Best & Worst Love Songs

Amazon mentioned Heart's 'Alone' in the listening thread and it got me thinking about love songs. What are your best and your cheesiest worst? Include a link or an embed if you'd like us to swoon or vomit along with you. This is one of my absolute favourites.  I love the way it sounds, I love The __________ , and I love what it says. And then there's this horrible sounding hot mess of mozarella stuffed brie rolled in roquefort bits.

Let's see... I'll have to say that this is my all-time favorite non-Queen love song. It's perfect in every way, as far as I'm concerned: And this is the cheesiest cheesefest I can think of at the moment. I can't listen to it all the way through... it makes me want to gag:

Oops! Double post! Sorry.

See now I wish people would post videos all the time! I had never heard of Matthew Sweet and now I have.  And I love that your best love song sounds nothing like what most people think of as love songs. Very cool. A serious poster from the comments on the Aerosmith above: "If love was a playlist, this song would be the first to play" Ah ha haahaha! Today's favourite, which actually makes it into my overall favourite songs of any genre is John Hiatt's 'Feels Like Rain'.  Hiatt is an exceptional artist who like people like Warren Zevon manages to fly just under the radar for the most part.  The song is set in New Orleans - a city the writers of love songs often seem to tap to evoke something particular about love and passion it seems to me.

This triumph of curd starts off so very bad that it actually gets good, and then he starts talking about seed and it's at that point that I just get pale and the illusion that it's actually so bad it's good crumbles completely.  The abortion part has to be some of the funniest stuff ever cut to vinyl.

GratefulFan wrote: See now I wish people would post videos all the time! I had never heard of Matthew Sweet and now I have.  And I love that your best love song sounds nothing like what most people think of as love songs. Very cool. A serious poster from the comments on the Aerosmith above: "If love was a playlist, this song would be the first to play" Ah ha haahaha! Today's favourite, which actually makes it into my overall favourite songs of any genre is John Hiatt's 'Feels Like Rain'.  Hiatt is an exceptional artist who like people like Warren Zevon manages to fly just under the radar for the most part.  The song is set in New Orleans - a city the writers of love songs often seem to tap to evoke something particular about love and passion it seems to me. This triumph of curd starts off so very bad that it actually gets good, and then he starts talking about seed and it's at that point that I just get pale and the illusion that it's actually so bad it's good crumbles completely.  The abortion part has to be some of the funniest stuff ever cut to vinyl. ================================================ I love John Hiatt. It seems that most of the music I listen to is stuff by people that should be a household name, but for whatever fail to catch on. On my YouTube channel, I have an episode of an old VH1 show called "Duets" that features both Matthew Sweet and John Hiatt. It's totally awesome! Here's part one: Also; I wish people would pick up on Warren Zevon. In my opinion, he was one of the backbones of the California sound of the '70s. Just a phenomenal musician...

Late For the Sky, by Jackson Brown. Beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evb_tl4lcUk

No More I Love Yous, by Annie Lennox

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrtcMMNxUG8

Changes, by Black Sabbath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otSXkJWeSFo

Barry Manilow - Could It Be Magic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xBG_d-_6bc

Anything from the lovely Carole King....."will you still love me tomorrow"   And the one and only "love of my life"  are two that i love.   Ones i hate?.....I would have to think about that.

Great posts, all of you guys.

I watched all four parts of that Hiatt/Sweet show on your channel Dan C.  Thanks so much for bringing it to my attention!  It was super.  Loved watching two excellent musicians just doing their thing, working it out backstage on the fly. Absolute pros.  All the tunes sounded great, and the little surprise Ramones jam at the end was awesome. :)   The people that have covered guys like John Hiatt and Warren Zevon show what epic songwriters they are/were.  Hey, if you had to recommend one or possibly two Matthew Sweet albums, which would they be? 

I pulled up the lyrics while I listened to most of the songs on this thread, and that was a mistake as far as that Jackson Browne one went in that it literally made me cry. Which was a slightly disconcerting thing to do at the end of the day at work. That song stayed with me for a couple of hours.  I noticed in the comments that it was in 'Taxi Driver', which I've seen at least 3 times, though it's been a long time.  I don't remember it, and can't imagine not remembering it, because I love that movie and I Iove Jackson Browne.  Huh. I thought of Peter Gabriel's 'Blood of Eden', which has the poetry of 'Late for the Sky'and the gloom of 'Changes', though it's darker than both. 

There's an interesting connection with Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne.  In the early 70's Warren had become disillusioned with struggling fruitlessly in Hollywood trying to build a music career.  He fled far away, and lived for a time in Spain with his wife where he played, in his words,  "country and western music in an Irish bar". In his absence, Jackson Browne twisted a few arms and called in a few favours and secured financing for Warren's first album. He sent Warren a post card and told him to come home.  He did, Jackson produced the album, and the rest is history.

For some reason that clip of 'No More I Love Yous' is blocked in Canada. That's been happening with a bunch of Sony stuff lately. Annoying.

I love it how many always mention Every Breath You Take by The Police as one of their favourite love songs. I guess it depends of how you interpret the word 'love'.

Off-topic but the song "Every Breath You Take" by The Police reminds me of the ferry service between my country and an island in our neighbouring country.  The ferry service always play this song when the vessel reaches the destination and the passengers are to disembark to clear immigration.

The name of the band and the words "I'll be watching you" always make me laugh.

i think for fast love song, "got my mind set on you" cover to george harrison.   great

Rick wrote: I love it how many always mention Every Breath You Take by The Police as one of their favourite love songs. I guess it depends of how you interpret the word 'love'. ============================ This prompted a little bittersweet smile.  I was one of those questionable people who shared this song with someone as 'our song', as our love song. I don't even remember why, or at what point along the way it happened. I was still a teenager over those years, and he was four years older than me; both of us too young or too in love at the time to appreciate the lyrics for what they were.  I got him a pure white kitten one time after a fight, and we called her 'Syncronicity' or just Sync or Syncie for short after the album. Tragically, he was killed in a terrible car accident on Thanksgiving Day in 1984.  As one might expect, the song and it's lyrics hit another level and I know in a way it prolonged letting go and prolonged the desperate psychological and emotional searching for him because it felt like he was still there, watching me.  It prolonged it, but it was comfort too.  I still think about him at least once a week or so, just a quick thought that acknowledges his life and his loss and that he was loved and important to many people. So, today, in memory of an old, good friend my favourite love song is that one that shouldn't even be a love song, but somehow, it was.

I suppose this is a love song in its own way. Maybe about lost love. I like this anyway Heres one I dont like

I'm personally a fan of Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me."

I don't think that's a love song by most people's standards but it works for me, haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rKHeN69r_M&feature=avmsc2

GratefulFan wrote: Great posts, all of you guys. I watched all four parts of that Hiatt/Sweet show on your channel Dan C.  Thanks so much for bringing it to my attention!  It was super.  Loved watching two excellent musicians just doing their thing, working it out backstage on the fly. Absolute pros.  All the tunes sounded great, and the little surprise Ramones jam at the end was awesome. :)   The people that have covered guys like John Hiatt and Warren Zevon show what epic songwriters they are/were.  Hey, if you had to recommend one or possibly two Matthew Sweet albums, which would they be? =================================================== Well, since you dug "Sick of Myself" I'd suggest "100%Fun" for sure. It's full of great stuff. However, 2008's "Sunshine Lies" is perhaps my favorite record he's done to date. And if you get it on iTunes, there are six bonus tracks! can't go wrong! On topic, here is another favorite of mine: I can listen to that song over and over and it never loses an ounce of it's charm. And here's one I absolutely detest: However, as a rule, I pretty much hate anything Diane Warren writes ("I Don't Want To Miss a Thing"? Totally hers).