Quevedo, Clapton and 'Nothing Compares 2 U': the canon of heartbreak

From Quevedo to 'Nothing Compares 2 U': the canon of heartbreak

What is the greatest heartbreak song of all time? The question sounds like after-dinner New Year's talk, and the list keeps growing. The result defies any expectation of a nostalgic rundown. A sonnet by Quevedo, Eric Clapton's riff, a song by Asfalto about Mujer de plástico and Chiquetete's wail all fit in the same bag. Heartbreak is not a musical genre: it is a catalogue with centuries behind it.

The starting point: 'Mujer de plástico' and what it anticipated

The opening thesis is blunt: the vast majority of songs that talk about women, whatever the style, deal with love relationships, but a handful portray something else. The chosen example is Asfalto and its portrait of a couple described with a phrase that today sounds like a textbook label. The argument holds that the song anticipated the posturing associated with social media, with the nuance that the song itself predates those networks by a long way. Today's reader will read that opening through different glasses, and much of the interest lies there.

Quevedo, Clapton and the global ballad

The canon shoots upward without warning: in the middle of the repertoire appears the sonnet Cerrar podrá mis ojos la postrera sombra que me llevare el blanco día, presented as definitive heartbreak and signed by Quevedo the poet, with the necessary clarification that it is not the other Quevedo. From there to Anglo-Saxon rock is a leap, not a step: Layla, by Eric Clapton, was born from the musician's infatuation with Pattie Boyd, then the vvife of his friend George Harrison. The list then links Nothing Compares 2 U, with its 'seven hours and fifteen days', or whoever argues that the greatest heartbreak song ever written is Total Eclipse of the Heart.

When the lyrics become a problem

There is a stretch of the count that no longer talks about music, but about law. A song from the traditional Spanish repertoire included in its original version a verse with an explicit threat to kill, and the author later rewrote it. Some argue that such a text, today, would land you straight in jail. The anecdote is telling: the same piece that for decades was sung as spite came to be read as a threat, and the songwriter himself disowned it. Heartbreak ages, but some lyrics age worse than others.

The homegrown wail: from Camilo Sesto to Enrique Urquijo

Against the Anglo-Saxon front, the list champions the Spanish ballad with proper names: Camilo Sesto as a personal pick, Manuel Alejandro as a huge craftsman behind half the songbook, Sabina, Triana, Los Ilegales and an Enrique Urquijo singled out as a master of heartbreak and sadness. In that stretch Chiquetete also appears, with an observation that sums up the style: when he sings normally, he sounds like he is crying. They talk about the wail, and not as a metaphor.

Chasing someone who ignores you?

The count has its analytical corner. Some openly admit they never understood men who keep pursuing a woman who ignores them, with the jibe that women are not in short supply. On the other side, a reading added to the thread: wars were already fought in antiquity over an abduction, Troy with Helen involved. Skepticism soon trinc: the real reason for that war may have been Troy's commercial position, and everything else was storytelling.

With those ingredients, the list works like any market: endless supply, guaranteed demand and no consensus on the fair price. If anyone hopes to close it, they had better arm themselves with patience. It remains open and nobody has won yet.