How you feel about Valentine’s Day is often dependent on your romantic relationship status. But I believe a universal truth of life is that love is for everyone, in whatever forms it may take. So, no matter where you are in life, I think it’s worth it to be able to appreciate the merits of a well-written love song.
Whether you’re in a romantic relationship, happily single or searching for love this Valentine’s Day, here are five of my favorite songs about love.
After years of loving this song, it never fails to make me emotional, and it resonates even more around the season of love.
“Thirteen” by Big Star paints a tender portrait of adolescence, innocence and the novelties of first love. Its lyrics revolve around the small, intimate interactions of a first teenage relationship – walking home together, sharing music, being nervous for a school dance – that make adolescent feelings of attachment feel so enormous. It takes me back to my early teen years, when every emotion felt so big and so all-encompassing that having a crush seemed like the most exhilarating and terrifying feeling in the world.
The perspective of this song doesn’t feel removed from the earnestness of young love, and it doesn’t try to minimize or make light of those big feelings. No matter how many years away you are from teenage love, this song has the power to bring you back, and to me that is what makes it so pure and timeless.
From its very first note, “Lovin’ You” by Minnie Riperton creates a sonic atmosphere that is light and ethereal. With a melody originally composed as a lullaby for Riperton’s daughter Maya Rudolph, this song maintains its soothing quality and its pure expression of unconditional love.
Minnie Riperton’s voice in this song feels like a beautiful Sunday morning, a blossoming garden, a deep sigh after a refreshing nap. “Loving you has made my life so beautiful,” she sings, delivering the lyrics with complete sweetness and sincerity. With soft instrumentals, sounds of birds chirping and Riperton’s whistle tones, this song captures love in its purest and most peaceful form.
What makes this 1967 song so great is that it is simply and sparsely written, making its message so universally relatable. The simple phrase “I’ll be your mirror/Reflect what you are” isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but it’s a beautiful sentiment about how special it is to be truly seen by someone, romantically or platonically.
The idea that someone else recognizes all the things you dislike about yourself, sees beyond them and still chooses to love you is, I think, something we all long for, whether we admit it or not.
“Spring” by Angel Olsen
I wouldn’t categorize Angel Olsen’s “Spring,” released in 2019, as a straightforward love song that is strictly happy or melancholy. Instead, it resides in the space between several emotions including nostalgia, yearning and hope. In this song, Olsen acknowledges the difficulty of hanging onto love while also recognizing when it may be time for a change.
This song is defined by its intense sense of longing and by its bittersweet reflections on change and the passing of time. It posits that while relationships may inevitably change, love is always waiting and possible.
One of The Beach Boys’ most famous songs and possibly the most well-known from Pet Sounds, “God Only Knows” is, in my opinion, one of the most timeless love songs out there.
This song frames love as something as profoundly fundamental to human experience, as essential as breathing. Signature Beach Boys layered arrangements, flawless harmonies and orchestral instrumentals take this simple love song to a level that transcends beyond genres, time and generations.
