- This article is about the general concept. For other uses, see Love song (disambiguation).
A love song is about falling in love and the happiness it brings. By contrast, a heartbreak song is about a relationship breaking down, or the sadness of a love that has died. A heartbreak song is about lovers falling out of love and relationships failing Anthologies of love songs often contain a mixture of both of these types of song. A Bawdy song is both humorous and saucy, emphasizing the physical pleasure of love rather than the emotional joy. Ribaldry is humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to vulgar
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Girls' names
Many love songs are addressed directly to the person being admired. This means that a girl's name often appears in the title. Some well-known examples are "Maria" (from "West Side Story"), "Michelle" (The Beatles), "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" (Stephen Foster). "Maria" is a Song from the Broadway musical West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by " Michelle " is a Grammy Award –winning love Ballad by The Beatles, mainly written by Paul McCartney, which is featured on their " Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair " is an 1854 Song by the American songwriter Stephen Foster. It seems that songs sung from the girls point of view, with a man's name in the title, are less frequent. In 1964 Cilla Black had a hit with "You're MY World". Unusually, the song does not specify the sex of the singer. In the same year it was a hit for Harry Secombe. He did not need to change any of the words to make it refer to a man's love of a woman. The Crystals had a hit with "Then He Kissed Me". It was a simple matter for the Beach Boys to change a few words, and this became "Then I Kissed Her", also a hit. Other examples of songs with girls names in the title are "Annie's Song" (John Denver), "Peggy Sue" (Buddy Holly) and "Sherry" (The Four Seasons).
Explicit love songs have never been commercially successful. However it is usually possibly to use ambiguities to make a sung suggestive. "Tainted Love" (Soft Cell) is perhaps the best known example. Some historical or local names for a sweetheart often appear in the title. For example "My Old Dutch" (Albert Chevalier) contains the cockney rhyming slang word "Dutch" = "Duchess of Fife" = "Wife". Robert Burns' "John Anderson, My Jo" has the word "Jo" (18th century word for a sweetheart). Love songs in the first person are quite rare before the middle of the nineteenth century, but it is not known why this should be.
Famous love songs before 1945
Changes in style mean that few songs survive more than fifty years, but there are exceptions. Al Jolson had a hit with "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)". "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It" is a popular Song. It is better known in the film version by Judy Garland. "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (Friedman, Whitson) dates from 1910, and is still quite familiar. "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" is a popular Song, with music by Leo Friedman and lyrics by Beth Slater Whitson. "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" (McHugh, Fields) has become a jazz standard. "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" is a popular Song published in 1928. Cole Porter (a bisexual) wrote many witty love songs. Cole Albert Porter (June 9 1891 &ndash October 15 1964 was an American Composer and songwriter from Peru, Indiana. The best known one is possibly "I've Got You Under My Skin (song)". "You're Driving Me Crazy" (Walter Donaldson) has the jaunty feel of the 1920s, and is almost synonymous with Americans dancing the Charleston. " You’re Driving Me Crazy " is a US popular Song composed (music and lyrics by Walter Donaldson for the 1930 musical comedy Other songs that have survived from the 1920s included "The Very Thought of You" (Ray Noble), "All of Me (song)" (Marks, Simmons) and the country and western song "(I'm) Confessin' (That I Love You)" (Daugherty, Neiberg, Reynolds). "The Very Thought of You" is a Pop standard published in 1934, with music and lyrics by Ray Noble. " All Of Me " is a Popular song and Jazz standard written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons in 1931
The 1950s
The 1950s were perhaps the era of sophisticated slow melodic songs. "Unforgettable (song)" by Ray Charles is, well, unforgettable. "Unforgettable" is a popular Song written by Irving Gordon. Anita Bryant recorded "Till There Was You", and Johnny Mathis recorded "The Twelfth of Never". " Till There Was You " is a song written by Meredith Willson for his 1957 musical play The Music Man, and which also appeared in the " The Twelfth of Never " is a popular song recorded by Johnny Mathis and later by Donny Osmond. One of the last Cole Porter songs to be a commercial success was "True Love (song)" (Bing Crosby). " True Love " is a popular song written by Cole Porter and was published in 1956. By the time we reach "All I Have to Do Is Dream" (The Everley Brothers) we are in the era of rock and roll. " All I Have to Do Is Dream " is a popular Song made famous by the Everly Brothers written by the legendary husband and wife songwriting team Felice A pattern started to appear, that young rebellious singers would record punchy rock and roll songs at the start of their career, then move on to smoochy love songs later. Usually this meant they were no longer "Serious rockers". The Everley Brothers, Elvis Presley and the Beatles managed to retain their status as rockers, even after they became known for love songs. In the main, however, a ballad singer had a different career path from a rocker. "Unchained Melody" (Alex North/Hy Zaret) was a hit for eight different artists. " Unchained Melody " is a popular song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. The comedy version by "The Goons" was not a hit. "Dedicated to the One I Love" (Ralph Bass) was a hit twice. "Dedicated to the One I Love" is the name of a song written by Ralph Bass and Lowman Pauling "Only You (And You Alone)" (Ram, Rand) was a hit seven times over. " Only You (And You Alone " (often shortened to " Only You " is a pop song composed by Buck Ram and Ande Rand.
The 1960s
Artists that we would now call "Divas" began to appear in the sixties. There was Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to Be with You" and Aretha Franklin with "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". " I Only Want To Be With You " is a song by Mike Hawker and Ivor Raymonde. Old-school balladeers still had hits: Ray Charles with "I Can't Stop Loving You" and Frank Sinatra with "Somethin' Stupid". " Somethin' Stupid " is a song written by C Carson Parks and originally recorded in 1967 by Parks and his wife Gaile Foote as "Carson and Gaile" Jim Reeves last big hit "I Love You Because" could almost have been written 40 years earlier, it was so timeless. Pet Clark's "This Is My Song (1967 song)" was almost operatic. This Is My Song was an international hit song for British singer Petula Clark. Soul music/ R + B hits included "For Once in My Life" (Stevie Wonder). " For Once in My Life " is a pop song written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown Records ' Jobete publishing company in 1967 (see rocking love songs inclued "I'm a Believer" (The Monkees) and "All My Loving" (The Beatles). " I'm a Believer " is a song composed by Neil Diamond and recorded by the band The Monkees in 1966 with the lead vocals by Micky Dolenz " All My Loving " is a song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney, but credited to Lennon/McCartney, from the 1963 album country music gave us "Crazy (Willie Nelson song)" (Patsy Cline). "Crazy" is a Ballad composed by Willie Nelson. It has been recorded by several artists most notably by Patsy Cline, whose version was a #2 country Two big hits of the sixties defy categorization: "River Deep - Mountain High" (Ika and Tina Turner) and "God Only Knows" (Beach Boys). " River Deep - Mountain High " is a 1966 single by Ike & Tina Turner. " God Only Knows " is the eighth track on the Pet Sounds album and one of the most widely recognized songs performed by American pop Other hits include "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (Crewe Gaudio), "Can't Help Falling in Love" (Weiss, Peretti, Creatore) and "Anyone Who Had a Heart (song)" (Burt Bacharach). "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, was a 1967 single by Frankie Valli. " Can't Help Falling in Love " by George Weiss, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, is a pop song based on " Plaisir d'amour " Anyone Who Had a Heart " is a 1960s song by American songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
The 1970s
Barry White created his own orchestral soul style with "You're the First, the Last, My Everything". " You're the First the Last My Everything " is a popular song recorded by Barry White. "Nobody Does It Better" (Carly Simon) was helped by being the title song of a Bond movie, but it would probably have been a hit anyway. " Nobody Does It Better " is a Power ballad composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager. It was another 25 years before Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" had its greatest fame, but it was written in the 70s. " I Will Always Love You " is a song written and originally performed by American country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton (first released as a single in 1974 Charles Aznavour's "She" has the distinction of being the only number one hit for a living artist aged over 50. " She " is the title of a song written recorded and released by Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer. Other famous love songs of the seventies include "You're the One That I Want" (John Travolta) and "Without You" (Ham, Evans). " You're The One That I Want " is a song written by John Farrar for the 1978 film version of the musical Grease. " Without You " is a song originally recorded by Badfinger for their album No Dice (1970 and written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans Donna summer's "I Feel Love" sounded almost like an instrumental. " I Feel Love " is a song by Donna Summer, taken from her 1977 concept album I Remember Yesterday. Nazareth's 1975 recording of Love Hurts was a classic hit.
The 1980s and after
There have been fewer easy listening singers since the 1980s, and there has been a corresponding decline in the number of love songs that reached number one. Hits include "Hello" (Lionel Richie), "I Know Him So Well" (Rice, Andersson, Ulvaeus) and "Nothing Compares 2 U" (Prince). I Know Him So Well is a song from the Concept album and subsequent musical Chess by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus " Nothing Compares 2 U " is a song written in the mid-1980s by Prince for The Family. From the 1990s we have Brian Adams' "Everything I Do". The most famous love song of the nineties is "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls (however this song was more rock than a love song) or "Truly Madly Deeply" by Australian band Savage Garden. The Goo Goo Dolls are a Rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo New York by John Rzeznik and Robby Takac. Savage Garden was an Australian pop duo that enjoyed major international success between 1997 and 2000 These two songs would be the more known and loved of the songs in the '90s.
Operatic love songs
Some of the best-known operatic arias are love songs: "E lucevan le stelle" and "Recondita armonia" are from Verdi's "Tosca". E lucevan le stelle is the Romanza of Mario Cavaradossi in the 3rd act of Tosca, the opera composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian Recondita Armonia is the first Romanza in the opera Tosca, by Giacomo Puccini. Another Verdi favorite is "Celeste Aida" from "Aida". Celeste Aida ("Heavenly Aida" is the Romanza in the opera Aida, by Giuseppe Verdi. All of Puccini's operas have outstanding love songs, but "Che gelida manina" from "La Bohème" and "Un bel di vedremo" from "Madama Butterfly" should be mentioned. Even music lovers who don't go to operas will have heard The Flower Song (La Fleur que tu m'avais jetée) from Bizet's "Carmen". Finally there is "M'appari" from Flotow's "Martha" and "Porgi, amor" from Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro".
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