The Top 100 Love Songs of All Time

Next week is Valentine’s Day and, like it or not, you’ll probably be hearing lots of love songs on the radio. Even if you’re in broken-heart mode and purposely avoiding heart-shaped boxes and mushy greeting cards, you can’t deny the power of a good torch tune on this or any other day of the year.

In light of the pending holiday, we were sweet enough to cull, just for you, our picks for the Top Valentine’s Day Love Songs. Is this list official in any way? Nope. Did we distribute a massive survey or examine Billboard chart stats? You’ve got to be joking! Did we test the songs on headphone-clad lab monkeys and then monitor their reactions by charting brain serotonin levels? Ha, no way in hell! (But how cool would that be if we had.)

But who really cares, because when has research ever done any good in matters of the heart? Instead, we let our emotions and musical tastes (and some of you on social media) guide us. So here you go: 100 great songs representing every stage of L.O.V.E. Play them for your Valentine or yourself or anyone else you might want to get to know better. Some of the tracks are deep and meaningful, some romantic and soulful. But if there’s a love for everyone, there’s also a love song for each of us, so enjoy!

“I’m Smitten and I Need to Let You Know” songs:

1. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” (either Lauryn Hill’s lush cover or the original by Frankie Valli)
2. “Silly Love Songs” by Wings (Because who doesn’t secretly love silly love songs?)
3. “Lovesong” by Adele (The Cure would be proud.)
4. “You Go to My Head” by Billie Holiday (“Like the bubbles in a glass of champagne…”)
5. “The Very Thought of You” by Nat King Cole (His daughter Natalie’s version ain’t too shabby either.)
6. “You Really Got Me” by Van Halen (Sorry, Kinks, we just like David Lee Roth better.)
7. “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra (a perennial favorite)
8. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley (in our opinion, the King at his best)
9.  “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King (Because “our emotions are just something we can’t tame.”)
10. “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker (Joe’s raspy vocals get us every time.)

“If This is Just Lust, I’m OK With That” songs:

1. “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Babe” (and practically ever other song by seemingly always-sprung Barry White)
2. “Let’s Get it On” by Marvin Gaye (“I’ve been really trying, now baby…”)
3. “Love to Love You Baby” by Donna Summer (And Sally Albright thought she could fake an orgasm.)
4. “I’m On Fire” by Bruce Springsteen (forbidden desire, ’80s style)
5. “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé (“Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh…”)
6. “I Drove All Night” by Cyndi Lauper (“…to taste your sweet kisses, your arms open wide”)
7. “Fever” by Peggy Lee (Don’t even think about Madonna’s cover.)
8. “You Can Leave Your Hat On” (Live) by Joe Cocker (Perfect for doing a strip tease for your valentine.)
9. “I Touch Myself” by the Divinyls (“When I feel down, I want you above me.”)
10. “Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars (Aren’t we all looking to get back in?)

“Too Bad I Must Love You From a Distance” songs:

1. “One Fine Day” by Natalie Merchant (slow, sensual spin on a classic)
2. “I Could Fall in Love” by Selena (The late Mexican superstar laments an unrequited love.)
3. “I Can Dream About You” by Dan Hartman (from the cool ’80s flick Streets of Fire)
4. “Killing Me Softly” by the Fugees (“Strumming my pain with his fingers” gets us every time.)
5.  “Distance” by Christina Perri, featuring Jason Mraz (You can fight love every time, but it’ll catch up with you.)
6. “Kissing You” (from Romeo + Juliet) by Des’ree (A painful but glorious track from a gifted singer)
7. “Our Love” by Donna Summer (“My mind and body seem to understand/That for me you are the perfect man.”)
8. “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers (“I know, I know, I know, I know…”)
9. “More Than This” by One Direction (Yes, you read that right.)
10. “If I Can’t Have You” by Yvonne Elliman (Still yearning more than 35 years after Saturday Night Fever)

“I Would Like to Get Closer” songs:

1. “Quando, Quando, Quando” by Michael Bublé with Nelly Furtado (“Tell me, when will you be mine?”)
2. “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge (This guy wrote the book on desperation.)
3. “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers (Still gives us chills, 25 years after Ghost)
4. “I Want to Come Over” by Melissa Etheridge (“To hell with the consequence.”)
5. “Sweet Thing” by Mary J. Blige (from Mary J.’s powerful debut album)
6.  “Every Time We Say Goodbye” by Annie Lenox (“I die a little” each time.)
7. “Woman in Love” by Barbra Streisand (“I’ll do anything to get you into my world.”)
8. “Through the Fire” by Chaka Khan (from Chaka’s breakout solo album)
9. “I Just Want to Be Your Everything” by Andy Gibb (“I would wait forever for those lips of wine.”)
10. “Run to You” (from The Bodyguard) by Whitney Houston (Because sometimes ya gotta run toward something.)

“You Love Me? Then Prove It!” songs:

1. “How Deep is Your Love” by the Bee Gees (“It’s me you need to show.”)
2. “The Downtown Lights” by either The Blue Nile or Annie Lenox (“How do I know you feel it?”)
3. “I Need to Know” by Marc Anthony (“That’s just talk until you take me there.”)
4. “Take Me Home Tonight” by Eddie Money (Arguably, Eddie’s best.)
5. “Don’t Let Me Down” by the Beatles (“Oh, she done me. She done me good.”)
6. “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane (“Tell me when you’re gonna let me in.”)
7. “The Heart Wants What it Wants” by Selena Gomez (We’ll try to forget she wrote this about the Bieber.)
8. “Take My Breath Away” (from Top Gun) by Berlin (Another great ’80s ballad.)
9. “If You Really Love Me” by Stevie Wonder (Tell him, so he won’t have to be playing around.)
10. “Love Me Harder” by Ariana Grande and the Weeknd (you gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta…)

“I May Eventually Need to Let You Go (But Won’t Ever Forget You)” songs:

1. “Fields of Gold” by Sting (“Will you stay with me? Will you be my love?”)
2. “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette (perfect song for Pretty Woman‘s Hollywood ending)
3. “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Prince (sorry, Sinéad, but we’re going with the guy who wrote the song.)
4. “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston (Do we need to explain?)
5. “We Found Love” by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris (“But I have to let it go…” Bummer.)
6. “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand (“Has time rewritten every line?”)
7. “Better Not Tell Her” by Carly Simon (This Latin-influenced song is often overlooked, but it’s one of her best.)
8. “Can’t Remember to Forget You” by Shakira, featuring Rhianna (two divas struggle to let go of their bad boy lover)
9. “More Than a Feeling” by Boston (more than just a rock classic)
10. “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses (“I can rest my head just knowing that you were mine.”)

“Our Love is So Imperfect it’s Perfect” songs:

1. “All of Me” by John Legend (“I love all your curves and all your edges.”)
2. “Sweet Surrender” by Sarah McLachlan (is all that we sometimes have to give)
3. “Madness” by Muse (“I need to know, is this real love, or just madness keeping us afloat?”)
4. “By Your Side” by Sade (“I will find you, darling, and I’ll bring you home.”)
5. “We Belong” by Pat Benatar (“Don’t want to give you up too easy, to the doubts that complicate your mind.”)
6. “Just the Way You Are” by Billy Joel (Who doesn’t want to be loved this way?)
7. “All I Want is You” by Carly Simon (“…and the sexy hurricane that we share.”)
8. “Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney (“Maybe I’m a man, maybe I’m a lonely man…”)
9. “Something About You” by Level 42 (There’s something so right about this 80s ballad.)
10. “My Funny Valentine” by Ella Fitzgerald

“Could This Actually Be The Real Thing?” (aka “No Longer in Denial”) songs:

1. “It Had to be You” by Harry Connick Jr. (Connick’s debut on the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack blew us away.)
2. “You Sang to Me” by Marc Anthony (“Girl, I live off how you make me feel, so I question all this being real.”)
3. “Angel” by Jon Secada (“I didn’t want to tell you, things I didn’t want to know myself.”)
4. “It Might Be You” (from Tootsie) by Stephen Bishop (Roberta Flack’s R&B cover kicks ass too.)
5. “More Than This” by 10,000 Maniacs (sweet cover of a Roxy Music classic)
6.  “Suddenly” by Olivia Newton John (the nicest thing that came out of Xanadu)
7. “No Ordinary Romance” by Al Jarreau (“unquestionably sure, strong and secure…”)
8. “Everlasting Love” by Gloria Estefan (from her awesome album of R&B standards)
9. “Mirrors” by Justin Timberlake (“You were right here all along…”)
10. “How Sweet it Is (To Be Loved By You)” by James Taylor (played during cake-cutting ceremonies in weddings across America)

“Your Love is Out of this World” songs:

1. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack (Leona Lewis’s haunting cover is great too.)
2. “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys (not as religious as it sounded as the opener for Big Love)
3. “Superman” by Barbra Streisand (“Baby, I can fly like a bird, when you touch me with your eyes.”)
4. “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel (“the light, the heat, I am complete”)
5.  “Like a Prayer” by Madonna (still gets us, with or without the gospel choir backup)
6. “The Power of Love” by Céline Dion (The vocal chops alone make this one worthy.)
7. “You Send Me” by Sam Cook (honestly, you do)
8. “The Rose” by Bette Midler (“I say love is a flower, and you, it’s only seed.” A beautiful kind of cheese.)
9. “Con Te Partiro” by Andrea Bocelli (Leave it to a blind Italian to make the girls swoon.)
10. “Halo” by Beyoncé (B really puts her lover on a pedestal here.)

“I Want to Grow Old With You” songs:

1. “At Last” by Etta James (Collective sigh of relief…)
2. “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran (“Maybe we found love right where we are.”)
3. “All I Want Is You” by U2 (nothin’ else, baby)
4. “After All (love theme from Chances Are)” by Peter Cetera and Cher (cute movie too)
5. “Happy Together” by The Turtles (“no matter how we toss the dice”)
6. “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton (This live version is sublime.)
7. “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green (“loving you whether…”)
8. “How Do I Live” by LeAnn Rimes (love theme from Con Air)
9. “Hard Habit to Break” by Chicago (“I’m addicted to you, baby.”)
10. “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri (trying to get over her need for distance)
11. “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles (“Is this burning an eternal flame?”)

And let’s not forget the “I’m So OK Being Alone On Valentine’s Day Because I Love Me” song: “The Greatest Love of All” by Whitney Houston.

Please let us know if we missed any of your favorite love songs. Happy Valentine’s Day from Red Typewriter!