With Valentine's Day coming up, it is time for Radio Sweetheart's 3rd annual heartbreak mix, a collection of songs featuring melancholy, rage, ironic detachment and occasional good humor inspired by love gone wrong. The heartbreak mix will play from noon-5pm ET each day through Feb. 14. Listen here.
Why sad songs?
People sometimes ask why I don't compile a happier list for this Hallmark holiday. The answer is that I've tried but, with notable exceptions, your typical "you're perfect for me and I'll love you forever" songs are, well, boring. It's kind of like those websites devoted to nothing but good news. Everyone claims they want to read happy stories when in fact they're keeping their eyes out for the next train wreck.
Let's start the melodic misery with our song of the day: Alison Krauss' "Baby Now That I've Found You," an absolutely devastating tune from one of today's great bluegrass popularizers.
Not only is it a wonderfully depressing song, it's one of the my favorite cover versions. The original, a Motownish turn by The Foundations, is also great.
And because I know from personal experience that love can in fact be a wonderful thing, here's one of my favorite happy love songs, De La Soul's "Eye Know." Here's a song that knows what to do with a good Otis Redding or Steely Dan sample and, like a Shakespearean comedy, it ends with a wedding.
De La Soul - eye know
Australian Rock'n'Soul act, PlanB (http://planbaustralia.com) have come up with a different approach again - instead of just a heartbreak or happy-happy-joy-joy song, their ballad, "Call Me" is sort of like a call-to-action love song. Have a listen! (and, yes, they have a happy one, too - "Falling in Love") :)
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