Classic doormat songs

"As Long As He Needs Me"

Don't Explain

Skeeter Davis - The End of the World

"My Man" by Billie Holliday covers all the bases: physical abuse, cheating, and he's not even good looking. The song can be summed up in the following verse:

All my life is just despair But I don't care

Shirley Brown is fighting for her man even though the car he drives, she pays the note every month.

The ultimate:

....

Just keep it inside, and learn how to hide your feelings!

Tammy

“As Long As He Needs Me”. Here’s Judy.

I heart Tammy Wynette R9.

Substitute by Clout

The Marvelettes - "Forever"

No one did Doormat like Dusty.

I'll just lay this little tune from Linda on your porch, OP.

Forget doormat, Let me be your underwear

Speaking of Linda, I had a friend who refused to listen to her because of the doormat quality of so much of her stuff.

"Maybe I Know" - Lesley Gore

More Lesley...

The Crystals- He Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss.

Oops missed the Crystals had already been posted If You Ever Change Your Mind Crystal Gayle.

If You Change Your Mind - Rosanne Cash.

"Let me be the shadow of your shadow, the shadow of your hand, the shadow of your dog ... but do not leave me."

If your sweetheart sends a letter of goodbye It's no secret you'll feel better if you cry

Twenty-four posts and no one has nailed the shithouse door shut on the OP for getting Vikki Carr wrong?

There is absolutely nothing in "Cry" by Johnny Ray that equates to a doormat.

It's just about some schmuck who got dumped telling other schmucks who get dumped to cry, so they'll feel better.

People are allowed to break up with their partner, and people are allowed to be sad about it. It doesn't mean they were treated badly.

I'll be around

No matter how

You treat me now

I'll be around from now on

Doormat songs were rather a specialty for Goffin & King, which shouldn't surprise as the male half (Gerry Goffin) wrote the lyrics. Here's "Oh No Not My Baby" as recorded by Maxine Brown.

A cover of “He Hit Me” is on the “Promising Young Woman” soundtrack.

Is it the Grizzly Bear version?

"I'm Gonna Take What He's Got" - Etta James.

This one always gets me ...

"One of these days, that chain is gonna break / But up until then I'm gonna take all I can take"

"I Can't See Myself Leaving You" - Aretha Franklin.

Ruth Brown - Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean

I Wanna Be Your Dog

It Hurts Me Too

"Wivers & Lovers" - Dionne Warwick.

"I'm Your Puppet" - James & Bobby Purify.

Matt Monro, Walk Away

Walk away, please go Before you throw your life away A life that I could share for just a day We should have met some years ago For your sake I say Walk away, just go . . .

Why build a dream that cannot come true So be strong, reach the stars now Walk away, walk on

"Born a Woman" - Sandy Posey.

This one sprang to mind...

For The Good Times!

Al Green did it better IMHO.

“Music to commit suicide to”

I Want To Come Over....

I know you're home

You left your light on

You know I'm here

The night is thin

I know you're alone

I watched the car leave

Your lover is gone

Let me in

Open your back door

I just need to touch you once more

Stop! In The Name Of Love by the Supremes

No. "Stop! In the Name of Love" is too assertive to be a doormat anthen.

*anthem

Never thought of this as a doormat song until this very minute (YMMV).

"Black Coffee" - Sarah Vaughan.

R48 is correct.

The Jones Girls

I'm surprised no one posted this unless I missed it

I Hate Myself

More like lookin for a housekeeper

"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" - Helen Morgan.

Tsk, tsk, forgot her name........

"Don’t Smoke In Bed" written by Miss Peggy Lee

Anyone Who Knows What Love Is

Sylvia

Oh Candi......

A desperate doormat here...

"You've Really Got a Hold on Me" - The Miracles.

Cole Porter's Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye interpreted by Ella Fitzgerald.

I'm amazed when I read that some hear Ella Fitzgerald's voice as technically superb and yet it elicits no emotion in them.

Man, I'll admit that I hadn't listened to Fitzgerald at all, but of course I knew who she was, but after that last DL thread about her and listening to every selection posted, I was an emotional wreck, in a good way. She wrung my heart out.

Anyway, I'm not a big fan of "Are You Lonesome Tonight", but there's no getting around it- the lyrics

"Honey you lied when you said you loved me and I had no cause to doubt you. But I'd rather go on hearing your lies than live without you"

Now , doesn't that just sum up the pitiful helplessness of being a besotted, powerless, mess over someone?

"Since I Fell For You" - Lenny Welch.

Without You by Harry Nilsson

"Every Little Bit Hurts" - Brenda Holloway.

Each night I sit at home, hoping that he will phone...

Near him I always must be.

"Baby Love"

Every song I've ever written.

Elis Regina, "Atras da Porta":

When you looked me right in the eye,

And your look was goodbye.

I swear I didn't believe it.

I was surprised by you, I leaned over your body,

And I doubted, and dragged myself, and scratched you,

And I clung to your hair, your hair,

Your pajamas, on your feet, at the foot of the bed,

Without affection, without cover,

On the carpet behind the door,

I complained softly.

I gave to curse our home,

To dirty your name, humiliate you,

And avenge myself at any price.

Adoring you inside out.

Just to show that I'm still yours.

Until I prove I'm still yours.

I Can't Make You Love Me

Re: r42: Carly Simon has a distinctive voice, but sometimes it’s almost like she doesn’t know how to sing (?)

love this interpretation of a REAL DOWNER

Magic Man, Heart.

There were just so many - from Linda's version [italic]Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,[/italic] to "National Treasure Dolly Parton's [italic]Jolene.[/italic] Just beg the other woman to leave your man alone. Not going to happen, it's almost a challenge at that point.

Few random for those may not have memorized them.

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene I'm begging of you please don't take my man Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene Please don't take him just because you can

He talks about you in his sleep And there's nothing I can do to keep From crying when he calls your name

I had to have this talk with you (????) My happiness depends on you (the husband has no agency, obviously)

Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?

Nothing But Heartaches - The Supremes

Reba and Linda Davis as a wife and mistress fighting over the scum bag husband

A few years later Reba and Linda did another song where the woman realize it was the man who was the villain

Lonesome Town, Ricky Nelson

I love Shirley Bassey but if ever there was a doormat song this is it. Hate it.

If you don't know this song, you should give it a listen. Total doormat song and I still love it.

"Tommy" - Reparata & the Delrons

R38 You may not care for the message, but that's not a doormat song.

R71 That's more of a super clingy, needy, stalker-ish whack-a-doddle.

R85 Also recorded by Vikki Carr, who recorded the pinnacle of this genre, "It Must Be Him."

Bryan Ferry Slave To Love - supposedly about Jerry Hall who dumped him for Jagger

To (R75) You are correct...Bonnie Raitt..OMG THAT SONG!! Sorry, too many memories, I'll tell DL about the Bonnie Raitt concert in New Mexico later.

People always talk about reputation / I don't care what you do to them / Just be good to me / Friends are always telling me / You're a user / I don't care 'bout your other girls / Just be good to me

Joan Armatrading's "I Love It When You Call Me Names."

Not only does it glorify being a doormat, it also glorifies physically violence and abusive behavior between romantic partners

I know you're up there fucking her, because I'm hiding in the bushes.

What's to become of me?

Sally, Go 'Round the Roses

Anyone Who Had a Heart

If lyrics alone count, the Everly Brothers' Bye Bye Love. But it completely lacks any mournful quality.

Speaking of the Everly Brothers....When Will I Be Loved

"You Are My Sunshine" (not to be confused with "You Are the Sunshine of My Life").

I'm Your Puppet.

Ne Me Quitte Pas

I'll be your dog, the shadow of your shadow, blah-blah-blah...

Any number of Ike & Tina songs

R15 and R17 Robert Christgau (music critic for the Village Voice) on Linda's Hasten Down the Wind album: "...the three Karla Bonoff lyrics make her (I mean Karla, but Linda too) sound like such a born loser that I never want to hear anyone sing them again."

Born to Lose, Ray Charles

I'm Always Chasing Rainbows

"Jesse" by Carly Simon. It goes:

Oh mother, say a prayer for me

Jesse's back in town, it won't be easy

Don't let him near me

Don't let him touch me

Don't let him please me

Jesse, I won't cut fresh flowers for you

Jesse, I won't make the wine cold for you

Jesse, I won't change the sheets for you

I won't put on cologne

I won't sit by the phone for you

Annie, keep reminding me

That he cut out my heart like a paper doll

Sally, tell me once again

How he set me up just to see me fall

Jesse, quick come here

I won't tell a soul

Not even myself

Jesse, that you've come back to me

My friends will all say "She's gone again"

But how can anyone know what you are to me

That I'm in heaven again because you've come back to me

Oh Jessie!

Jesse, I'll always cut fresh flowers for you

Jesse, I'll always make the wine cold for you

Jesse, I can easily change my mind about you

And put on cologne

And sit by the phone for you

Jesse, let's open the wine

And drink to the heart

Which has a will of its own

My friends, let's comfort them

They're feeling bad They think I've sunk so low

Jesse, I'll always cut fresh flowers for you

Jesse, I'll always make the wine cold for you

Jesse, I will change the sheets for you

Put on cologne

And I will wait by the phone for you

Oh Jesse

Upside Down by Diana Ross.

🎶 I’m aware that you’re cheating, but no one makes me feel like you do.🎶

Basically saying I’m dickmatized so I’m going to stay anyway.

The narrator of "Anyone Who Had a Heart" is needling the addressee. That's not what a doormat does. Doormats reassure their ain't shit men/women.

"Jesse" gave Rick Springfield the idea for "Jessie's Girl", which has a guy singing "Tell me where I can find a woman like that?" That is, a doormat.

Alright, I'll fold. Just what is a doormat song?

Wailing about being used as a doormat?

Wailing about the lover you've used as a doormat?

Wailing on a doormat as the door to a romance closes?

Or?

A doormat song involves a narrator who glorifies an unequal relationship where they, the narrator, are the lesser. The doormat has to get stepped on in some way.

I'm a fool to want you

I'm a fool to want you

To want a love that can't be true

A love that's there for others too

I'm a fool to hold you

Such a fool to hold you

To seek a kiss not mine alone

To share a kiss the Devil has known

I don't think the Joan Armatrading song at r94 was meant to be taken seriously.

[quote]I'll be your dog, the shadow of your shadow, blah-blah-blah...

It really is pathetic, and I think that's what Brel was going for:

Do not leave me

I won't cry anymore

I won't talk anymore

I will hide there

Looking at you dance and smile

And listen to you sing and then laugh

Let me become

The shadow of your shadow

The shadow of your hand

The shadow of your dog

But do not leave me

Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the quintessential Doormat Song for CAROUSEL. Here's Shirley Jones in High Doormat Mode, singing "What's the Use of Wond'rin'?"

R&H also wrote the first runner up for Doormat Songs. "Something Wonderful" from THE KING AND I.

This is what happens when men write songs for women to singing explaining how women feel about men. It's a perfect example of why we need to nurture good writers from all backgrounds.

"Use me" by Bill Withers

.....

Maybe...I don't know...it's iffy.

This one. It should've been at the top of this thread. I was genuinely surprised to not see it already listed.

Find me a rose that never fades and dies

And I'll show you a man who never ever cheats and lies

Find me a star and if you can prove

The star you've found just never disappears

I'll show you a man who'll

Never, never, ever, ever bring you tears

Another night when I'm all alone

Another night without him

Another night when I stay at home

I worry so about him

Oh, I love him, and my love makes me proud

I need him, if he doesn't come back

I know I'll surely die

Find me a cloud that never brings you rain

And I'll show you a man who never, ever brings you pain

Find me a bird and if you can prove

That bird you've found has no wings but still can fly

I'll show you a man who'll

Never, never, ever, ever leave you high and dry

Another night when I'm all alone

Another night without him

Another night when I stay at home

I worry so about him

Oh, I love him

And my love makes me proud

I need him, if he doesn't come back

I'll die

And he'll never, never, ever take me in his arms

Another night when I'm all alone

Another night without him

Another night when I stay at home

I worry so about him

Ahem.

Debby Boone: You Light Up My Life