Perhaps because Halloween is fast approaching, a legendary song that was banned after it sparked a series of suicides has resurfaced online and is now doing the rounds because its mysterious backstory.

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Titled the ‘Gloomy Sunday of Hungarian Suicide Song’, the piece of music was written by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezso Seress in 1933. Legend has it that the song was linked to a number of suicides from people who were listening to it at the time of its release – it was even banned from being played on the radio.

Back in the 30s, local news in Hungary and the U.S. blamed the track for nineteen suicides and Seress initially struggled to get the song released because of its depressing tone. One publisher stated:

There is a sort of terrible compelling despair about it. I don’t think it would do anyone good to hear a song like that.

What’s even weirder is that Seress committed suicide in 1968 by choking himself to death with a wire. It’s not known whether he was listening to the song at the time of his death, although his obituary did mention the tune: 

The decade of the nineteen-thirties was marked by severe economic depression and the political upheaval that was to lead to World War II. The melancholy song written by Mr. Seress, with words by his friend, Ladislas Javor, a poet, declares at its climax, “My heart and I have decided to end it all.” It was blamed for a sharp increase in suicides, and Hungarian officials finally prohibited it.

Freaky. So, without further ado, here is the song in question. Listen if you dare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEbXnWbwjLQ

Depressed yet? I don’t know about you, but I thought it was quite nice. Obviously the story behind this song is just an urban legend, but it doesn’t make the mystery any less interesting. Makes for a good ghost story this Halloween too.

For more urban legends, do you remember the one where a guy jizzed in a swimming pool and ended up impregnating 16 girls? Shocker.