Sad Breakup Songs
Sad breakup songs are some of the most emotional songs. They make us share sympathetic, empathetic, and compassionate feelings for the singer, and have a cathartic experience.
In this post, I’ve collected a combination of well-known and lesser-known sad breakup songs that are all emotional and poetic.
What Was It All For by Alex Genadinik
This song starts with “Whisper like a gentle stream. Carry me into your dream.” That’s a beautifully tender situation between lovers. But the song ends with “You whispered like a stream. Now I’m a broken dream.”
If you’ve been in a romance that had so much potential that just ended, you’ll identify with this song a lot.
Here is a longer analysis of the poetry of this song.
The Beatles – For No One
The Beatles didn’t have too many breakup songs, but this is their best-known one. It features a catchy and upbeat melody and equally catchy clever lyrics. The sound of the song is happy – almost like the facade people put on to show they are not hurt. But the song is sad. It ends with “…a love that should have lasted years.”
An Ode To Endless Search Translated And Covered by Alex Genadinik, Originally By Bulat Okudzhava
This is a very poetic song. It uses a metaphor of a woman’s cold eyes, comparing it to two cold stars that follow the singer on his road as he is leaving.
The song becomes very easy to empathize with in this lyric: “If the ring of your arms was more secure, the road would have been easier for me.” It’s as though I was thinking that thought. It’s so easy to identify with this shared experience.
Here is a page with complete lyrics and a longer analysis of this song.
Diamonds And Rust by Joan Baez
Joan is an incredible vocalist. In this song, she sings to Bob Dylan, reminiscing about the relationship they could have had, but broke up instead. This song is like a photograph or a painting of a moment in music history.
What Joan seems to be hinting at in this song is that while she loved Bob Dylan, their relationship was toxic to her. If this subject interests you, here is another blog post where I collect songs about toxic relationships.
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
People don’t always think of this as a breakup song, but it is. In fact, it’s a spiteful breakup song. Here are some lyrics from the first verse:
“I heard there was a magic chord that David played and it pleased the Lord, but you don’t really care for music, do you?”
This is a resentful thing to say about a person. It paints his former love as an unmoved and uninterested bland person who could not even be stirred by music that God was moved by.
More Similar Sad Love Songs
If you like the collection of sad love songs in this post, you might also enjoy a similar collection of songs about heartbreak or general songs about breakup.
If You See Her, Say Hello by Bob Dylan
“She might think that I have forgotten her, but tell her it isn’t so.”
This song paints a painting of a wild breakup which he regrets.
“She still lives inside of me. We’ve never been apart.”
Sara by Bob Dylan
It’s a song to his ex-wife recalling some of the memories they shared when things were good. The way Dylan sings her name is beautiful and emotional with pain.
“Loving you is one thing I’ll never forget.”
Sad Breakup Country Song – Little Past Little Rock by Lee Ann Womack
Very clever and catchy title.
