"All you need is love," or so the Fab Four once sang. It may be true when crafting a song, as many songs seem to revolve around love in one phase or another. Someone wishes for love, while another falls in love. Love flourishes and love hits the skids. Someone writes another "somebody done somebody wrong songs" and then the whole process starts all over again. In the end, these earnest odes to matters of the heart play on every radio station, in every genre.
"Wishin' and Hopin"
In 1964, Dusty Springfield gave a detailed how-to for gals to snag the fella of their dreams with "Wishin' and Hopin'." She instructs these hopeful romantics that simply wishing and hoping isn't enough to make him yours. In 1987, Steven Tyler wailed his way through Aerosmith's "Angel" about the phantom girl of his dreams that was "the reason I live, the reason I die. The reason I give when I break down and cry." In the Bob Dylan/Garth Brooks/Adele classic "To Make You Feel My Love," the singers assure "I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue. I'd go crawling down the avenue. There's nothing that I wouldn't do to make you feel my love."
"The Power of Love"
Many couples have that one perfect song that eloquently describes the magic and the power of being in love, and no doubt use that sentimental song for the first dance at their wedding. Celine Dion practically cornered the ballad market with songs like "Because You Loved Me" and "The Power of Love." Steve Perry croons his undying fidelity through Journey's 1983 hit "Faithfully." Songs about love aren't limited to ballads, as Bonnie Pointer proved through her disco hit "Heaven Must Have Sent You."
"F(orget) You"
In 2010, British sensation Adele expressed her anger and frustration of a love gone wrong in "Rolling in the Deep." Toni Braxton took a slightly different tack in 1996 when she pleaded for her lover to "Un-break My Heart." In country music, singer Patty Loveless lays down the law in funny, upbeat numbers that tell you just what you can do with "your lying, cheating, cold deadbeating, two-timing, double dealing, mean mistreating, loving heart." Even Cee-Lo boarded the bitter train with his tongue-in-cheek hit "F(orget) You."
"Let's Talk About Sex"
If you're not looking for Mr. Right, maybe you're looking for Mr. Right Now. From rock to metal to rap, plenty of songs feature getting down and dirty, and they're not bashful about it. Prince wrote an entire catalog of such songs. Bad Company laid it on the table in the 1970s with "Feel Like Making Love." Marvin Gaye wanted some "Sexual Healing," and T-Pain was all too clear what he was willing to do when he saw Shawty "Get Low."
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