Closed The Hungarian Suicide Song(Gloomy Sunday)

[That Poppy]

Music can have a profound impact on the human psyche and emotions, but can one song lead to more than a hundred suicide deaths?

Gloomy Sunday, written in 1932 by the Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress, was nicknamed the Hungarian Suicide Song, perhaps for good reason. It is blamed for being connected to more suicides than any other song in history.

In the original lyrics of Gloomy Sunday, written by lyricist and poet László Jávor, the singer is asking his dead lover to join him at his own planned funeral. The song seems to allude to suicide, as he longs to be with his love in the afterlife, and appears to be taking matters into his own hands to get there.

The song was released in English in 1936 with revised lyrics by Ray M. Lewis. This version clearly refers to suicide:

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 sad I know
Let them not weep let them know that I’m glad to go

FACT AND FICTION
The story surrounding Gloomy Sunday has become somewhat of a legend, embellished to a certain extent. Many of the details are not verifiable. Nonetheless, the song and story have been widely publicized in popular newspapers and magazines for its supposed eerie connection with many suicides.

DEATHS
At least eighteen suicide deaths in Hungary are reported to have had close links with Gloomy Sunday. In the Time Magazine article, “Music: Suicide Song,” published March 30, 1936, the author (unnamed) described a number of suicides. A Hungarian shoemaker by the name of Joseph Keller left a note at the scene of his suicide quoting some of the Gloomy Sunday lyrics. Several bodies were found in the Danube with their hands clutching the song’s sheet music. Two people shot themselves while hearing a band play the song, and others had been found to have ended their own lives while listening to it. The song was banned in Hungary.

Sauce: You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.