But it took a cover to break him through as a singer in his own right — "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," written by Fred Rose in 1945 and recorded by Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, Conway Twitty and many others. Peaches Calls for Systemic Change in Rebellious New Single ‘Flip This’‘Freedom-Loving People’: Behind the Scenes at That Controversial Smash Mouth Show in South DakotaWhat Is #SaveTheChildren and Why Did Facebook Block It? Off 2011's Written after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" stands as one of the most poignant "of the people" songs ever written. "The Long Black Veil" was written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin, who say part of the inspiration for the song was based on a mysterious veiled woman who often visited the grave of Rudolph Valentino. Mtb-Nidle 20,248,359 views And it’s only fitting that this song would be remembered with her in mind.Goodbye doesn’t always have to be permanent; sometimes it’s a temporary separation that leads to a joyful reunion. Breakups don’t always have to be bitter and messy. Tinged with gospel harmony and a tad overstuffed production-wise, the 1989 Country Music Association Song of the Year details the aftermath of a lovers' quarrel, a.k.a. Baby, bye, bye, bye . Without you, I've got no hand to hold. With all our fears up on the edge. This hard-hitting song is guaranteed to make you cry if you’re going through a breakup with someone you love intensely. It's such a natural fit for the Possum's anguished voice, you can’t imagine anyone else singing it. Eventually, his family and friends at his record label persuaded him, and Jackson debuted "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" live at the 35th Annual CMA Awards that November, receiving an emotional standing ovation. To cope with those losses, he’s told that whenever it rains, it means there are “holes in the floor of heaven and her tears are pouring down. Thankfully, the lyrics didn’t exactly mirror Wariner’s real life. While it’s not explicitly a goodbye song, it’s a song that you’ll want to listen to when you’re moving from one point in life to another.Here’s another high school prom and graduation favorite. It all depends on the reason we have to say goodbye. This song by John Denver perfectly captures that emotion about a man who’s about to leave indefinitely. Deciding which of Jones' sad songs is sadder than the next is like trying to decide whether coal is blacker than the bottom of the ocean or midnight on a moonless night. Remarkably progressive for a circa-1991 country song, "Jake" champions the rights of the homeless and lends support to the gay community: "Now, if you get an ear pierced, some will call you gay/But if you drive a pick-up, they'll say, 'No, you must be straight'/What we are and what we ain't, what we can and what we can't/Does it really matter?" “Old Shep,” a song written and originally recorded by Red Foley in 1931 (and performed by a 10-year-old Elvis Presley at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair in 1945), is based on a dog Foley had as a boy. Injured war vets and heroin addicts are both great subjects for sad songs. But while headlines screamed of "bear markets" and "economic indexes," Haggard's song got right to the heart of the issue: the people behind those headlines. But she certainly made up for lost time, with her 2005 major label debut, Inspired by a magazine article on war casualties, Tim McGraw and Brad and Brett Warren wrote "If You're Reading This" in the spring of 2007. So grab a few tissues and check out our list of the 40 saddest country songs ever written.Songwriters Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard were sure their new "I Fall to Pieces" would be a hit, but before it reached Patsy Cline, singers Brenda Lee ("too country") and Roy Drusky ("too feminine") both passed. Good thing he reconsidered: Without the gentle lope of the melody softening the mood, what Elvis introduced as "probably the saddest song I've ever heard" during his legendary 1973 televised concert in Hawaii might have been too hopeless to endure.No one in country music has done more to bring attention to abuse than Martina McBride. In his saddest, "Teddy Bear," a different trucker has some CB radio talk with a lonely boy who is "crippled and can't walk." The song was considered by Lee Ann Womack and Terri Clark before finding its ideal interpreter in the melodrama-averse Alan Jackson, whose quietly desperate performance suggests that Patty Loveless' backing vocal is all that stands between him and the abyss.Deciding which of Jones' sad songs is sadder than the next is like trying to decide whether coal is blacker than the bottom of the ocean or midnight on a moonless night. Nelson's version might be the sparest of them all: just guitar, accordion and wounded warble painting an unbearably sad last-goodbye scene in vivid sepia tones. “I thought it was his best song… a Number One record,” Anderson said in Don McCleese’s 2012 Yoakam biography "I Don't Call Him Daddy" tells the tale of a divorced couple and the young son caught in between them. It's a eulogy to fellow San Quentin inmate "Rabbit" Hendricks, who killed a police officer during a botched escape attempt and was sent to the gas chamber. Without you, I feel torn. The last  Written by the same team behind ex-wife Tammy Wynette's 1968 signature "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "He Stopped Loving Her Today" might be country music's greatest punchline song ever. We have 15 albums and 178 song lyrics in our database. Princess Diana suddenly in a car accident, and it left the world in tears. One of the toughest goodbyes would be when someone passes away. According to Howard's wife Jan, Cline hated the song and refused to record it. That's how Drusky tells it, at least. The saddest moment, however, is reserved for his lover, wailing under cover of the night winds. “I had just lost my grandmother not long before that,” Wariner In Red Sovine's best song, "Phantom 309," an out-of-luck traveler encounters the supernatural when he hitches a ride from a mysterious trucker named Big Joe.

But Tillis' cool reserve in his 1967 version, echoed in a stately piano accompaniment, mined the lyric for maximum devastation.Though Ray Price first met Kris Kristofferson when the latter was a janitor at Columbia Studios, the singer wouldn't remember the songwriter's name until he heard his "For the Good Times" demo between sets during an 1969 tour.