Something Completely Different

In your opinion, what are the Best Love Songs ever created? Out of 10, how do these songs rate in terms of personal enjoyment, technical perfection, and cultural impact? I love love songs. I love the love songs everyone loves- Fast Car, Just Like Heaven, The Best. Cultural impact is the most important category imo: A Love Song that captures humanity is one that has everyone singing along. (if your uncle in mouthing along in the corner, the artist has done their job!)

Apropos of Just Like Heaven, someone sent me this insta story

https://instagram.com/stories/codydad420/3172466634626783158?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Unchained Melody
Sam Cooke - Wonderful World
Beatles - She Loves You
Drifters - Saturday Night at the Movies
Bee Gees - How Deep is Your Love
Joe Cocker - Up Where We Belong
Billy Joel - Just the Way You Are
Bob Dylan - Make You Feel My Love
Ella Fitzgerald - Cheek to Cheek
Elton John - Your Song
David Bowie - Heroes

Some of my favourites.

Some interesting choices there, jimmy jazz!
I think I would've chosen a different one by Dylan though: perhaps To Ramona or If You See Her, Say Hallo

Here's a popular love song: over-the-top syrupy, but who can deny that that's one of love's main ingredients:


Never gonna win in a World's Greatest Love Song competition, but this is an absolute personal winner for me:-

Two off the top of my head:

<-------------- This song by this guy.

:love:

I'm not sure about "of all time" but this one could have been, for a brief moment in 1975.

❤️ .uoy knahT  .suneepmhcS .rM ,daerht evol eht llort t'noD

I'm going with 'Backwards' by Caravan.
Oops I thought that was another round of Cryptic Song Lyrics, ribbons.

Good one, Sir Saulaac.  There's a Knight in the love song thread.   ;)

Mr Bungle - Pink Cigarette 

King Missile - Love Is ....

Taking this thread in the other direction it was presumably intended, I just listened to Kim by Eminem. I have listened to the album hundreds of times from when it came out so I've heard the song plenty but this is the first time I've listened to it in 15 years or so.

It hits harder as an adult than it did when I was 11. I think it is an exceptional recording but I can understand why many people would hate it because it is brutal. It really makes you feel shocked and sickened and you can picture the story being told.

So, a great love song but not in the way this thread is getting at.

Quote from: jimmy jazz on Oct 23, 2023, 09:11 PMTaking this thread in the other direction it was presumably intended, I just listened to Kim by Eminem. I have listened to the album hundreds of times from when it came out so I've heard the song plenty but this is the first time I've listened to it in 15 years or so.

It hits harder as an adult than it did when I was 11. I think it is an exceptional recording but I can understand why many people would hate it because it is brutal. It really makes you feel shocked and sickened and you can picture the story being told.

So, a great love song but not in the way this thread is getting at.

I can appreciate that song on an artistic level; it is a good example of his talent for storytelling. I have a hard time seeing it as a love song, but I suppose that messed up kind of love is still love.

I've always had a difficult time with Eminem's darker, angrier songs. It's just hard for me to identify with him as a narrator, his anger is not a cathartic kind to me, it's not a kind of anger I really tend to feel much of. And the fact that he uses the real names of his ex-wife and daughter always bugged me a bit.

But that's my personal taste. I'm glad it's enjoyable for you!

Inside my wife's engagement ring it says "You and me, babe. How about it?"

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - The Power of Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaWLZVR8HQ8&list=OLAK5uy_nRaFA_y1quz8QxnyI5dxcWu3n6Y-9_vGA&index=9

I love Nick's music so much I even have the same guitar. 

(https://i.ibb.co/NNBhGMG/guild-m120-livingroom.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)

Quote from: ribbons on Nov 08, 2023, 02:55 PMI love Nick's music so much I even have the same guitar.

Lovely, @ribbons ! I love Nick Drake too. Northern Sky is on our bedtime playlist, so me and my daughter sometimes listen to it when it's her bedtime 🙂

My own favorite from that album is At the Chime of a City Clock. So soothing and beautiful.

Also noticed now you posted this:

Quote from: ribbons on Sep 29, 2023, 08:39 PM

Which takes me straight back to my childhood 🙂 my father was often away, but I have a clear memory of him and me one time lying in this antique bed (they were collecting antiquities for a while).. and we were listening to Paul McCartney/Wings songs together. I'm sure this probably came on because it was definitely in the usual rotation.

My dad fell asleep 😄 but I still remember it as our most tender moment together in my childhood. Might be the reason why I like to listen to music like this with my own kids. We do book first, then music.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane 🙂

Thanks for sharing those love songs, and what they mean to you, Guybrush and ribbons. Front-to-back, Bryter Layter is full of very romantic moments, in the sound of the music as much as in the words.

Here's a rare musical moment with my dad, who by choice, only listened to classical music. His response to pop music was to suffer it in silence - which to his credit he did consistently for over a decade. (For example, his only response to the entire Beatles discography: he didn't like Love Me Do because of the harmonica).  When the John Wesley Harding album came out, harmonica or not, he was obliged to hear it repeatedly as I played it obsessively on our one family gramophone. Then, out of the blue, one afternoon, he asked me about the lyrics of I Pity The Poor Immigrant. That was the only time he went so far as to show an interest in the music I was listening to. Should I complain? Not really, because I was equally unresponsive to all the classical music I was subjected to as a child.
Years later, I came to love John Fahey's After The Ball album, and part of my pleasure was in thinking, "Yeah, this is music that my dad and I  might've bonded over."
________________________________________________

More on topic, here's a song in which Paul Simon makes a sincere, clear, and humble declaration of love:-


I'm not a very romantic person myself, but I have more than once been moved by this classic from Witney Houston:-


Spoiler for me listening to I Will Always Love You:

Spoiler

[close]

@Guybrush and @Lisnaholic, so nice that we have mutual affection for Nick Drake and Bryter Layter in particular.  Tore, I'm sure your daughter will always remember your special bedtime ritual of book reading and playlists.  As you probably already know, that's John Cale playing piano and celeste on "Northern Sky".  "At The Chime of a City Clock" is also my favorite song on Bryter (as I recall, Lisna likes that song as well).  Incidentally, I used to play Nick Drake songs to both of my children, particularly to my daughter.  Whenever I hear Nick's music, I still think of her as a baby next to me in the bed, trying to coax her to sleep, with her pulling my hair gently upwards toward the ceiling with a bottle in her mouth and her big eyes looking at me in the dark to the strains of "Introduction", "City Clock", "Hazey Jane I", etc.  If she still wouldn't fall asleep (she was very sleep resistant and colicky back then!) I'd fast-forward to singing The Beatles' "Golden Slumbers" to her and that usually did the trick (after singing it about ten times, lol).

I also love the story of you and your Dad listening to McCartney & Wings music, and how that was such a significant memory for you.  I don't think I'll listen to Paul & Wings music in quite the same way again after reading that.  Thanks for sharing.  :)

@Lisnaholic, I also loved reading your reminiscences about your Dad, and thanks for sharing that too.  Even though you had no real meeting of the minds about music, it's interesting how Dylan got to him just a little bit.  And I do agree with your Dad, in that I don't like the harmonica on "Love Me do" either!

I've never heard S&G's "Song for the Asking" before, but I like it very much.  I don't believe I've heard Fahey's After The Ball either – but am now inspired to listen, especially as you consider it music you and your Dad would have bonded over.   :)

And what is that salty discharge-inducin' song by Whitney (which was actually originally penned and sung by Dolly)?  Hmmm.   :D

Talk It  (https://youtu.be/IdyCVN7ER1A?si=JzLr2QILMdCc0J2N)
Never Had No One Ever  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=qBIHz-07veA)
You, The Night and The Music (https://youtu.be/Nxpf-zPupH8?si=DDAa0IBDU-SXCHmc)
You Are The One  (https://youtu.be/fGPMCCJT8H0?si=U34kv5SCd9faX5BW)
I Need A Freak  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=yr9Wh-A_c1A)
I Feel Love  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=6S2n5Tbq_0s)
You Can Have It All  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=9bVjii9g5qE)
Girl  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=t1hhiEHLJUg)
I Won't Hurt You  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=KRW97QbuZ6A)
I'm Sticking With You  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=1PreKtsgoUM)
Safesurfer  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=YM6EMAlpLE8)
Vicious  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=4WzdYMv4MM0)
Superstar (https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y21VecIIdBI)
Terrapin (https://youtube.com/watch?v=VaGRtH7h4oA)
Baby Lemonade  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=9CiOtf8XYsE)

Quote from: aurora on Nov 10, 2023, 06:26 AMTalk It  (https://youtu.be/IdyCVN7ER1A?si=JzLr2QILMdCc0J2N)
Never Had No One Ever  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=qBIHz-07veA)
You, The Night and The Music (https://youtu.be/Nxpf-zPupH8?si=DDAa0IBDU-SXCHmc)
You Are The One  (https://youtu.be/fGPMCCJT8H0?si=U34kv5SCd9faX5BW)
I Need A Freak  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=yr9Wh-A_c1A)
I Feel Love  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=6S2n5Tbq_0s)
You Can Have It All  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=9bVjii9g5qE)
Girl  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=t1hhiEHLJUg)
I Won't Hurt You  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=KRW97QbuZ6A)
I'm Sticking With You  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=1PreKtsgoUM)
Safesurfer  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=YM6EMAlpLE8)
Vicious  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=4WzdYMv4MM0)
Superstar (https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y21VecIIdBI)
Terrapin (https://youtube.com/watch?v=VaGRtH7h4oA)
Baby Lemonade  (https://youtube.com/watch?v=9CiOtf8XYsE)

If I had to choose one it would be Safesurfer (https://youtube.com/watch?v=YM6EMAlpLE8). He knows I'm scared, and he really swaddles me with this one... kind of makes me scream.

Sarah Brightman / Jose Carreras - Amigos Para Siempre

Amy Grant - Every Heartbeat

Strapping Young Lad - Love ?

How about this slice of cheese?

A-Ha - Hunting High and Low

Today I realized that my answer might very well be Knower's Like A Storm
It is a beautiful song anyway but the contrast between the soft melody and the frantic drums, at first a bit at odds with each other but then somehow growing tigether, becoming one powerful force... It fits the title and the lyrics very well.

It just doesn't get any more real that this, as far as I'm concerned.  This is the only song I've ever heard that described falling in love in a way that I can relate.