The Heartbreak Behind Our Greatest Ballads

There is a moment in my novel, Poet Of The Wrong Generation, when our protagonist, Johnny Elias, experiences a stunning revelation. As a lifelong music fan, he always thought of ballads as a three minute escape into someone else’s melancholy. Never had he pondered the significance behind the poignant lyrics and melodies. But after a crushing betrayal by his long time love, the young poet is awakened to the reality of true inspiration via his own heartbreak. He finds the spark to compose a tear-jerking ballad entitled, We’ve Already Said Goodbye.” It’s a song that puts him on an unlikely trail to musical stardom, while unintentionally sending her down a path of desolation.

          Throughout the history of pop music, there have been countless songs of pleading, anguish, longing and finality. Unrequited love and despair are almost certainly the greatest source behind the most heartfelt songs ever written. Here below is a unique look at some of the more heart-wrenching ballads and the stories behind the musical heartbreak.

          In 2011, British songstress, Adele topped the pop charts with her power-ballad, Someone Like You. It’s the torment of a spurned lover, wishing her ex well in his newfound relationship, but begging not to be forgotten. A bittersweet goodbye from someone who believes she has lost the love of her life. Although not confirmed by Adele, speculation is that this tune was penned about photographer, Alex Sturrock, who dated the singer on her 2009 US tour. Says Adele about the song: “We were so intense I thought we would get married. But that was something he never wanted... So when I found out he does want that with someone else, it was just the horrible-est feeling ever. But after I wrote it, I felt more at peace. It set me free.”

Eric Clapton and Patti Boyd

          Layla by Eric Clapton is considered perhaps the ultimate ballad in classic rock, and one of intense desperation. It was penned by rock’s most revered guitarist in an attempt to win the affections of Patti Boyd, then the wife of his best friend, George Harrison of the Beatles. The song, composed in 1970, was the first grand gesture made by Clapton over a four-year courtship that eventually led to the breakup of the Harrison’s marriage. The ballad’s subject, Patti Boyd told Rolling Stone magazine: “Eric turned up one day when George was away. He said. ‘I've got something for you to hear,' and he put it on in a cassette machine and played it. And I said, 'Oh, gosh, this is unbelievable!' And he was just looking at me and saying, 'This is for you, I've written it for you.'" Clapton would go on to marry Boyd in 1979. They would divorce in 1988, but the song (released in 1972 by Clapton’s band, Derek and the Dominos) remains a timeless example of musical pleading, epitomized by the second verse:
I tried to give you consolation. When your old man had let you down.
Like a fool, I fell in love with you. Turned my whole world upside down.
Layla was not the only rock classic in which Boyd inspired. She was earlier the subject of George Harrison’s classic Something on the Beatles Abbey Road album. Later, she was the “beautiful lady” in Eric Clapton’s standard, Wonderful Tonight. Patti Boyd is almost certainly rock and roll’s greatest muse.

            Walk Away Renee by the Left Banke just might be the quintessential pop ballad of the 1960s. Rolling Stone magazine ranks it as one of the top 200 songs of all-time. It is a recording so unique (featuring strings, harpsichord and a flute) that it helped to inspire a musical sub-category called “Baroque Rock.” And yet, as impassioned as the song comes off to the listener, it is not a traditional break-up song, but rather one written to prevent one of a different kind. In 1966, the band’s keyboardist and primary songwriter, Michael Brown, found himself falling hard for Renée Fladen, a young beauty who just happened to be the girlfriend of the group’s bassist, Tom Finn. A month after meeting his muse, Brown’s infatuation grew, prompting him to pen the now legendary, anguished song. In the chorus he begs her to “just walk away,” rather than allow her to come between him and his band-mate. Brown said of his unrequited feelings: "I was just sort of mythologically in love, if you know what I mean, without having evidence in fact or in deed. But I was as close as anybody could be to the real thing." Renée herself was said to be on hand in the studio during the recording of the song, and her presence left the songwriter frazzled. In an interview with ClassicBands.com, Brown stated: "My hands were shaking when I tried to play (the harpsichord), because she was right there in the control room. There was no way I could do it with her around, so I came back and did it later." Walk Away Renee went on to reach # 5 on the pop charts, and was later, famously covered by The Four Tops and Linda Ronstadt. The original is 2:48 of tormented pop music perfection.

         

Unreciprocated affection is the spark that ignited the 2007 chart-topper, Hey There Delilah by Plain White T’s. Written by lead singer, Tom Higgenson, the acoustic ballad is about a long distance couple who talk about their future plans of her finishing school and him becoming a famous guitar player. It was inspired by track and field athlete, Delilah DiCrescnzo, an Olympic hopeful when she met the songwriter in New York. In an interview with USA Today, Higgenson said: "I thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. I told her, 'I have a song about you already.' Obviously, there was no song. But I thought it was smooth." Delilah was, in fact, involved in a committed relationship. She made it clear that she was off limits. Still, the creative seed had been planted.  The band’s guitarist Dave Tirio explained: "I remember when we met Delilah back in the day. Tom was just kind of flirting with her and he was talking about writing a song about her and she responded by goofing around and saying ‘oh where is my song? I want to hear this thing.’ He got about four lines in and just writing about how she’d gone off to school and how much he missed her. Then he kinda spun that into what would you want to say to any girl in your life that you were totally head over heels for; all the things you would want to cram into one little conversation." The ballad slowly climbed the pop charts, eventually hitting # 1, more than a year after its release.  DiCrescnzo, the song’s muse told ESPN: “It’s catchy, melodic. It’s very romantic. It means something to everybody — especially for anybody who ever yearned for someone.” It was nominated for a pair of Grammy awards including Song Of The Year. Delilah attended the ceremony with Tom Higgenson. The song didn't win, and while it was technically their first date, Delilah made it clear that she was still committed to her boyfriend. No matter, this unrequited lust managed to inspire one of the biggest songs of the decade.

Yesterday by the Beatles is the most covered song in music history. Paul McCartney’s 1965 opus has been recorded by some 3,000 artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley to Placido Domingo. McCartney has often recounted that he composed the timeless melody in his sleep one night when living in the London home of his longtime girlfriend, Jane Asher. However, the lyrics are not about Asher, but rather about another great love which he lost many years earlier. Paul’s mother, Mary McCartney was a nurse and midwife; the primary earner in their household. She was on call for deliveries at all hours, and Paul has periodically expressed his memories of seeing her biking off to the hospital because the family did not own a car. Mary died from complications of breast cancer surgery in 1956. She was only 47. Paul was just 14. When informed of his mother’s death, young Paul’s initial reaction was cold and thoughtless. “What are we going to do without her money?” he asked his grieving father. These words, he says, still haunt him. In Yesterday he sings: “I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday,” a line of regret, wishing he could take back his youthful insensitivity. In 2013, Paul told Mojo magazine: “With 'Yesterday', singing it now, I think without realising it I was singing about my mum, because I think now, ‘Why she had to go, I don’t know, she wouldn’t say, I said something wrong…’ I think the psychiatrist would have a field day with that one.”

 I Will Always Love You may best be known for the

chart-topping rendition by Whitney Houston in 1992 for the film The Bodyguard. But this bittersweet song was actually composed by country legend, Dolly Parton in 1973. Like many great ballads, this one spotlights a parting of the ways. However, in this instance, it is not the separation of lovers that she sings of, but rather the dissolution of a professional partnership. Country music author Curtis W. Ellison stated that the song "speaks about the breakup of a relationship between a man and a woman that does not descend into unremitting domestic turmoil, but instead envisions parting with respect – because of the initiative of the woman." In 1967, country star Porter Wagoner gave an unknown Dolly Parton her big break by hiring her to appear on his weekly TV show. Over seven years, Dolly went from being Porter’s musical apprentice to an escalating star. In 1973, she elected to exit the show and forge a solo career. On her final episode, Dolly debuted her new song inspired by their platonic breakup and her mixed feelings at leaving her mentor behind. She told the CMT network: “It’s saying, ‘Just because I’m going don’t mean I won’t love you. I appreciate you, and I hope you do great, and I appreciate everything you’ve done, but I’m out of here. And I took it in the next morning. I said, ‘Sit down, Porter. I’ve written this song, and I want you to hear it.’ So I did sing it. And he was crying. He said, ‘That’s the prettiest song I ever heard. And you can go, providing I get to produce that record.’ And he did, and the rest is history.”

Sometimes, even the mundane, everyday tasks can provide good fodder for a song of heartbreak. In 1995, Alaskan folk singer, Jewel, burst on the music scene with the raw and sentimental, You Were Meant For Me. This song describes those early days after a breakup, when she attempts to go about her daily routine but cannot shake the doldrums of being alone. As Jewel makes breakfast, showers and dresses for the day, all she can think about is how empty everything is without the man she loves. The tune is haunting, yet peaceful, sung with great vulnerability to the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar. Some of the most poignant lyrics are found in the song’s bridge:
I go about my business, I'm doing fine
Besides what would I say if I had you on the line?
Same old story, not much to say
Hearts are broken, everyday.
“I was probably 19 when I wrote You Were Meant For Me,” says Jewel to Songwriters Universe. “It was this naïve, sweet longing, and then you grow up and you actually fall in love, and you realize how hard it is and how much work it is. You start to realize that the difference between lust and love is that you actually stick around when it’s hard when you’re in love. You find that you can’t leave and the hard things seem worthwhile, and you’re actually able to find poetry in the daily struggle of building a relationship.” The song hit # 2 on the Billboard singles chart and was the most played radio song of 1996.

Of all the heartfelt ballads in pop music history, perhaps the most gut-wrenching of all is Without You, most famously sung by Harry Nilsson in 1971. It is the story of two lovers who have gone separate ways, and the singer proclaims that he “can’t live if living is without you.” Paul McCartney described it to VH-1 as "the killer song of all time." The verses were written by Pete Ham of the band Badfinger (inspired by his girlfriend at the time, Beverly Tucker). The chorus was composed by his band-mate, Tom Evans (about his future wife, Marianne). The two separate compositions, referring to real events in the songwriters' lives flowed together to create the song. Pete Ham had written a tune originally titled: If It's Love, but the chorus was lackluster. The second verse was written first.
"Well I can't forget tomorrow, when I think of all my sorrow, I had you there but then I let you go, and now it's only fair that I should let you know... if it's love."
Events in Evans' life would lead to the completion of the track. While on tour he had met the woman who would become his future wife, Marianne. One evening she ran off after an argument. He wrote a song called 'I Can't Live'. Its chorus: "I can't live, if living is without you, I can't live, I can't give any more.” And so the merging of the two songs created something exceptional. Ham's verses, warm, sweet and sentimental. Evans' chorus, intense, dramatic and heartbreaking. Both Ham and Evans said they did not consider the song to have much potential at the time Badfinger recorded it. Though the band would score several top-40 hits, this would not be one of them.

Harry Nilsson was best known in 1970 for his hit Everybody's Talkin,' from the movie, Midnight Cowboy. He heard Badfinger's recording of "Without You" at a party, and decided to cover it for his album Nilsson Schmilsson in 1971. The song was released as a single in October 1971, and it stayed at number 1 on the U.S. pop chart for four weeks. It features one of the rangiest male vocal performances ever recorded. His injection of all-out passion turned a good song into a great one. Mariah Carey's 1994 cover version is faithfully based on Harry Nilsson's emotional recording rather than the Badfinger restrained original. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Without You remains Carey's biggest hit across Europe. It became her first UK number 1 single. The ballad is a perfect storm of heartache and hopelessness, piano and violins blended together in a recipe of delicious sorrow. 

Gut-wrenching ballads have been written and performed through the decades by a wide array of tormented, talented artists. Whether folksy, piano driven, hard rocking, or tinged with country twang, all of these truly-inspired classics find a way to transport us to a place where melancholy never fails to tug hard on our heartstrings.

Poet Of The Wrong Generation by Lonnie Ostrow is now available in paperback and eBook format. CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY.

Album Covers As An Artform

Long before the Internet, iTunes, music-videos and the late-night talk-show circuit there existed a unique platform indigenous to the music industry. A medium by which musicians could express themselves directly to their adoring public. A visual identity often created by the artist and delivered to the fans in a carefully crafted image.

            From the late 1930s through the early 1980s, the album cover was the primary means of visual communication from a musician to their listeners: A 12 x 12 artistic statement that gave music buyers a sense as to what they could expect to hear when the needle hit the vinyl grooves.

           

Album covers have long been a part of my own home décor and that of my music-loving friends. As a pre-teen, I collected records by my favorite artists of the 1970s and 80s. REO Speedwagon’s High Infidelity often stood propped up proudly atop my bedroom record player. Billy Joel’s Glass Houses was another. In my teenage years it was posters of the classic Beatles albums such as Revolver and Abbey Road that hung on my bedroom walls (and no doubt on the walls of millions of fans the world over). In my mind’s eye I can still visualize a poster for London Calling by The Clash on the bedroom door of my friend, Peter back in 7^th grade. His older sister, Michelle wallpapered her room in U2 posters. And to think there was actually a time when music was sold in the artistic equivalent of a throwaway lunch bag.

The first album cover design

            The first album cover design is widely credited to a man called Alex Steinweiss, who in 1938 became the original art director for Columbia Records. In the decades prior, vinyl records were displayed in brown paper or cardboard sleeves that were either plain, or sometimes printed to show the retailer's name. These generic record sleeves had a circular cutout in the center allowing the record label to be seen. Steinweiss’s 1939 design of a theater marquee for a collection of Broadway hits by composers Rogers and Hart is widely credited as the very first album cover. For the next 40+ years, record packaging and its cover image became nearly as essential as the music contained on the record itself.

            The earliest album covers for top selling Jazz artists of the 1940s were created by art directors without any input from the performers. Amazingly, music legends like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday often didn’t see their finished cover designs until it was ready to hit the stores for release. Some of these basic layouts featured illustrations of instruments, colorful shapes and occasionally a photo of the performer.

            The 1950s saw an increase in creativity of the artist photographs to grace album covers. In The Wee Small Hours features a stylish image of Frank Sinatra in suit and tie, wearing his trademark fedora hat and holding a lit cigarette. Alone In San Francisco by Jazz pianist, Thelonious Monk shows the musician hanging onto the side of a trolley car. The early days of rock & roll brought classic yet simple covers for Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, among others. Elvis’s self titled debut displays a black & white performance shot of the young star with his mouth agape and a guitar in his hands. The cover for Chuck Berry Is On Top is actually a colorful bowl of cereal topped with slices of strawberries. The Chirping Crickets by Buddy Holly & the Crickets gives us your standard shot of the four musicians in matching gray suits, holding a pair of guitars. All fairly tame by modern-day standards.

            The cover designs of the 1960s can be likened to the month of March in reverse. Instead of coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb, quite the opposite is true. What began as mainly subdued, smiling, perfectly posed publicity shots evolved into the provocative, moody, ultra creative and later the psychedelic. Even disastrous world events like the Hindenburg airship catching fire were in play, courtesy of Led Zeppelin. Volumes can be written on this revolutionary decade. For the purpose of brevity, I’ll stick to a handful of highlights.

            The Freewheelin Bob Dylan from 1963 shows a youthful folk troubadour walking down a wintry New York City street, arm-in-arm with a female companion, seemingly unaware of the camera. It’s a fine example of the early decade innocence that would rapidly be a changin.

The early Beatles album covers varied from straightforward to sophisticated photos of the fab-four. Then came Klaus Voorman’s eye-catching, hand-drawn, black & white collage in 1966 for Revolver. This intricate design effort reflected the more complex sound and songwriting being produced by the band in studio. Their 1967 epic, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ushered in the era of psychedelia, both in music and design. The colorful collection of costumes, props, statues and celebrity cutouts helped steer cover designs in a whole new direction. Soon thereafter, bands like Cream (Disraeli Gears), Donavan (Sunshine Superman), and Jimi Hendrix (Axis Bold As Love) got into the trippy theme, taking it up to the next level.

Legendary pop artist, Andy Warhol entered the cover design arena in 1967 with an innovative wrinkle. For the debut album of The Velvet Underground and Nico, Warhol created (at great expense) a multi layered paper banana that could be peeled back to reveal the fruit underneath. His second cover design for The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers in 1971 featured an actual zipper on an illustrated pair of jeans. It is considered iconic now, but at the time it caused many of the vinyl records to be damaged during the shipping process, angering fans who actually wanted to hear the music.

Illustration became a major design theme throughout the 1970s. Two shining

examples of this style are Supertramp’s Breakfast In America and Elton John’s Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Next came the illustrated band logos on covers including UFOs for Boston and the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), the lips and tongue for the Rolling Stones, and a horse with wings for the Steve Miller Band. Oh, and of course the skull in a circle for the Grateful Dead.

            The creativity of album cover art likely reached its apex in the mid 70s. Then came the 8-track tape, the cassette tape and eventually the compact disc. As the packaging grew smaller, less emphasis went into the cover image. Record companies spent less time, and smaller budgets on their design. By the late 80s, a great deal of cover images were back to featuring simple publicity shots on a colorful background.

In my novel, Poet Of The Wrong Generation, my pop-star protagonist, Johnny Elias is a keen observer on the decline of the album cover in the early 1990s. He’s a music fan who was raised on classic vinyl. His dissatisfaction with his record label’s artistic deficiencies pushes him to take matters into his own hands when it comes to the cover art for his debut album. A throwback design concept that he dreams up (executed by a dear friend) proves the ideal match for his collection of songs inspired by an earlier era. It ultimately helps to launch his career into unlikely overnight superstardom.

Of course, even as the CD overtook record bins in the retail stores, there was still the occasional brilliant cover design. Nirvana’s Nevermind displays a naked baby swimming after a dollar bill in the deep end of a pool. It became to 90’s music fans what Dark Side Of The Moon represented to music lovers two decades earlier. Dave Matthews Band’s Under The Table And Dreaming displays a brilliantly blurred photo of an amusement park swing ride in motion. And the Foo Fighters debut album featuring a Buck Rogers Disintegrator Pistol became an instant classic for many.

Even at a size of 4.72 inches square, the compact disc still provided music consumers with a reasonably sized canvas to appreciate cover art. But as the age of the digital download arrived, this canvas size has now been reduced to a thumbnail graphic on a computer screen… or even worse, on a mobile phone, or tablet. We’re no longer talking inches, but simply 1,400 x 1,400 pixels, or essentially the size of a postage stamp. Most of the big record store chains - once a hangout place for music lovers - have become extinct. Tower Records. Sam Goody. Virgin Megastores. All gone. The concept of browsing through stacks of records and CD bins is now mostly as nostalgic as the music from that era.

Another contributing factor in the decline of the album cover is the current day marketing of musicians. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, the album cover and maybe a fortuitous feature in Rolling Stone magazine was your messaging. The rise of MTV, VH-1 and later YouTube gave prominence to the music video, allowing for a whole different kind of artistic expression. The evolution of TV talk shows, websites, podcasts and email newsletters have provided countless new exposure and branding opportunities for the music maker of today. Instead of a lackluster cover design being a crippling blow to a new release, a band can often overcome this handicap by pulling a wild publicity stunt, or by grabbing tabloid headlines for outrageous behavior.

Thankfully, there is still a strong collectible market for classic vinyl records. And on a small-scale, there has even been something of a specialty comeback of vinyl releases. In 2014, record sales grew by 50% to just over one million copies, the highest figure since 1996 according to Newsweek. Sure, nostalgia is a big part of this commercial uptick. But it is also a selection of limited edition vinyl releases by popular bands like Arctic Monkeys and the White Stripes. It certainly can’t be due to the scratchy, crackling sound of records, when compared with the audio perfection of a digital recording. No doubt, the full-sized 12 x 12 cover design may be the only enhancement, and probable drawing card in this wistful music buying experience.  

It seems likely that artwork will still have a role to play as the music business re-shapes itself. But it is fair to declare that the golden age of this once crucial medium is long in the rear-view mirror.

Poet Of The Wrong Generation by Lonnie Ostrow is now available in paperback and eBook format. CLICK HERE to order your copy.