For me, it’s a tie between Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” or Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.
Define haunting however you please.
Haunting is the adjective that comes to mind when I hear Melanie’s**Lay Down Candles in the Rain.**
Well, arguably, "Rosie, Sweet Rosabel," but that’s probably not what you meant.
Ailein Duinn by Méav Ní Mhaolchatha.
How about The Doors ‘Riders on the Storm’.
I was alone one evening as a kid when this song came on the radio. Creeped me the hell out.
mmm
Bosnia by The Cranberries was first to come to mind.
Loreena McKennitt singing “She Moved Through The Fair”: Loreena McKennitt - She Moved Through the Fair [Lyrics][Letras] - YouTube
Second this one. Others high on my list are Bread’s “If” and the vocal version of “Suicide is Painless” (from the film MASH).
“Sally Go Round the Roses,” by the Jaynetts.
Spooky as hell. Is it about suicide, insanity, or an illicit (1963) lesbian love affair? You tell me…
“Sally Go Round the Roses,” by the Jaynetts.
Spooky as hell. Is it about suicide, insanity, or an illicit (1963) lesbian love affair? You tell me…
Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”
Massive Attack, Sly.
And Julia by the Beatles.
I don’t know why but the first thing that came to mind is the Piña Colada song.
A lot of Bruce Springsteen’s 9/11-themed album The Rising is very haunting. In “Paradise”, spare music and strained vocals describe different perspectives of paradise, including from a suicide bomber getting ready to detonate a backpack full of explosives, and from a mourning lover who relives his loss in his dreams every night.
In “Nothing Man”, a first responder struggles to live with the aftermath of the attack and to accept that everyone “acts like nothing’s changed”. The song ends with him contemplating the “pearl and silver” on his nightstand and praying for strength. It’s unclear whether he wants the strength to go on or the strength to pull the trigger.
“Blue Velvet”
I always thought the song had a bit of weirdness going on, and then David Lynch apparently agreed, because he made it central to a really disturbing movie. Now I can’t hear the song without it stirring up all the movie bizarreness.
99 Tears
‘Sounds of Silence’ - and- ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, Simon and Garfunkle.
‘Wicked Game’, Chris Isaak
‘Mad World’, by anyone
Oh, and ‘West End Girls’ by Pet Shop Boys. Our little family of three bought iTunes cards to make CDs and were surprised Mom, Dad, and Daughter all each independently picked ‘West End Girls’ .
When David Cook was a contestant on American Idol, every song he did pierced me right through the heart. ‘Billie Jean’, in particular. I hope his career is going well.
That was supposed to be 96 Tears.
“Since I Fell For You” - Lenny Welch
“Sleight of Hand” by Pearl Jam. It’s about a man contemplating his routine life - “something he hadn’t imagined being” “he was okay, but wondering about wandering”. Haunting melody, haunting lyrics. One of my favorite songs.