# What are the most desperate hit songs?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 14, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962 "2005-02-14T03:41:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/1 "2005-02-14T03:41:40Z")
I was listening to Dolly Parton’s [Jolene](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dolly-parton/41709.html) today and impressed once again by just how desperate the lyrics are; the singer has thrown away all pride and is strictly throwing herself on the mercy of a woman she can’t compete with.
Tammy Wynette’s [Til I Can Make it on My Own](http://www.ladyjayes.com/makeitonmyown.html) (in which a woman basically promises and pleads for her ex to let her stalk him for a while) is also pretty pathetic (not to say it’s a bad song, just sung by someone in despair) while Clapton’s Layla has got him on his knees. What are some other songs that come to mind as sung by an absolutely pitiful and desperate narrator?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/2 "2005-02-14T03:47:37Z")
Kate Bush sounds a bit desperate whilst singing “Wuthering Heights”.
Ditto Tori Amos with “Silent All These Years”.
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### Author:  [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/3 "2005-02-14T04:40:55Z")
Country music is a goldmine for this type of song.
Oak Ridge Boys’ “I’ll Be True To You” about a woman who pretty much drinks herself to death over a heartless man, who, when he realizes it, vows the same devotion to her, to late.
T. Graham Brown’s “I Tell It Like It Used To Be” narrated by a man who refuses to face up to the fact that the woman has left him.
Vern Gosdin’s “Chisled In Stone” - well, the song isn’t so much desperate, but the been there done that guy he meets at the bar just about breaks my heart.
I’ll think of more…
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/4 "2005-02-14T04:41:07Z")
“With Or Without You” is pretty bad (and people think it’s _romantic_, no less).
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/5 "2005-02-14T10:01:40Z")
The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now” is pretty desperate…
“I am human and I need to be loved” indeed.
Just not sure how much of a hit it was, but it gets covered a lot and is the theme for Charmed, so I guess pretty well known.
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### Author:  [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/6 "2005-02-14T10:24:22Z")
Britney Spears, Lucky, I’m a Slave 4 u? All of Britney latest songs?
Catapult, Counting Crows
Lost Without You, Delta Goodrem
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### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/7 "2005-02-14T11:35:50Z")
I would nominate Steely Dan’s _Big Black Cow_, although the protagonist has already moved past desperation and just wants out. He’s been in love with a woman who is a drug-addict, a partier, and a prostitute. Despite this, he has supported her by waiting for her to come staggering back late at night to him – her “precious one” – who must “make everything right,” by listening to her problems, consoling her and “talking it out till daylight.”
Finally he just says, in effect “I’ve had enough. I don’t care anymore why you run around. Just finish your drink (your big Black Cow) and get outta here.”
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### Author:  [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/8 "2005-02-14T11:41:31Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#):
>
> Country music is a goldmine for this type of song.
Including every single damn song Alison Krauss & Union Station insist on doing. She makes jokes about how miserable all their songs are, but it really wears down on you after a while. I used to think “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You” was a really romantic song until I paid more attention to the lyrics and realized how desperate it is.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/9 "2005-02-14T12:12:50Z")
For country, try Conway Twitty’s “Hello, Darlin’”.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/10 "2005-02-14T12:13:55Z")
“Whoever’s In New England” by Reba McIntyre. Goldmine is right!
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### Author:  [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/11 "2005-02-14T12:23:29Z")
Police - Every Breath You Take
Gilbert O’Sullivan - Alone Again Naturally
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### Author:  [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/12 "2005-02-14T13:35:08Z")
Cant’ Live (if living is without you) by Harry Neil
…you Wanted DESPERATE?.. 😃
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### Author:  [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/13 "2005-02-14T13:36:55Z")
…er…Harry Neilsson…Sorry.
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### Author:  [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/14 "2005-02-14T13:44:20Z")
> [@DrMemory](#):
>
> …er…Harry Neilsson…Sorry.
How about Harry Nilsson instead?
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### Author:  [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/15 "2005-02-14T13:47:51Z")
…is He good? OK, Let’s use Him, Instead…
…More Coffee= Good
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### Author:  [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/16 "2005-02-14T13:50:12Z")
…Nilsson…SCHMIELSON…
Sorry, back to the thread( Which is Allready in progress)
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/17 "2005-02-14T14:38:43Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> Kate Bush sounds a bit desperate whilst singing “Wuthering Heights”.
Well, she IS dead & need someone to let her in the damn window!
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### Author:  [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/18 "2005-02-14T14:45:56Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> I was listening to Dolly Parton’s [Jolene](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dolly-parton/41709.html) …
>
> Tammy Wynette’s…
And now for yet another of my off-topic tangets.
I have a co-worker named Jolene. That song gets stuck in my head _every_ morning.
Have you seen _Sordid Lives_? Brother Boy really tears it up on Til I Can Make it on My Own.
_George Jones was the drug_.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/19 "2005-02-14T15:11:41Z")
Most of Meat Loaf’s epic _Paradise by the Dahsboard Light_ smacks of desperation – albeit adolescent, hormone-charged desperation. It blossoms into full-fledged adult desperation with the final segment _Prayin’ for the End of Time._
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-desperate-hit-songs/289962/20 "2005-02-14T15:37:19Z")
I don’t know, I always thought \*Last Dance for MaryJane \* was pretty desperate, not to mention somewhat gruesome.
And to think I kind of liked the song until I saw the video.
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