Early history Sentimental ballads have their roots from medieval
French chanson balladée or
ballade, which were originally "danced songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular
poetry and song of the
British Isles from the later
medieval period until the 19th century. They were widely used across
Europe, and later in the
Americas,
Australia and
North Africa. As a narrative song, their theme and function may originate from
Scandinavian and
Germanic traditions of storytelling. Musically they were influenced by the
Minnesinger. The earliest example of a recognizable ballad in form in
England is "
Judas" in a 13th-century
manuscript. A reference in
William Langland's
Piers Plowman indicates that ballads about
Robin Hood were being sung from at least the late 14th century and the oldest detailed material is
Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Robin Hood ballads printed about 1495.
18th century – early 20th century ", a ballad by
Charles K. Harris, was the most successful song of its era, selling over two million copies of sheet music. Ballads at this time were originally composed in couplets with
refrains in alternate lines. These refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance. In the 18th century,
ballad operas developed as a form of
English stage entertainment, partly in opposition to the
Italian domination of the London operatic scene. In
America a distinction is drawn between ballads that are versions of European, particularly British and
Irish songs, and '
Native American ballads', developed without reference to earlier songs. A further development was the evolution of the
blues ballad, which mixed the genre with
Afro-American music. In the late 19th century, Danish folklorist
Svend Grundtvig and Harvard professor
Francis James Child attempted to record and classify all the known ballads and variants in their chosen regions. There have been many different and contradictory attempts to classify traditional ballads by theme, but commonly identified types are the religious, supernatural, tragic, love ballads, historic, legendary and humorous. Some of
Stephen Foster's songs exemplify this genre and, in England, the ballads of
Montague Phillips written for his wife
Clara Butterworth in the early 1900s. By the 1920s, composers of
Tin Pan Alley and
Broadway used
ballad to signify a slow, sentimental tune or love song, often written in a fairly standardized form. Jazz musicians sometimes broaden the term still further to embrace all slow-tempo pieces. Notable sentimental ballads of this period include, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1870), "
After the Ball" (1892), and "
Danny Boy" (1913).
1950s–1960s released
Sinatra and Strings, a set of standard ballads, which became one of the most critically acclaimed works of Sinatra's entire Reprise period. Popular sentimental ballad vocalists in this era include
Frank Sinatra,
Ella Fitzgerald,
Andy Williams,
Johnny Mathis,
Connie Francis and
Perry Como. Their recordings were usually lush orchestral arrangements of current or recent
rock and roll or
pop hit songs. The most popular and enduring songs from this style of music are known as "pop standards" or (where relevant) "American standards". Many vocalists became involved in 1960s'
vocal jazz and the rebirth of
swing music, which was sometimes referred to as "
easy listening" and was, in essence, a revival of popularity of the "
sweet bands" that had been popular during the
swing era, but with more emphasis on the vocalist and the sentimentality.
1970s Soft rock, a subgenre that mainly consists of ballads, was derived from
folk rock in the late 1960s, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and harmonies. Major sentimental ballad artists of this decade included
Barbra Streisand,
Nana Mouskouri,
Elton John,
Engelbert Humperdinck,
Carole King,
Cat Stevens and
James Taylor. By the early 1970s, softer ballad songs by
the Carpenters,
Anne Murray,
John Denver and
Barry Manilow began to be played more often on "Top 40" radio. Some rock-oriented acts such as
Queen and the
Eagles also produced ballads. When the word
ballad appears in the title of a song, as for example in
the Beatles' "
The Ballad of John and Yoko" (1969) or
Billy Joel's "
The Ballad of Billy the Kid" (1974), the
folk music sense is generally implied. The term
ballad is also sometimes applied to strophic story-songs more generally, such as
Don McLean's "
American Pie" (1971).
1980s–1990s 's albums were generally constructed on the basis of melodramatic
soft rock ballads, with sprinklings of
uptempo pop and rare forays into other genres. Prominent artists who made sentimental ballads in the 1980s include
Stevie Wonder,
Lionel Richie,
Peabo Bryson,
Barry White,
Luther Vandross and
George Michael. The 1990s mainstream pop/R&B singers such as
Boyz II Men,
Celine Dion,
Shania Twain,
Whitney Houston and
Mariah Carey. Newer female singer-songwriters such as
Sarah McLachlan,
Natalie Merchant,
Jewel,
Melissa Etheridge and
Sheryl Crow also broke through on the AC chart during this time owing to their ballad-sound.
2000s A popular trend in the early 2000s was remixing or re-recording
dance music hits into
acoustic ballads (for example, the "Candlelight Mix" versions of "
Heaven" by
DJ Sammy, "
Listen to Your Heart" by
DHT, and "
Everytime We Touch" by
Cascada).
2010s In the 2010s, indie musicians like
Imagine Dragons,
Mumford & Sons,
Of Monsters and Men,
the Lumineers and
Ed Sheeran had indie songs that crossed over to the adult contemporary charts, due to their ballad-heavy sound. ==Genres==