The Top 10 Saddest Songs in the World

The Verve's hit 'The Drugs Don't Work' has been named the saddest song in a new scientific study. An expert in physiology and music analysed physical reactions to a number of rock and pop songs and deemed the 1997 track to be the saddest ahead of 'Angels' by Robbie Williams.

The study, sponsored by Nokia UK, measured heart rate, respiratory response and skin temperature to find the saddest songs.

"A slow tempo song like The Verve's 'The Drugs Don't Work' slows down the heart compared to most of the other songs and compared to white noise - in other words, it works like the emotional state of sadness.

'LDN' by Lily Allen was declared the happiest song in the study, followed by Abba's 'Dancing Queen' and REM's 'Shiny Happy People'.

The Top 10 Saddest Songs:
1. The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work
2. Robbie Williams - Angels
3. Elton John - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
4. Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
5. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
6. Will Young - Leave Right Now
7. Elvis Presley - Are You Lonesome Tonight?
8. Christina Aguilera - Beautiful
9. James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover
10. Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees