Valentine’s Day. Unless you’re in the “honeymoon phase” of a relationship it can be a fairly rough trot. Are you fed up with the chocolates and roses crowd and their sickening kissy-faces? Why wouldn’t you be?
It’s especially hard if you’ve just had your heart drop-kicked for goal by a callous cad or stroppy siren. There are books that can help you through the rough times and I’ve mentioned those in Valentines posts past but when it comes to heartbreak nothing is more succinct, more visceral, more pointedly true than the lyrics of popular songs.
Yes, you’ll find it hard to listen to the lovey-lovey stuff and don’t even go near “your song” for at least a year but songs are great for a bit of wallowing or even better a bit of “you suck and I don’t even care that you’re going out with my best friend now” catharsis. The following list has been cribbed from “On & off songs for the dumped” from The Advertiser but I’ve padded it with a few suggestions of my own to make it a nice round twenty.
- End of the road – Boyz II Men
- Ain’t no sunshine – Bill Withers
- Just don’t know what to do with myself – Dusty Springfield/The White Stripes
- Tainted love – Soft Cell
- Good riddance (Time of your life) – Green Day
- I will survive – Gloria Gaynor
- Everything about you – Ugly Kid Joe
- Hit the road Jack – Ray Charles
- Song for the dumped – Ben Folds Five
- You oughta know – Alanis Morissette
- You keep me hangin’ on – Diana Ross & the Supremes/Kim Wilde
- Irreplaceable – Beyoncé
- Crazy – Patsy Cline
- I hope I never – Split Enz
- Please don’t leave me – Pink
- Gives you hell – All American Rejects
- Since u been gone – Kelly Clarkson
- Crying – Roy Orbison
- Love is a battlefield – Pat Benatar
- Since I don’t have you – Skyliners/Guns n Roses
So what do you think of this list? Anyone got suggestions of their own for a lovelorn playlist for one?