Random Depressing Stories Behind Some Of Most Popular Songs In Modern History (25 items)

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  (#10) The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

  • Gordon Lightfoot

  The Gordon Lightfoot story-song isn’t a fanciful creation - it’s the story of an actual ship sinking. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a real iron ore carrier that traversed the Great Lakes carrying ore pellets to various ports of call.

  Or she did, until she sank in a massive storm with the loss of her entire crew of 29 sailors - just like the song describes.
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  (#5) Blondie - 'One Way or Another'

  One of Blondie’s many hits, the poppy and up-tempo "One Way or Another," actually stems from a harrowing experience for lead singer Debbie Harry - being stalked by an ex-boyfriend. A closer examination finds a number of incredibly creepy lines about following, watching, and cataloging Harry's activities.
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  (#2) The Way

  • Fastball

  Pop band Fastball's only hit, "The Way," tells a romanticized version of a real story - about two elderly people disappearing. Lela and Raymond Howard left home in June 1997 to attend a festival in Texas, despite Lela suffering from Alzheimer's disease and Raymond having recently had brain surgery.

  The couple was found deceased two weeks later at the bottom of a ravine near Hot Springs, AR, hundreds of miles away from where they intended to go.
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  (#25) Bachman-Turner Overdrive - 'You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet'

  A case of a seemingly tossed off song becoming a monster hit, Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" started its life as a rehearsal piece that for which Randy Bachman had only written temporary lyrics. The trademark stutter in the song was a way for Randy to tweak his brother Gary's stutter.

  It was never meant for public consumption, but was included on the band's 1974 album Not Fragile because they needed one more track.
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  (#8) I Wish It Would Rain

  • The Temptations

  Motown staff lyricist Rodger Penzabene wrote this heartbreaking ballad for The Temptations, and singer David Ruffin's impassioned vocals drove it to the Top 5 on Billboard's R&B chart. But while Ruffin's pain was a performance, Penzabene's was real - he reportedly wrote the song in a fit of anguish after learning his wife was cheating on him.
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  (#4) Circus

  • Eric Clapton

  While "Tears in Heaven" is famously about the passing of Eric Clapton's young son, Conor, in 1991, it is not the only song about this subject matter. Another track, "Circus," from his 1997 album Pilgrim, was also written by Clapton about the tragic accident and is just as sad and forlorn.

  The song is about the last time Clapton saw Conor, the night before the incident, when Clapton took him to the circus.

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