1. Writing and background
    English Lyrics 

2. Urban legends

3. Legacy

4. See also

5. References

6. External links

"Gloomy Sunday" (Hungarian: Szomorú vasárnap), also known as the "Hungarian Suicide Song", is a popular song composed by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress and published in 1933.

The original lyrics were titled “Vége a világnak” (The world is ending) and were about despair caused by war, ending in a quiet prayer about people's sins. Poet László Jávor wrote his own lyrics to the song, titled Szomorú vasárnap (Sad Sunday), in which the protagonist wants to commit suicide following his lover's death.^[1] The latter lyrics ended up becoming more popular while the former were essentially forgotten. The song was first recorded in Hungarian by Pál Kalmár in 1935.

"Gloomy Sunday" was first recorded in English by Hal Kemp in 1936, with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis,^[2] and was recorded the same year by Paul Robeson, with lyrics by Desmond Carter. It became well-known throughout much of the English-speaking world after the release of a version by Billie Holiday in 1941. Lewis's lyrics referred to suicide, and the record label described it as the "Hungarian Suicide Song". There is a recurring urban legend which claims that many people have committed suicide while listening to this song.^[3]

Writing and background

The song was composed by Rezső Seress while living in Paris, in an attempt to become established as a songwriter in late 1932.^[4] The original musical composition was a piano melody in C-minor, with the lyrics being sung over it.^[5] Seress wrote the song at the time of the Great Depression and increasing fascist influence in the writer's native Hungary, although sources differ as to the degree to which his song was motivated by personal melancholy rather than concerns about the future of the world. The basis of Seress's lyrics is a reproach to the injustices of man, with a prayer to God to have mercy on the modern world and the people who perpetrate evil.^[6] There are some suggestions^[7] that the words of "Vége a világnak" were in fact not written until World War II itself and not copyrighted until 1946.

Seress initially had difficulty finding a publisher, mainly due to the unusually melancholy nature of the song. One potential publisher stated:

The song was published as sheet music in late 1933,^[9] with lyrics by poet László Jávor, who was inspired by a recent break-up with his fiancée.^[4] According to most sources, Jávor rewrote the lyrics after the song's first publication, although he is sometimes described as the original writer of its words.^[10] His lyrics contained no political sentiments, but rather were a lament for the death of a beloved and a pledge to meet with the lover again in the afterlife.^[8][11][12] This version of the song became the best known, and most later rewritings are based around the idea of lost love.^[13]

English Lyrics

Sunday is gloomy,

My hours are slumberless

Dearest the shadows

I live with are numberless

Little white flowers

Will never awaken you

Not where the black coach of

Sorrow has taken you

Angels have no thought

Of ever returning you

Would they be angry

If I thought of joining you?

Gloomy Sunday

Gloomy is Sunday,

With shadows I spend it all

My heart and I

Have decided to end it all

Soon there'll be candles

And prayers that are said I know

Let them not weep

Let them know that I'm glad to go

Death is no dream

For in death I'm caressing you

With the last breath of my soul

I'll be blessing you

Gloomy Sunday}}

I wake and I find you asleep

In the deep of my heart, dear

Darling I hope

That my dream never haunted you

My heart is tellin' you

How much I wanted you

Gloomy Sunday}}

Urban legends

There have been several urban legends regarding the song over the years, mostly involving it being allegedly connected with various numbers of suicides, and radio networks reacting by purportedly banning the song.^[14] However, most of these claims are unsubstantiated.^[15]

Press reports in the 1930s associated at least 19 suicides, both in Hungary and the United States, with "Gloomy Sunday",^[3][4][16] but most of the deaths supposedly linked to it are difficult to verify. The urban legend appears to be, for the most part, simply an embellishment of the high number of Hungarian suicides that occurred in the decade when the song was composed due to other factors such as famine and poverty, as well as the rise of Nazi Germany's influence in Europe. No studies have drawn a clear link between the song and suicide.^[15]

In January 1968, about 35 years after writing the song, its composer did commit suicide.^[17]

Legacy

The song inspired the 2006 movie The Kovak Box, in which a writer is trapped on the island of Mallorca with people who are injected with a microchip that causes them to commit suicide when they hear "Gloomy Sunday".^[18] The song plays during the movie, sung by the actress Lucía Jiménez. A music video from the cover was released as part of the movie promotion. The song also features on the soundtrack of A Love Story, performed by Artie Shaw.^[19]

In 2008, Belgian artist Marieke Van Wuytswinkel used a sample of Gloomy Sunday in her work A Natural Morning.^[20][21]

See also

• Copycat suicide
• Gloomy Sunday (movie)
• To ostatnia niedziela

References

External links

• {{cite web |url= https://archive.org/details/PaulWhitemanwithJohnnyHauser |title= Recording by Paul Whiteman with Johnny Hauser |format= Creative commons license |website= Internet Archive |date= Feb 20, 2004 }}
• {{cite web |url= http://www.phespirit.info/gloomysunday/recordings.htm |title= Gloomy Sunday |format= Recordings list |website= PheSpirit |quote= Lyrics available for Seress' Vege a Vilagnak and Javor's Szomoru Vasarnap }}
• {{cite web |url= http://blog.le-miklos.eu/wp-content/SombresDimanches.pdf |format= pdf |title= Gloomy Sundays: A Study in Black |first= Michael |last= Fingerhut |date= May 19, 1998 }}

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