# 1: this list: Entertainment Weekly’s 50 Most Heartbreaking Songs of All Time.

1. Hank Williams, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (1949)
Williams is so down, even the birds seem like they’ve lost their will to live. Throw in a mournful, clip-cloppy beat and a sobbing fiddle, and you might as well just lie down on the railroad tracks right now. Which is exactly what we feel like doing after compiling this list. We’re going to go listen to “Shiny Happy People” a few hundred times now…

Honky tonk. Yawn. Adam Lambert was right.

For a track to rank as truly heartbreaking, the music snob in me somehow requires violins (not fiddles, mind you, but violins), so I’m going with something by Samuel Barber. Yes, “Adagio” from String Quartet, Op. 11 would qualify (keyword: Platoon). Yes, it’s overused. It’s overused because it’s an excellent piece of music. Here is another piece from the same composer, something a bit more lively:

That is Souvenirs Op.28, “VI. Galop.” Played by Daniel Pollack.

Hat tip, as always, to Ann Althouse.