Happy Hungarian Song

Severus Snape

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The urban legend would have us believe that 'hundreds' of suicides occurred throughout the 1930's as a result of listening to Rezso Seress famous (or rather, infamous) song, "Gloomy Sunday." While the composer himself did commit suicide in 1968, there is no proof whatsoever accounting for these 'hundreds' of supposed deaths as a result of this song, thus why the story remains an urban legend and nothing more. However, the song itself is very beautiful--it was Seress' claim to fame, written after his girlfriend had dumped him due to his lack of success as a pianist/composer in Paris. The song was written in 1933, titled "Gloomy Sunday" because Seress had composed it during a gloomy Sunday afternoon, in his depression after being dumped. His girlfriend apparently committed suicide as well, supposedly after listening to the song, but the details of it are obviously unconfirmed. Interestingly enough, though, it was banned from BBC radio until the 21st century, supposedly due to WWII. It has also been covered by popular artists from Billie Holiday to Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Brightman, and Emilie Autumn.

In any case, here is the song itself, in its original Hungarian:



And here is my favourite English version of the song:

 
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