Whenever I hear “What The World Needs Now Is Love” by Jackie DeShannon on SiriusXM, I find it hard to believe that the tune is almost 60 years old. It figures that would be a Burt Bacharach and Hal David song. Pure genius. Still timely and relevant especially today.
Anyway, I started thinking about all the songs about love. No other subject comes close. Christmas/holiday tunes are a part of many artists’ repertoire, but there’s also a lot of the same exact song but with a different spin.
Love songs, on the other hand, have covers but most songs are unique. Love songs also cross many different genres of music. Every decade has its share of love songs. You’d think “Love” would be a popular format on the radio, but it isn’t. You’d also think “Love” would be a more popular name brand, but it’s not.
I recall “Love 94” when I lived in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale area. But the playlist was more soft pop hits than anything else with some jazz titles in the mix. They had a popular Sunday morning jazz program. Sure, there were songs about love, but it was one of many song themes.
Similarly, soft rock formats, like Sirius XM’s “The Bridge” or “Yacht Rock Radio” didn’t have the staying power to last on terrestrial radio. And so, there’s literally tons of love songs that have sold well but listeners want other genres and subjects in their favorite radio station. Then again, there are rock formats that just offer rock and the folks are content with that.
Perhaps an anomaly but there’s a lot of fickleness when it comes to the public and their tastes. All one must do is look at songs over the years that were mediocre or dreadful but made it to #1 or songs that had all the qualities of being a hit but just never went anywhere. There’s personal tastes and preferences but like it or not, the masses rule.
With Valentines Day approaching, I also wonder how much special programming there will be dedicated to love songs. I don’t recall seeing things like that for a long time.
I don’t remember when this was but when Rob Sidney and Gary Williams were at the helm of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale’s AC’s WLYF and WFEZ, both stations did a Valentine’s Day/weekend music specialty featuring love songs.
What I found extremely interesting was there was very little overlap in the songs both stations chose to air. The songs that were featured on both stations solidified each respective brand IMO. This was not a rehash of songs usually played. There was obvious work and effort in all of this and something I applaud.
And so, for the approaching Valentine’s Day, I present to you an A-Z list of love songs. It’s not like anything I’ve ever done before. Virtually, every one of my “music specials” were done in a Classic Hits/Oldies format style. This time, it was Soft AC/AC. And much is like AC as it once existed. I also never featured songs from this century ever before either. It was time to break out of my comfort zone.
There are titles that are featured on other formats. This list of songs has a wide variance in origin date. Despite that, I concentrated on romantic ballads and soft pop music. Just because a song has “Love” in the title didn’t mean it had a place here.
So, I hope we can keep comments about why this song was featured and not that song to a minimum. There are over 800 songs that will be presented and so I tried to be as inclusive as possible. Not all songs or artists may conform to “The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits.” I’m sure there’s some typos. I’ve corrected what I found to be obvious mistakes. It’s also the nature of Excel to prefill in information. I tried to be careful but sometimes these things can fall through the cracks.
There’s a slight South Florida lean in the song selections. There are also a few dozen songs both WLYF and WFEZ played on their Valentine’s Day special. I have the habit of writing down titles when stations have features such as this one.
Because Radio Discussions has limits to the number of characters that can be posted, I will offer X number of songs each day until Valentine’s Day. I decided not to do a popularity ranking because it’s way too difficult to make that distinction with many of these very fine tunes. The other is the habitual complainers will find fault with how I ranked the songs or what was #1.
Our personal preferences are unique as we all are. And so, with the amount of work that was involved in putting this all together, I still find the 1970s to have been an incredible decade for love songs, especially the early part of that decade. Consider all those beautiful renditions especially by the soul groups of that time in the early 70s. Add Manilow, Streisand, The Carpenters, Bread, Chicago, Olivia Newton-John, Roberta Flack....can go on and on. Each decade has its share of great love songs. I shared my preference. You may agree or disagree and that's fine.
Enjoy…hopefully!
Anyway, I started thinking about all the songs about love. No other subject comes close. Christmas/holiday tunes are a part of many artists’ repertoire, but there’s also a lot of the same exact song but with a different spin.
Love songs, on the other hand, have covers but most songs are unique. Love songs also cross many different genres of music. Every decade has its share of love songs. You’d think “Love” would be a popular format on the radio, but it isn’t. You’d also think “Love” would be a more popular name brand, but it’s not.
I recall “Love 94” when I lived in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale area. But the playlist was more soft pop hits than anything else with some jazz titles in the mix. They had a popular Sunday morning jazz program. Sure, there were songs about love, but it was one of many song themes.
Similarly, soft rock formats, like Sirius XM’s “The Bridge” or “Yacht Rock Radio” didn’t have the staying power to last on terrestrial radio. And so, there’s literally tons of love songs that have sold well but listeners want other genres and subjects in their favorite radio station. Then again, there are rock formats that just offer rock and the folks are content with that.
Perhaps an anomaly but there’s a lot of fickleness when it comes to the public and their tastes. All one must do is look at songs over the years that were mediocre or dreadful but made it to #1 or songs that had all the qualities of being a hit but just never went anywhere. There’s personal tastes and preferences but like it or not, the masses rule.
With Valentines Day approaching, I also wonder how much special programming there will be dedicated to love songs. I don’t recall seeing things like that for a long time.
I don’t remember when this was but when Rob Sidney and Gary Williams were at the helm of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale’s AC’s WLYF and WFEZ, both stations did a Valentine’s Day/weekend music specialty featuring love songs.
What I found extremely interesting was there was very little overlap in the songs both stations chose to air. The songs that were featured on both stations solidified each respective brand IMO. This was not a rehash of songs usually played. There was obvious work and effort in all of this and something I applaud.
And so, for the approaching Valentine’s Day, I present to you an A-Z list of love songs. It’s not like anything I’ve ever done before. Virtually, every one of my “music specials” were done in a Classic Hits/Oldies format style. This time, it was Soft AC/AC. And much is like AC as it once existed. I also never featured songs from this century ever before either. It was time to break out of my comfort zone.
There are titles that are featured on other formats. This list of songs has a wide variance in origin date. Despite that, I concentrated on romantic ballads and soft pop music. Just because a song has “Love” in the title didn’t mean it had a place here.
So, I hope we can keep comments about why this song was featured and not that song to a minimum. There are over 800 songs that will be presented and so I tried to be as inclusive as possible. Not all songs or artists may conform to “The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits.” I’m sure there’s some typos. I’ve corrected what I found to be obvious mistakes. It’s also the nature of Excel to prefill in information. I tried to be careful but sometimes these things can fall through the cracks.
There’s a slight South Florida lean in the song selections. There are also a few dozen songs both WLYF and WFEZ played on their Valentine’s Day special. I have the habit of writing down titles when stations have features such as this one.
Because Radio Discussions has limits to the number of characters that can be posted, I will offer X number of songs each day until Valentine’s Day. I decided not to do a popularity ranking because it’s way too difficult to make that distinction with many of these very fine tunes. The other is the habitual complainers will find fault with how I ranked the songs or what was #1.
Our personal preferences are unique as we all are. And so, with the amount of work that was involved in putting this all together, I still find the 1970s to have been an incredible decade for love songs, especially the early part of that decade. Consider all those beautiful renditions especially by the soul groups of that time in the early 70s. Add Manilow, Streisand, The Carpenters, Bread, Chicago, Olivia Newton-John, Roberta Flack....can go on and on. Each decade has its share of great love songs. I shared my preference. You may agree or disagree and that's fine.
Enjoy…hopefully!
