by Kevin Burton
I have made the case for "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney as the greatest love song ever written.
But it's Valentine's week and nobody's going to buy that claim just now. Feb. 14 calls for something with a different feel.
So I phoned a friend, so to speak. I got a list of more traditionally romantic songs fit for Valentine's Day, from pioneerwoman.com. Theirs was the best list out of the dozen or so that I looked at.
Also I endorse their wish for you that you "Make February 14 a lovey-dovey, groovy day."
We won't have room for all 40 of the songs on their list, but I will mention a few of my favorites:
#16 "Bless This Broken Road" by Rascal Flats
Hard to imagine but true: Rascal Flats had this song in the can but briefly forgot about it, according to SongFacts. So it appeared on their second album, not their first.
First dance at my wedding was "Only Yesterday" by the Carpenters. Broken Road is along that same vein of surviving multiple heartaches to find true love.
Lyrics: "That every long-lost dream led me to where you are. Others who broke my heart, they were like Northern stars pointing me on my way into your loving arms. This much I know is true, that God blessed the broken road That led me straight to you."
# 27 "You're Stil the One" by Shania Twain
Twain makes their list twice (also with #2 "From This Moment On") Finding love against all odds and proving people wrong are both powerful elements of You're Still the One. .
Wish I could quantify what makes some love songs cloying while others go straight to the heart. This one is interesting musically – partly sweet, partly bright – and Twain nails the crooning vocals.
The song was written by Twain and her rock producer husband Mutt Lange, according to SongFacts Though that marriage broke up after 17 years due to Lange's infidelity, Twain still considers the song one of her favorites.
#9 "Just The Way You Are" by Billy Joel
"Don't go changing to try and please me," sings Joel, and isn't that what we all want to hear? "I love you just the way you are."
Can you believe Joel almost didn't put the song on his The Stranger album?
"After Joel recorded this, he didn't think much of it, considering it a 'gloppy ballad' that would only get played at weddings," according to SongFacts. "He credits his producer, Phil Ramone, with convincing him that it was a great song. Ramone brought Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow into the recording studio to hear the song, and of course they loved it, which was good enough for Billy."
#14 "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green
"Let me be the one you come running to," sings Al Green in the 1972 smash Let's Stay Together promising to love his woman whether times are "good or bad, happy or sad."
Much like Joel, Green didn't want to record a song that now is a classic.
"According to Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 songs, after Willie Mitchell gave Al Green a rough mix of a tune he and drummer Al Jackson had developed, Green wrote the lyrics in five minutes, according to SongFacts. "However, Green didn't want to record the song and for two days he argued with Willie Mitchell before finally agreeing to cut it."
"Green did about 100 takes before he got one he liked," according to SongFacts. "and even then he wasn't sure the song was any good." It was Mitchell who set him straight telling him it 'had magic on it.'"
#18 "Valentine" by Jim Brickman (featuring Martina McBride)
I was not familiar with this song, but with a title like "Valentine" I had to give it a shot right?
"I thought it was odd that for a day or for a word that is such a euphemism for love that there wasn't a song that celebrated it, considering that most songs are love songs," Brickman told SongFacts. "So, it seemed odd to me that the only one was a sad song: 'My Funny Valentine.' (That song, byFrank Sinatra ,also made Pioneer Woman's list, at number 34.)
Valentine is a tale of love that perseveres through the inevitable curveballs life throws us. It's a promise of devotion, come what may.
Lyric: And even if the sun refused to shine, even if romance ran out of rhyme, you would still have my heart until the end of time 'cause all I need is you, my valentine."
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