What is Digg?361 Comments
- therernospoons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+139Here is the list for those who wish to forgo 25 clicks to read the article:
25. 'The River' - Bruce Springsteen (1980)
24. 'Nothing Compares 2 U' - Sinead O'Connor (1990)
23. 'No Surprises' - Radiohead (1997)
22. 'A Change Is Gonna Come' - Sam Cooke (1964)
21. 'Space Oddity' - David Bowie (1969)
20. 'That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be' - Carly Simon (1971)
19. 'Lost Cause' - Beck (2002)
18. 'I've Gotta Get a Message to You' - Bee Gees (1968)
17. 'Back to Black' - Amy Winehouse (2006)
16. 'Shilo' - Neil Diamond (1968)
15. 'My Mom' - Chocolate Genius (1998)
14. 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' - Dionne Warwick (1963)
13. 'Naked as We Came' - Iron & Wine (2004)
12. 'In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning' - Frank Sinatra (1954)
11. 'Brick' - Ben Folds Five (1997)
10. 'In the Real World' - Roy Orbison (1989)
9. 'Concrete Angel' - Martina McBride (2001)
8. 'Dance With My Father' - Luther Vandross (2003)
7. 'Hallelujah' - Jeff Buckley (1994)
6. 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' - George Jones (1980)
5. 'I Know It's Over' - The Smiths (1986)
4. 'Hurt' - Johnny Cash (2002)
3. 'Eleanor Rigby' - The Beatles (1966)
2. 'Gloomy Sunday' - Billie Holiday (1941)
1. 'Chicken Wire' - Pernice Brothers (1998)
On the last page there was a link to a story about the #1 song:
"Meet the Man Behind the Saddest Song"
http://www.spinner.com/2007/05/04/playing-chicken-with-joe-pernice/ - andritchie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+128No Tears In Heaven?
- msikma, on 10/12/2007, -2/+72"Tears in Heaven" is about Clapton's 4 year old son Conor, who fell from the 53rd-story window of his mother's New York City apartment. I too am surprised that it's nowhere to be found on this list.
- coollettuce, on 10/12/2007, -3/+50No Cats in the Cradle?
- antitab, on 10/12/2007, -3/+40No "Mad World" Gary Jules version??
- fhernand, on 10/12/2007, -2/+38the saddest songs ever are the ones i sing in the shower
- tehgoatman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36mad world?
- vypergts, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog
- typo180, on 10/12/2007, -2/+37I'd actually agree with Cash's version of Hurt. It's a pretty damn sad song.
- Lynx34, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26At least they got Buckley's "Hallelujah" on there. It makes this list not completely worthless.
No Piano Man, and nothing from Petty? Bah.
Also, ditto on Tears and Cats in the Cradle. - zoto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26no "mad world"?
- TDot1980, on 10/12/2007, -9/+31This is a craptastic list. I've never heard of half the artists. Another one they missed was "Vincent" by Don McLean. I get goosebumps every time I hear the first few words "Starry, starry night..." For those unfamiliar, it's a song about Vincent Van Gogh and his troubled life. Best line: "And when no hope was left in sight / on that starry, starry night / You took your life as lovers often do / But I could have told you Vincent / This world was never meant for one / As beautiful as you"
- numb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23The Kermit the Frog version of Hurt is the saddest video I've seen.
http://www.sadkermit.com/video.html - Koopa, on 10/12/2007, -4/+25Johnny Cash does way more justice to that song than NIN ever could....I think NIN even admitted that somewhere.
- thebenchase, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21Where is "Love Will Tear us Apart" by Joy Division? Come on, guys...
- fhernand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20ok, blatant comment abuse, but it's my comment, so its ok... right?
seriously now, the one song in futuramas episode with fry's dog is also kind of sad. Which makes the whole scene even sadder, if that's even possible. I think its called "I will wait for you", but no idea who it is originally from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akf-H0OVpLA - Laytonx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18The Smiths could have filled this list on there own.
- HunterTV, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16There are times when a cover trumps the original, and "Hurt" by Cash is one of those times. You have to give props to Reznor for admitting it. I think it's power comes from the fact that Cash was on the other end of what Reznor was writing about while he was still young.
I nominate "Cat's in the Cradle" though. I've listened to a lot of music that some would call depressing without blinking, but I seriously have to change the radio station when that song comes on. It's paradoxically excellent but unlistenable for me. - Comatose51, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Elliot Smith's Miss Misery?
- wvannus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15"I pop the video in, and wow… Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore. … It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning—different, but every bit as pure."
-Trent
Reznor still occasionally refers to "Hurt" as "a song that isn't mine anymore." - tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18It's not strictly sad in terms of being about someone dying etc., but John Lennon - Imagine is a tearjerker because it's positive. I guess it's indirectly sad because it explains why the world sucks.
Another one is Everybody Hurts by REM. - superal1394, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17Tears of Heaven made me cry the first time I listened to it. I was reading about what happened, while listening to it, I just broke down, it was so sad.
With that, the list is wholly incomplete, especially for missing Last Kiss by Pearl Jam
That song is seriously my greatest fear.
"A car was stalled, the engine was dead
I couldn't stop, so I swerved to the right
I'll never forget the sound that night
The screamin' tires, the bustin' glass
The painful scream that I heard last.
Oh, where oh where can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me
She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good
So I can see my baby when I leave this world. " - DeFex, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18Very nice not to see any emo crap in there!
- exentropic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Strange Fruit sung by Billie Holiday is the saddest song I've ever heard. Ever.
- domdunc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Wise Up - Aimee Mann
- meatmcguffin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13http://go-cry-emo-kid.ytmnd.com/
- tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11And he doesn't even know it :/
- XandraX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Surely Elliott Smith could have been included somewhere...I Didn't Understand is soooo sad.
- r0b0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I find Brick is poorly done on the site. The section which says "water works" should say something like "Can't you see, its not me your dying for" instead of "Now that I have found someone/I'm feeling more alone/Than I ever have before." as I take it as him talking to his unborn baby explaining why the abortion is needed, and I think thats pretty sad or depressing.
But I guess thats just my opinion... - bigstinky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Speaking of Christmas shoes, When I was a kid, we were so poor that my Mom had to cut holes in my pockets so I'd have something to play with on Christmas morning.
Christmas shoes makes me want to kill myself. - AllnightChemist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11But you're the only Digger who doesn't know that Bowie and The Smiths are from the UK.
- phenom2k7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1025 pages, are they taking the piss. Thanks for posting the info here. Plus it's likely the site will go down before you reach the end.
What were they thinking of, nobs. - chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I'd add "let down" by radiohead. That song is truly sad.
- r2pro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10This is a case where I wish I read the comments before checking out the article.
Well they got my 25 impressions for their CPM ads. - soogy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Definitely missing Tears in Heaven, though I think Eleanor Rigby should have been number one. There's something really sad about dying alone. I'm really surprised Queen's "The Show Must Go On" didn't make the list; released just six weeks before Freddy Mercury died of AIDS.
No hip hop songs, though, which is really a bummer.
"They Reminisce Over You" by Pete Rock and CL Smooth is one of the best hip hop songs ever created; they wrote it after the death of their friend Troy Dixon (aka Trouble T. Roy)
Nas' "Dance" is depressing, he wrote it after his mother died of cancer, and basically talks about how he would give anything for one more dance with her. And at the end of the song, you hear Nas' father, Olu Dara, playing over the beat with his cornet.
Jay-Z's "Meet the Parents" and Immortal Technique's "Dance with the Devil" are sad in a twisted kind of way, especially the latter.
And then there's Tupac's "Keep Ya Head Up", "Baby Don't Cry" and "I Ain't Mad At Cha". - mikedmoon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Gary Jules singing Mad World on the Donnie Darko soundtrack.
- WeeklyGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10needs more elliott smith, yes.
Also John Wayne Gacy, Jr. by Sufjan. oh man. - soupnrc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Agreed. Also, I would like to ask why "Nobody Home" by Pink Floyd isn't on the list. That song is WAY sad.
- numb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I really expected Long Black Veil to be in there. I thought the live version with Dave Matthews and Emmy Lou Harris was pretty haunting (as well as sad.)
- utcursch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12The author needs to be told what "the Whole World" means. The list doesn't even include some of the saddest English language songs. The comments are more insightful: http://www.spinner.com/2007/05/03/the-25-most-exquisitely-sad-songs-in-the-whole-world-no-25/#comments
- marcusb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10No Tom Waits? No good..
- dn11, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10no nick drake anywhere on the list? any one of his songs would be appropriate.
- illustrissim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9What happened to Fire and Rain, by James Taylor?
"But I always thought that I'd see you again." - Niffer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9You don't find it sad that people die alone? That's sad...
- h0ly, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Strange Fruit
Billie Holiday
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
http://youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs - fantasticjon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9we know.
- TheKricket, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10interesting beck made the list - but id switch it to "guess i'm doin fine" - meh, to each his own
i don't think one sad song is necessarily sad to everyone who listens to it - its more of the "oh man, that song is totally about me" moment that really gets you
although tears in heaven is just sad across the board
one more thing - im a HUGE nine inch nails fan - johnny's version is more heartfelt - period
heres what trent had to say about the first time he heard johnny's version:
"We were in the studio, getting ready to work -- and I popped it in," Reznor says. "By the end I was really on the verge of tears. I'm working with Zach de la Rocha, and I told him to take a look. At the end of it, there was just dead silence. There was, like, this moist clearing of our throats and then, 'Uh, OK, let's get some coffee.''
- CMT 2003 Video Music Awards Tribute to Johnny Cash - honored as the "Greatest Man in Country Music" - Bahimiron, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Twenty five songs? One song per page? At least two ads per page?
AWESOME! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Pretty cool list. Although alot of the songs I didn't know.
They also have the "worst lyrics list"
50 Cent's '21 Questions : "I love you like A fat kid loves cake"
No question about it, the man is a poet. - duckrank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7http://xkcd.com/c233.html
(Hover over the comic) -
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