Teenage tragedy song
A teenage tragedy song is a style of ballad in popular music that peaked in popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Examples of the style are also known as "tear jerkers", "death discs" or "splatter platters",[1] among other colorful sobriquets coined by DJs that then passed into vernacular as the songs became popular. Often lamenting teenage death scenarios in melodramatic fashion, these songs were often sung from the viewpoint of the dead person's sweetheart, as in "Last Kiss"[2] (1961), or another witness to the tragedy, or the dead (or dying) person.[1] Notable examples include "Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning (1959), "Tell Laura I Love Her" by Ray Peterson (1960), "Ebony Eyes" by the Everly Brothers (1961), "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean (1964), and "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las (1964).[3] The genre's popularity faded around 1965 (as a mostly American phenomenon, it was one of many musical styles drowned out by the British Invasion),[4] but the hits from its heyday inspired a host of similar songs and parodies over the years.
Deathless themes[edit]
Teenagers meeting with tragedy in song was not new in the 1950s (or for that matter in the 1650s, around the time "Barbara Allen" was popular). In literature, it has been a recurring and resonant theme over centuries, most notably in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Another early example in song is "Oh My Darling, Clementine", published in 1884 but based on earlier songs and apparently written as a parody.[19]
As popular music and the society it mirrored changed from the late 1960s onward, the themes carried on in different forms and styles. Songs and spoken-word productions about the dangers of drug abuse joined the parade of pathos on radio airwaves, ranging from three-minute morality plays to lamentations (from the parental perspective) on the generation gap. These include "Once You Understand" by Think (U.S. #23, 1971) and radio and TV host Art Linkletter's Grammy-winning single "We Love You, Call Collect" (U.S. #42, 1969). Recorded before his daughter Diane's apparent suicide in 1969, the record also included Diane speaking the reply, "Dear Mom and Dad".[20] Into the 1970s, as the Vietnam War continued, hit ballads of youth and death included Terry Jacks' No. 1 hit "Seasons in the Sun" (1974), their protagonists of indeterminate age, or slightly older than teens. A song that was thought to have referenced the Civil War was Paper Lace's 1974 hit "Billy Don't Be a Hero", made a bigger hit in the U.S. by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. Hard-rock acts recorded vehicular death scenarios such as "D.O.A." (Bloodrock, 1971), "Detroit Rock City" (Kiss, 1976) and "Bat Out of Hell" (Meat Loaf, 1977).
Teenage tragedy would continue to chart through the 1970s. In 1979, "I Don't Like Mondays" was written by Bob Geldof and Johnnie Fingers,[21] inspired by the Grover Cleveland school shooting in San Diego that occurred while the Boomtown Rats were on tour in the U.S.[22] The song went to No. 1 in the U.K., and No. 4 in Canada.[23] The Smiths' 1987 song "Girlfriend in a Coma" also took inspiration from teenage tragedy songs, by taking the melodramatic aspect and pushing it to extremes. Some songs merely updated the sound of the previous era, such as "Racing Car" by Dutch group Air Bubble (1976), while others used the melodic and stylistic tropes of teen tragedy in tougher, grittier settings, as in the Ramones' "You're Gonna Kill That Girl" (1977) and "7-11" (1981), and the Misfits' "Saturday Night" (1999). "Teen Idle" by Marina and the Diamonds (2012), evoking an archetype of disenfranchised youth, is a thematic heir to the original teen tragedy oeuvre.[24]
Notable parody songs, satires and send-ups of teen tragedy over the decades have included: