This Valentine's Day, there's nothing better than a playlist of the best love songs!
Valentine's Day, celebrated on February 14, is a day that celebrates love. Criticized for being a simple commercial celebration for some, for others it is an opportunity to express oneself through romantic gestures, thoughtful gifts and sweet words. And why not do it even better, in music? Love songs serve as the soundtrack to this day.
For centuries, love songs have been the universal language of affection and passion. They are often used to express what words alone cannot always convey, with poetic lyrics and captivating melodies that create a romantic atmosphere. From gentle ballads to passionate serenades to bold declarations of love, the diversity of love songs offers something for every couple, regardless of their love style or story. All in all languages.
Valentine's Day is a special occasion where love songs take on special importance. Whether you have planned a romantic candlelit dinner, a dance evening or a tête-à-tête with your loved one, or even if you have decided to do nothing, by choice or not, do it to music! To help you among the ocean of romantic titles, here is our playlist of the best love songs.
Still loving You is the success that reveals the German hard rock group Scorpions to the general public. Released in 1984 on the album Love at First Sting, this ballad, a declaration of love from a man to the woman who has just left him, was ranked 43 weeks in the French charts and 56 weeks in the American charts. An essential title in the mid-eighties.
Les paroles : Time, it needs time To win back your love again I will be there I will be there Love, only love Can bring back your love someday I will be there I will be there Fight, babe, I'll fight To win back your love again I will be there I will be there Love Only love Can break down the wall someday I will be there I will be there.
Don't leave me is the title that truly launched Jacques Brel's career in 1959. In the form of a plea, the song evokes the loss of dignity of a man for the love of a woman. If Brel's interpretation has a lot to do with it, other versions, such as that of Nina Simone, will magnify on the international scene this work which has remained cult and sung in more than 15 languages around the world.
The lyrics: Don't leave me / We must forget / Everything can be forgotten / Which is already running away / Forgetting time / Misunderstandings / And lost time / To know how / To forget these hours / Which sometimes killed / Suddenly why / The heart of happiness / Don’t leave me…
Written and first performed by Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah was released in 1984 on the album Various Positions. Using the metaphor of sexual love, the song was covered multiple times but became cult in 1994 with Jeff Buckley's ultra-sensitive interpretation on his album Grace. When Cohen died in 2016, Hallelujah reignited the charts and ranked 59th on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and 12th in digital sales.
Les paroles : I heard there was a secret chord / That David played and it pleased the lord / But you don't really care for music, do you / Well it goes like this / The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift / The baffled king composing hallelujah / Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah...
It came out in 1950 and yet has never been so good! Written and performed by Edith Piaf, Hymn to Love is dedicated to her current passion, the boxer Marcel Cerdan. A woman's affair, since the music is by Marguerite Monnot. In addition to Piaf's memorable interpretation, the title has been repeated many times on the international scene. In 2016, the BVA polling institute named Hymne à l'amour "French-speaking love song" the French people's favorite.
Lyrics: The blue sky over us may collapse / And the earth may well collapse / I don't care if you love me / I don't care about the whole world / As long as love floods my mornings / As long as my body quivers under your hands / I don't care about the problems / My love, since you love me...
If there is an essential hit among the 10 most beautiful love songs, it is I Will Always Love You, masterfully performed by Whitney Houston in 1992 for the film "Bodyguard", where the star opposite Kevin Costner. Flagship title of the 1990s, this heartbreaking declaration of an impossible love is in reality the cover of a big name in country, Dolly Parton, who created it in 1974 in a very different version. No matter, in 1992 the single spent 14 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. In the hearts of Americans, I Will Always Love You remains forever cult.
Les paroles : If I should stay / I would only be in your way / So I'll go, but I know / I'll think of you every step of the way / And I will always love you / I will always love you / You, my darling you / Bittersweet memories / That is all I'm taking with me.
Your Song is composed by the tandem Elton John and Bernie Taupin. When it was released in 1970, the ballad propelled Elton John, then virtually unknown in Britain, to international star status. The title calls out to some big names, like John Lennon, and has been covered numerous times. In 2003, Your Song was ranked 136th among the 500 greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Les paroles : It's a little bit funny, this feelin' inside / I'm not one of those who can easily hide / I don't have much money, but boy, if I did / I'd buy a big house where we both could live / If I was a sculptor, but then again, no / Or a man who makes potions in a travelin' show.
Among Jacques Brel's first compositions, When we only have love is his very first success. The strength of the text rests on the Brazilian crescendo which underlines its dramatic progression. Released in 1956, the song won the Grand Prix du Disque Charles Cros and was a triumph at the Alhambra. Its numerous covers, particularly by the younger generation in the 2010s, definitively anchor When we have only love among the flagship love songs.
The lyrics: When we only have love / To offer ourselves to share / On the day of the great journey / What is our great love / When we only have love / My love you and me / So that bursts of joy / Every hour and every day…
We couldn't miss the sentimental song par excellence: Love Me Tender, from the title of the eponymous film, is of course performed by Elvis Presley. The lyrics of this languorous ballad are by Ken Darby. Broadcast for the first time on the radio in 1956 without being published, the song received more than a million pre-orders, making it number 1 in the charts even before its publication. Love Me Tender has toured the world several times, note the remarkable interpretation of Johnny Cash.
Les paroles : Love me tender / Love me sweet / Never let me go / You have made my life complete / And I love you so / Love me tender / Love me true / All my dreams fulfilled / For my darlin' I love you / And I always will.
With or Without You is signed and performed by the Irish rock group U2. Released in 1987 on the album The Joshua Tree, the title immediately ignited the United States and Canada, where it appeared for 3 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, the song has been regularly ranked by polling institutes , as in 2010 when Rolling Stone magazine listed it in 132nd place among the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Les paroles : See the stone set in your eyes / See the thorn twist in your side / I'll wait for you / Sleight of hand and twist of fate / On a bed of nails she makes me wait / And I wait, without you / With or without you / With or without you.
Written and composed by Jean-Jacques Goldman in 1995, Pour que tu m'aimes encore and the album that supports it, D'eux, embody a turning point in the career of Canadian singer Céline Dion. For once, the interpreter of the flagship song from "Titanic" leaves the label of vocal singer to slip with restraint into a series of exclusively confidential titles, on themes that are most often painful. With this introspection against a backdrop of intimate emotions, Goldman offers Dion the most touching of his albums. Pour que tu m'aime encore peaked for weeks at the top of all hits, including in non-French-speaking countries. In France, the song won the “Victoire de la chanson 1996”.
Lyrics: I understood all the words, I understood well, thank you / Reasonable and new, that's how it is around here / That things have changed, that the flowers have faded / That the time before, it was the time before / That if everything fades and gets tired, loves also pass.
If France has always been prolific when it comes to love songs, the French-speaking charts are even more so! Odes, supplications, fiery declarations, Molière's language teems with expressions chosen to proclaim his attachment in every tone.
With its direct expressions that sound like no other language in the world, English is often chosen by artists of all nationalities to express their passion. What could be more effective than “Love me”?
Among the most memorable movie love songs of all time, we will remember I Will Always Love You and the sublime voice of Whitney Houston (Bodyguard, 1992), My Heart Will Go On performed by Céline Dion (Titanic, 1997), She whispered by Elvis Costello (Love at first sight in Notting Hill, 1999), all the songs whose melodies are by Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story, 1961), or even All I Want For Christmas Is You performed by Olivia Olson ( Love Actually, 2003).
The best declarations of love in song often express attachments that are inaccessible or difficult to confess. With Personal Message, written for Françoise Hardy in 1974, Michel Berger addresses Véronique Sanson who has just left him. With Woman in Love (written by Barry and Robin Gibb), Barbra Streisand launches a heartbreaking appeal to an inaccessible man.
