Please, baby baby, please… There’s something wonderful about a song that just lays it all out there and just flat-out says, “OH LORD JESUS, PLEASE LOVE ME!!!!” That feeling is never fun while you’re in it, but a good Sad Bastard song that begs helps shoulder some of your heart’s burden.
Plus, they make for kick-ass karaoke songs.
Since I Fell for You – Lenny Welch
This is my drunk in a hotel tell bar jam.
I’ve never been drunk in a hotel bar, but I plan on being so one day and when I am, I will march over the local lounge singer, commandeer the mic and I will wail this out while lying across the piano and possibly showing my panties until they call security.
It will happen.
Cry for You – Jodeci
I had this on tape. TAPE. I’m old.
Layla – Derek and the Dominos
I’m gonna put a bold statement out there, and I might lose some people over it, but here goes:
This is the ONLY version of Layla that matters.
No…NO. I don’t wanna hear about the acoustic version that clogged the VH1 airwaves when they still played music (instead of shows about sad has-beens trying to get laid as much as possible under the pretense of finding love.)
THIS, ladies and the two gentlemen who read this, is the real version of Layla. The one full of passion and love and heartache and all that CANNOT be contained in an acoustic song. And anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong, wrong, WRONG…JETHRO.
(He also said that the guitar solo was better in Peter Frampton’s Do You Feel Like We Do. We might need counseling.)
At This Moment – Billy Vera and the Beaters
Despite the unfortunate band name, this has always been one of my favorites. Mostly because I had a wicked crush on Michael J. Fox in Family Ties and this was the love song for him and his girlfriend. Alex P. Keaton still remains the only Republican I’d marry.
Cry Baby – Janis Joplin
Do I even really need to say anything about this one?
Tired of Being Alone – Al Green
And I’ll leave you with King Al. He’s so tired of being alone. Why won’t you help him, girl, just as soon as you caaaaaaannnnn?
Anyone who denies a plea like that is just a cold-hearted woman.
Kind of a Mess 
the hotel bar goal you’ve set for yourself is freakin’ fabulous! it made me smile hugely and wish i set more hilarious goals for myself! thanks for sharing these depressingly great songs (:
Love this.
Tape? I had Elvis on 8-track and John Denver on a ’78.
(Also, the Barbie, Disney and Sesame Street albums…but we won’t go there.)
Do be sure to post pics of the hotel bar. That’s something we’ve got to share with you!
oh! i love this first song. i also want to sing it on a piano!! i know it from an episode of Alias when Sydney Bristow is undercover singing it on a piano and then goes on to save the world.
ex.cell.ent.
lounge songs with spy connections. win.