Last night on Glee, it was about the same as it’s been all season, including a Katy Perry song. On the upside, the Warblers from Songworts actually got a good song to sing and it looks like Kurt and Blaine are finally going to sort of live out the romantic musical comedy both of them have been waiting for. So today we’re going to be talking love songs.
We’re coming up on the pinkest of holidays, Valentine’s Day. We’re not going to get too up in the Cupid nonsense, when Sally J and I were in college, we called it Blood Clot day and kowtowing now would harm our memories of ourselves as hard-ass 19 year olds. (We had Cure t-shirts, for heaven’s sake. Of course we were hard-ass.) Valentine’s Day is a great time for music, however, since 90% of everything written in the past 50 years is about falling in love or breaking up. I thought we’d split those two musical themes up between today and tomorrow, when it’s my turn at the Daily Goodie wheel. Today, we’re looking at the very best love songs. I’m going to toss up a few and then you jump in with your suggestions in the comments. (As Persephone always tries to be fair, tomorrow we’re doing best FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE songs.)
Al Green – Love and Happiness. Now I recognize that when we’re talking about Al and love songs, “Let’s Stay Together” is both an obvious and strong choice. It’s the horns in Love and Happiness, as well as the upbeat tempo and Al’s smooth and silky finesse that edge it above “Let’s Stay Together” for me.
The Beach Boys – God Only Knows. It’s hard for me not to picture Bill and the Henrickson Home Plus Wifely Trio ice skating, but this is a beautiful little love song. The Beach Boys know their way around some harmony, and this is just a happy, lovely song.
Ella Fitzgerald – My Funny Valentine. I had to choose between Etta, Ella, Sarah, Chaka and Frank on this one, which is a choice no one should ever have to make. I picked Ella because I think this version is the sweetest.
Frank Sinatra – Night and Day. By far my favorite Cole Porter (he’s from Indiana!) song, and Frank is smooth as an icy Manhattan on a hot summer’s night.
Etta James – The Very Thought of You. I don’t think I need to explain this one.
Roberta Flack – The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. A song so beautiful it almost makes me believe in fairy tales.
Now that you’re feeling all squishy, what are your favorite silly little love songs?
Heart cookies image credit from asirip on Flickr
31 replies on “TDG: Silly Little Love Songs”
Either
“Something” by The Beatles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ohaMarNbKs (Ignore that the uploader doesn’t know much…)
OR
“Unforgiven II” by Metallica http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea–faRAoBM (Shuddup, I was an angsty teen and it seemed perfect and I still love it.)
Friday I’m in Love and Lovesong by The Cure by myself and the bf, definitely.
At My Most Beautiful by REM, I think someone’s mentioned? Strange Currencies by them as well. Told You So and I Think I Love You by the Guggenheim Grotto are good fun, as is Kathleen by Josh Ritter. Headlong by The Frames.
I want Perfect Lovesong by The Divine Comedy as a wedding song someday. Neil Hannon writes great offbeat love songs – Everybody Knows (Except You) is fantastic, and Songs of Love of course.
There are some great songs listed here! I’m going to make a list of ones to add to my iPod. Here are a few more that I love:
Only You – Platters
Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers
Dream Lover – Bobby Darren
She’s Everything – Brad Paisley
Secret – Maroon 5 (ok, it’s not a “love” song per-se, but it’s damn sexy)
The fact that I’m admitting, in a public forum, that I do actually like some love songs is in and of itself a miracle. You womenz should be proud for bringing me out of my shell. Now, on to my list:
Somebody–DePeche Mode (turn off before the last lyrics)
I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)–Stevie Wonder
Thank You–Dido
Won’t Let You Go–Sly Fox
Brand New Key–Rasputina or Melanie
I’ll Stand By You–The Pretenders
You’re My Best Friend/Thing Called Love/Somebody to Love–Queen (I’ve already determined if I get married, my husband & I will have our first dance to this medley..followed by him ripping off the bottom of my dress (a la the Buffy movie prom scene) and rollin’ out Fat Bottom Girls!
Your Song by Elton John wins me over every time. Other favorites include:
I Want You Around (The Ramones)
Better Days (Josh Joplin Group)
The Luckiest (Ben Folds)
I’ll Be Here In The Morning (Townes Van Zandt)
Something (The Beatles)
For The Longest Time (Billy Joel)
Gotta Have You (The Weepies)
and a big agreement on God Only Knows (Beach Boys)
Kinda cheesy but I love ’em anyway:
‘All My Loving’, The Beatles
‘You’re My Best Friend’, Queen
‘Sway’, Bic Runga
‘Even When I’m Sleeping’, Leonardo’s Bride
(so much of Glee makes me rant-y, but last night I just wanted to pet Kurt for being so grown-up and direct and not a totally self-absorbed and self-destructed asshole like 90% of the other categories! Also, a very low Schue quotient, which makes me happy.)
Love songs!
You Rise and Meet the Day (Dar Williams)
First Day of My Life (Bright Eyes)
At My Most Beautiful (R.E.M)
God Only Knows (The Beach Boys–but as a heretic, there are covers I prefer)
If You Were the Woman, and I Were the Man (The Cowboy Junkies)
Love Minus Zero (Bob Dylan)
I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash)
That Bright Eyes song always either makes me smile or cry, depending on my mood. Love it.
“Real Love” by the Beatles is one of my absolute favorite love songs. Regina Spektor covered it for the Instant Karma Amnesty International CD and it was awesome.
I used to make Mr. Danger mixes all the time, stuffed with romantic-to-us songs. Our first dance (probably the closest thing to “our song”) was “Time After Time,” the Eva Cassidy version.
See also:
“Somebody Loved†– The Weepies
“Thirteen†– Big Star
“Maps†– Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“Redundantâ€/â€Poprocks and Coke†– Green Day
“Friday I’m in Love†– The Cure
“This Will Be Our Year†– The Zombies
“The Book of Love†– The Magnetic Fields
“In My Life†– The Beatles
“Not Fade Away†– The Rolling Stones
Thanks for making me choke on my coffee. Blood Clot day it was. I remember wishing people VD too. Do they even call it VD anymore?
There are MANY fine love songs by U2, but I won’t bore you, Selena, with them.
We danced to “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” by Mr. Dean Martin at our wedding, and one of the last songs we danced to that night was “Friday I’m in Love” by the Cure.
I”m also a fan of Dave Matthews “Crash”, Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” and nearly all of Cole Porter’s Songs on Red, Hot + Blue.
I almost put a U2 song on this list, but I couldn’t find a decent video. All I Want is You is actually a great song, and a fantastic love song, with a video that still makes me cry. All YouTube had was a live version and Bono was wearing stupid glasses and ruined everything. As Bono is wont to do. ; )
Also, sarcasm aside, we are still totally as hard-ass as we were in college.
Oh, definitely “you and me” by the Wannadies.
And Blondie’s “x offender”
And “on the street where you live” from My Fair Lady
And “punk rock girl” by the Dead Milkmen
I could do this all day long. For such a cynic, I’m finding it really easy to think of love songs I like!
Love songs are apparently hugely personal, I have to say…none of your songs do a thing for me! It’s like seeing the wrong person nekked.
I can’t really get it up for any of your songs either. It’s not you, it’s me and my love for upbeat pop music and the 90s.
I’m clutching my old lady pearls a little, but I hear you. And that’s okay, it just means more Ella, Etta and Roberta for me.
“True Blue” by Madonna is probably my favorite love song. I love the beat, and the lyrics are so happy it just feels nice listening to it.
Others are:
Michelle Branch – “Everywhere”
No Doubt – “Running”
Madonna – “Like a Prayer”
Frank Sinatra – “Come Fly With Me” (I love the let’s-travel-together aspect of this song)
ABBA – “Lay All Your Love on Me”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Soul to Squeeze”
Elton John – “Your Song”
Cascada – “Everytime We Touch” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jylhbkhjfLc
Love ABBA! It was like shooting a sitting duck. A little small talk, a smile, and baby I was stuck.
I almost put Erasure’s version of Lay All Your Love on here, as well as Your Song and True Blue (in lieu of Like A Prayer.)
oh I do so love “Your Song”. *sigh*
We’re going on our honeymoon this weekend* and I was planning to put together a playlist of sappy and silly and fun love songs for the road trip. This is a really well-placed post!
I love the Beach Boys. God Only Knows is one of the best, but I also really like the A side of that single, which is Wouldn’t It Be Nice. So sweet.
Our first dance song at our wedding was Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes), the version by Michael Buble and Sharon Jones. It’s sweet enough without being TOO saccharine and slow without being TOO slow and plodding. Love it. It was my second place preference to Our House by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, which is my favorite love song ever. Who doesn’t love a love song about the little things in your everyday life that make you happy?
I also unabashedly enjoy Let’s Hear it for the Boy, that fabulous 80s classic from Deniece Williams. I still maintain that it’s a modern day retelling of Sonnet 130.
*NOT a Valentine’s trip. I adamantly don’t do Valentine’s Day.
Love Crosby Stills and Nash – I think that the self titled album is the perfect sound track for Lurrrve.
Have an awesome trip chica!
“She is Staggering” by Polaris from The Adventures of Pete and Pete is still one of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRIMDwui6Mk
“So Come Back, I Am Waiting” by Okkervil River is another favorite–it’s slow to build but the final payoff is so gorgeous and sweeping that it kills me every time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_44sl1nHFY&feature=related
Love songs to the.bleach, as inspired by mixed CDs her best friend used to make her in high school when all they wanted was to walk down a deserted beach in the early morning and find a boy with ocean-y eyes eating a mango and writing ukelele songs for his dog:
http://ilike.myspacecdn.com/play#Poi+Dog+Pondering:That%27s+The+Way+Love+Is:227087:s44836868.11594829.21353951.0.2.112%2Cstd_2f6ea8c57af54a1e8aece951fccf64e3
http://www.zappinternet.com/video/DoLlSipQum/Carole-King-I-feel-the-earth-move-live
Squishy is the perfect word to describe how all those songs affect me. I have actually been rehearsing “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” with my voice teacher and I am surprising the future Mr. with it at our wedding.
How about this one?
(I am not certain if I can link to YouTube here, so if not, it’s Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed.”
“Pants” by Lemuria is one of my favorite love songs, but I can’t find a good video to post (all the live ones make it hard to hear the lyrics).
Here’s another favorite:
Er, maybe not. I don’t know how to post videos, so go here to listen to “Oh!” by Sleater-Kinney: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VyISV9L0qU
“Nobody lingers like your hands on my heart
Nobody figures like you figured me out
I would be lying if I didn’t say to you
No one comes close don’t worry you got it!”
I Love that Sleater-Kinney song. I’ve definitely listened to it in my bedroom with hearts in my eyes too many times.
Some one like you – Van Morrison. Ohhh swooon. Anything really Van Morrison, because he turns Mr. Fitz and I into instant love monkeys.
Then there’s the fun love song that makes you want to dance and smile – They love each other- Grateful Dead 1973.
Oops pasted the wrong youtube video. Yes I’m a Phish nerd. This link is the Van Morrison.
My favorite, favorite love song of all time is “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” by Jackie Wilson. He just sounds so happy to be in love!