Tear Jerker / ABBA

The Swedish pop group is known for having some sad songs.

• "The Winner Takes It All" might be one of the saddest pop songs ever. Even worse is Meryl Streep's version in Mamma Mia!. Saddest. Lost. Love. Song. EVER.
  • The video is unbelievably sad as we see stills of the group in happier times. The video ends with the still on Agnetha's sad face and you realize that is the reality now.
• Also, "Cassandra." Particularly the last verse.
• And "Fernando", once you read the lyrics.
• "Slipping Through My Fingers", to name yet another. Björn wrote it after realizing he (and his ex-wife Agnetha, who sings the song) missed out on his daughter's childhood by being so career-obsessed. It can bring mothers and daughters alike to tears, as the latter is leaving childhood behind.
• It's also kind of hard to keep a dry eye through "SOS".
• "Knowing Me, Knowing You" from Arrival, anyone?
• Coupled with the band's turmoil before their dissolution, the band's final album The Visitors contains very heartbreaking songs.
  • "One of Us" can be added to the list of unbearable ABBA songs.
    • The tearjerker factor is heightened when the German gothic metal band Flowing Tears covered the song, putting it in a proper tone with the lyrics.
  • "When All is Said and Done", which sounds hopeful in the beginning, becomes one of these when you realize Björn wrote it about Frida and Benny's divorce.
  • "Under Attack" can sound really sad if you listen to it enough.
  • Heck, even the album cover◊ which depicts the four band members standing or sitting apart from each other in a dark room looks downright bleak and ominous, especially when contrasted with the album cover◊ of their debut album Ring Ring, which showed them together in a group hug.
  • The closer, "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room," counts as well. While the music is pleasant (and unusually understated for ABBA), the lyrics are rather depressing.
• "One Man, One Woman" although it's hopeful in the end.
• "Dance (While the Music Still Goes On)" sounds quite tragic when you look at the lyrics. The pleasant music does not help.
• "I Saw It In The Mirror" is about a relationship where the narrator knows that his partner doesn't really love him and is only staying with him for his money.
• "Move On" is an anti-suicide song as emphasised in the lyrics:
  "What really makes the difference between all dead and living things?"
  "The will to stay alive."
  and
  "To be alive, to feel the sun that follows every rain"
  • It strongly implies that the narrator has gone through all kinds of bad things but also done good stuff (like travelling the world and enjoying the tranquility of a beach) that he couldn't have done if he sat around sulking or killed himself.
• Their incomplete mini-musical, "The Girl with the Golden Hair", turns into one of these when combined with the fan theory that it's based on Agnetha's life.
• "Chiquitita". Don't let its happy melody fool you and read its lyrics. That is all. Have fun.
• "The Name of the Game" video showed how in love they were.
• The sad and beautiful title instrumental from Arrival.
• Benny's rendition of an old hymn, "Gammal fäbodpsalm", at the beginning of every concert on their '79 tour. The Agnetha-penned tour-exclusive song "I'm Still Alive" is another tear-jerking moment - a song about personal triumph after her and Björn's divorce (Agnetha composed the tune while Björn handled the lyrics). And finally, the last song before the encore is "The Way Old Friends Do", a song about remaining friends despite all hardship.
• Even though "If It Wasn't for the Nights" has a cheerful melody, the lyrics tell a sadder story about dreading lonely nights after a divorce. Björn said that he had his own lonely nights after his divorce from Agnetha.
• Agnetha's cover of "Sometimes When I'm Dreaming" on her 2004 solo album "My Colouring Book".

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