Sheet Music of the Week: Aching Heart Edition

"The Curse of an Aching Heart" by Piantadosi and Fink, 1913. Music Division, Library of Congress.

The past couple of years we’ve taken time out on Valentine’s Day to highlight love songs and love letters from the Music Division’s collections; however, Valentine’s Day is not exactly everyone’s favorite day of the year. I scoured our digitized sheet music for a selection that might speak to those who are not in love, the broken-hearted, or those who just don’t like Valentine’s Day!

Today’s Sheet Music of the Week features Albert Piantadosi and Henry Fink’s 1913 song, “The Curse of an Aching Heart”, with its bitter opening:

You made me think you cared for me,

And I believed in you,

You told me things you never meant,

You made me think them true.

Piantadosi was highlighted in the June 11, 1949 issue of Billboard in the “Honor Roll of Popular Songwriters” and described as a former medical student who decided shortly after beginning his medical studies that “he’d rather induce faster heartbeats with music than reduce fevers with pills.”

If you’re a Frank Sinatra fan, you’ll want to find a way to check out his 1961 recording of “The Curse of an Aching Heart” on the album Sinatra Swings. For more immediate gratification, take a listen to American Countertenor Will Oakland’s 1913 recording from the Library’s National Jukebox. A Happy Valentine’s Day to all – whether you celebrate or not!