Who Wrote the Saddest Song of the Century?Everybody knows the song “Last Kiss.” Everybody’s heard it at least once, and after they do, they tend to remember it. The haunting refrain “Oh Where Oh Where Can My Baby Be?” just stays with you, cuts through whatever else is going on around you and makes you listen a little closer. It makes you feel the all-encompassing sense of loss, just a little, but harder. The song tells the all too tragically common story of a car accident. Simply. No frills, no pretensions, just pure, sadly beautiful loss.
Most people these days know “Last Kiss” by Pearl Jam’s cover, which was a smash hit in 1999, peaking at No. 2 on Billboard’s charts to become the band’s highest grossing single ever.
This was the first version I heard, and though the lyrics stayed with me, there was something about this souped up alt-rock version that struck me as inauthentic, that just rubbed me the wrong way. My suspicion was validated when I heard that it was a cover, and in fact, one in a long and storied line of them. The song was first written in 1961 by a soul/country singer named Wayne Cochran, who lived in rural Georgia near Barnesville.
He had already been planning a song about one of the car accidents that were so common on the area’s dark and poorly paved roadways, when a teenage couple, the subject of the song, out on a date on a rainy night in December, fatally struck a tractor trailer. The tune was a local hit, and in 1964, a Texas record company bought and re-recorded it with J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. It was nationally released to instant commercial success. Thereafter, “Last Kiss” became something of a 20th Century American folk ballad, a part of the collective musical repertoire, picked up again in 1973 by the Canadian group Wednesday, and again and again by dozens of South American groups. The song clearly strikes a collective nerve. There’s a purity in the singer’s bafflement– a helplessness in the face of random death. The listener may not believe that he lost “the love of his life,” but the unadorned innocence of the statement only makes it more poignant. The song strikes you as a story that just needed to be told, no matter how common it is, and while it might depress you momentarily, it will perhaps comfort you with more consideration. Death is one of the only truly universal facts of life. It touches all of us at one point or another, but when it does, we too easily convince ourselves that no one else could understand. The enduring effectiveness of “Last Kiss,” which you can see in the faces of every person who hears it, no matter who plays it, should put the lie to this belief.
Lyrics to Last Kiss by Wayne Cochran
Mary Oliver’s “Heavy” Speaks to the Weight of Grief
My Dear Cousin Is Still An Angel at My Side
Goodness I remember this song all too well and old tunes still rock – proven by Pearl Jams success. Old is the new black – no it’s white, end-of-life is now white and a healthy image.
SS
Report this comment
I listened to this song in about ‘63 and it was written in ‘61 before anyone from Pearl Jam was born. I will say they stayed true to the ‘63 recorded version……
Report this comment
Come on, that’s not sad at all. It has hopes of a reunion!!
You want misery, then try Joan Armatrading’s “I need you”. Tears welling up right now.
Report this comment
Honey by Bobby Goldsboro
And Honey, I miss you
And I’m bein’ good
And I’d love to be with you
If only I could
He is reminiscing, but you can feel the pain in his heart.
DOA – Bloodrock
Alone Again Naturally – Gilbert O’Sullivan missing his mother especially
Report this comment
Hi Fox,
Thanks for the suggestions. We will indeed consider them.
Report this comment
OKAY, last post, but I think this one is my vote for saddest ever.
Carrie Underwood Lyrics
Play “Just A Dream”
on Amazon Music
“Just A Dream”
It was two weeks after the day she turned eighteen
All dressed in white
Going to the church that night
She had his box of letters in the passenger seat
Sixpence in a shoe, something borrowed, something blue
And when the church doors opened up wide
She put her veil down
Trying to hide the tears
Oh she just couldn’t believe it
She heard the trumpets from the military band
And the flowers fell out of her hand
Baby why’d you leave me
Why’d you have to go?
I was counting on forever, now I’ll never know
I can’t even breathe
It’s like I’m looking from a distance
Standing in the background
Everybody’s saying, “He’s not coming home now.”
This can’t be happening to me
This is just a dream
The preacher man said, “Let us bow our heads and pray
Lord please lift his soul, and heal this hurt.”
Then the congregation all stood up and sang the saddest song that she ever heard
Then they handed her a folded up flag
And she held on to all she had left of him
Oh, and what could have been
And then the guns rang one last shot
And it felt like a bullet in her heart
Baby, why’d you leave me
Why’d you have to go?
I was counting on forever, now I’ll never know
I can’t even breathe
It’s like I’m looking from a distance
Standing in the background
Everybody’s saying, “He’s not coming home now.”
This can’t be happening to me
This is just a dream
Oh,
Baby, why’d you leave me
Why’d you have to go?
I was counting on forever, now I’ll never know
Oh, I’ll never know
It’s like I’m looking from a distance
Standing in the background
Everybody’s saying, “He’s not coming home now.”
This can’t be happening to me
This is just a dream
Oh, this is just a dream
Just a dream
Yeah, yeah
Report this comment
“He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones.
It went unrecorded for year because nobody wanted to record it because it was just so sad. Producer Billy Sherril finally convinced Jones to record it and as Jones left the studio he yelled at Sherril, “there you go, but nobody will buy that morbid son of a bitch!”.
He said “I’ll love you till I die”, she told him “You’ll forget in time”
As the years went slowly by, she still preyed upon his mind
He kept her picture on his wall, went half-crazy now and then
He still loved her through it all, hoping she’d come back again
Kept some letters by his bed dated nineteen sixty-two
He had underlined in red every single “I love you”
I went to see him just today, oh but I didn’t see no tears
All dressed up to go away, first time I’d seen him smile in years
He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they’ll carry him away
He stopped loving her today
(Spoken verse) -You know, she came to see him one last time
Aww, ‘n’ we all wondered if she would
And it kept runnin’ through my mind “this time he’s over her for good”
He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they’ll carry him away
He stopped loving her today
Report this comment
The Grand Tour by George Jones ia a good one too!
Report this comment
I’m really not that into hip-hop/rap music…. but this one gets me every time
Immortal Technique – Dance with the Devil
I once knew a nigga whose real name was William
His primary concern, was making a million
Being the illest hustler, that the world ever seen
He used to fuck movie stars and sniff coke in his dreams
A corrupted young mind, at the age of thirteen
Nigga never had a father and his mom was a fiend
She put the pipe down, but every year she was sober
Her sons heart simultaneously grew colder
He started hanging out selling bags in the projects
Checking the young chicks, looking for hit and run prospects
He was fascinated by material objects
But he understood money never bought respect
He build a reputation ’cause he could hustle and steal
But got locked once and didn’t hesitate to squeal
So criminals he chilled with didn’t think he was real
You see me and niggas like this have never been equal
I don’t project my insecurities at other people
He fiended for props like addicts with pipes and needles
So he felt he had to prove to everyone he was evil
A feeble-minded young man with infinite potential
The product of a ghetto breed capitalistic mental
Coincidentally dropped out of school to sell weed
Dancing with the devil, smoked until his eyes would bleed
But he was sick of selling trees and gave in to his greed
Everyone trying to be trife never face the consequences
You probably only did a month for minor offenses
Ask a nigga doing life if he had another chance
But then again there’s always the wicked that knew in advance
Dance forever with the devil on a cold cell block
But that’s what happens when you rape, murder and sell rock
Devils used to be gods, angels that fell from the top
There’s no diversity because we’re burning in the melting pot
So Billy started robbing niggas, anything he could do
To get his respect back, in the eyes of his crew
Starting fights over little shit, up on the block
Stepped up to selling mothers and brothers the crack rock
Working overtime for making money for the crack spot
Hit the jackpot and wanted to move up to cocaine
Fulfilling the Scarface fantasy stuck in his brain
Tired of the block niggas treating him the same
He wanted to be major like the cut throats and the thugs
But when he tried to step to ’em, niggas showed him no love
They told him any motherfucking coward can sell drugs
Any bitch nigga with a gun, can bust slugs
Any nigga with a red shirt can front like a blood
Even Puffy smoked a motherfucker up in a club
But only a real thug can stab someone till they die
Standing in front of them, starring straight into their eyes
Billy realized that these men were well guarded
And they wanted to test him, before business started
Suggested raping a bitch to prove he was cold hearted
So now he had a choice between going back to his life
Or making money with made men, up in the cyph’
His dreams about cars and ice, made him agree
A hardcore nigga is all he ever wanted to be
And so he met them Friday night at a quarter to three
Everyone trying to be trife never face the consequences
You probably only did a month for minor offenses
Ask a nigga doing life if he had another chance
But then again there’s always the wicked that knew in advance
Dance forever with the devil on a cold cell block
But that’s what happens when you rape, murder and sell rock
Devils used to be gods, angels that fell from the top
There’s no diversity because we’re burning in the melting pot
They drove around the projects slow while it was raining
Smoking blunts, drinking and joking for entertainment
Until they saw a woman on the street walking alone
Three in the morning, coming back from work, on her way home
And so they quietly got out the car and followed her
Walking through the projects, the darkness swallowed her
They wrapped her shirt around her head and knocked her onto the floor
This is it kid now you got your chance to be raw
So Billy yoked her up and grabbed the chick by the hair
And dragged her into a lobby that had nobody there
She struggled hard but they forced her to go up the stairs
They got to the roof and then held her down on the ground
Screaming shut the fuck up and stop moving around
The shirt covered her face, but she screamed and clawed
So Billy stomped on the bitch, until he had broken her jaw
The dirty bastards knew exactly what they were doing
They kicked her until they cracked her ribs and she stopped moving
Blood leaking through the cloth, she cried silently
And then they all proceeded to rape her violently
Billy was made to go first, but each of them took a turn
Ripping her up, and choking her until her throat burned
A broken jaw mumbled for God but they weren’t concerned
When they were done and she was lying bloody, broken and bruised
One of them niggas pulled out a brand new twenty-two
They told him that she was a witness of what she’d gone through
And if he killed her he was guaranteed a spot in the crew
He thought about it for a minute, she was practically dead
And so he leaned over and put the gun right to her head
I’m falling and I can’t turn back
I’m falling and I can’t turn back
Right before he pulled the trigger, and ended her life
He thought about the cocaine with the platinum and ice
And he felt strong standing along with his new brothers
Cocked the gat to her head, and pulled back the shirt cover
But what he saw made him start to cringe and stutter
Cause he was starring into the eyes of his own mother
She looked back at him and cried, cause he had forsaken her
She cried more painfully, than when they were raping her
His whole world stopped, he couldn’t even contemplate
His corruption had successfully changed his fate
And he remembered how his mom used to come home late
Working hard for nothing, cause now what was he worth
He turned away from the woman that had once given him birth
And crying out to the sky cause he was lonely and scared
But only the devil responded, cause God wasn’t there
And right then he knew what it was to be empty and cold
And so he jumped off the roof and died with no soul
They say death takes you to a better place but I doubt it
After that they killed his mother, and never spoke about it
And listen cause the story that I’m telling is true
Cause I was there with Billy Jacobs and I raped his mom too
And now the devil follows me everywhere that I go
In fact I’m sure he’s standing among one of you at my shows
And every street cypher listening to little thugs flow
He could be standing right next to you, and you wouldn’t know
The devil grows inside the hearts of the selfish and wicked
White, brown, yellow and black colored is not restricted
You have a self destructive destiny when your inflicted
And you’ll be one of Gods children and fell from the top
There’s no diversity because we’re burning in the melting pot
So when the devil wants to dance with you, you better say never
Because the dance with the devil might last you forever
Report this comment
Every single time I hear this song I start balling, its sad. So so sad
Report this comment
J,
I agree it hits me the same way too. All these decades and it still makes me cry.
Suzette Sherman, Founder SevenPonds
Report this comment
Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith beats them all for being plum pitiful, 1974…
Report this comment
I always think about “Marry Me” by Thomas Rhett. Another song I consider a sad song is Corey’s Coming by Harry Chapin.
Report this comment