3 Forgotten Sad Songs From the 80s That Still Get Us Teary-Eyed

You know it’s a good song when it manages to get you all tied up in knots, even years later. Here are three sad songs from the 80s that still get us emotional now and then.

“Cry Little Sister” by Gerard McMann

“Cry Little Sister”, which was used in the soundtrack of the 1987 movie The Lost Boys, is a song that reflects on familial rejection. It is not about incest, even though the lyrics make it sound like it could be. It also wasn’t necessarily about vampires, like The Lost Boys is, even though it was used in the film.

Gerard McMann, who wrote the song before seeing the movie, shared with Kickin’ It Old School: “I always say that if I’d have seen the film first, I would probably not have written ‘Cry Little Sister’.”

He continued, “I didn’t want the song to be specific to the vampire. I wanted it to be about the longing for family from a rejected youth’s perspective, which I went through myself and that many of us have felt.”

“Downbound Train” by Bruce Springsteen

“Downbound Train” appears on Bruce Springsteen’s iconic Born In The U.S.A. album. This song tells the story of a lost love and a man who once “had something going” in the world.

She just said, “Joe, I gotta go
We had it once, we ain’t got it anymore”
She packed her bags, left me behind
She bought a ticket on the Central Line
Nights as I sleep, I hear that whistle whining
I feel her kiss in the misty rain
And I feel like I’m a rider on a downbound train.

“Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak

“Wicked Game” teeters between sultry and sorrowful. It sings about a world that’s always doomed for heartbreak. According to Isaak, this song was inspired by a real-life romantic partner he once had.

“This one I wrote really late at night and it was written in a short time, because I remember that a girl had called me and said, ‘I want to come over and talk to you,’” he shared with Songfacts. “And ‘talk’ was a euphemism. And she said, ‘I want to come over and talk to you until you’re no longer able to stand up.’ And I said, ‘Okay, you’re coming over.’ And as soon as I hung up I thought, ‘Oh, my God. I know she’s gonna be trouble. She’s always been trouble. She’s a wildcat. And here I am, I’m going to get killed, but I’m doing this…’”

Photo by: Steve Granitz/WireImage