Good question .....someone more eloquent than I, may be able to express it more succinctly , but surely the whole of English-speaking countries, Europe, Scandinavia and Russia heve evolved and developed musical tastes using the Minor as a serious / sad tone - especially classical music.
Incidentally , Big Al says on 23 Sep 14 - 06:05 AM Mhairis's Wedding is Minor - Sorry Al I'm not having THAT - deffo a Major.
Anyway , back to the thread - I would think many of Jake Thackaray's songs would be in the Minor key , and I sing a Benny Hill humourous song in the Minor, and on occasions when I'm in good company (and tiddly) The Kinks' "Lazing on a Sunday afternoon " .
In my formative years, Kenny Ball also played Midnight in Moscow which I thought was sensational.
I suppose McColl gets in the picture with "The very first time I saw you face".
BTW - As I have read most of the above Posts, IMHO "Step it out Mary" is an extemely emotive song, which I adore, but has no place in this thread. When the subject boy and girl drown themselves at the end of the song - I'd say THAT'S fairly sad and doesn't meet the Thread's criteria
That's enough brain-storming from me for now.

Cheers

Betsy