"Gloomy Sunday" is a song composed by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress and published in 1933, as "Vége a világnak" ("End of the world"). Lyrics were written by László Jávor, and in his version the song was retitled "Szomorú vasárnap" ("Sad Sunday"). 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, 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 that claims that many people committed suicide with this song playing.
Read more about Gloomy Sunday: Writing and Background, Translation of The Original Hungarian Lyrics, Early Translations and Recordings, Urban Legends, Later Recordings and Notable Performances, Legacy
Famous quotes containing the words gloomy and/or sunday:
“The perception of the comic is a tie of sympathy with other men, a pledge of sanity, and a protection from those perverse tendencies and gloomy insanities in which fine intellects sometimes lose themselves. A rogue alive to the ludicrous is still convertible. If that sense is lost, his fellow-men can do little for him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The man of business ... goes on Sunday to the church with the regularity of the village blacksmith, there to renounce and abjure before his God the line of conduct which he intends to pursue with all his might during the following week.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)