Not that I know of, but I like the number 12.
Damnit, there was supposed to be more to it than just that. Oh well.
If You Go Away ( Marianne Faithful?? or the Seekers)
Seventeen by Janis Ian
I think Don’t Speak by No Doubt is pretty high up there on the list, if not number one for me. Mostly because of the sound of Gwen’s voice when she sings it. You can almost hear tears in her words. The music is also not fast, happy and bouncy like the majority of their other songs.
I also would have to nominate I Remember by Stabbing Westward:
*Do you ever wonder where we would be if we had tried a little harder?
It seems like yesterday we were making plans for the future.
But it’s been so long since I have known the truth; these dreams we’ve left abandoned
And I’m haunted by your face and the memory of your kisses
Sweet kisses
Do you remember?
I still remember so much.
I remember never feeling so alive
Do you remember?
I still can’t forget your touch.
We swore that we would never end
We knew our love transcended space and time
These memories slip away; the ghost of what we were is fading
But there is no more pain, which is funny 'cause that night, I was dying
I was dying…
Now I don’t even recognize the girl I swore that someday I would marry
But I can’t forget her face, and I can’t forget her kisses
Sweet kisses…
Do you remember?
I still remember so much
I remember always feeling so alive
Do you remember?
I still can’t forget your touch
We swore that we would never end
We knew our love transcended space and time
Do you remember?
I still remember so much
I remember never feeling so alive
Do you remember?
I still can’t forget your touch
And we swore that we would never be alone…
Do you remember?
I still remember so much
I remember never feeling so alive
Do you remember?
'Cause I still can’t forget your touch
And how we swore that we would never end,
We knew our love transcended space and time…
We swore that we would never end,
We knew our love transcended space and time…
Do you remember?
God, I remember so much…*
Could just be me (being that I’m a huge Stabbing Westward fan), but if you’ve ever had that relationship that was perfect…you know, that person was “the one”, it was gonna last forever - but somehow didn’t…Well, again, it may just be me…but that song really gets me. Their song Happy may not be quite as sad, but leads me to think sad thoughts, too…
Please tell me are you really happy?
Do you think he’s really worth the pain?
Tell me are you really happy?
Or did you simply throw our life away
Just to be unhappy.
Just the chorus for that one. 
Song of the Siren, the Elizabeth Fraser version.
Lovesong for a Vampire by Annie Lennox
Joan of Arc by Leonard Cohen
Kathy’s Song by Paul Simon
Donovan’s Catch the Wind always makes me a little sad…
Sorry, but I think the Bright Eyes is one of the funniest songs ever written.
Maybe I should stop watching the Addams Family so much.
Oh another one:
Old Friends by Simon and Garfunkle
Consider Freedy Johnston’s “Across the Avenue:”
"Though you’ve gone away
I play your favorite song
In the blue and gold
With your dark glasses on
I always think I see you
Across the avenue
Walking by where I lost you
It’s all I ever do
You just walked away
We’ll meet tonight, okay
Going against the light
Run down in front of me
I always think I see you
Across the avenue
Someday I’ll come to meet you
On the other side
Across the avenue
Though you’ve gone away
I wear your favorite shirt
Sitting in the sun
By the library lights
I always think I see you
Across the avenue
Someday I’ll come to meet you
On the other side"
Gets me every time.
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.
Brings me to the depths of despair - and I can’t get enough of it. So true.
“Fair” by the Ben Folds Five ?
When I saw the title of this thread, I thought of two songs:
-
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division (an ironically-named band if there ever was one). Technically, it’s about love dying, but this one has already been discussed enough.
-
“Lovesong” by the Cure. Others by them have been mentioned but not this one. This fits the definition of a “true” love song; i.e., it’s very much about an ongoing love and is written as a tribute to it: “whenever i’m alone with you/ you make me feel like i am whole again”. However, the song is depressing not only because of the minor key arrangement and Robert Smith’s desparate delivery, but there’s something so sad about the lyrics, almost regretful, that isn’t all shiny and bright like the majority of happy “love is perfect” songs:
However far away, I will always love you
However long I stay, I will always love you
Whatever words I say, I will always love you
I will always love you
The Tubes : “Love’s A Mystery”
“Love’s a mystery I don’t understand
Love’s supposed to make you glad, tell me why I feel so sad
Love’s a mystery I don’t understand
You won’t stay another day
And if that’s all you can say
Then I don’t understand.”
Lauramarlane, you’re so right about “My Funny Valentine;” I’ve always hated it too and for the same reasons.
“Distant Lover” by Marvin Gaye. On the live version that “PLEEEEAAASSSEEE” at the end gets me every time.
Although not a conventional love song, John Lennon’s “Julia” fits the bill for me.
I guess it depends how you define “depressing”. Billions of love songs have a melancholy/nostalgic/heartbreak message, but they don’t actually make you feel depressed unless they are also bad songs.
For the yuck factor, I think I would nominate “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks, and “Sylvia’s Mother” by Dr Hook.
I’d rather slit my wrists than listen to either of them ever again.
Joni Mitchell is Queen of the Depressing Love Song. Her most depressing, I think is “Down to You.”
"In the morning there are lovers in the street
They look so high
You brush against a stranger
And you both apologize
Old friends seem indifferent
You must have brought that on
Old bonds have broken down
Love is gone
ooh love is gone
written on your spirit this sad song
love is gone."
Full of Grace by Sarah McLachlan. That is my official depression song. Even now that I’ve heard it enough to deassociate it with the Buffy ep. I first heard it at…it’s still the most beautifully depressing song that I’ve ever heard.
“the winter here’s cold, and bitter
it’s chilled us to the bone
we haven’t seen the sun for weeks
to long too far from home
I feel just like I’m sinking
and I claw for solid ground
I’m pulled down by the undertow
I never thought I could feel so low
oh darkness I feel like letting go
if all of the strength and all of the courage
come and lift me from this place
I know I could love you much better than this
full of grace
full of grace
my love
so it’s better this way, I said
having seen this place before
where everything we said and did
hurts us all the more
its just that we stayed, too long
in the same old sickly skin
I’m pulled down by the undertow
I never thought I could feel so low
oh darkness I feel like letting go
if all of the strength
and all of the courage
come and lift me from this place
I know I could love you much better than this
full of grace”
The melody, the accompaniment. Wow. Every time, it makes me tear up.
Honorable mentions:
“What do you say” by Reba. That lyric about the old couple just hits me everytime. “She looks at him and says, I wanna go home.” Not sure if it counts.
“Fragments”, “Footprints in the Snow”, and “Lonely Miracle” by
Vertical Horizon.
Evanescence. “Tourniquet” and “My Immortal”
That’s enough for now. 
“The Wild Ones” by Suede. It gets me every time I hear it.
Lisa-go-Blind:
I was thinking “Love Will Tear us Apart” too. Damn, you got it first.
Lisa-go-Blind:
I was thinking “Love Will Tear us Apart” too. Damn, you got it first.