Indeed, though The Beautiful South had a lot more songs with melancholy music than The Housemartins.
Last night I dreamed of my Halley
Of my Halley, my sweet Halley
Last night I dreamed of my Halley
For the thought of her is one that never dies
She’s sleeping now in the valley
In the valley, my sweet Halley
She’s sleeping now in the valley
And the Mockingbird is singing where she lies
Listen to the Mockingbird, listen to the Mockingbird
Oh the Mockingbird is singing oe’er her grave
Listen to the Mockingbird, listen to the Mockingbird
Still singing where the yellow roses grow
How well do I yet remember
I remember, I remember
How well do I yet remember
For the thought of her is one that never dies
It was in that sweet September
In September, I remember
It was in that sweet September
That the Mockingbird was singing far and wide
Listen to the Mockingbird, listen to the Mockingbird
Oh the Mocking bird still singing oe’er her grave
Listen to the Mockingbird, listen to the Mockingbird
Oh the Mockingbird still singing in the spring
There are many Smiths songs that fit this category:
Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
There is a Light
This Charming Man
Common People by Pulp has a great dance beat and hook with lyrics that get more and more depressing as the song goes on, to the point it becomes an expression of pure despair–“You’ll never watch your life slide out of view, and dance and drink and screw/Because there’s nothing else to do.”
Beer For My Horses by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson has a lively, cheerful tune, and it’s about lynching.
A lot of classic R&B songs sound upbeat musically, but have sad lyrics.
Tears of a Clown (The Miracles), Love Child (The Supremes), Papa Was A Rolling Stone (The Temptations) and What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye) are just four examples.
Lights by Ellie Goulding, The A Team by Ed Sheeran are two contemporary songs that are sad despite happy-ish melodies.
Rehab by Amy Winehouse is an upbeat sounding song with heartbreaking lyrics.
Just about everything by They Might Be Giants.
“Lucky Ball And Chain”:
“Mr. Me”:
“I’ve Got A Match”:
“They’ll Need A Crane”:
… I could go on.
Teddybear sung by Elvis (not sure who wrote it) - if you read the lyrics, it sounds like a letter from a stalker
**Words **by Missing Persons is pretty upbeat but it’s a girl singing about a guy who won’t pay attention to her.
Richard Thompson does this all the time ('52 Vincent Black Lightning, anyone?) but his most extreme example is probably Sidney Wells, a song about a serial-killing lorry driver set to a jolly little slip-jig.
Sample lyric:*
Then he took off her clothes and threw them in a pile
He watched her stand there cold and shivering for a while
Then he picked up her stocking lying on the floor
And wrapped it round her neck until she breathed no more
He tried to burn the body, he didn’t do it well
Upon a pile of tyres, it was an awful smell
They found her poor remains and summoned the bereft
And took her to the church to bury what was left*
Up the Junction by Squeeze
Miss Otis Sends Her Regrets
Hotel California (ominous undertones but an upbeat chorus)
Hello This Is Joanie
Take A Letter Maria
Poisoning Pigeons In The Park; The Irish Ballad; etc. (Do Tom Lehrer songs count?)
So Long And Thanks for All The Fish
Keep On Rolling (REO)
Evil Woman
The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia (see Hotel California comments)
The Point of Know Return
Ride Captain Ride
Smoke On The Water
I forgot to add that favorite sing-along in Karaoke bars everywhere:
Delilah by Tom Jones
It’s just “Miss Otis Regrets” but yeah…that’s a good one, too.
Y’all lazy. Not linking to youtube as if it’s 2003.
Heh…I’ve got “Miss Otis”. The REALLY upbeat version is Bette Midler’s.
Achilipú was a “summer hit” in Spain, on several different summers; the linked version is by Dolores Vargas. It’s a dumb song, right? Right? I mean, half of it is the singers going achilipú, apú, apú… (achilipú doesn’t meant anything, it’s just some noises the lyricist came up with)
It follows a pattern very common in Spanish folk, of having many short bits that can get shuffled about - different singers will sing different verses and in a different order. Some of them, and in the case of the version by Las Grecas about the only understandable bit:
“I cried blood tears, and then I drunk them up, so you wouldn’t know how much I suffered for you”
Ole your mother, can we be in love without masochism kthxbye?
“LDN” by Lilly Allen.
We’ve all heard Blondie’s One Way or Another
You know, “One way or another, I’m gonna getcha getcha getcha …”
The other day I was listening to it, but as most people I don’t know the verses. When I actually heard them I realized it was a stalker song. She (well, from what I’m reading it’s about a guy stalking her, but it’s in the first person, so I’m saying ‘she’) is going to follow this guy around, see who he’s hanging out with, then when she finally get’s him, she’s going to leave him.
Really, go check out the lyrics, there’s nothing ambiguous about it.
I’m sure they’re lots of stalker songs, but this one came out a few years before Every Breath You Take.