This essential emo/alt-rock love song was Dashboard Confessional's first Billboard Top 10 hit, and rightfully so. "Hands Down" captures the youthful crush stage of love and lust with lyrics perfectly suited for an AIM away message.
Most dance pop songs churned out by producers these days won't stand the test of time, but there's a magic in "We Found Love" that keeps people returning even a decade later. The gleeful build up and Rihanna's vocals will put a lush and loving glow on any dance floor.
"Always gon' be a whip that's better than the one you got / Always gon' be some clothes that's fresher than the one's you rock / Always gon' be a bitch that's badder out there on the tours / But you ain't never gon' be happy 'til you love yours," he raps.
Taylor Swift cemented her role in pop culture with her heartfelt guitar ballads, and "Love Story" bridges the gap between her country roots and modern pop music. The song epitomizes the blissfully ignorant days of idyllic young love.
This simple love ballad was sung gorgeously by country star Allison Krauss. "When You Say Nothing at All" captures the comfort and unspoken love language shared between partners with a timeless message of devotion.
This ballad is a simple, sweet ode to lazy afternoons spent in the company of a loved one. "Hold You in My Arms" was one of Ray LaMontagne's first breakout singles, and remains a staple heard at wedding venues around the country.
It would be a list of love songs without a serious dose of '80s melodrama, and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is everything we could want in a glam rock ballad that fits into our "pining but still a love song" category.
You probably don't think much about "Vision Quest," the movie for which this song was made, but "Crazy for You" is one of Madonna's best love songs. It also earned Madonna her first of many Grammy Award nominations.
We dare you not to start tapping your foot and grinning upon hearing Jackie Wilson's number one R&B hit song "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," which has rightfully earned a place on any list of the happiest and catchiest love tunes.
Keeping in our uptempo, groovy streak, "Best of My Love" is a classic found on movie and TV soundtracks across the decades for good reason. You'll be humming "Oh-o-oho, you've got the best of my love" all day after revisiting this track.
Queen's discography is chock-full of classic hits, but none fits best on the "love song" category than this tune. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is an uptempo, genre-bending single that stands the test of time.
"Crazy in Love" remains one of the best pop songs of all time, iconic in both its beat and the unforgettable music video that went along with it. As Beyoncé continues dominating the world as the goddess of the arts, it's hard to pick just one of her best hits but this has to be the contender for greatest love song.
Prince's greatest hits are peppered with a joyous and infectious sense of love, but perhaps none more than the devoted single "I Would Die 4 U." The extra inflection Prince added for the line "darlin' if you want me to" is pure starlight energy.
Like others on our list, The Smiths are music legends. "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" is a beloved bittersweet song that stands the test of time thanks to the before-its-time emo message delivered with an English rock vibe.
Since we're including love songs about devotion and pining (but trying to avoid wholesale break-up ballads), "We Belong Together" is the perfect place to start. Mariah Carey's hit single from "The Emancipation of Mimi" remains is a classic modern love song with a fantastic pop diva music video to match.
"The Power of Love" is among the most heterosexual of all our love songs, and we love Celine for the sheer force she brings to this declaration of woman-on-man bonding (which was originally a 1984 Jennifer Rush song).
This follow-up hit to "End of the Road" is the perfect ode to doting upon a loved one. Blending the romantic and physical aspects of love, this sexy "Boyz II Men" '90s jam belongs on every love playlist.
Detailing the story of her romance with Bob Marley's son, Rohan, and the subsequent birth of their child, the album's 12th track, "Nothing Even Matters" featuring D'Angelo, sees Hill sing about love and how it can make everything else seem irrelevant.
Sliding into the category of "love advice," this Otis Redding track needs no introduction. It was already considered a classic, and was solidified in pop culture history when Donkey belted it out in "Shrek" and then sampled for Kanye West and Jay-Z's "Otis."
The art of parenthetical song titles has truly been lost. Candian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams crafted the love song to end all love songs with "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You," and we'll never forget him for it.
"God Only Knows" finds itself at the top of most "best songs of all time" lists for good reason. Visionary Brian Wilson crafted some of his best work on the 1966 album "Pet Sounds," and this heart-melting track is one of the record's highlights.
Funk group Earth, Wind, and Fire crafted one of the best songs of the century in "September," and the bonus for us is that it's a delightful love song to boot. Half the song is simple, joyful belting of "Ba de ya," and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Sir Elton John's sweet tune was inducted to the Grammys Hall of Fame, and easily earns its place in our list of the best love songs. The pure poetry of the piano ballad will bring out the romantic in anyone.
Roberta Flack's hauntingly beautiful version of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was slower and more sensual. This love song rightfully won Flack a Grammy in 1973, and a place in our top 20 list.
Over an unforgettable seven minutes, Vandross both exudes vulnerability and explodes with passion as he begs his partner to remain in love with him, urging them not to let "one mistake keep us apart."
Few other songs can captivate a room with just the first several notes, but "At Last" does just that. This Etta James beauty has remained an unmovable classic love song for the ages, and we hope the spell lasts forever.
Yet another ballad made iconic by a film, "I Will Always Love You" has transcended its meaning in "The Bodyguard" and become the root of Whitney Houston's legacy. Her unrivaled vocal ability and intense emotional performance makes Houston's "I Will Always Love You" (which was originally a Dolly Parton hit) the greatest love song of all time.
Francis Lai wrote the score for Love Story, and the company that published the music for Paramount felt that the track heard over the opening and closing credits, which was titled "Theme from Love Story", needed lyrics.[5] Michael Sigman, son of lyricist Carl Sigman, recalled that his father was asked to provide the words and received "a synopsis of the script and the lead sheet of the music. The story was schmaltzy, but the music inspired words that expressed the sadness beneath the schmaltz."[5] The initial set of lyrics his father wrote mirrored the storyline of the film from the perspective of the male protagonist, who describes a woman who enters his life ("So Jenny came") and then "suddenly was gone."[5] Paramount executive Robert Evans "thought the lyric was a 'downer.' Further, he couldn't abide the phrase 'Jenny came,' believing it too sexually suggestive for a mainstream audience. He demanded a rewrite,"[5] and this upset Carl. "At first, justifiably proud of the fine lyric he crafted, he was angry and felt like refusing to do a rewrite. But the next day he cooled off and, pacing around his living room, said to his wife, 'Where do I begin?' and the new lyric was launched."[6]
While promoting her debut album on tour in 2007 and 2008, Swift wrote songs for her second studio album Fearless.[8] She developed "Love Story" late into the production of Fearless.[9] Answering fan questions on Time in April 2009, Swift said the song was inspired by a boy whom she never dated and was one of the most romantic pieces she had written.[10] Swift recalled the reactions she received after introducing him to her family and friends: "[They] all said they didn't like him. All of them!"[11][12] This made Swift relate to the narrative of William Shakespeare's 16th-century play Romeo and Juliet, which she described as a "situation where the only people who wanted them to be together were them".[11] Reflecting on the event, Swift thought, "This is difficult but it's real, it matters"; she developed the second refrain and later the whole song around that line.[13]
Although inspired by Romeo and Juliet, Swift felt the play could have been "the best love story ever told" had it not been for Shakespeare's tragic ending in which the two characters die.[14] She thus made the narrative of "Love Story" conclude with a marriage proposal, which she deemed a happy ending the characters deserved.[14][15] Swift wrote "Love Story" on her bedroom floor in approximately 20 minutes, feeling too inspired to put the song down unfinished.[11] According to Swift, the song represents her optimistic outlook on love, which is inspired by her childhood fascination with fairy tales.[15] Looking back on "Love Story" after she released her seventh studio album Lover (2019), which is about her first experience of "love that was very real", Swift said the track is "stuff I saw on a movie [and] stuff I read mixed in with some like crush stuff that had happened in my life".[16]
After finishing writing, Swift recorded a rough demo of "Love Story" within 15 minutes the next day.[10] She recorded the song's album version in March 2008 with the producer Nathan Chapman at Blackbird Studios in Nashville.[17] For her vocals, Chapman tried different microphones until Swift came across an Avantone CV-12 multi-pattern tube microphone that was built by the country-music artist Ray Kennedy, with whom she worked on Taylor Swift. After growing fond of the Avantone CV-12 upon testing her vocals, Swift used it to record "Love Story" and other songs. She sang the song live backed by her band, who were playing acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Chapman played other instruments, including nine acoustic guitars, and he overdubbed them on the track; he also recorded background vocals.[17]
dca57bae1f