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Gloomy Sunday"Gloomy Sunday" is a song written by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezs Seress in 1933, which allegedly inspired numerous suicides and thus quickly earned a reputation as the "Hungarian suicide song". The crushing hopelessness and bitter despair of the original lyrics by Seress were quickly replaced by the melancholic verses of Hungarian poet Lszl Jvor. Sam M. Lewis and Desmond Carter each penned an English translation. Sam Lewis's version was performed from 1936 on by Hal Kemp and his Orchestra, later Artie Shaw and Billie Holiday. The popularity of "Gloomy Sunday" increased greatly after its interpretation by Billie Holiday in 1941. Her performance all but guaranteed that Lewis' version would become the standard among interpreters. Paul Robeson (1936) and Diamanda Gals (1992) used Carter's lyrics in their respective versions of the song. Other artists who have covered the song, include: The Dead Milkmen did not actually cover the song, but they quoted its lyrics in their 1987 song "(Theme From) Blood Orgy of the Atomic Fern." The song was banned from airplay by the BBC as it was deemed too depressing for the airwaves, an incident which may have been the inspiration for Spider Robinson's short story "The Law of Conservation of Pain", which is part of the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series. Seress himself jumped to his death from his apartment in 1968. See also External links
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