A couple of subtle ones:
“Good Riddance” - Green Day
“Every Breath You Take” - The Police (Perfect for stalkers)
I Need A Lover - John Mellencamp
Everything About You - Ugly Kid Joe
My Life - Billy Joel
“Delia’s Gone”, by Johnny Cash, for someone who just won’t take a hint.
You kids are so cute. I think an added challenge should be to only include songs that were available fourteen years ago. (1994)
My contribution: STP’s Interstate Love Song.
I like it, because nothing says “go away” like a murder ballad.
Good idea on the date restriction – and I can’t believe I’m the first one to mention mine (from 1981, so it qualifies):
Talk To Ya Later by The Tubes.
Get out
I’m tellin’ you now
Do you catch my drift?
What could be plainer than this?
Nothing more to be said
Write me a letter instead
I don’t mean to be cruel
But I’m FINISHED with you
“Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” - either the original Syreeta version (co-written and produced by Stevie Wonder) with vocals, or the Jeff Beck instrumental, which is no more subtle even without words because, let’s face it, the title alone gets your point across.
I’d avoid this one:
Meat Loaf’s “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”
I know what the song really says, but apparently there are people capable of missing it.
I know a couple who played that song at their wedding…
If she doesn’t get it after these tunes, get an restraining order for protection and lock up your pet rabbit!
“Don’t Go Away Mad…Just Go Away” - Motley Crue
“F*** You” - Headstones
“F*** You and Your Cat” - Goldfinger
“Nookie” - Limp Bizkit
Good Luck!
Lover’s Cross by Jim Croce.
At this point, I don’t recall: did anyone mention You’re breaking my heart by Harry Nilsson? (sample at link - NSFW)
Release Me–Def Leppard (I’ve heard many versions, but DL were playing a joke on one of their roadies by speeding up the music as he sang. The results ended up being pretty painful/hilarious, depending on your point of view.)
Hey please release me let me go
And for I don’t love you anymore
To waste our lives would be insane
And release me and let me love again
Roy Orbison has my fealty as the Breakup King.
Crying (or the kd lang version, or their duet)
Tammy Wynette- Til I Can Make it on my Own
SHOWTUNE WING
Before I Gaze at You Again from CAMELOT
Unusual Way from the musical Nine (“soon to be a major motion picture”)- this isn’t the greatest version, but you’ll get the idea when you listen to the lyrics
The Show Must Go On- Moulin Rouge/Jim Broadbent-Nicole Kidman version (the French dubbing ends when the song begins)
(We Can Never Go) Back to Before from RAGTIME
How about Boot Hill by Stevie Ray Vaughan?
*Look up on the wall baby
Hand me down my shootin iron
Look up on the wall baby
Hand me down my shootin iron
Call your mother long distance
Tell her to expect your body home
*
This is a classic category of song. There are scores & heaps. Depending on how you feel about her, you can choose from various gradations of contempt:
“Maggie May” - Rod Stewart & the Faces (if you still have feelings for her but have to end it)
“Free Bird” - Lynyrd Skynyrd (if you just can’t be bothered–but some people will totally miss the point)
“Everything about You” - Ugly Kid Joe (to rub it in)
I also thought of “Dreamtime” by Daryl Hall, but I think that’s the other way around, actually–trying to get someone not to leave.
Laughing In Your Face by Brighton Rock. Timeless…
Well of course I can’t let this go past without mentioning Queen’s Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to…)
There is only one choice:
“H.A.T.R.E.D.” by Tonio K
My personal favorite - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye by Soft Cell.
Take your hands off me
I don’t belong to you, you see
Take a look at my face for the last time
I never knew you, you never knew me
Say hello, goodbye
Though U-G-L-Y by Fishbone is a really good mean one too, in a more direct and less sardonic way.
Your Dictionary – XTC
*H-A-T-E
Is that how you spell love in your dictionary
K-I-C-K
Pronounced as kind
F-U-C-K
Is that how you spell friend in your dictionary
Black on black
A guidebook for the blind
*
Not sure if that applies to the situation, but a break-up song it certainly is.