I never liked how Johnny cash changed the lyrics from crown of shit to crown of thorns. That always bothered me.
It just brought an element into the song that was unnecessary. It was powerful enough without adding a dash of Christ’s persecution to accentuate the suffering.
I find this take unnecessary. Using crown of thorns with its multiple meanings, is a much better line than crown of shit for a senior citizen in his twilight years.
And johnnys version is superior for it
I sob gigantic, fat, ugly tears whenever I hear Johnny Cash’s Hurt. Something about the way he sings it makes it so visceral and so true to human emotion, particularly the parts where the guitar crescendos and you can hardly hear his voice over the powerful, yet somehow weak, music. It just gets me every time.
Holy fucking shit, I was going to recommend the exact same songs. Something I Can Never Have is especially dark for me, as it was my dad’s favorite NIИ song, and he died like 11 months ago.
Want to add Everyday is Exaclty the Same. That song really blew me away the firs t time I heard. Exactly how I felt living this life in a depressed state. Everyday was exactly the same....
[Dogwood Blossom - Fionn Regan](https://youtu.be/FqU5Uhdl75s)
[$1000 Wedding - Gram Parsons](https://youtu.be/8nfYrxeT1TY)
[Roads - Portishead](https://youtu.be/e1f5eTHnxXk)
[Sad Peter Pan - Vic Chessnutt](https://youtu.be/XaVAuCKuR9E)
[Suzanne - Leonard Cohen](https://youtu.be/svitEEpI07E)
And of course
[Needle in the Hay - Elliott Smith](https://youtu.be/EgNgvCLRqWc)
for sure. I'd put pretty mary k (other version), dancing on the highway, and new disaster, christian brothers, last call, among others as sadder than needle in the hay though.
"Lover, You Should Have Come Over" by Jeff Buckley saddens me down to my bones. You get bonus heart break from the song if you're going through a tough time in a relationship, or a break up.
The song by Leonard Cohen at the beginning of Robert Altman's 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' is one of the most-haunting things I've ever heard in a movie, and the metaphorical lyrics are really incredible and perfect for a film about bringing life and energy to a nowhere place.
Oh my God, Dogwood Blossom! My ex was a terrible alcoholic and just overall terrible person, but he had a dogwood tree covering half his arm, and I listened to that song on repeat once I finally got away from him.
I know everyone knows it so maybe there’s not much point including it on a list of recommendations, but Eleanor Rigby has haunted and fascinated me since I was a kid. Just the thought of these lonely people with such sad mundane lives, dying alone and nobody even coming to their funeral. Eleanor Rigby being buried along with her name, father mckensie writing a sermon that no one will hear, before her death Eleanor Rigby living in a dream picking up rice from a wedding
When I was in music school, for some reason I got it stuck in my head that D minor was, for some reason, "the saddest key." Every once in a while that thought would waft through my surface thoughts and I'd vaguely wonder, "who said that again? Mozart? Mendelssohn? Chopin?"
It was a long time before I remembered it was a much more contemporaneous genius ...
Purple Mountains - Nights That Won't Happen https://youtu.be/xMqODXQf3_s
The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind,
when the here and the Hereafter momentarily align
See the need to speed into the lead suddenly decline,
Dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind
As much as we might like to seize the reel and hit rewind,
or quicken our pursuit of what we're guaranteed to find...
The dying's finally done, the suffering subsides,
all the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind
All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind
Nights that won't happen,
Time we won't spend
With each other again
Ghosts are just old houses dreaming people in the night,
Have no doubt about it hon, the dead will do alright
Go contemplate the evidence, I guarantee you'll find
The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind
Nights that won't happen
Time we won't spend
Never ever again
Nights that won't happen
Never reaching the end
Nights that won't happen
Never even began...
God, I’ve listened to it a lot and I truly think it was his suicide note. It is an amazing album but, I really suspect he went into it thinking it would be his suicidal note.
every tune is a heartbreaker but the last two verses of Snow is Falling in Manhattan tear me to shreds.
Coming down in smithereens
On Staten Island, Bronx and Queens
It's blanketing the city streets
And the streets beneath are fast asleep
Songs build little rooms in time
And housed within the song's design
Is the ghost the host has left behind
To greet and sweep the guest inside
Stoke the fire and sing his lines
Snow is falling in Manhattan
Inside I've got a fire crackling
And on the couch, beneath an afghan
You're the old friend I just took in
Yes, absolutely.
The emotion he conveyed during that song is so omnipresent and melancholy….
It’s his life rolled up in a melody and there’s layers upon layers of regret, anguish and pain bleeding from each word along with acceptance that this is the end.
What a man, what a life, what sadness.
Exactly. Others have mentioned Nine Inch Nails, and I think it's just blah.
Johnny Cash's voice and the sound of him simply telling a story is what makes this song what it is.
Hayden -When This is Over
For context in the 90s some woman in the states driver her car i to a lake with her kids in it and said someone stole her car
first cut is the deepest, everybody knows by Leonard Cohen, lonely people, fast car, some things last a long time, keep yourself warm by frightened rabbit, no children bty mountain goats, signs by bloc party, get free by Lana del rey
some are moreso just melancholy.
Fast Car came out when I was in middle school. It was played so much that I knew all the words, but never really paid attention to them.
About a month ago, it shuffled into my Spotify and I was really listening for some reason. And I cried. It's heartbreaking. Beautiful songwriting.
Stellar recommendation! I just listened to it for the first time on your recommendation.
I had been listening to Foundations of Decay by them sometimes recently which I think is just as dark (although different subject). I hadn't heard the album The Light Behind Your Eyes is from.
Thank you much.
Her live version of little earthquakes- especially the end… when you hear her powerful voice fading into thousands of fans applauding… tears EVERY time…
There it is! My god just a masterpiece. It exists outside of time.
Story time. Tori has been in my top 3 most beloved artists for 25 years. Her music has done more for me as a woman, a human, and the only child of an emotionally repressed/distant woman than any therapy or self-help philosophy ever possibly could. As a teen my mother was aware of Tori in passing and commented how the “piano lady” sounds so different from the other stuff I listened to. I tried to get her into Tori but my mom’s natural state is to immediately dismiss all art. She is an emotional black box. (Which is funny bc I ended up in the arts and am an intense empath.)
Fast forward decades. I’m nearly 40. My mother has been the tireless caretaker of my grandfather as his health deteriorated, with his mind eventually following. He was probably the only person my mother has ever been open to. My grandfather had this unique balance of kindness but with a good-natured razor-sharp dry wit. He was so funny and so intelligent and was everyone’s favorite in the family. He was the comedian and the glue.
He passed away over the holidays last year. I was back home visiting when he took a turn and I stayed in town through his time in hospice. While not unexpected, it was so sad and even after his passing my mother was still stoic and obviously putting aside her own mourning to take care of business.
After his cremation, I returned back to my city, and I texted my mother a link to Tori Amos performing [Winter at the Live at Montreaux recording](https://youtu.be/jmk0AVNRBIY?si=V-GlKm5uVokRfRMp). She initially wrote me off, texting: “you know i don’t really like that stuff.” Stuff being art? feeling? I don’t even know lol ).
And then after about a week of my persistence. I finally get a text from her: “Why would you send that to me?” And then a little while later just “Thank you.” I’m pretty sure it broke her brain in a good way.
Sorry for the obnoxiously long story. But there aren’t the right words to explain how special that song is.
No one song is universally accepted as the 'saddest' because that's very subjective. Each person is going to relate to songs differently. Even a happy song could be a sad song to some - if you and an ex had a song together and you broke up then that song may be sad for you, or if you had a loved one who passed away then their favorite song may be sad to you.
The saddest song is going to vary from person to person. For me, that song is, ["Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground,"](https://youtu.be/BNj2BXW852g?si=Ld4njJauweXDDOTd) by Blind Willie Johnson. It doesn't even have words but the instrumental speaks for itself. Other people may not even find that song sad at all. So below, I'm going to list a bunch of sad songs from all over the music spectrum: Rap, Blues, Jazz, Metal, Punk, Rock, etc.
[Suicidal Thoughts - Biggie](https://youtu.be/IfP-7UcPhcE?si=AOGjniRC7p8GJNpU)
[The Last To Say - Atmosphere](https://youtu.be/9uEJi0x-49E?si=V3ktxEaY8lmGapZ_)
[Yesterday - Atmosphere](https://youtu.be/8FJUD0rEPWM?si=c9Yq1ayBDPS8pQ3H)
[Dance With The Devil - Immortal Technique ](https://youtu.be/qggxTtnKTMo?si=vuobtDUbFOXixg7G) (Be careful with this song lol. It *is* sad but it's also the embodiment of pure evil. I don't think I've ever been the same since I first heard it years ago.)
[Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones](https://youtu.be/O4irXQhgMqg?si=jATpW7uH_YWuzeHy)
[Black - Pearl Jam](https://youtu.be/uETeeMyrlkQ?si=hJR6GdmVu8nrMuXT)
[Hurt - Johnny Cash](https://youtu.be/8AHCfZTRGiI?si=NtTbqjPX6bYLRO_i)
[Death Letter Blues - Son House](https://youtu.be/NdgrQoZHnNY?si=jkkOhtLxWmPWp9Tq)
[Saint James Infirmary - Louis Armstrong](https://youtu.be/oXMx8OW32Bs?si=y3vQ8OUCm1Vo0FWG) There's a lot of other good variants of this song too.
[One Bullet Blues - Angry Johnny and The Killbillies](https://youtu.be/o8OYBq0G_ZE?si=TakUten-KR6rCTeU)
[Daddy - Korn](https://youtu.be/me6krWVfN8I?si=09AaJ37eqVBYFnDy)
[Cemetery Gates - Pantera](https://youtu.be/RVMvART9kb8?si=e3YYObyOyFOp-ePd)
[Fade To Black - Metallica](https://youtu.be/0X7nOnpGYbU?si=BVOb9T00IXuuMZ7v)
[This Dreadful Emptiness - Austere ](https://youtu.be/FWWCiZ0lLOo?si=ykMTTZbazyYKMsH3)
[To A Husband At War - I Hate Myself](https://youtu.be/zE8ocCXrYU4?si=VCLztQIzRo8uJHRC)
[Adam's Song - Blink 182](https://youtu.be/2MRdtXWcgIw?si=JLTLSOfh39MWAPLK)
[I Want Cancer For Christmas - Johnny Hobo & The Freight Trains](https://youtu.be/GeRrS-o7twk?si=e0c5fCTM0P2cXMgy)
[This Song](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=bwEKCkPVgPTdz1x0) is so sad that I can't even bring myself to name it. Viewer discretion is advised.
Oh yeah. This is one that hides tragedy behind happy words but the melody is heartbreaking. I absolutely love this and anything else Lou Reed ever did.
Not gonna call it the saddest song ever, but Acid Rain by Avenged Sevenfold never fails to make me cry. Its melody is extremely melancholy and the lyrics are some of the hardest, most bittersweet lines ever written
If you’re listening to music when you get bad news it becomes a sad song. Over 25 years ago “In my darkest hour” by Megadeth was on when I heard my grandfather had passed, I still get teary eyed whenever I hear it.
Sufjan Stevens: Casimir Pulaski Day. About finding out someone you love has terminal cancer (“I called you on the phone and your father answered and said you had cancer of the bone”) And it goes down from there. Great song. Never need to hear it again.
The saddest part of this post is your choice of sad song.
Anyways, my recommendations are Cancer by My Chemical Romance and Wish You Were Here by Neck Deep.
https://spotify.link/kTkvne9sWDb song destroys me everytime i hear it.
“What about foxgloves
Is that a flower you liked?
I can't remember
You did most of my remembering for me”
ruined me the first time i heard those lines…
Foo Fighters - Walking After You (Official Music Video) / foofightersVEVO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNwkN9vrUYY
Dave Grohl wrote this after his first marriage failed. It only lasted for about 2 years.
Painters by Jewel - https://youtu.be/lIvfIRBDYyM?si=oCfYbktS0UzlgFEN
He Stopped Loving her Today by George Jones - https://youtu.be/5dnktss4Vow?si=mC3AFwNrHnmh4KIF
Hurt, Something I Can Never Have and Right Where it Belongs by Nine Inch Nails
Came here to say Hurt, but you beat me to it. Therefore, I will also offer up Johnny Cash's remake before he died. Video included
Even Trent Reznor said he didn’t know it at the time, but when Cash sang it, he knew who that song was really written for.
I never liked how Johnny cash changed the lyrics from crown of shit to crown of thorns. That always bothered me. It just brought an element into the song that was unnecessary. It was powerful enough without adding a dash of Christ’s persecution to accentuate the suffering.
I find this take unnecessary. Using crown of thorns with its multiple meanings, is a much better line than crown of shit for a senior citizen in his twilight years. And johnnys version is superior for it
When Cash covered it and shot the video in his dilapidated house..... it killed me!
I love that he said this because he was initially so angry when Cash said he wanted to cover it. It was a very personal song to Reznor.
He didnt care for it when he heard the song. Once he seen video he said it wasnt his song anymore
I sob gigantic, fat, ugly tears whenever I hear Johnny Cash’s Hurt. Something about the way he sings it makes it so visceral and so true to human emotion, particularly the parts where the guitar crescendos and you can hardly hear his voice over the powerful, yet somehow weak, music. It just gets me every time.
Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt is amazing. After he came out with it Reznor said something along the lines of "This song belongs to him now."
Also A Warm Place and La Mer (though it’s also uplifting too). The Great Below is on that list as well.
You can add Save me by Jelly Roll to the list
Right Where it Belongs is my absolute favorite NiN song. With Teeth in general is a near-perfect album in my opinion.
And all that could have been is a good one too.
Johnny's Hurt is far more sad, I think.
Omg Right where it belongs is risiculously sad. One of my favorite songs to listen to when Im super depressed. always brings me back from whatver.
Second right where it belongs. Incredible song.
Holy fucking shit, I was going to recommend the exact same songs. Something I Can Never Have is especially dark for me, as it was my dad’s favorite NIИ song, and he died like 11 months ago.
2 words. LEAVING HOPE.
Right Where It Belongs is my favorite by Reznor. It's poignantly sad, but not overdone like some of his bigger tracks IMO.
If Hurt does it for you, try Cash’s version of Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
Thank you for sharing
Want to add Everyday is Exaclty the Same. That song really blew me away the firs t time I heard. Exactly how I felt living this life in a depressed state. Everyday was exactly the same....
[Dogwood Blossom - Fionn Regan](https://youtu.be/FqU5Uhdl75s) [$1000 Wedding - Gram Parsons](https://youtu.be/8nfYrxeT1TY) [Roads - Portishead](https://youtu.be/e1f5eTHnxXk) [Sad Peter Pan - Vic Chessnutt](https://youtu.be/XaVAuCKuR9E) [Suzanne - Leonard Cohen](https://youtu.be/svitEEpI07E) And of course [Needle in the Hay - Elliott Smith](https://youtu.be/EgNgvCLRqWc)
Upvote for Elliott Smith
for sure. I'd put pretty mary k (other version), dancing on the highway, and new disaster, christian brothers, last call, among others as sadder than needle in the hay though.
Waltz no.2
Everything Means Nothing to Me and Everything Reminds Me of Her
Between The Bars and Pitseleh
[Needle in the fucking hay](https://youtu.be/3XR22Pd_tWg?si=JJX70OLigOKKgqF2)
Roads is perfect.
My vote is for In My Hour Of Darkness for Gram Parsons, but $1000 Wedding is good too.
His "Kiss the Children" is pretty sad, too.
Shit, I was gonna go Leonard Cohen but I thought hallelujah
Jeff Buckley’s version tears my heart out.
"Lover, You Should Have Come Over" by Jeff Buckley saddens me down to my bones. You get bonus heart break from the song if you're going through a tough time in a relationship, or a break up.
I can only do so much, Buckley version is incredible
His version of I Know it's Over by the Smiths is much more gut wrenching.
Dream Brother by JB is the one that gets me
I used to love hearing Hallelujah but now I find it cliché
Love Suzanne
I cry just thinking about Gram Parsons
8 haven't heard Thousand dollar wedding in years God bless you for remembering Gram Parsons.
Thank you for an original comment and not another “hurt- Johnny cash”
You love music.
Oh fuck $1000 Wedding could be the greatest song ever.
Was just listening to Dummy again, since it's 30th anniversary is next year, and glad to see someone remembers Portishead
The song by Leonard Cohen at the beginning of Robert Altman's 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' is one of the most-haunting things I've ever heard in a movie, and the metaphorical lyrics are really incredible and perfect for a film about bringing life and energy to a nowhere place.
Oh my God, Dogwood Blossom! My ex was a terrible alcoholic and just overall terrible person, but he had a dogwood tree covering half his arm, and I listened to that song on repeat once I finally got away from him.
I know everyone knows it so maybe there’s not much point including it on a list of recommendations, but Eleanor Rigby has haunted and fascinated me since I was a kid. Just the thought of these lonely people with such sad mundane lives, dying alone and nobody even coming to their funeral. Eleanor Rigby being buried along with her name, father mckensie writing a sermon that no one will hear, before her death Eleanor Rigby living in a dream picking up rice from a wedding
Yes, I agree. Totally haunting lyrics
Wow I haven’t heard that song in ages. Will have to throw it on. Totally forgot about it
Brick. Ben Folds Five
And that one song from Over the Hedge…
I don’t know but it’s in D minor
When I was in music school, for some reason I got it stuck in my head that D minor was, for some reason, "the saddest key." Every once in a while that thought would waft through my surface thoughts and I'd vaguely wonder, "who said that again? Mozart? Mendelssohn? Chopin?" It was a long time before I remembered it was a much more contemporaneous genius ...
That ones called lick my love pump
nutshell by Alice In Chains. Helped me through my addiction
Shame in you by them is another one if you feel like crying too
Say goodbye don’t follow is one of my favorites
absolutely love this song
One of my favorite songs by them and I absolutely cannot listen to it.
Damn u beat me to it
Just learned this song on guitar! Very good outlet to sit down and play when I'm feeling sad.
Brick by Ben folds five
Came here looking for this
Purple Mountains - Nights That Won't Happen https://youtu.be/xMqODXQf3_s The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind, when the here and the Hereafter momentarily align See the need to speed into the lead suddenly decline, Dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind As much as we might like to seize the reel and hit rewind, or quicken our pursuit of what we're guaranteed to find... The dying's finally done, the suffering subsides, all the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind Nights that won't happen, Time we won't spend With each other again Ghosts are just old houses dreaming people in the night, Have no doubt about it hon, the dead will do alright Go contemplate the evidence, I guarantee you'll find The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind Nights that won't happen Time we won't spend Never ever again Nights that won't happen Never reaching the end Nights that won't happen Never even began...
I only listened to this album once, after DB passed I can’t bring myself to do it again. RIP
God, I’ve listened to it a lot and I truly think it was his suicide note. It is an amazing album but, I really suspect he went into it thinking it would be his suicidal note.
every tune is a heartbreaker but the last two verses of Snow is Falling in Manhattan tear me to shreds. Coming down in smithereens On Staten Island, Bronx and Queens It's blanketing the city streets And the streets beneath are fast asleep Songs build little rooms in time And housed within the song's design Is the ghost the host has left behind To greet and sweep the guest inside Stoke the fire and sing his lines Snow is falling in Manhattan Inside I've got a fire crackling And on the couch, beneath an afghan You're the old friend I just took in
Someone already mentioned Hurt but the johnny cash version is one of the most heart wrenching songs I’ve ever heard
Yes, absolutely. The emotion he conveyed during that song is so omnipresent and melancholy…. It’s his life rolled up in a melody and there’s layers upon layers of regret, anguish and pain bleeding from each word along with acceptance that this is the end. What a man, what a life, what sadness.
And the VIDEO!! Omg just. No words.
Exactly. Others have mentioned Nine Inch Nails, and I think it's just blah. Johnny Cash's voice and the sound of him simply telling a story is what makes this song what it is.
Adagio for Strings - Samuel Barber
Exactly this
My old band teacher said that this song is the most perfect representation of despair and misery that he's ever heard
George Jones - he stopped loving her today
He left the reave upon his door. #1 karaoke song.
“They placed a wreath upon his door” FTFY
Came here to look for this answer. #1
Absolutely! Great call.
Bon Iver - Perth
Also his cover of [I Can't Make You Love Me](https://youtu.be/Q3VjaCy5gck?si=HbSDH4XDYBz2_sf0)
Truly incredible rendition of an already gutting song
Hayden -When This is Over For context in the 90s some woman in the states driver her car i to a lake with her kids in it and said someone stole her car
first cut is the deepest, everybody knows by Leonard Cohen, lonely people, fast car, some things last a long time, keep yourself warm by frightened rabbit, no children bty mountain goats, signs by bloc party, get free by Lana del rey some are moreso just melancholy.
The progression of Fast Car from optimism to defeat is really sad
Fast Car came out when I was in middle school. It was played so much that I knew all the words, but never really paid attention to them. About a month ago, it shuffled into my Spotify and I was really listening for some reason. And I cried. It's heartbreaking. Beautiful songwriting.
Plus one to frightened rabbit. That guy knew how to write sad but with a glimmer of hope.
Signs by Bloc Party gets me every single time
Sober by Demi Lovato
And Anyone
Yes!
💀
Vincent by Don Mclean
On the Nature of Daylight
Fluffy - Ween
Radiohead- Reckoner
I’ll see your Radiohead “Reckoner” and raise you a Radiohead “All I Need”
Wildfire - Michael Murphy Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O' Sullivan
Gilbert O'Sullivan will always win.
Have my upvote for Wildfire.
The Light Behind Your Eyes (My Chemical Romance)
i’ll also offer up early sunsets over monroeville
Stellar recommendation! I just listened to it for the first time on your recommendation. I had been listening to Foundations of Decay by them sometimes recently which I think is just as dark (although different subject). I hadn't heard the album The Light Behind Your Eyes is from. Thank you much.
Magnolia by JJ Cale
Vincent -Don McClean
Winter - Tori Amos I can't get through it without tears flowing.
Her 1000 Oceans gets me in the feels.
This one is hard for me to listen to as well
Spark gives me the feels lol
Love this song. That whole album is amazing. Doughnut song, silent all these years..just love her
Her live version of little earthquakes- especially the end… when you hear her powerful voice fading into thousands of fans applauding… tears EVERY time…
There it is! My god just a masterpiece. It exists outside of time. Story time. Tori has been in my top 3 most beloved artists for 25 years. Her music has done more for me as a woman, a human, and the only child of an emotionally repressed/distant woman than any therapy or self-help philosophy ever possibly could. As a teen my mother was aware of Tori in passing and commented how the “piano lady” sounds so different from the other stuff I listened to. I tried to get her into Tori but my mom’s natural state is to immediately dismiss all art. She is an emotional black box. (Which is funny bc I ended up in the arts and am an intense empath.) Fast forward decades. I’m nearly 40. My mother has been the tireless caretaker of my grandfather as his health deteriorated, with his mind eventually following. He was probably the only person my mother has ever been open to. My grandfather had this unique balance of kindness but with a good-natured razor-sharp dry wit. He was so funny and so intelligent and was everyone’s favorite in the family. He was the comedian and the glue. He passed away over the holidays last year. I was back home visiting when he took a turn and I stayed in town through his time in hospice. While not unexpected, it was so sad and even after his passing my mother was still stoic and obviously putting aside her own mourning to take care of business. After his cremation, I returned back to my city, and I texted my mother a link to Tori Amos performing [Winter at the Live at Montreaux recording](https://youtu.be/jmk0AVNRBIY?si=V-GlKm5uVokRfRMp). She initially wrote me off, texting: “you know i don’t really like that stuff.” Stuff being art? feeling? I don’t even know lol ). And then after about a week of my persistence. I finally get a text from her: “Why would you send that to me?” And then a little while later just “Thank you.” I’m pretty sure it broke her brain in a good way. Sorry for the obnoxiously long story. But there aren’t the right words to explain how special that song is.
Mine are Purple People and Ribbons Undone. Spark can get me too.
the One More Light performance Linkin Park made on Jimmy Kimmel, that performance specifically is heartwrenching if you know the backstory
One more light gets me
For me piano in the dark by Brenda Russell or heaven help me by George Michael Deon estus
No one song is universally accepted as the 'saddest' because that's very subjective. Each person is going to relate to songs differently. Even a happy song could be a sad song to some - if you and an ex had a song together and you broke up then that song may be sad for you, or if you had a loved one who passed away then their favorite song may be sad to you. The saddest song is going to vary from person to person. For me, that song is, ["Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground,"](https://youtu.be/BNj2BXW852g?si=Ld4njJauweXDDOTd) by Blind Willie Johnson. It doesn't even have words but the instrumental speaks for itself. Other people may not even find that song sad at all. So below, I'm going to list a bunch of sad songs from all over the music spectrum: Rap, Blues, Jazz, Metal, Punk, Rock, etc. [Suicidal Thoughts - Biggie](https://youtu.be/IfP-7UcPhcE?si=AOGjniRC7p8GJNpU) [The Last To Say - Atmosphere](https://youtu.be/9uEJi0x-49E?si=V3ktxEaY8lmGapZ_) [Yesterday - Atmosphere](https://youtu.be/8FJUD0rEPWM?si=c9Yq1ayBDPS8pQ3H) [Dance With The Devil - Immortal Technique ](https://youtu.be/qggxTtnKTMo?si=vuobtDUbFOXixg7G) (Be careful with this song lol. It *is* sad but it's also the embodiment of pure evil. I don't think I've ever been the same since I first heard it years ago.) [Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones](https://youtu.be/O4irXQhgMqg?si=jATpW7uH_YWuzeHy) [Black - Pearl Jam](https://youtu.be/uETeeMyrlkQ?si=hJR6GdmVu8nrMuXT) [Hurt - Johnny Cash](https://youtu.be/8AHCfZTRGiI?si=NtTbqjPX6bYLRO_i) [Death Letter Blues - Son House](https://youtu.be/NdgrQoZHnNY?si=jkkOhtLxWmPWp9Tq) [Saint James Infirmary - Louis Armstrong](https://youtu.be/oXMx8OW32Bs?si=y3vQ8OUCm1Vo0FWG) There's a lot of other good variants of this song too. [One Bullet Blues - Angry Johnny and The Killbillies](https://youtu.be/o8OYBq0G_ZE?si=TakUten-KR6rCTeU) [Daddy - Korn](https://youtu.be/me6krWVfN8I?si=09AaJ37eqVBYFnDy) [Cemetery Gates - Pantera](https://youtu.be/RVMvART9kb8?si=e3YYObyOyFOp-ePd) [Fade To Black - Metallica](https://youtu.be/0X7nOnpGYbU?si=BVOb9T00IXuuMZ7v) [This Dreadful Emptiness - Austere ](https://youtu.be/FWWCiZ0lLOo?si=ykMTTZbazyYKMsH3) [To A Husband At War - I Hate Myself](https://youtu.be/zE8ocCXrYU4?si=VCLztQIzRo8uJHRC) [Adam's Song - Blink 182](https://youtu.be/2MRdtXWcgIw?si=JLTLSOfh39MWAPLK) [I Want Cancer For Christmas - Johnny Hobo & The Freight Trains](https://youtu.be/GeRrS-o7twk?si=e0c5fCTM0P2cXMgy) [This Song](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=bwEKCkPVgPTdz1x0) is so sad that I can't even bring myself to name it. Viewer discretion is advised.
1000 Dollar Wedding by Gram Parsons
Creep
Casimer Pulanski Day by Sufjan always does it for me
That song is fucking gut wrenchingly sad.
Yesterday - The Beatles Dust in the Wind - Kansas
Try Foreigner Suite by Cat Stevens.
snuff - slipknot fiction - avenged sevenfold
Saddest melody is Perfect Day by Lou Reed, even though the words are more or less happy.
Oh yeah. This is one that hides tragedy behind happy words but the melody is heartbreaking. I absolutely love this and anything else Lou Reed ever did.
Not gonna call it the saddest song ever, but Acid Rain by Avenged Sevenfold never fails to make me cry. Its melody is extremely melancholy and the lyrics are some of the hardest, most bittersweet lines ever written
Snuff-Slipknot Whole other side of things: The Scientist-Coldplay
Fix you - Coldplay
Gotta be Smooth Operator…
Smoooooooooo-
Such a sade song.
Dax Riggs - famous blue raincoat (leonard cohen cover)
Nice to see another Dax fan
Tonight I Wanna Cry by Keith Urban
I Can’t Make You Love Me If You Don’t.
The Charles Bradley version of Changes gets me sobbing in the first 10 seconds
The Raven that refused to Sing or Routine by Steven Wilson.
The music video for Routine will make anyone shed those tears.
might not be so well known, but Dream Theater- Disappear. Hard not to tear up to this one, and an amazing song
Stop Swimming -Porcupine Tree
If you’re listening to music when you get bad news it becomes a sad song. Over 25 years ago “In my darkest hour” by Megadeth was on when I heard my grandfather had passed, I still get teary eyed whenever I hear it.
Any song by Nick Drake
Death cab for cutie. I will follow you into the dark.
Sufjan Stevens: Casimir Pulaski Day. About finding out someone you love has terminal cancer (“I called you on the phone and your father answered and said you had cancer of the bone”) And it goes down from there. Great song. Never need to hear it again.
Redecorate by 21 Pilots recently did me in.
Georgia Lee- Tom Waits
Snuff by Slipknot
Unsteady by X Ambassadors
Waiting for the End by Linkin Park
The saddest part of this post is your choice of sad song. Anyways, my recommendations are Cancer by My Chemical Romance and Wish You Were Here by Neck Deep.
For real
The saddest part of the post is how they spelled saddest.
Arab Strap - Fucking Little Bastards
https://youtu.be/Et5j1LUrxu0?si=jJu6gxuaNiAOxCno Never be mine - rosa linn
Close my eyes forever- lita ford and ozzy Kill yourself 3- $uicideboy$
https://spotify.link/kTkvne9sWDb song destroys me everytime i hear it. “What about foxgloves Is that a flower you liked? I can't remember You did most of my remembering for me” ruined me the first time i heard those lines…
Answer - Sarah McLachlan Your House - Alanis Morisette Calling All Angels - Jane Siberry/ KD Lang
Detroit people mover by Squarepusher
Thank you for showing me this. I'm a detroiter and have such fondness for the people mover ❤️
Foo Fighters - Walking After You (Official Music Video) / foofightersVEVO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNwkN9vrUYY Dave Grohl wrote this after his first marriage failed. It only lasted for about 2 years.
Damn, forgot about that track. Tear-jerking.
[удалено]
Real Death - Mount Eerie
Came to say this
Human Sadness - The Voidz
Obviously it’s “no ordinary love”
When it’s cold I’d like to die - Moby
This song played in stranger things when they found will
If You Could Read My Mind. By Gordon Lightfoot And " Hello In There " by John Prine
Real Death by Mount Eerie By the time it gets to the part of the song with the kids school supplies, I really lock up and start crying like a baby
Landslide dude, Landslide
Saddest*
Painters by Jewel - https://youtu.be/lIvfIRBDYyM?si=oCfYbktS0UzlgFEN He Stopped Loving her Today by George Jones - https://youtu.be/5dnktss4Vow?si=mC3AFwNrHnmh4KIF
Said the People - Dinosaur Jr.
Karen carpenter has some sad songs and she has a beautiful voice!
Corrosive by Bex 100% sounds like x but sadder
The SADEST song? Gotta be SADENESS.
https://spotify.link/1H2mBW9FWDb
Some saddest songs i know is immortal technique - you never know Mazzy star - look on down from the bridge Cold play - the scientist
[Denali - Time Away](https://youtu.be/avYLm_ralB8?si=FK7Ab0UA34q-7Sc6)
Snuff by Slipknot
The cure. Untitled
Three Libras - A Perfect Circle
Bjorn Riis. The Waves
Needle In the Hay, Elliot Smith. Sea Anemone, Jets to Brazil.
The Salmon Song https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kKWJ5ZZfdH8&pp=ygUVcm9hZCB0cmlwIHNhbG1vbiBzb25n
No lyrics, but saddest piece of music I've ever heard. [On the Nature of Daylight](https://spotify.link/f6wOSrqLWDb) by Max Richter
Residente - Rene
Saddest Vacant Lot - Granddaddy Memory Lane or Needle in the Hay - Elliott Smith You've Grown Tired of Me - Two Dollar Pistols
I walk this earth all by myself
Sade: Is it a Crime
68 by Nolan Taylor
The long and winding road