Music Blogs

79 Todd Rundgren--"Hurting For You," from Hermit Of Mink Hollow (Bearsville, 1978) : From the bleak romantic side of Todd (Runt, Something/Anything?), rather than the wacky prog side (A Wizard/A True Star, Todd), ‘Hurting For You’ fits neatly into the ‘She Loves You’ and ‘Your Ex-Girlfriend Told Me’ school of sympathetic-boy-observing-unnecessary-heartache-of-good-friend: "I just saw the one you left behind yesterday/And I could tell that he was hurting for you..."

78 Sandy Denny--"I'm A Dreamer," from Rendezvous  (Island, 1977) : "And the truth is, I don't think I'll ever go..." Over windswept strings and majestic piano chords, the great lost chanteuse of Britfolk pours out rich legato lines that take the breath away--a flood of passion captured for eternity a year before Denny's dreadful death.

77 Maxayn--"I Cried My Last Tear," from Bail Out For Fun  (Capricorn, 1974) : Fabulously obscure soul combo wail chilling I-will-survive statement over melodramatic piano, mellotronic strings and gloopy Moog bass. "Then I hid myself inside and walked away..." A lost classic.

76 Ann Peebles--"I Can't Stand The Rain," single (Hi, 1973) : "...'gainst my window, bringin' back sweet memories." You can almost see La Peebles, gazing out over a bleak mid-winter East Memphis city-scape, remembering how it was "when we were together." The edge in her voice conveys anger and hurt in equal measure.

75 The Byrds--"Set You Free This Time," from Turn! Turn! Turn!   (Columbia, 1965) : Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin and the Byrds’ Gene Clark were the West Coast’s most underrated balladeers, creating perfectly observed snapshots of ‘60s life. This is one of Clark’s best: a role reversal song where the heartbreaker gets her heart broken. "Now who’s standing at the door, remembering the days before and asking ‘Please be kind’? ... Now who’s wondering what has changed and why it cannot be arranged to have each thing work fine ?"

74 Charlie Rich--"Feel Like Going Home," B-side of single (Epic, 1973) : The White Negro of countrypolitan soul, Rich is Elvis, Joe Simon and Dan Penn in one despairing Memphis tenor. The gospel-sorrowful ballad Rich wrote after reading Peter Guralnick's tome of the same name isn't woman-specific but it is deeply sad, and it's hard not to surmise that "home" here is simply a euphemism for death. "Cloudy skies are closing in, and not a friend to help me..."

73 Ray Pollard--"The Drifter" (United Artists, 1965) : "I see lovers pass me by/I watch them all with a tear in my eye..." A classic of uptown Gotham soul, Pollard's brief moment in the spotlight is as harrowing an expression of loneliness as anything in pop music--this is what it feels like to be on the outside of everything, consigned to society's margins. Features one of the most lacerating cries in all of soul.

72 Bobby Bland--"Too Far Gone," from Get On Down with Bobby Bland  (ABC, 1976) : When the Grand Ole Opry-influenced Bland (right) finally got around to cutting a "country" album, this Tammy Wynette ballad was its standout song – though it's not to be confused with the 1965 Duke side 'I'm Too Far Gone (To Turn Around)', itself a Heartbreak Classic. Few recordings have ever matched 'Too Far Gone''s invocation of love that's somehow crossed the line from passion to infection – with no turning back, no possible recovery. "I guess I've been loving you too much, for too long..." It also happens to be one of BBB's most ineffably perfect vocal performances.

71 Jeff Buckley--"Last Goodbye," from Grace  (Columbia, 1994) : "Did you say, 'No, this can't happen to me'?" The fruit of Tim's loins goes deep and dark for the death throes of a love affair--complete with sub-'Kashmir' touches. Heady stuff.

70 Loleatta Holloway--"Cry To Me," from Cry To Me  (Aware, 1975) : "And if you're falling down, and you can't seem to stay off the ground..." Long before she became a dancefloor diva, La Holloway was singing heartrending ballads like this, with its moist spoken intro and silky sheen of strings. Peerless heartbreak soul from the pen of Sam Dees.

69 Derek & The Dominos--"Layla," from Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs  (Polydor, 1971) : Copycat blues riffs and support for Enoch Powell never endeared us to anyone, but both song and performance here are touched with genuine greatness. Perhaps it’s because the song seems torn out of Clapton rather than covered by his usual mask of dispassion. Written about his love for George Harrison’s missus Patti Boyd and featuring Georgia boy Duane Allman on slide, 'Layla' is one of the few heartbreakers you can also play air guitar to.

68 David Ackles--"Down River," from David Ackles  (Elektra, 1968) : "Times change, times change, I know it/But it sure goes slowly downriver, when you’re locked away..." Cult hero Ackles has a voice like oak-matured whisky, at once fragile and uncompromising. Backed by grand piano and Hammond organ, Ackles here takes on the role of a newly released ex-con so excited to meet his old girlfriend Rosie only to find out that she has married his best friend Ben.

67 Joy Division--"Love Will Tear Us Apart," single (Factory, 1980) : "Why is the bedroom so cold?/Turn away on your side..." Despite its whiteboy new-romo shoulder-dance beat and the disembodied sub-Sinatra croon of Ian Curtis' vocal – or maybe because of those very things--'LWTUA' remains a chilling heartbreak classic 21 years after its release. (And was the discreet echo of 'And Then He Kissed Me' a Martin Hannett joke?)

66 Lewis Taylor--"Satisfied," from Lewis II  (Island, 2000) : "Baby, I could say I'm over this/But I know very well I'll never have my fill..." Gypsy soulboy Taylor really pushes the boat out on this epic of pining loss--of ecstatic grief--climaxing as it does in a mind-splitting guitar blowout. Imagine Smokey Robinson singing Todd Rundgren's 'The Last Ride' and you're halfway there.

65 The Band--"The Unfaithful Servant," from The Band  (Capitol, 1969) : Narrator Rick Danko has been sent away by his lover for some unspecified misdemeanor. His self-regarding, third-person insouciance ("you take it like a grain of salt") is undercut by the raw first-person pain as he says "goodbye to my country home, so long to the lady I have known." An extraordinarily complex song to which a paragraph like this will never do justice.

64 Al Green--"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," from Call Me  (Hi, 1973) : If the Hank Williams original is a cryin'-in-your-beer classic, the Rev. Al's take on it is an entirely bleaker, more otherworldly affair. As always with Green, it's a moot point as to whom this is addressed: the girl next door or the Big Guy upstairs.

63 The Velvet Underground--"Pale Blue Eyes," from The Velvet Underground  (MGM, 1969) : Allegedly the straw that broke John Cale’s experimental back and drove him out of the Velvs, this saw Lou Reed returning to the gentle vein of early Velvets songs like ‘Sunday Morning.’ But Cale was wrong if he thought Lou'd lost his bite: the songs on this album are as lyrically bleak as anything he’d written, and beneath the surface charm of this song is something darker. "'Skip your life completely, stuff it in a cup’, she said. ‘Money is like us and time: it lies but can’t stand up/Down for you is up.'"

62 Patsy Cline--"I Fall To Pieces," single (Decca, 1961) : In which an inconsolable Patsy is advised by her ex-love to "act like we never kissed." But there is no escape: the very mention of his name cuts her like a knife. "You walk by, and I fall to pieces." Perhaps the Queen of Country Heartbreak's finest weepie.

61 Roy Orbison and K.D. Lang--"Crying," single (Virgin America, 1992) : "I was alright... for a while." Orbison topped even himself on a divine version of his 1961 classic that paired him with vocal disciple k.d. lang. "For you don't love me, and I'll always be... cry-y-y-y-y-y-y-ing..."

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