Talk:Torch song

Well written
It seems perfectly well written with good examples and references.

209.226.180.23 19:52, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I have removed the "Inappropriate Tone" tag as it wasn't justified here and didn't seem appropriate. Maikel (talk) 07:09, 18 June 2008 (UTC)/


 * This article is not "perfectly well written", because it is supposed to be about torch songs, and not about the author's highly-biased opinion regarding what constitutes a torch _singer_. There are no "good examples", because there are no examples whatsoever of torch songs, but only a highly-biased list of torch singers.  I therefore will remove the list of singers unless somebody demonstrates to me why I should not do so.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.129.220.147 (talk) 08:29, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Women?
Why are all the examples women? Can't men do it too? --AW (talk) 22:05, 16 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Ahhh... but not like Julie London! - Brigham — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.207.240.4 (talk) 14:51, 7 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Of course men can do it too -- if they get dressed up right =p Andytuba (talk) 02:32, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

The effect tends to be quite different with a male singer. A torch song basically is the lament of a woman who is the victim of her own heart, who has nothing to live for except love, who sees no choice but to simply endure. In our Western culture, men don't really fit that role. For that matter the modern "liberated" woman generally doesn't, either&mdash;most of the "classic" torch songs are from the 1920s and 1930s. The R&B and country music genres (in particular) have many examples of what are torch songs in content but not in effect, both male and female. One possible negative example of a man attempting a torch song is "Alone Again Naturally"; the most positive example that I can think of is " When a Man Loves a Woman", but even there the effect is (IMHO, anyway) quite different. Doug Pardee (talk) 01:43, 4 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Crying by Roy Orbison is very torchy. So is Layla by Eric Clapton. Two examples of male torch songs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.17.229.2 (talk) 22:36, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

The examples are all women because any list of torch songs, which is what this article is supposed to be about, and not torch singers, would clearly demonstrate the extreme sexual bias of the author. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.129.220.147 (talk) 08:40, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

"I Wanna Be Around" by Tony Bennett defines the genre. I don't think it's exclusively female at all.Thestalkinghorse (talk) 01:30, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Examples?
I know it's the sort of thing that could get unweildy with people throwing on whatever they can think of that vaguely fits, but I think an article on a particular kind of song could do with some examples of songs rather than artists. Particularly historical ones as its an old school jazz/blues/soul sort of deal. I'm sure others are more well versed than I at that though.

I can think of a good male one off hand: Sinatra singing Arlen & Mercer's One for My Baby and One More for the Road.

Perhaps suggest and debate some classics to include here. MuJoCh (talk) 06:33, 5 November 2009 (UTC)


 * This is the direction which this article should have taken to begin with. Heartache is no respecter of sexual orientation, and anyone who thinks otherwise should brace themselves for a revelation.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.165.106.47 (talk) 09:39, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I would like to respectfully add my opinion; I think that examples of song lyrics would be great for this article... it seems a "torch song" is not made by certain musical genres, arrangement, or voices... but instead determined solely by lyrical content. Lyrics are the only thing that really matter. Right now, if someone were reading this without having heard a torch song or these artists, they would currently have to go to one of the many listed artists' articles and then possibly even click again (to get to the pages on particular songs) before they would have a good idea of what the music is really all about. The description in the intro of this article is worded well enough, I think, but some quintessential song lyrics would really help. I don't really know this music very well, can someone help? 76.177.42.68 (talk) 07:25, 16 January 2011 (UTC)
 * It is likely that lyrics after 1923 are under copyright, so we cannot reproduce them here. Samples of copyright songs can only be used under the fair use policy (see WP:NFCC and WP:SAMPLE, which basically place restrictions on length and quality and set a pretty high bar in terms of justifying their inclusion. If you are not familiar with it let me summarise by saying that its damned hard work and even if you get it all set up some editor might delete it as a WP:COPYVIO.--''' SabreBD  (talk ) 09:35, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Article needs to be updated to include the entire Adele discography. ―cobaltcigs 12:32, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

No mention of drag?
There's no mention of torch songs in the drag tradition, such as in the setting for Harvey Fierstein's play (and film) Torch Song Trilogy — OwenBlacker (talk; please &#123;&#123;ping&#125;&#125; me in replies) 21:54, 10 April 2018 (UTC)

Prine song
Added mention of John Prine's song "The Torch Singer." I believe it is significant as a work that imaginatively captures the potential emotional impact of torch songs. Tpoling (talk) 20:50, 8 January 2024 (UTC)