All Love Is Unrequited / Music

• There's a strong argument to be made that the entire Sub-Genre of Pop Punk is built on this trope.
• The They Might Be Giants song "Withered Hope" is about about a Love Pentagon that's like this. A Very Sad Sack loves Withered Hope, who has a soul mate, who loves a picture of a crook, who loves a motorcycle, who loves Very Sad Sack…
• The Temptations' hit, "Just my Imagination", has the narrator sing about a girl that passes by his window each day, and fantasizes about being loved back, married, moving into the countryside, having kids with her… but that's just his imagination, running away with him.
• The J. Geils Band's "Love Stinks".
  You love her, but she loves him
  And he loves somebody else, you just can't win
• Quite the theme for The Smiths. "I Know It's Over", "I Want The One I Can't Have," "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", "Back to the Old House", etc.
• The Aqualung song "Strange and Beautiful" is the very definition of this trope. The song is about how the protagonist wants someone and wishes they could put a spell on them to make their love requited.
• The Pharcyde's "Passin' Me By" is this trope in hip-hop form.
• "Sami" from Little White Lie by Team Starkid. Have a listen.
• Taylor Swift offers "Invisible":
  She can't see the way your eyes light up when you smile
  She'll never notice how you stop and stare whenever she walks by
  And you can't see me wanting you the way you want her
  But you are everything to me

• Vanessa Carlton's song "Rinse" is about all unrequited love, and it states that the girl in the song should give up her love for a guy who doesn't love her back but can't.
• Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour":
  In the cafe or sometimes on a crowded street
  I've been near you, but you never notice me.
• "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" by Meat Loaf: The singer can't love the girl he's singing to, because he's in love with another woman who, true to the trope, doesn't love him.
• "Everybody Plays the Fool", a song with famous versions by R&B group The Main Ingredient and by Aaron Neville.
• The Submarines' "Xavia" puts it quite succinctly;
  Why is it that no two people feel the same way at the same time?
• The Korean Vocaloid See U's song "Mission" is a fine example of this trope;
  My heart weakens as I think of you in the middle of the night
  Yet you wouldn't even realize my feelings towards you even in my dreams.
• Patrick Stump's "Everybody Wants Somebody":
  Everybody wants somebody
  Who doesn't want them,
  Or wants somebody else, baby
• The Burning Hell's song "Grave Situation, Part 3" describes a love quadrangle involving "a man who loved a man who loved a woman who loved another man"
• In "Living Next Door to Alice", most successfully covered by Smokie, the narrator has been in love with his neighbor for 24 years, but couldn't tell her. And now she's moving away. Meanwhile, the narrator's friend, Sally has been in love with him for 24 years, but he ignored her because of Alice.
• "Who" by Disturbed is a subverted example. The narrator was in a happy relationship at first, but his partner fell out of love with him for no apparent reason, leaving him wondering if things can ever go back to the way they were.
• Kate Nash's song "The Nicest Thing"
• Marv Johnson's 1961 single "Merry Go Round"
• Elton John brings a gay perspective to the trope in "Elton's Song".
• "The Story of Nothing!" by The Aquabats! is about a guy being hit by the realization that his crush doesn't seem to know he exists.
  True love, the birds would sing
  And trees would call her name as she walked by
  Love was grand, until the magic day
  She turned me into…
  
  Nothing! Let's talk about something else
  I'm starting not to see myself
  She went so far away
  But I still see her every day
• With the exception of Natsuki and Yuu, none of the romance in Confession Executive Committee ~Love Series~ seem to go anywhere:
  • Kotaro has a crush Hina, but she likes Koyuki, who is in love with Natsuki.
  • Souta fell in Love at First Sight with Akari, who's not really interested in romance yet (although the official website mention that she might have a liking for Haruki).
  • Weirdly, Haruki and Mio have unrequited love for each other. They're both interested, but neither found the courage to confess until they both graduated and moved on from each other.
• Vertical Horizon's "Everything You Want" is about pining for someone who doesn't love you back.
• "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos is about Eric Clapton being in love with his best friend's wife.
• "Black" by Pearl Jam.
• "Catch the Wind" by Donovan.
• Tame Impala's "The Less I Know the Better": the narrator is dismayed that the object of his affection is sleeping around with an idiot called Trevor.
  She said, "It's not now or never
  Wait ten years, we'll be together"
  I said, "Better late than never
  Just don't make me wait forever"
• "Shiver" by Coldplay.
• "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M.
• The Turtles' "Happy Together" is this despite the upbeat, cheery tune.
• Unrequited love, and relationships with people who are taken occur frequently as themes in Hobo Johnson's songs. "Peach Scone" and "Mover Awayer" are pretty much all about loving someone who's not interested.
• Blue Öyster Cult's "Eyes On Fire":
  I'm the guy she turns to
  When her lovers leave
  I'm the wildcard she's got up her sleeve
  But she don't look at me
  With eyes on fire
  Glowing like coals in the night
  Hungry eyes, burning with love and desire
• "Brandy" by looking glass is the story of a port-town barmaid named Brandy who has to deal with her love, a sailor visiting the town, being more attached to the sea than to her
  Yeah, Brandy used to watch his eyes
  When he told his sailor stories
  She could feel the ocean fall and rise
  She saw its ragin' glory
  But he had always told the truth, Lord, he was an honest man
  And Brandy does her best to understand
  She hears him say, "Brandy, you're a fine girl"
  "What a good wife you would be"
  "But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea"
• "Creep" by Radiohead is about this. When the singer actually approaches the woman, she flees from him ("She's running out the door"). He tries to make peace with this: "Whatever makes you happy/Whatever you want..."
• "When in Love with a Blind Man" (the B-Side of "Head over Heels") by Tears for Fears is about being in love with a man who's oblivious to your romantic feelings.
• "Love's Unkind" by Donna Summer. The singer loves a guy who instead asks her best friend to the high school dance, and the spoken word bit adds "but she don't care, she loves someone else".
• "Maureen" by Fountains of Wayne. At first, the narrator seems merely annoyed with his friend Maureen's constant, heavily detailed descriptions of her romantic exploits, but it's soon revealed that it bothers him even more because he has a crush on her and she doesn't seem to notice.
  I know you think I'm just a friend
  But can we please just put an end
  To all the graphic imagery that you insist on feeding me
  You can't accept I'm not the one
  Who's getting to have all the fun
  And maybe that's what friends are for
  But I just can't take it anymore!
• Stated explicitly in the opening verse of "Ones Who Love You" by Alvvays.
  Take, take from the ones who love you, ooh
  Leave, leave with the ones who don't, ooh
  Lie, lie to the ones who like you, ooh
  Lay, lay with the ones who won't

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