Lotta unhappy endings in those '50's songs what with car crashes, hangings...Tom Dooley, poor boy he was bound to die....and that El Paso posse that concluded an unfortunate visit to Rosa's Cantina.

http://www.listzblog.com/top_ten_teenage_trag..._list.html

Pretty much disappeared by '65, and replaced by the likes of the more cynical....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W7-ngmO_p8