Love songs touch people in a way that nothing else can. They can sway the most prideful person to forgive. Love songs help you remember when and why you fell in love. Love songs are for every season, every person, and every relationship. Whether you’re in the 9th grade and had your first kiss, or have been married for 5 decades and still in love, love songs are for everyone. Love songs generally consist of falling in love, meeting someone for the first time, missing someone who is not with you, or heart break.
Many popular love songs had girl’s names. For example there’s the hit “Think of Laura” by Christopher Cross. Toto sang about a girl named “Rosanna”. Steven Perry of Journey brought himself to tears while singing “Oh Sherry”. There’s also the pop hit “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s.
Even rap got into those type of songs. LL Cool J told the world that “I need Love”. The ghetto hit “You’re All I Need” by Method Man & Mary J Blige actually won them an MTV Award.
There are different types of themes for songs. You have songs for weddings, romantic country songs, cheesy teenage songs about their love, R&B romantic songs, heavy metal rock ballads, jazz songs are talking about love, blues deals with this subject, and yes, reggae is not immune to love, eiher. Love songs say we will get through this. You have for example Phil Collins hit “Against All Odds”. Some love songs say it hurts but it’s worth it as in Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield”. Some of the songs embrace the bliss and euphoria of being with your soul mate as in Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed”. There are songs that say it’ll be alright and it’s us against the world as in Bon Jovi’s “You Were Born to be My Baby”.
Some so called romantic songs defined a decade: 70’s were the year of love, long hair, and totally open hearts that embraced the intense emotion of love. The Soulful Al Green said “Let’s Stay Together”. Donna Summer went quasi instrumental with her interpretation of “I feel Love” While Nazareth went to the dark side with “Love Hurts”.
The 80’s were more about big hair, makeup, all night parties and hangovers, but love made their way onto the airwaves anyway. Lionel Richie woke us up with “Hello”, and made every guy want to call his girlfriend right away. Kenny Rogers made every woman cry with “Lady”. Foreigner made every woman feel wanted with “Waiting for a Girl Like You.” Chris DeBurgh fascinated us with “Lady in Red” (which also became a very popular wedding song during the 80’s). Whitney Houston had one of the most popular love songs in the 80’s with “The Greatest Love of All”. Her majestic voice made even the men tear up (though they’ll never admit it).
Then along came the 90’s with much darker, and heart wrenching romantic songs. Because grunge became so popular with it’s industrial, hard rock edginess, it comes as no surprise that most love songs of the 90’s were R&B and soft rock. Take Mariah Carey and Boys II Men’s “One Sweet Day” for example. IT was a soft R&B ballad which set the town for many more 90’s duet love songs. John Michael Montgomery sang with All-4-One and produced the hit “I Will Love You Like That”. Barbara Streisand and Bryan Adams came together to sing “I Finally Found Someone”. However, Celine Dion (who sang solo on this one) had the most famous song of the 90’s with “My Heart Will Go On”. It remains the number one selling love song of all time.
The decade beginning with 2000 began with a redefining. We were not the cheesy generation of the 80’s. Neither were we the dark, gothic “generation X” of the 90’s. We still though, had love songs. Kimberly Locke told her man he was the “8th World Wonder”. Michelle Branch told us to “Breath”. Mary J Blige touched every heart with the R&B hit “Can’t Be Without You”. Jennifer Lopez wowed us with the remake of “You’re My Everything”. Mariah Carey, Joe, and 98 Degrees didn’t get enough credit with their powerful love ballad “Thank God I found you”. The 2000-2009 decade may not have had a musical identity, but the songs from this period had lots of passion.
Things change. People change, and so do generations. Yet love songs are eternal. They define us in ways nothing else can.
