"Nobody Likes Sad Songs" is a song written by

Bob McDill Robert Lee McDill (born April 4, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, active from the 1960s until 2000. During his career he wrote or co-wrote 31 number one country hits. His songs were also recorded by popular artists of the 1970s, 1980s an ...

and Wayland Holyfield, and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Ronnie Milsap Ronnie Lee Milsap (born Ronald Lee Millsaps; January 16, 1943) is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly completely blind from birth, ...

. It was released in April 1979 as the first single from the album '' Images''. The song was Milsap's 12th number one on the country chart. The single stayed at number one for a single week and spent a total of 12 weeks on the country chart.

Content

The song is told from the perspective of a once-successful performer, who laments about his current lack of success and appeal to audiences because he sings "sad" songs. He refers to his past successes, including his ability to entertain large crowds and repertoire of mainly uptempo, "happy" songs. However, his personal life is anything but happy, and it affects his performing style; he soon begins performing only heartbreak songs, songs he quickly finds his fans don't want to hear. His fans soon begin alienating him, and soon nobody is coming to his shows. Worse, when he tries to rekindle his success by performing his previous "happy" songs, he finds he is unable to credibly do so because of his personal heartbreak. Later, the performer's tour manager contacts him and announces he is dropping him from the tour. He admonishes him: "''What happened son, you had it made?/Why'd you change the way you played?''"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1979 songs 1979 singles Ronnie Milsap songs Songs written by Wayland Holyfield Songs written by Bob McDill Song recordings produced by Tom Collins (record producer) RCA Records singles Songs about music {{1970s-country-song-stub