There are so many really sad songs out there, many of which came out in the good ol’ 90s. In fact, some tear-jerker songs from the 1990s are probably burned into your brain if you heard them as a kid during that decade. I know there are a few that will transport me back to very complicated emotions after hearing just a few opening notes. Get the tissues out, because we’re looking at four of the saddest songs from the 1990s.
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“Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley
Rarely does a cover ever top the original material. But in my opinion, Jeff Buckley’s cover of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen is even better than the original song. This song dropped in 1994 and is featured on Buckley’s only studio album. I can’t help but feel that the rawness and vulnerability of Buckley’s version just topple Cohen’s version from 1984. Though, Cohen’s version is nothing to sneeze at, either.
“Black” by Pearl Jam
The lyrics of this iconic grunge song are sad enough, but Eddie Vedder’s desperate delivery makes it even more devastating. The way he screams “I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star / In somebody else’s sky, but why? Why?” still makes me feel things decades after this song was released in 1991. Half a dozen other singles from Ten tend to get all the love, but “Black” is one of those songs about first loves that captures the angst and heartbreak we know all too well.
“Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead
If you’ve never laid on the floor and listened to this song on a very bad day, are you even a 90s kid? Radiohead has more than a few devastating tracks in their discography, but there’s something about “Fake Plastic Trees” that just gets under one’s skin on an existential level. This 1995 song from The Bends was apparently written by Thom Yorke after “a very lonely, drunken evening and, well, a breakdown of sorts.” Interestingly, this song would become the soundtrack for similar events experienced by fans around the globe. “Fake Plastic Trees” might be the perfect “I hate my life and I’m having a breakdown” song.
“Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.
This wouldn’t be a proper list of tear-jerker 1990s songs without mentioning R.E.M.’s bummer of a ballad, “Everybody Hurts”. This is a really beautiful song that shines a light on empathy and the shared experience of struggle, and it has aged very well through the years. You can’t beat that melody, either. Michael Stipe knew what he was doing.
Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage
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