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages"

Thanks to Doc Quatermass for this link. For what it's worth, I absolutely agree with #1, a classic of the first water.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

By some distance the best George Jones I've heard. Why were all the talented jackasses, famous for both words almost equally, on CBS? (I think of Jones, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan...)

For a slightly different definition of heartbreaking...well, I'm not surprised that they missed the Kindertotenlieder or Mussorgsky's SONGS, but Human Sexual Response's "Anne Frank Story" came immediately to mind...

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

I second that emotion on the #1 pick. I was also glad to see Don and Phil clock in with So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad), though the Everly Brothers fan in me probably would have ranked it higher.

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

Now that I think of it, you could fill the entire Top 20 with songs from the Possum: The Door, The Grand Tour, A Good Year for the Roses and the tongue-in-cheek Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You), for starters...

Anonymous said...

We just watched the Orbison black & white concert again and I was thinking which of Roy's "lost love" songs was my favorite. As good as "Crying" is, my vote still goes to "It's Over."

My list would include Don Henley doing "Wasted Time".

And the hours go by like minutes
and the shadows come to stay
So you take a little something to
make them go away
And I could have done so many things, baby
If I could only stop my mind from wondrin' what
I left behind and from worrying 'bout this wasted time


Jeff

Cap'n Bob said...

What about "Old Shep"? And for Bonnie Raitt I'd pick "Love Has No Pride." The Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why." And how about all the dead girlfriends songs?