A Song That Makes Me Sad - Never Dance With My Father Again by Luther Vandross

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There are plenty of sad songs, The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan, about a woman attempting suicide, by Dr Hook and later Marianne Faithful, or Grocer Jack about a village green-grocer dying, by Keith West, but sad songs generally don’t make me sad myself. Songs that try desperately to be tear jerkers often fail to impress me; Ol’ Shep or The Little Boy Who Santa Claus Forgot for example – the latter shocked me as a child rather than saddening me, as it made Father Christmas fallible. What if he forgot me? What tends to sadden me is hearing songs I associate with people no longer in my life; my father loved Nat King Cole’s Stardust and Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony, the Pathetique (itself a funeral march) so they are songs that sadden me because of who they remind me of. The song Never Dance With My Father Again by Luther Vandross moves me to tears, though my late father, actually a keen ballroom dancer in his youth, would have found me wanting to dance with him sentimental and soppy-minded. Never Dance With My Father Again by Luther Vandross -Youtube - Arthur Chappell