3 Forgotten Sad Songs From 1970 That Still Get Us Teary-Eyed

Need to feel something fast? Here are a few forgotten and sad tear-jerker songs from the year 1970 that will likely get the job done.

“Without You” by Badfinger

This song, which also has an incredibly sad version by Harry Nilsson, is about Badfinger guitarist Tom Evans and his wife. She wasn’t his wife at the time this song was written. Producer Pete Waterman told the story on BBC Radio 2.

“One evening he [Evans] went to her [Marianne’s] friend Karen and told Karen, ‘She’s left me. I need her back. I can’t live without her,’” he explained. “He flew to Bonn to find her – he wrote a song called ‘I Can’t Live’. Its chorus included ‘I can’t live, if living is without you, I can’t live, I can’t give any more.’ And so the merging of the two songs, Ham and Evans created the hit [with] Ham’s verse, ‘warm, sweet, sentimental’ and Evans’ chorus, ‘intense, dramatic, heartbreaking.’”

“Who Knows Where The Time Goes” by Nina Simone

Countless artists have covered this song, but there’s something about Simone’s version from her album Black Gold that hurts in such a beautiful way. Songwriter Linda Thompson had a different perspective on this one. This song was written by Sandy Denny.

She shared, “I don’t find it to be sad. Great music is always uplifting to me. She was so young when she wrote it but it pinpoints exactly the feelings I have now, at 71. It also resonated strongly with me when I was a teenager. Love and loss portrayed so sweetly. A song for all ages.”

“Long, Long Time” by Linda Ronstadt

Ronstadt released this song in 1970 on her album, Silk Purse.

Craig Mazin, who helped pick this song for the TV show The Last Of Us, describes “Long, Long Time” perfectly. Two characters play this song during an important moment in the show, and Mazin knew it had to be the perfect choice.

“I remember saying to Neil [Druckmann, writer], ‘I’m not sure what the song is, I just know that it has to be this incredibly sad song about yearning for love, and never getting love, and just making your peace with the fact that you will always be alone,’” he told IndieWire. “‘But it can’t be on the nose. And it can’t be a song that we all know.’”

Photo by: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

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