David and Deidra: February 2011

In honor of the holiday of love I have made a list of the best, worst, and less-known love songs. My inspiration was a list I heard on the radio of the top ten worst love songs. The radio host just named off ten love songs and left it at that. I was a little disappointed because there was no reasoning and some of the songs were ones I would say are the best love songs (or at least not the worst). So I decided I needed to put down a list that gave you the best and worst songs along with reasoning for why they are ranked the way they are. Some of the reasoning might not be that great, but it all makes sense to me. I also added a "Best, Less-known Love Songs" section because I think they are great love songs but you might not know them. If you do, that just makes you cooler on my list. So here we go.

Best Love Songs

10. Fields of Gold - Sting

There are many things to love about this song besides its romantic qualities. The haunting melody gives the song a relaxing feel but also brings out a romantic tension. This song evokes images of the sun and barely fields strangely enough. But overall, the lyrics tell a story of two people who are purely in love and will forget even "the sun in his jealous sky." You can't play this song and say you aren't in love with someone.

9. Don't Want to Miss a Thing - Aerosmith

There are two reasons this song is a great love song. Number one, just listen to the song. Classic power ballad with great romantic lyrics. Just think of your lover never wanting to sleep because they don't want to miss a second with you. The second reason is because if you have ever been to dance you have definitely heard this song. I think this song has been played as the last song in every dance I have ever been too and that is saying something about its romantic power. Thank you Steven Tyler and Armageddon. We couldn't end a dance without you.

8. Love Comes Walking In - Van Halen

If you are Googling power love ballads, you are going to find something from Van Halen. It's as if those guys were a power ballad factory. Love Comes Walking In does something that not many love songs do. It takes romanticism, falling in love, aliens, and space travel and turns it all into one of the greatest love songs ever. Honestly, if you have to travel far across the milky way to meet an alien woman who is standing under a silver light shining down from a space ship, you have a masterful love song. If you don't interpret it that way, just listen to the song. It's great.

7. The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra

If a girl wants anything, they want their man to tell them how great they look. I will be the first to admit that men are terrible at that. We think they do look great but we forget to tell them, assume they already know because we are thinking it, or get embarrassed to tell them. Frankie here gives us a great reminder in a classic song about how we can ramp up the romance by telling each other cute compliments. Seriously, it works. Seriously.

6. Pride (In the Name of Love) - U2

Something needs to be understood about this song. It is an amazing song that everybody loves. But it isn't a romantic love song. If you read the lyrics, you see references to Christ and Martin Luther King, Jr. The song is a kind of tribute to the power of love in bringing peace to the world. But here is the catch and the reason this song is on the list. You cannot listen to this song without turning to someone you love, romantically or not, and sing at the top of your lungs during the chorus. Just try it. You can't. Awesome love (in every meaning) song.

5. More Than Words - Extreme

There is something about a guy sitting down and playing a simple love song on the guitar for a girl. It can be one of the most romantic things ever (think about the plane scene from The Wedding Singer). Or it can be really creepy depending on the circumstances. Extreme didn't have a long list of hits, but this song makes it into my top ten. The message is beautiful and longing. It says to not only tell the one you love how much you love them but to show them. Extreme-ly good song.

4. Open Arms - Journey

If you could ask for anything from your lover, you would ask for open arms to hold you. Well, Journey gives you just that. I'm starting to see a trend here. I love power ballads...even the ones people think are corny. This was on someone's list of worst love songs. Well I disagree dude. Put this on in your car and sing your lungs out. Sweetness.

3. The Luckiest - Ben Folds

Have you ever not known exactly how to tell the one you love how you feel about them? You start babbling about weird things you like about their elbows or how you feel like you are drowning when they are not around. Something comes out about how you can't believe that they like you and then you just say, "I'm so lucky to have you." Well Ben Folds takes this kind of experience and puts it into song. The weird and sometimes nonsensical ways you think about love don't always seem to be the best ways to explain them to another. But sometimes you just have to say what you want to and hope that they understand. Thank you Ben, for saying what we all think, even if it doesn't make sense.

2. And So It Goes - Billy Joel

Billy Joel is one of the most talented musicians of all time. "And So It Goes" is a simple masterpiece or piano chords that resonate a mixture of feelings. If you are in love but afraid of the potential hurt of losing love, listen to this song and dive back into love. You might dive into a new deep love or hit your head in the shallow end of the romance pool. Either way, you have to try.

1. When I Fall In Love - Nat "King" Cole

I personally think that Nat Cole has one of the most romantic voices of all time. He could recite the Constitution and it would sound romantic. "When I Fall In Love" is just the epitome of romantic love songs. When you fall in love you want it to be forever. Well, then fall in love and make it forever. Do it, it's worth it.

Worst Love Songs

I only have six. Maybe because I can't be too harsh on an attempt at a love song. Maybe because I like love songs. Honestly, I only chose songs I have serious problems with. Man, I really hate these songs.

6. Every Breath You Take - Sting and the Police

I think this song is awesome. So why did I put it on the worst love songs list? Because if you think this is a love song you have been bamboozled. Sure the song sounds like a love song. The music is a really simple arrangement. It is almost happy sounding. But please read the lyrics. It's a song about stalking someone you are mad at. Sting said in an interview he wrote this one night right after his divorce. "I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour. The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realise at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control." He also said, "One couple told me 'Oh we love that song; it was the main song played at our wedding!' I thought, 'Well, good luck.'" So yeah. Not a love song. Let's get it straight people.

5. I'll Try - Alan Jackson

I didn't know this song but I was pointed to it by my friend Asia. Well, it is the quintessential "I'm a loser" song that says "Hey, I will give it a shot, but don't expect me to really love you." Honestly, how much love is behind the words, "I'll try to only love you." What the h Alan?

4. My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion

So the problem with this song is that it is SO ANNOYING!! I swear if I have to hear it one more time I will jump off the front of a huge ship into a freezing ocean. Her heart doesn't just go on and on; this song goes on and on. At the point when you think it's all over we hit the key change and it keeps going for another few hours. Enough.

3. You're Beautiful - James Blunt

This song has nothing to do with love. James Blunt was seriously off his rocker when he wrote this one and everyone who thought this was a good song was duped into believing this is a love song because he says, "You're beautiful." Just because he thinks someone is beautiful doesn't mean it's a love song and after hearing it a bujillion times on the radio I am sure that he basically is obsessing over some other guy's girlfriend that doesn't give a dang about him. Plus he said the F-word. Potty mouth.

2. Follow Me - Uncle Kracker

There is very little to say about this love song. First, its about a dude who is trying to get a woman to leave her husband. So basically adultery is the main theme. Second, his name is Uncle Kracker. What the heck? What woman in her right mind would think, "I have a nice husband who is good to me, but I'm going to go with the dude named Uncle Kracker."? Come on people. Let's think about these two words. Uncle. Not romantic. Kracker. Racial slur.

1. (I've Had) The Time of My Life - Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

If you love the movie Dirty Dancing, I'm sure you love this song. If there were any song I would wipe from the face of the planet, it would be this song. I just conjure up visions of old people on beaches in a Sandals commercial. I can't believe how angry I get when I hear this song. It doesn't even make sense because I don't really have more reasons why I hate this song. It's just terrible. It's the "end of something good" song where you tell the person you love, "I had the time of my life, now we have to go back to work and never have fun again." I know, I know. This makes no sense. But if I could make this song into a person I would fight them. And I would win.

Best, Less-known Love Songs

I only have five of these. Maybe because I don't want to act like I am so much cooler than you and know so many cool songs that you don't. Or maybe because I am not very original. I would lean toward the latter. I'm not going to tell you why I like them. They were just rolling around in my head as I was writing this and I thought I would throw them out there. I would describe them all in one word. Money.

5. I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You - Tina Arena and Marc Anthony
4. All of My Love - Led Zeppelin
3. Your Smiling Face - James Taylor
2. Love Lost - Temper Trap
1. Us - Rita Specktor