3 Country Ballads From 1965 That Remain Timeless Tearjerkers

Country ballads are often the North Star of tearjerkers. On Beck’s aching masterpiece, Sea Change, many tracks share DNA with classic and mournful country tunes. And if you’re a songwriter interested in the art of sad songs, you might begin by studying the old country ballads.

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Still, even as Nashville’s polished recordings in the 1960s made the genre more accessible to pop audiences, the rough edges felt from painful breakups, loneliness, and heartbreak remained. All things that never go out of style, just like these country tearjerkers from 1965.

“Then And Only Then” by Connie Smith

Few things in life create more anxiety than uncertainty. Say your loved one leaves and you know the date and time they are scheduled to return. You mark off the calendar—or however you’d like to count down the days—until they are back home. Yet in Connie Smith’s tearjerker, the singer’s partner makes a hasty exit, and her misery endures while she waits for who knows how long. “Then And Only Then” appears on Smith’s self-titled debut, and the song became her second hit single following the chart-topping “Once A Day”.

In your haste, you left and said you’d be returning,
In my sorrow, I forgot to ask you when.

“Sing A Sad Song” by Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard’s lonesome tune was released as the first single from his debut album, Strangers. Drenched in gloom, “Sing A Sad Song”, which was written by Wynn Stewart, finds Haggard despairing over an ex. He begs the listener to sing a sad song as if it’s the end of the world. And breakups often feel like the world’s ending—or at least the one you once knew. You can hear desperation in Haggard’s deep croon, proving there’s more to an outlaw than a tough and rowdy exterior.

Sing me a song of sadness,
And sing it as blue as I feel.

“What’s He Doing In My World” by Eddy Arnold

Eddy Arnold poses a question to his lover, reinforcing Haggard’s sentiment about how loss can feel like the end of the world. Though Arnold spots his girlfriend kissing someone else, he remains as relaxed as the track’s pristine Nashville production. Meanwhile, Arnold stretches the territorial theme on his 1965 album, My World. “What’s He Doing In My World” and “Make The World Go Away” were both hits. But on the latter single, it seems Arnold was the one going “astray.”

What’s he doing in my world?
We don’t need him in our world.

Photo by Andrew Putler/Redferns