Heartbreak song

A heartbreak song is about lovers falling out of love, and relationships failing.

Examples

"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" is perhaps the most famous. Other examples are "Young Hearts Run Free" (Candi Statton), "The Tears of a Clown" (Smokey Robinson), and "The First Cut Is the Deepest" (Cat Stevens). Roy Orbison made a career out of tearful songs: It's Over, Only the Lonely, Crying. The later was voted 13th in a 2006 poll for a Channel 5 program Britain's Favourite Break-up Songs. In much the same way as sunshine characterises love songs, darkness is a symbol of lost love. "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" (Frankie Valli)/ (Walker Brothers) and "It Might As Well Rain Until September" (Carole King) are classic examples.

The emotions are timeless and yet such songs are very rare before the 1950s. Johnnie Ray recorded "Cry" in 1951, and this is sometimes considered to be the pioneering song of heartbreak genre. Country and western music, and soul music are perhaps more prone to this kind of song. Folk singers often give a quite a qute complex spin to relationships breaking down. Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" is the most famous song to contain the word "heartbreak". The lyrics look back at a failed relationship and also forward to a new life. It is unusual in that the arrangement offers a kind of manic-depressive view of his state of mind.

Occasionally heartbreak songs are laments for the failure to find any workable relationships at all. Examples as "When Will I Be Loved" (Everley Brothers), and "All by Myself" (Eric Carmen).

Where the breakup involves a sneer at the personality flaws of the departed lover, there is a new genre of song. It is hard to carry off this sort of thing, and few have been hits. Famous examples are "Hound Dog" (Elvis Presley), "No Regrets" (The Walker Brothers), "Cathy's Clown" (Everley Brothers). Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" has four such songs in it: "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)", "Just Like a Woman (song)", "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands".