Staff Picks: 8 Love Songs Perfect for Valentine’s Day

Love songs have been big business probably since music was invented. (Seriously, I’m sure cavemen were grunting them from the time vocal chords evolved.) In rock, there’s no genre quite like tunes the recount passionate affairs and broken hearts. In honor of Valentine’s Day Saturday, here are eight songs you should play for your sweetie.

1) “Silly Love Songs,” Wings (1976)

Picked by: Jim

Sure, there are probably better, more passionate and arousing pieces to consider, all of which we recollect with a certain amount of imposed importance. And that’s what makes this piece by Paul McCartney, who’s filled a few positions on the heavy love song chart all by himself as well as with the Beatles, all the more notable. He recognizes that as a sub-genre, love songs are as he calls them silly…  and that’s okay! His owning up to some of the limits of and conclusions about love songs in toto and granting the listener permission to indulge makes the piece one of the most self-aware songs ever done, and unlike a lot of self-aware works, you can listen to this a few times in a row every day for years and not get sick of it. It’s both the perfect antidote to, and example of, love songs as a whole.

2) “Woman,” John Lennon (1980)

Picked by: Pam

This may be the most difficult Staff Picks I’ve contributed to so far because choosing a favorite love song is like asking me to pick my favorite variety of cheese (I love them all, including processed Velveeta). One that often takes my breath away and causes me to declare out loud, “They just don’t write love songs like this anymore,” however, is John Lennon’s “Woman” from the Double Fantasy album. It wasn’t just an ode to Yoko Ono, but a composition celebrating all women, as Lennon confirms at the start of the song when he whispers, “For the other half of the sky.” He told Rolling Stone that “Woman” was his grown-up version of the Beatles’ “Girl,” and by the time the song was released, Lennon himself had grown up as well. He had reunited with Ono after his “lost weekend” from a few years earlier and seems to be begging for forgiveness for his “thoughtlessness.” George Harrison’s “Something” and Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” are rightly cited as among the best love songs written by Beatles, but “Woman” surely stands on its own.

3) “Thirteen,” Big Star (1972)

Picked by: Liam

There’s no love quite like your first love. It’s innocent, messy, all-encompassing, and sadly, often fleeting. “Thirteen,” from power pop titans Big Star’s debut album, #1 Record, manages to capture all of those feelings and more with just two acoustic guitars, some heavenly harmonies, and the pleading vocals of Alex Chilton. No matter how old you are, it’s enough to send chills down your spine and give you the same elated, almost queasy sensation of the intoxication of young love, like a biological directive you’re helpless to control, not that you’d even want to, and furthermore, what does her dad know anyway, the Stones are rad, etc. Though Chilton would reportedly later be embarrassed by the song and its teenage sentiments, “Thirteen” continues to provide solace for those currently caught in the throes of first love, and nostalgia for those who want to remember what it was like to desperately try and work up the courage to ask tell that special someone how you really feel — if only for about two and a half minutes.

4) “Songbird,” Fleetwood Mac (1977)

Picked by: David

I openly admit there’s a bit of danger in picking a song off of Rumours about love — the band’s lives were so famously messed up at that time that Christine McVie could be singing this song about anyone. But if Rumours itself is any indication, good art transcends its inspirations. A gorgeous, stripped-down song featuring one of the strongest vocal performances on a uniformly strong album, McVie’s song about love and wishing for the best from it stands as an all-time great and all-time underrated love song. (It’s only underrated because it was the B-side to “Dreams,” making that single one of the best double-A-sides I’ve ever heard.)

5) “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” Stevie Wonder (1973)

Picked by: Emma

I almost feel like this song is too personal for me, so I apologize if I get gushy, but this is the song that plays in my head whenever I feel really happy with another creature. I have sung it to my cat and contemplated singing it to my ex (definitely sang it in my head) when I’ve been really happy. And the power of it is so great that even ceasing to be happy with that person didn’t ruin it for me. I don’t know why it seems to perfectly convey feelings for me, but it’s almost like the musical version of a purr  (okay, guess who’s spending Valentine’s Day with her cat?).

6) “Sea of Love,” Phil Phillips (1959)

Picked by: Allison

Not to be confused with the American Idol sire, this Phil Phillips was a New Orleans bellboy who wrote and recorded “Sea of Love” in 1959 and took it to #1 on the Billboard R&B charts and #2 on the Hot 100. This song has always brought out a swell of emotions for me because it was my parents’ “song.” For years, I’d turn it off when it came on because it was just too hard to hear it after my father’s death, but now I absolutely adore it. For me, it stands as a testimony of true love, evidenced by my dad writing out the lyrics for my mom and giving them to her as a gift. He died when I was relatively young, so that act has weirdly bonded me to him because the song — and the sentiment — meant that much to him. Personally, when I listen to Phillips’ crooning those beautiful words on top of the quintessential doo-wop backups, I’m sure there’s no love song so complete and so intimately honest. I’m not one of those girls that dreams about her wedding dress, location, or is even adamant about getting married at all, but I do have an ultimate wedding playlist brewing in my brain. This is definitely at the top.

7) “My Love,” Paul McCartney & Wings (1973)

Picked by: Sarah

I know Paul has already featured this week, which is testament to what a great writer of love songs he is, but I just had to pick this one. I can still remember the first time I heard it and what an effect it had on me, and it still has the same effect whenever I listen to it now. The lyrics are quite simple, but there’s something about the melody and beautiful instrumentation that’s just so haunting. Linda McCartney undoubtedly inspired some of the greatest love songs ever written, and for me, this one is the best.

8) “Our House,” Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970)

Picked by: Erika

Seriously, I had trouble writing about this song — because it’s the only love song I know that makes me cry every time I hear it. On the surface, it may seem like a pedestrian story about an ordinary couple, but it’s so much more. It perfectly expresses the tenderness of the quiet, yet deep, feelings that come from appreciating how life’s everyday moments become extraordinary when they’re shared with a true love. For those couples who are celebrating Valentines Day with their soulmate, isn’t that what it’s all about?

What’s your favorite love song? Let us know in the comments!