What's your favorite torch song?

Do you know “Come Live With Me”?

A Quarter to Three

As croaked by Ida Lupino in Road House

This is the ONLY Torch Song that matters:

Spring is here

What’ll I do

Why Was I Born?

The Man That Got Away (JGarland version).

r7 Definitely on top of many lists.

You'll have to search far and wide to do better than Etta James' "At Last."

Moanin' Low

I Only Have Eyes For You. I was listening to the 1975 Art Garfunkel version when I saw the thread title.

Bill Bailey/ Patsy Cline

"Losing My Mind."

Cora Vaucaire - "Les feuilles mortes" ("Autumn Leaves")

Hearts Not Diamonds

Dionne forever <3

I'd Rather Be Blue

"My Buddy/How About Me?"

Barbra at her absolute best.

"Stormy Weather" - Lena Horne

[R8] "At Last" is not a torch song, it is a love song. A fantastic song though.

I was beaten to it, but this a lovely rendition.

Fifty Percent always seems to move me. I think a lot of us have been there - maybe not in love with a married man specifically (although, I'm sure some you whores have been there), but just in love with someone we shouldn't be and there's nothing we can do about it. We yearn for every moment we can be near them and learn to accept less than we deserve because we love them that much.

Every bit as great as "Losing My Mind".

"Here's That Rainy Day" as sung by everyone. I really like Della Reese singing it.

Misty Blue

"Broken Hearted Melody" - Sarah Vaughan

I'm pretty sure it's "'Round Midnight," kids.

From Big River

Vikki Carr, Drama Queen

Autumn Leaves - Eva Cassidy

Here's a lovely one--actually beautifully sung by (of all people) Bea Arthur.

Fifty Percent, Barbra Streisand

Not A Day Goes By, Carly Simon

Philly soul style

Nina

Kissing a Fool

More Nina

Brenda Lee

Thanks, r26.

This became torch after "someday" came.

After TWYLT, "Someday We'll Be Together" played automatically.

I'm ready.

Linda Ronstadt is dreck singing, as is Carly Simon. Terrible choices and taste.

Nilsson

R41 is drek typing.

What is your favorite torch song, King of Drek r41?

Billie

Dusty

Hoagy Carmichael's I Get Along Without You Very Well sung by Carly Simon on her 1981 Torch album. Just wow. And what is R41's problem? That is bonkers.

R28 god I hate that whiny-ass poor-me hit-me-again caterwauling song.

Body and Soul, the 1957 Verve release.

Lenny Welch's recording of "Since I Fell For You" is the best version in my opinion. The recording is perfection.

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Cole Porter

I've always [italic]wanted[/italic] to like Billie Holiday, r49. There's just something about her voice, though, that keeps it from happening.

That song drove me insane after the assassination, r50. And then I just wanted to hear the Beatles.

Dionne

The soul queen of New Orleans

R52 maybe you will learn to love Billie Holiday's song stylings as interpreted by David Sedaris.

My favourite Nina torch song

Marylin McCoo and the 5th Dimension

Karen

Torch and twang.

Roberta

Adele's biggest hit is a modern torch song. Sentimental, sad, plaintive, remorseful.

What Marvin Gaye really wanted to be

Helen Reddy, seriously

Early Aretha

Laura Nyro

I adore Laura Nyro, R66. Thank you for that. And she's one of our own: the painter Maria Desiderio was the love of her life.

I recently discovered this from Judy's oeuvre.

Lovely.

Miss Piggy's "Ode to Pancetta" always makes me cry.

Maybe it was "Old Pancetta."

I love that song, r62.

By Sinatra, or this sublime performance by Ella. Angel Eyes.

If You Go Away / Dusty Springfield

Ronstadt

Donny Hathaway

Mama Cass

Almost award-worthy!

Natalie Cole

Olivia

The ultimate................, there is not a sister alive who has not experienced this pain!

Patsy

Dinah

Portishead

Lulu

Superstar. The right version.

More Lulu (thought she was just To Sir With Love?)

Surabaya Johnny.

Believe it or not, Leslie Gore

Herb

Aretha

Neil

I hope Baez expelled Dylan for good from her system by writing and singing "Diamonds and Rust."

Honorable mention to the overwrought lyrics but sublime sound of Marilyn McCoo on the 5th Dimensions' "One Less Bell to Answer."

The bee

More of the bee (third place? Really?)

My favorite would be "How Would I Know" by Melissa Etheridge. It was written around the time when her relationship with Julie Cypher was falling apart due to Julie "reconsidering" her sexuality. The song conveys the helplessness from seeing the person you love leaving you because they need something you can't give them. It always makes me sad when I hear it.

My favorite version of It Never Entered My Mind - peak Rosemary Clooney.

Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year, as sung by Deanna Durbin in Christmas Holiday, where she plays a prostitute.

Joni

R96, I had never heard that before. It’s a great song, and I really like her subdued live performance.

More Joni

Sam Smith

Great choice, r54. "Who Is Gonna Love Me?" is one of Dionne's best sung tracks.

How is Edith and the Kingpin a torch song?

Bette Midler - Spring Can Really Hang You The Most

Ray.......

Torch Song : a popular sentimental song of unrequited love

The Flamingos

Anything by Dee Dee Sharp Gamble

Go Leave by Kate McGarrigle

James

Lyrics to "Edith and the Kingpin." Somehow, in my mind, a torch song might wear its heart a touch more on its sleeve.

I'm not r104, btw.

I posted Edith and the Kingpin. Not lyrically, but the music and her vocals carry me away......

Lyric content is EVERYTHING in a torch song.

Little Anthony

ABC....

"What'll I Do?" (Judy's version, to appease the cavedwellers).

1950s soul/pop/torch favorite

More from the "Why Lyrics Matter" songbook, Smokey Robinson department:

Peter, Paul and Mary

The Stylistics

Roy......

Frankie Valli

Frankie again

Of course, Johnny

125 posts until this? The epitome of the torch song sung by one of the torchiest singers of all time with a beautiful torchy arrangement. Song by Alan J. Lerner and Burton Lane.

Bow down, DL.

Glen

Edie’s other biggie.

Helen Morgan, the original torch singer

Over the top

The Platters

Disco torch

Some here don’t quite hit the mark as torchy songs

Johnny Hartman

Hurt by Timi Yuro, also What's A Matter Baby by her as well, two great songs.

From ALW

Todd is God

Are we narrowing down torch song to one genre, era?

Charley Rich

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello's wife

Diana

Julie London - Dark

[quote] Are we narrowing down torch song to one genre, era?

I don't see why we would. "Torch song" is pretty capacious--it's a term used to describe a song about the singer missing someone (or being afraid of missing someone) they care for and being blue as a result. Typically torch songs are blues- or jazz-inflected, but there are plenty of country songs and pop songs that fit the bill.

R124 That song was about his daughter.

Lonnette McKee performs "My Bill"

Since I Fell For You by Apollonia

Cry Me A River is sort of the anti- or post-torch song. Julie London is superb.

OT: in just a few weeks we've lost Michel Legrand, Stanley Donen and Andre Previn. Damn.

^ I think the delivery can really flavor the lyrics with irony.

I’ve always thought Ella Fitzgerald’s somber reading of Who’s Sorry Now? suggested that she was disappointed that her former lover’s misfortune brought her no joy as she was too wounded to even feel Schadenfreude.

The Intimate Ella album is exquisite.

This Year's Kisses, introduced by the great Alice Faye

I always thought of this as the mother of all torch songs.

I like the Dietrich version best because her sprechgesang style fits perfectly into the barroom conversation of the lyrics.

Fade Into You

80s style

Stormy Weather by DL fave Lena Horne

Whitney left all alone.

A lot of this shit isn’t torchy.

This is

It's dumb stuff when people start posting Olivia Newton John, Karen Carpenter, Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass and Carly Simon. A torch song and singer are kind of specific. It's not rigid but it sure as fuck ain't Lulu. Welcome to Datalounge. No one ever listens to other people's song choices or posts on these kind of threads. It's basically just two ancient Linda Ronstadt fans (blech) trying to find another way to play her bad American songbook covers.

There was a thread here not that long ago with the title - "Songs of Longing." That's all this is too. Pretty generic. There are some fine torch singers and songs posted here. Understand what a torch song is - then ask yourself if the singer you post can sing it.

R156, while I don't think that's a torch song (since her love is being returned), I'm glad you mentioned it. I love it and think it's just about the best thing she did.

I've posted previously that my former dentist claimed that Whitney was a patient. He loved her, hated Brown.

R159, I generally agree with you, except for Carly Simon. Her “Not A Day Goes By” is torch song heaven.

R159, on the day when I can bear the sound of Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald's voice, that's the day I'll give up Linda Ronstadt. I don't know why I don't like their voices, one creaky, the other creamy, but I don't.

Isn't it nice there's enough for you and enough for me in this world?

But no, that's not the way cunts like you think. No, you're all, "You will like what I like. Or I will call you names in the town square. Comrade." Well, eat shit, fecal wrangler.

You Don't Know Me- Ray Charles

I Can't Make You Love Me- Bonnie Raitt

Two Lives- Written by Bonnie Raitt, Recorded by Carpenters

Sinatra recorded three full albums of torch songs.

In the Wee Small Hours was the first and arguably best of the three.

^ Title track.

I’ve heard dozens of versions, but none quite touches this.

Moanin' Low

Just to piss R159 off. Barbra Streisand: One Less Bell To Answer/A House Is Not A Home

Eric Carmen All by Myself

Anne Murray: Broken Hearted Me.

I never really thought of music composed after 1960 or country music as “torch,” but why not?

Diana Ross got it. She knows how to sing this music.

Who's That Girl?

Calm down, you're all fabulous. Love this thread, so many fantastic memories and new songs to love. I do love me some Amy though.

Has this one been mentioned?

I'll never know a Sunday in this weekday room....drown her past regrets in coffee and cigarettes.

It doesn't get much torchier than Peggy Lee.

The torchiest....

Hank Williams wrote a few torch songs - Your Cheatin Heart, I Can't Help it if I'm Still in Love With You, and this one.

He sang this one a lot. Frank. Makes me blue just listening to it.

I’m not sure this is torch; it’s almost too sad.

No singer other than Peggy Lee ever quite nailed the lyrics.

Memories can feel soft and lovely, like the arrangement (that flute!) and her tender delivery, but also crushing in their unapproachable distance.

Cry Me a River . . . Julie London 1953.

I think it was also the theme song of a Scottish crime series - Taggart, Rebus, McCallum? You Yanks wouldn't know these . . .

R149 - Should have checked upthread first before I posted CMAR and London.

R181

I knew people would start bitching and moaning about the (relatively) modern songs

I've always liked Miss Frances Langford's version....

Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man o' Mine (Showboat) - Annette Warren dubbed the song for Ava Gardner in the film, but Gardner allegedly sang it on the soundtrack album.

A lovely song.

And going back even further to the Big Band Era . . .

These Little Things Remind Me of You - Billie Holiday, Ella, and Nat King Cole did wonderful versions.

Night and Day - filled with longing, Astaire's version is supremo.

(Christ, I accidentally posted this on the British Royal Family thread!)

Ava's voice was on the released soundtrack, r185......

And in the movie, r186......

Somebody has to have mentioned this one....

Yes, r190, you are very self-aware in your laziness.

I Keep Going Back to Joe’s - Nat King Cole.

Another barroom, another broken heart.

Let's have a moment for Bernadette Peters' breasts in that dress at R190.

So be it, I'm your crowbar

If that's what I am so far

In Dreams

She wore hand-me-down leather

And the trees seem to dance with an unseen lover

When she walks on the banks, wind-lashed

Rain in the boat lamps, looking for dawn

One of my all-time favorites, and no one ever sang it better than Rose Marie.

I am the girl

That he calls up at three

And I am the one

Who will go

I'd be so terribly happy to be / The one who says yes/ After you have said no

And the architectural marvel that is that dress, r193. My, r191, you're a snotty one.

Juice Newton

R199 Indeed.

Not even Oscar Niemeyer could have done more with those curves.

[quote]My, [R191], you're a snotty one.

R199, there is a particular kind of cunt who simply will not allow anything to be posted twice in a list thread. Something about it just incites her control issues like nothing else. It ruins her world, for reasons no one else understands I wish a house would fall on her. And then another house. And then a third house on top of that, to finish the job.

r191 is one of those cunts.

Here’s male torch singer Johnnie Ray in the 1970s singing his big hit (backed by Sha Na Na)

Could we please have the song titles, please and not just the names of artists?

The Little Things You Used to Do....

This version's my somewhat guilty pleasure

Maybe this is sacrilege, but I don't think Helen Morgan's voice is that good

"I Don't Stand the Ghost of a Chance" - Linda Ronstadt

Her sound was typical of that era, r8.

For r208

The Chairman does justice to this wonderful song.

Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?

A classic from the Divine Miss M -

Mimi in her prime -

This is lovely. My fav Grace song. It’s torch-near, amirite?

KD lang.

Cher earned this one. The Way of Love.

"I, I who have nothing" Dame Shirley at her Bassey-ist.

R216 - not even remotely.

When a Woman Loves a Man.....

Touch Me in the Morning

Sade

Janis Ian

That ^ is not a torch song by any stretch.

Janis Fucking Ian. What was Linda Ronstadt busy?

Category is Torch Songs, not singers you'd like to torch.

Torch song is named for the idiom “to carry a torch.” The idiom means that you love or pine for someone who doesn’t love you, especially someone who once loved you but no longer does.

DL always goes wide with genres. A torch song isn’t just a sad song.

And it sure as fuck isn’t La Vie en Rose.

It isn’t at Seventeen either. That song is about loneliness in adolescence. She’s inventing lovers on the phone. In a torch song, the lover is very real, but the the love is unrequited.

I like this thread because it’s made me think of songs outside of standards, which is what I think most people imagine, but if we are going by the idiom “carrying a torch” then the style opens up quite a bit.

Even to include Janis Ian.

My Old Flame.

Johnny Hartman’s mellow I Just Dropped by to Say Hello.

LOL, calm down ladies.......

Pheobe Snow

OK, if we're going pop: Laura Nyro - Wedding Bell Blues.

"...but I'd rather go on hearing your lies, than to go on living without you."

Behold one's powerlessness in the midst of unrequited love.

I never post "Thread Closed" and won't here, but if any words compelled me to...

Lucille by Kenny Rogers

Who carries a torch these days? In the age of instagram we’re all stars; ain’t anybody pining for anybody, we’re all too worthy. Is you is or is you ain’t my baby? Meh, who cares? I’m worship worthy.

r19, r8 here. I'll concede. Can we agree to call it a "passing the torch" song though? I got my love, "at last", and hope some day you find yours?

"I Can't Make You Love Me"

[quote] I posted Edith and the Kingpin. Not lyrically, but the music and her vocals carry me away......

It sounds "torchy" when Tina Turner sings it.

Anything by Harold Arlen.

ILL WIND is one of the best.

This one!

....

Don't know if it counts as a torch song as this is half of country music, but

Torch-esque: "He Stopped Loving Her Today" - George Jones

It's a rare occasion you can say a cover song is better than Hank, but this is better than Hank.