The Drugs Don't Work by The Verve has beaten teary classics from Sinead O’Connor, Whitney Houston and Elvis Presley to be named the saddest song around.
A study into why particular songs get such strong reactions from people found that tempo, pitch and rhythm all affect how we feel while listening to music. Dr. Harry Witchel rated a shortlist of songs compiled by The Official UK Charts Company on their so-called Tune Trigger quotient (TTQ). The TTQ rated heart rate, respiratory response and skin temperature to find the saddest song, happiest track and most exhilarating anthem from that list.
Song 2 by Blur was found to be the most exhilirating song and LDN by Lily Allen beat Abba's Dancing Queen to the happiest song spot. (We somehow doubt they paid due attention to the lyrics.)
TOP TEN HAPPY SONGS
1 Lily Allen LDN
2 Abba Dancing Queen
3 REM Shiny Happy People
4 B52s Love Shack
5 The Beatles She Loves You
6 Beyonce Crazy In Love
7 Britney Spears Baby One More Time
8 Bill Medley I’ve Had The Time Of My Life
9 The Spice Girls Spice Up Your Life
10 Kylie Minogue Spinning Around
TOP TEN SADDEST SONGS
1 Verve The Drugs Don’t Work
2 Robbie Williams Angels
3 Elton John Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
4 Whitney Houston I Will Always Love You
5 Sinead O'Connor Nothing Compares 2 U
6 Will Young Leave Right Now
7 Elvis Presley Are You Lonesome Tonight
8 Christina Aguilera Beautiful
9 James Blunt Goodbye My Lover
10 Radiohead Fake Plastic Trees
TOP TEN EXHILARATING SONGS
1 Blur Song 2
2 Girls Aloud Love Machine
3 Killers Somebody Told Me
4 Prodigy Firestarter
5 Razorlight Rip It Up
6 Rolling Stones Start Me Up
7 Gnarls Barkley Crazy
8 U2 Beautiful Day
9 Oasis Roll With It
10 Take That Relight My Fire
What would be the saddest song around if there wasn't a pre-drawn up shortlist? Tell us what you think.
12:30 PM | 11/12/2006
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This is one of the worst polls I have ever seen. Most of it seems completely wrong and far too much focus on recent music, with about 70% all songs from the last 20 years,.
Posted by Sal at 12:00 PM | 12/12/2006 | Report Abuse
Interesting poll, but there are so many more. "Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald", "Leader of the Band", "Softly As I Leave You", Fogleberg's "Auld Lang Syne", that haunting Sarah MacLachlan song "Angel"...THESE are sad songs...
Posted by Geno at 3:43 PM | 12/12/2006 | Report Abuse
Surely Johnny Cash's version of Hurt is way sadder than Drugs don't work - the fact that he died a bit after makes it way more sad
Posted by Jack at 7:19 PM | 15/12/2006 | Report Abuse
Anything by The Czars.... very moody!
Posted by steve at 4:37 PM | 17/12/2006 | Report Abuse
The saddest thing about Angles is that anyone could like such a poor track by such an overrated artist
Posted by Ash at 5:35 PM | 18/12/2006 | Report Abuse
No The saddest song of all time has got to be Old Shep by Elvis Presley that is 100 times sadder than any of the songs on the list A lot of people are reduced to 100s of tears everytime they hear this and its 100 times worse if you've lost a dog because that is what its about
Posted by Green Day Forever at 9:56 PM | 05/12/2007 | Report Abuse
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