Spinner's Superb List of The 25 Most Exquisitely Sad Songs in the Whole World

There are literally hundreds of lists compiled every year about every facet of music from the all-time best singers to favorite songs with "purple" in the title. To be honest, they are interesting to read but most are just a collection of someone(s) opinions. How can any person or publication really pick the 20 best songs of the decade when you would have to listen 24-hours a day for most of that decade to just hear every song.

Every once in awhile, though, a list comes along where the compilers just plain get it. No, it may not be definitive for the reason above, but the selections are so dead on that you really have to rack your brain to think of anything better. Such is the case with Spinner's list of The 25 Most Exquisitely Sad Songs in the Whole World. These are the songs that are "so despairing they can make us wonder why we even bother."

Most are well know but a few, like their top pick, Chicken Wire by the Pernice Brothers, are gems that may have slipped under the radar but they fit this list beautifully. Scan the titles below and then go over to the Spinner site where you can review their rational, sample a few lyrics, see their casualty count and, best of all, listen to the entire song.

The top 25:

1. Chicken Wire - Pernice Brothers
2. Gloomy Sunday - Billie Holiday
3. Eleanor Rigby - Beatles
4. Hurt - Johnny Cash
5. I Know It's Over - Smiths
6. He Stopped Loving Her Today - George Jones
7. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
8. Dance With My Father - Luther Vandross
9. Concrete Angel - Martina McBride
10. In the Real World - Roy Orbison
11. Brick - Ben Folds Five
12. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning - Frank Sinatra
13. Naked As We Come - Iron & Wine
14. Anyone Who Had a Heart - Dionne Warwick
15. My Mom - Chocolate Genius
16. Shilo - Neil Diamond
17. Back to Black - Amy Winehouse
18. I've Got to Get a Message to You - Bee Gees
19. Lost Cause - Beck
20. That's the Way I Always Heart It Should Be - Carly Simon
21. Space Oddity - David Bowie
22. A Change is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
23. No Surprises - Radiohead
24. Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor
25. The River - Bruce Springsteen