Gloomy Tunes: Valentine’s Day Edition

It’s Valentine’s Day, and here at the Gloomy Tunes playhouse, we’re not interested in songs of undying love; Valentine’s Day is to love what New Year’s Eve is to parties: A day where the expectations of performative celebration are so high it’s impossible to have a good time. So, instead of the usual ballads promising everlasting love, we want to hear from the jilted, the lonely, the miserable. And lovers doesn’t come more jilted, miserable, and tuneful than Harry Nilsson’s “You’re Breakin’ My Heart,” from 1972’s “Son of Schmilsson.” (Yes, that is George Harrison you hear on slide guitar.) So come all ye dateless wonders, step up the bar, knock back a shot of our cheapest whisky, neat, and sing along!

Warning: as many of us do when remember those who done us wrong, Harry let’s fly with some NSFW language. Listen accordingly.

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.