Yay, another Crooked Fingers fan! The first 2 albums are full of stuff like this. I think the most pathetic part of New Drink are the opening lines, when you realizes its a wino begging for money at a bar so he can buy more alcohol:
“Would you try–
could you buy, a new drink for the old drunk?
It’s no crime to resign misery with a bottle”
“Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye. You can hear the awful panic in his voice:
You could have told me yourself
That you loved someone else…
Instead I heard it thorugh the grapevine.
Ouch.
C’mon, you’ve all heard it, admit it….How Am I supposed to Live Without You - Michael Bolton!
On a better note, ** Missing You** - Everything but the Girl.
How about “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” by Meatloaf/Jim Steinman.
CJ
If you’re going to drag Steinman into this, you might as well add Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.
Maybe This Time Kander/Ebb
I think it’s called “It Must Be Him”. I know the artist is Vicki Carr. I first heard of it in Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs, and have since run across it on the radio a few times (well, I listen to some odd stations). It. is. hilarious.
It’s him, it’s him, it must be him, oh dear God! But it’s not him, and then I die… 
I know this is a bit late, but better L than N. F U Shakespeare, we do not allow posting the full song lyrics. We’re never sure whether it’s “fair usage” (ie, whether the copyright has run out), so we strongly encourage that you quote a stanza or so and provide a link to a site that has copyright.
We’re stricter on copyright and “fair usage” issues than we might legally have to be. We don’t want folks reproducing our stuff, so we don’t reproduce anyone else’s.
I now see that there are several other posts doing something similar, so I’m going through and editing.
Look, I understand that some of you are trying to make a point in the lyrics you quote. If I edited your post down, and you would prefer to quote a different stanza than what I left, please email me. Be specific, give me the stanza you want to quote, and I’ll fix it.
You folks must have a different concept of desperate than I have. I envision a more manic, urgent kind of feeling. And what can bring that out better than the psychedelic 60’s !!!
By sheer title alone you can sense the desperation of the Electric Prunes’:
You Gotta Get Me To The World On Time
… My pulse is beatin’ faster
And I’m headin’ for disaster
Here I go (higher, higher)
Here I go (higher, higher)
Here I go
Get me to the world on time
You gotta get me to the world on time
As the song ends, they are screaming the title and a slide guitar and God knows what else keep going higher up the scale.
When it comes to desperation, I don’t think anyone beats Marc Almond.
I do not want to overquote, but in this context it is difficult to pick and choose. The link is to Marc’s own website.
From his highly disturbed album Torment and Toreros we have such winners as:
From Your Love Is A Lesion
[quote]
With my limbs tied behind my back
You forced me to love you
Down on my knees, I lied
My real self stays locked safe from you
[quote]
From A Million Manias
So much more. I would highly suggest reading all of the lyrics. It really is a magnificent album.
From Burning Boats, on the album Slut.
Bonnie Raitt–“I Can’t Make You Love Me”
I’ll close my eyes, then I won’t see
The love you don’t feel when you’re holding me
Morning will come and I’ll do what’s right
Just give me till then to give up this fight
And I will give up this fight
'Cause I can’t make you love me if you don’t…
Makes me cry every time.
We’re Just Friends by Wilco
Over and over and over again
I try to make amends
For everything that I’ve done wrong
My whole world just spins
Make some coffee, hold me up
Try to talk me out of giving up
But I promise
We’re just friends*
Not a hit song, but Elvis Costello’s “I Want You” is up there in desperation:
I want you
It’s the stupid details that my heart is breaking for
It’s the way your shoulders shake and what they’re shaking for
It’s knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
I want you
It’s the thought of him undressing you or you undressing
I want you
He tossed some tatty compliment your way
I want you
And you were fool enough to love it when he said
I want you
snip
I want to know the things you did that we do too
I want you
I want to hear he pleases you more than I do
I want you
I might as well be useless for all it means to you
I want you
Did you call his name out as he held you down
I want you
Oh no my darling not with that clown
snip
I’m going to say it once again ’til I instill it
I know I’m going to feel this way until you kill it
I want you
I want you