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#1

Super Duper Sad Songs

Hello again! I really need some fresh music, and I'm hoping to find some songs that, if sung properly, can make everyone cry. I'm an alto with a decent range. please give me as much as possible! thanks!
#2

Super Duper Sad Songs

Any song can make people cry... If you sing it bad enough.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#3

Super Duper Sad Songs

haha. very funny. But I would like some HELPFUL advice, thank you very much.
#4

Super Duper Sad Songs

No song will make EVERYONE cry, no matter how it's sung. And lots of songs don't have the same emotional impact out of context.


And if you didn't know you'd get snarky answers, you didn't do ANY research: neither about what you want NOR where you were asking for help.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#5

Super Duper Sad Songs

To give you a real response...
I'd say Losing My Mind, Not A Day Goes By, If He Walked Into My Life, No One is Alone, Send in the Clowns (overdone, but most people rarely do it well. The trick is to not over sing it), Being Alive. Stuff like that.

Although, I do agree that, out of context, some of these might not work as well.
#6

Super Duper Sad Songs

"You'll Never Walk Alone" - Carousel.
"For Good" - Wicked.
"The Life I Never Led" - Sister Act.
"I Know Where I've Been" - Hairspray.
"Children Will Listen" - Into The Woods.
"No One Is Alone" - Into the Woods.
"Your Daddy's Son" - Ragtime.
"Back To Before" - Ragtime.

EDIT: I didn't read the post properly and included male songs, which would be odd sung by an alto.





"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.

Updated On: 8/7/12 at 07:41 AM

#7

Super Duper Sad Songs

You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile
Put On a Happy Face
Hassa Diga Ebowai
Ya' Gotta Have Heart
....but the world goes 'round
#8

Super Duper Sad Songs

You go out there and you give them SAD and hope 1800 people don't laugh thier asses off.

But a couple suggestions
Sun and the Moon
Tell Me On a Sunday
The Man That Got Away
You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore
Let Yourself Go
You Must Love Me
I Don't Know How to Love Him
I Miss The Mountains
Back to Before
Calling You
Get Here ( the Calling You / Get Here arrangement Patti performs is great)
The Rose

So many more great songs. My suggestion is you start listening to a lot of songs and see what you respond to emotionally and what you want to perform.
#9

Super Duper Sad Songs

Goodnight by Scott Alan gets me every time

#10

Super Duper Sad Songs

"Go Back Home" - The Scottsboro Boys
"Tracy... Hold Mama's waffles."
#11

Super Duper Sad Songs

It's not really within you're range, but "For Good" from WICKED makes me cry everytime. It may not have the emotional impact out of context as others on this thread have said, but it truly is sad. I perform in plays/musicals alot, and for some reason I always end up with the part that has to cry in the show. When I have to do that I sing "For Good" in my head. I played it for my aunt once and she had never even heard of WICKED and it made her cry.
Theatre is my life. No one can take that away from me.
#12

Super Duper Sad Songs

Not sure about range, but how about:

Another Winter In a Summer Town (Grey Gardens)
On My Own or I Dreamed a Dream (Les Miserables) yeah, I know, done to death

"Oh some like it hot, but I like it *really* hot." - Heat Miser
#14

Super Duper Sad Songs

"Legally Blonde" (the "Elle" in our show breaks my heart every night)

Depending on how they are sung....

Back to Before - Ragtime
Your Daddy's Son - Ragtime
Far From the Home I Love - Fiddler
The Party's Over - Bells Are Ringing



#15

Super Duper Sad Songs

"Wait a Bit" - Just So
"Home" - Beauty and the Beast
"As Long as He Needs Me" - Oliver! (one of THE alto ballads, probably already in your repertoire)
#16

Super Duper Sad Songs

"Days of Plenty" from Little Women gets to me.
Men don't even belt.
#17

Super Duper Sad Songs

I Hate the Bus - Caroline, or Change
The I Love You Song - 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
You Have to Be There - Kristina



"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

Updated On: 8/7/12 at 01:20 PM

#18

Super Duper Sad Songs

How Could I Ever Forget from Next to Normal
A little swash, a bit of buckle - you'll love it more than bread.
#19

Super Duper Sad Songs

Don't know anything about range either but these are always some tearjerkers for me. I think it's good not to go for the expected.

"Dyin' Ain't So Bad" - Bonnie & Clyde
"Fly, Fly Away" - Catch Me
"Everything I Know" or "Breathe" - In the Heights
"Still Hurting" and pretty much anything else from Last 5 Years
"So Anyway" - N2N
"The Hill" - Once
"A Way Back to Then" - [tos]
"Tell Her" - 13
"I'm Not Afraid of Anything" - Songs from a New World
"Perfect" - Edges
"Pardon my prior Mcfee slip. I know how to spell her name. I just don't know how to type it." -Talulah
#20

Super Duper Sad Songs

Bus From Amarillo - Whorehouse
Lullaby From Baby To Baby - Runaways (although it is tricky)
My Coloring Book - early Kander and Ebb

and then any "I'm-a-good-woman-but-he-done-me-wrong" song.

My Man comes to mind; however comparisons will be made.
Or its counterpart The Music That Makes Me Dance.

Look at the Tammy Wynette songbook. She practically invented the above genre. Just because she was a country singer doesn't mean that all her songs have to be sung in a country style.

Hint: the song might seem 'sadder' if you sing it smiling through tears.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher
#21

Super Duper Sad Songs

With You-Ghost
Pretty Funny- Dogfight
#22

Super Duper Sad Songs

I just saw a production of The Boy from Oz tonight and the song "Once Before I Go" had me crying so much.

#23

Super Duper Sad Songs

But You Go On - Annie Warbucks

Time Heals Everything - Mack & Mabel


Poster Emeritus
#25

Super Duper Sad Songs

"The I love you song" from Spelling Bee. Not a solo but if done well it's heartbreaking

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