Lyrics

It really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, I’m right

Posted on by brucehhackett

As a parent of two adult daughters and now a grandparent of a young boy, I’m well aware that one of the most important lessons we teach our children and grandchildren is the difference between right and wrong. Developing an honest, ethical approach to personal and professional relationships often determines the difference between a life of contentment and success and one of unhappiness and failure.

Sometimes we’re tempted to do the ethically or morally wrong thing because it might feel good or bring short-term gains, but more often than not, it ultimately leaves long-term bad feelings or unpleasant consequences.

Popular songwriters have been addressing this paradox for many decades. “If loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right” is the primary sentiment of a 1972 hit about an immoral relationship. In “Fixing a Hole,” The Beatles wrote, “And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, I’m right,” which seems like a contradiction to me. And there are hundreds of songs about being right (as in acceptable or appropriate) or being wrong (as in unacceptable or inappropriate).

Below, I’ve selected 20 songs with “right” or “wrong” (or both) in the title, mostly from the ’60s, ’70s or ’80s, with a few from more recent decades, and another 17 “honorable mentions” that together comprise a robust playlist lasting more than two hours. Perhaps it can serve as a backdrop for when you’re considering courses of action and deciding which road to take.

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“Right Place, Wrong Time,” Dr. John, 1973

Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr. John the Night Tripper, was a longtime singer and songwriter who combined New Orleans blues, jazz, funk and R&B on more than 30 albums released between 1968 and his death in 2019. His commercial peak came in 1973 with the album “In the Right Place” and its #9 hit single, “Right Place, Wrong Time,” which features the New Orleans funk band The Meters and pianist Allen Toussaint. The track has been featured on numerous film and TV show soundtracks over the years: “I been in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time, /I’d have said the right thing, but I must have used the wrong line, I been in the right trip, but I must have used the wrong car…”

“Absolutely Right,” Five Man Electrical Band, 1971

From Ottawa, Ontario in the 1960s came a group called The Staccatos, who changed their name in 1970 to Five Man Electrical Band and had a huge hit in Canada and the US (#3) with “Signs.” In Canada, the follow-up single, “Absolutely Right,” was equally successful, but managed only #26 in the US. Me, I found it one of the most powerful 2-1/2-minute rock tunes ever, with lyrics that focus on a man who comes remorsefully to his girl’s door, asking forgiveness for past misdeeds: “I know it was you who said it would be me that’d come crawling back to you upon my knees, /And you were absolutely right, you’ve been right all along, /You’re absolutely right and I’m wrong…”

“Something’s Always Wrong,” Toad the Wet Sprocket, 1994

This Santa Barbara-based alternative rock band enjoyed four charting singles on US pop charts in the 1992-1994 period: “Walk on the Ocean,” “All I Want,” “Falling Down” and “Something’s Always Wrong.” The latter, co-written by band members Glen Phillips and Todd Nichols, reached #9 on Billboard’s “Modern Rock Tracks” chart, though managed only #41 on the regular pop listing. Said Phillips, “Todd had the music and the line ‘Something has gone wrong,’ and I tweaked it. As a person who struggles a lot with depression and negativity, I’m always swimming upstream against that feeling that something’s wrong.”

“It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right,” Percy Sledge, 1968

Eddie Hinton was a songwriter and lead guitarist who was part of the famed Muscle Shoals Studio session band in the late 1960s. During that period he wrote “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right,” which was recorded by Percy “When a Man Loves a Woman” Sledge in 1968 for his “Take Time to Know Her” album. It wasn’t released as a single but it became a big part of Sledge’s set list in concert over the years, with lyrics that show extraordinary patience and understanding: “Give your affection to another man, and I’ll do my best to understand, I crave your love like a blind man craves the light, it’s all wrong, but it’s all right…”

“Wrong Side of the Street,” Bruce Springsteen, 1978/2010

Between 1975 and 1978, Springsteen was prevented from releasing new music because of legal entanglements with his former manager, but he wrote and recorded nearly 50 songs, and eventually chose 10 for his next LP, 1978’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” The rest were shelved, or released by other artists (“Because the Night,” “Fire,” “Talk to Me”), but incessant begging by his fan base led him to eventually release these 22 tracks in 2010 as “The Promise,” which reached #16 on US album charts. One highlight of this collection is “Wrong Side of the Street,” on which he urges a woman to abandon her wild ways and settle down with him instead: “You and your poetry and your cool cool world, you’re working hard on that face of a martyr girl, you’re on the wrong side of the street, /You got the look and you own your world, but here you better check your diamonds and your pearls, you’re on the wrong side of the street…”

“You May Be Right,” Billy Joel, 1980

After six albums in the ’70s showcasing his talents as a pop tunesmith, Joel leaned more into a harder rocking style for his 1980 LP “Glass Houses,” which turned out to be his second consecutive #1 LP and spawned three Top 20 singles — “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” (#1), “Don’t Ask Me Why (#19) and “You May Be Right” (#7). The latter adopted a rock guitar approach reminiscent of Chuck Berry, and featured lyrics in which the narrator confesses to reckless behavior that his girlfriend warns him about: “You may be right, I may be crazy, /Oh, but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for, /Turn out the lights, don’t try to save me, /You may be wrong for all I know, but you may be right…”

“Don’t Get Me Wrong,” The Pretenders, 1984

This uptempo rocker from The Pretenders’ fourth LP “Get Close” became the band’s third hit in the US in 1986, following “Brass in Pocket” and “Back on the Chain Gang.” Singer/guitarist/songwriter Chrissie Hyde said she wrote it about the fickle nature of romantic relationships, explaining, “When it comes to love from the female point of view, it’s best to expect the unexpected.” It became a #10 chart hit: “Don’t get me wrong if I fall in the ‘mode of passion,’ /It might be unbelievable, but let’s not say so long, /It might just be fantastic, /Don’t get me wrong…”

“If Loving You is Wrong (I Don’t Want to Be Right),” Luther Ingram, 1972

In perhaps the best example of “ethical right vs. wrong,” R&B singer Luther Ingram had a #3 hit single in 1972 with this track about an adulterous affair. Stax Records songwriters Homer Banks and Raymond Jackson wrote it in 1968, told from the point of view of either the mistress or the cheating spouse, depending on the gender of the performer. Regardless, both parties involved express their desire to maintain the affair, while at the same time acknowledging that the relationship is morally wrong: “Am I wrong to hunger for the gentleness of your touch, knowing I got someone else at home who needs me just as much? /Are you wrong to give your love to a married man? And am I wrong for trying to hold on to the best thing I ever had?…”

“The Right Thing,” Simply Red, 1987

Amazing singer/frontman Mick Hucknall was the main focus of the British soul group Simply Red, who exploded internationally in 1986 with their debut LP “Picture Book” and its #1 hit single, the ballad “Holding Back the Years.” In the UK, they continued on for decades of Top Ten albums and nearly 20 successful singles, but in the US, they managed only a couple more chart appearances on the Top 40, most notably their cover of the Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes’ hit “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” In between those two #1 hits, they reached #27 with “The Right Thing,” a fine soul tune with overtly sexual lyrics: “In the middle of the night, when the time is right, sexily right, I’m gonna do the right thing, /Gonna move you slow, much harder though, sexily so, I’m gonna do the right thing…”

“Wrong,” Lindsey Buckingham, 1992

For his third solo LP, 1992’s “Out of the Cradle,” his first since leaving Fleetwood Mac the first time in 1988, Buckingham wrote “Wrong” partly as a response to drummer Mick Fleetwood’s tell-all autobiography. “His book was just kind of a real trashy thing,” Buckingham responded. “He doesn’t seem to have a mechanism for self-editing or perhaps discerning where the line is.” The song has also been interpreted as a critical look at the crass nature of the music business and the rock-star culture: “Everybody’s heard it, how everything went wrong, /Advance was spent some time ago, agent’s on the phone, /Young Mister Rockcock, where do you belong? /The man ain’t got no answer, the man just got it wrong…”

“Wrong or Right,” The Babys, 1977

This London-based pop band charted two Top 20 hits in the US in the late ’70s — “Isn’t It Time” in 1977 and “Every Time I Think of You” in 1978, both featuring the golden pipes of singer John Waite, who went on to solo success with the #1 “Missing You” in 1984. The Babys’ second LP, “Broken Heart,” kicks off with Waite’s tune “Wrong or Right,” in which the narrator bemoans how his girl has left him for another man: “Does it feel wrong or right when he loves you, babe?… /You’ve broken all the rules, and hey, babe, that isn’t cool, /In my days and your nights, how I want you babe, /It’s so wrong, it could be right…”

“Wrong to Love You,” Chris Isaak, 1989

Hailing from Stockton, California, Isaak was 33 when he broke through with the smokin’-hot sensual “Wicked Game,” which reached #3 in 1989. His soft voice and guitar style and matinee-idol good looks emulated rockabilly musicians like Duane Eddy and Ricky Nelson, and he similarly maintained a parallel career as an actor playing supporting roles in 1990s movies. His 1989 LP “Heart Shaped World” included the twangy “Wrong to Love You”: “There will be no song of love, there will be no sweet refrain, /There will be no soft goodbye or slow walk in the rain, /There will be no whispered words, no vows that can’t come true, /There’s only me, waiting here for you, /And it must be wrong to love you like I do…”

“Couldn’t Get It Right,” Climax Blues Band, 1976

This British blues rock band formed in 1967 and found greater success in the US than in their native UK, although they struggled along here until about 1974 when their albums started charting in the mid-40s. Their 1976 LP “Gold Plated” included what became their signature tune, “Couldn’t Get It Right,” which peaked at #3 on US pop charts. All five band members collaborated to write it, with lyrics that equated the struggles for fame with the struggles for romance: “Time was drifting, this rock had got to roll, so I hit the road and made my getaway, /Restless feeling really got a hold, I started searching for a better way, /And I kept on looking for a sign in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t see the light, no, I couldn’t see the light, /I kept on looking for a way to take me through the night, couldn’t get it right, I couldn’t get it right…”

“Am I Wrong,” Keb’ Mo’, 1996

Born Kevin Moore in Louisiana, this talented blues/gospel singer/guitarist took the stage name “Keb’ Mo'” as a street-talk version of his given name. He has released more than a dozen mostly acoustic blues albums since his 1994 debut, winning a couple of Grammys in blues categories even with only modest success on US charts. On that 1994 self-titled debut you’ll find this country blues track in the Robert Johnson tradition, asking if it’s futile for him to love a woman who’s devoted to another man who mistreats her: “Am I wrong, fallin’ in love with you?, /Tell me, am I wrong, fallin’ in love with you while your other man was out there, /Cheatin’ and lyin’, steppin’ all over you…”

“The Right Thing to Do,” Carly Simon, 1972

Three months into her relationship with James Taylor in 1972, Simon came up with this song that focused on both the idealistic and realistic aspects of their budding romance, which culminated in marriage a few months later. “The Right Thing to Do” became the leadoff track and a #17 chart hit on Simon’s most successful LP, “No Secrets,” following up her #1 smash “You’re So Vain.” She said Taylor helped her with some of the changes and encouraged her to rewrite the song’s third verse. The second verse is the most personal: “I know you’ve had some bad luck with ladies before, they drove you or you drove them crazy, /But more important is I know you’re the one, and I’m sure lovin’ you’s the right thing to do…”

“So Right, So Wrong,” Linda Ronstadt, 1989

Paul Carrack, the acclaimed British singer who spent time with Ace, Squeeze and Mike + The Mechanics, collaborated with British rocker Nick Lowe to write “So Right, So Wrong,” which was covered by Ronstadt on her eclectic 1989 release “Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind” (which featured the award-winning duet with Aaron Neville, “Don’t Know Much”). Carrack also recorded the song himself, which focused on a couple who had called it quits but wanted to try again: “Say you will change your mind, don’t be cruel, I’ll be kind, /You’re so right, you’re so wrong, /So tough, so right, so wrong…”

“Wrong,” Everything But the Girl, 1996

Singer-songwriter Tracy Thorn and guitarist-keyboardist songwriter Ben Watt formed the British “sophisti-pop” duo Everything But The Girl in 1982 and went on to score eight Top 20 albums and four Top Ten singles on the UK charts over the next two decades. Their success in the US was more limited, with two Top 40 LPs and a couple of big singles in 1995-1996, notably “Missing,” which peaked at #2 on pop charts. “Wrong,” which reached #1 on the US Dance Club chart, explores the balance we seek in personal relationships: “Now you can pull a little bit, there’s a little give and take, /And love will stretch a little bit, but finally it’s gonna break, /Wherever you go, I will follow you, ‘Cause I was wrong…”

“Bloody Well Right,” Supertramp, 1974

This British progressive rock band was an interesting study in contrasts, with two songwriters (Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson) who preferred different musical styles, resulting in a curious blend of blues/jazz (Davies) and pop (Hodgson). One of the standout tracks is Davies’ “Bloody Well Right,” featuring the songwriter’s grittier vocal delivery, and lyrics in which the narrator agrees with his friend’s opinion and his freedom to speak it: “So you think your schooling is phony, I guess it’s hard not to agree, /You say it all depends on money and who is in your family tree, /Right, (Right!), you’re bloody well right, you have a bloody right to say…”

“All the Wrong Reasons,” Tom Petty & Heartbreakers, 1991

Petty, following his successful work with producer Jeff Lynne on his debut solo LP “Full Moon Fever,” reconvened The Heartbreakers in 1991, with Lynne still manning the boards on the next album, “Into the Great Wide Open,” highlighted by the big hit “Learning to Fly.” Lynne co-wrote eight of the album’s 12 tracks with Petty, including the appealing “All the Wrong Reasons,” which criticizes greedy people who want it all: “Well, she grew up hard and she grew up fast in the age of television, /And she made a vow to have it all, it became her new religion, /Oh, down in her soul, it was an act of treason, /Oh, down they go for all the wrong reasons…”

“Right and Wrong,” Joe Jackson, 1986

Following his commercial success with “Steppin’ Out,” “Breaking Us in Two” and “You Can’t Get What You Want (‘Til You Know What You Want)” in the early ’80s, Jackson decided to make an unusual live album called “Big World.” He and his band recorded 18 new songs before a live audience in a New York City auditorium before a live audience who had been given firm instructions to remain silent throughout. One of the more fascinating tracks was “Right and Wrong,” which discussed world politics as both “right and left” as well as “right and wrong”: “When they come with that opinion poll, they better not use words like ideology, or try to tell me ’bout the issues, /Whose side are you on? ‘Cause we’re talkin’ ’bout right and wrong…”

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Honorable mentions:

“You Done Me Wrong,” Fats Domino, 1954; “Everything in its Right Place,” Radiohead, 2000; “Love on the Wrong Side of Town,” Southside Johnny 1977; “Wrong Turn,” Jack Johnson, 2006; “Looking For the Right One,” Art Garfunkel, 1975; “Wrong Side of Town,” Firefall, 1978; “You Can’t Be Wrong (All the Time),” The Impressions, 1976; “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay,” Whitney Houston, 1998; “Not Wrong Long,” Nazz, 1969; “Done Somebody Wrong,” Allman Brothers Band, 1971; “All the Right Moves,” One Direction, 2009; “Flying on the Ground is Wrong,” Buffalo Springfield, 1966; “Wrong Side of the Moon,” Squeeze, 1980; “The Wrong Nostalgia,” Papadosio, 2015; “You Know You’re Right,” Nirvana, 1994/2002; “Wrong Side of the Road,” Tom Waits, 1978; “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” Van Morrison, 2003.

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You’re my sweet comic valentine

Posted on by brucehhackett

A lot of rock music lyrics tend to be about rebellion, sex, protest, fantasy, breakups, drugs and drinking, and sometimes just sheer nonsense.  But they’re also about friendship, peace, encouragement, hope and, yes, even true love. 

This week, my in-laws celebrated 65 years of marriage. Later this year, my wife and I will commemorate our 40th wedding anniversary. And this week, the lovebirds of the world will cuddle for another Valentines Day. 

All of these occasions, it seems to me, deserve a soundtrack of songs about romantic love… But what a job! There must be 10,000 love songs in the canon of popular music over the past century or so, and probably a thousand just from the classic rock era. I’ve sifted through the lists and have settled on 20 selections with lyrics that sing the praises of romance and affection. No doubt I’ve neglected one of your favorites, but I’m confident the songs found on the Spotify playlist at the end will do the trick.

Hey, you crazy kids — get a room!

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“Cupid,” Sam Cooke, 1961

The gifted crooner was also a fine songwriter, and his producers asked him to write a tune for a female singer they’d seen on a TV variety show, but once they heard Cooke sing it, they decided he should release it himself, and it reached #17 here and #7 in the UK in 1961.  Critics called it “the perfect pop song,” combining Latin, R&B, jazz and mainstream pop elements.  Sample lyrics:  “Cupid, draw back your bow, and let your arrow go straight to my lover’s heart for me, cupid, please hear my cry, and let your arrow fly straight to my lover’s heart for me…”

“I’m Stone in Love With You,” The Stylistics, 1972

Thom Bell was one of the most successful of the songwriters/producers responsible for the “Philadelphia Sound” artists in the Seventies (O’Jays, Spinners, Delfonics, Stylistics).  He specialized in love songs, and this beauty, sung in falsetto by lead vocalist Russell Thompkins, reached #10, one of five Bell-Stylistics collaborations to go Top Ten during their 1971-1974 heyday: “I’m just a man, an average man, doing everything the best I can, but if I could, I’d give the world to you, I would hold a meeting for the press to let them know, I did it all ’cause I’m stone in love with you…”

“Never My Love,” The Association, 1967

This timeless love song by composer brothers Donald and Richard Addrisi made three appearances in the Top 10 by three different artists between 1967 and 1974.  The Association’s version, an enormous #1 hit, came first, followed by The 5th Dimension’s #12 live rendition in 1971, and lastly, a #7 disco-ish version in 1974 by the European band Blue Swede.  Due in large part to these three separate successful recordings, “Never My Love” was named in 1999 by BMI as the second most played song on radio and TV in the 20th Century, behind The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” but ahead of The Beatles’ “Yesterday.”  Sample lyrics:  “You ask me if there’ll come a time when I grow tired of you, never my love, never my love, you wonder if this heart of mine will lose its desire for you, never my love, never my love…”

“You Make Loving Fun,” Fleetwood Mac, 1977

“Rumours,” one of the ten best-selling albums of the rock era, was full of tunes with lyrics about breakups, since two of Fleetwood Mac’s three songwriters (Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks) were in the midst of a stormy split during recording sessions. But Christine McVie, who had just divorced her husband John McVie, was having an affair with paramour Curry Grant and wrote about it in this effervescent love song, which reached #9 as the album’s fourth single: “Sweet wonderful you, you make me happy with the things you do, oh, can it be so, this feeling follows me wherever I go, you, you make loving fun, it’s all I want to do…”

“You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,” Blood, Sweat & Tears, 1969

Motown singer Brenda Holloway wrote this love song with her sister Patrice, along with Motown songwriter-producer Frank Wilson and label mogul Berry Gordy.  Holloway managed to reach only #39 with her recording, but in 1969, the jazz-rock band Blood Sweat & Tears had an enormous #2 hit with it.  Sample lyrics:  “‘Cause you came and you took control, you touched my very soul, you always showed me that loving you is where it’s at, you’ve made me so very happy, I’m so glad you came into my life…”

“Just the Way You Are,” Billy Joel, 1977

When Joel heard the last line of the 1963 Four Seasons hit “Rag Doll, which went, “I love you just the way you are,” he decided it would make a great song title. He wrote it in 1976 as a love song to his first wife, Elizabeth Weber, but once they divorced, Joel didn’t sing it in concert for five years. In fact, he wasn’t sure it was a good fit with the other songs he’d written for his 1977 LP “The Stranger,” but it emerged as his first Top Ten hit, reaching #3 and becoming something of a cocktail lounge standard: “I said I love you, and that’s forever, and this I promise from the heart, /I couldn’t love you any better, I love you just the way you are…”

“The Best Is Yet to Come,” Frank Sinatra & Count Basie Orchestra, 1964

Ol’ Blue Eyes was known for many great romantic songs in the American songbook, and one of the better ones was this beauty, written in 1959 by Cy Coleman and lyricist Carolyn Leigh.  The songwriters first gave it to the young Tony Bennett, who recorded a decent rendition, but Sinatra’s 1964 recording backed by the Count Basie Orchestra remains the definitive version.  The lyrics tout newfound love while positively looking forward to even greater things:  “Out of the tree of life, I just picked me a plum, you came along and everything’s starting to hum, still, it’s a real good bet, the best is yet to come…”

“Happy Together,” The Turtles, 1967

Two guys named Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, formerly in an obscure band called The Magicians, wrote “Happy Together” in 1966 and pitched it to more than a dozen artists before it was finally accepted and recorded by The Turtles, an LA-based band that had nine Top 20 hits between 1965 and 1969.  Their recording was #1 for three weeks in 1967. Sample lyrics:  “The only one for me is you, and you for me, so happy together, I can’t see me loving nobody but you for all my life, when you’re with me, baby, the skies will be blue for all my life…”

“Let’s Stay Together,” Al Green, 1972

Written and sung by Green, “Let’s Stay Together” emerged as one of the great R&B love songs of all time, holding on to the #1 spot for three weeks in late 1971/early 1972.  It also served as a comeback single for Tina Turner in 1983, reaching #26, jump-starting her solo career.  The lyrics weigh the choices of breaking up and making up, deciding the latter is preferrable:  “I, I’m so in love with you, whatever you want to do is all right with me, ’cause you make me feel so brand new, and I want to spend my life with you…”

“Only One,” James Taylor, 1985

Taylor has written plenty about love, though mostly wistful tunes about heartbreak.  Every so often, he finds himself in a good enough mood to write a happy love song like “Your Smiling Face,” or cover a familiar one like “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).”  Also worthy of your attention is a little-known track from his 1985 LP “That’s Why I’m Here” called “Only One,” which features harmonies by Joni Mitchell:  “You are my only one, you are my only one, don’t be leaving me now, believe in me now, well, I’m telling you now, now you’re my only one…”

“I Will,” The Beatles, 1968

The celebrated White Album showed that The Beatles embraced, and could convincingly perform, a wide variety of musical genres:  blues, country-western, folk, dance-hall, avant-garde, you name it.  Their repertoire also had plenty of love songs, and although both Lennon and Harrison each wrote a few, it was usually McCartney who handled this assignment:  “P.S. I Love You,” “And I Love Her,” “Here, There and Everywhere”… and from The White Album, there’s the short-and-sweet “I Will”:   “Love you forever and forever, love you with all my heart, love you whenever we’re together, love you when we’re apart…”

“Crazy Love,” Van Morrison, 1970

Morrison is still touring and has released nearly 50 studio albums in his long career. In his early years, he was infatuated with poetic imagery (his “Astral Weeks” LP) and jazzy ballads like “Moondance” and “Tupelo Honey.”  On the “Moondance” LP, he offered a couple of timeless love songs, the best of which is “Crazy Love”:   “And when I’m returning from so far away, she gives me some sweet lovin’ to brighten up my day, yes it makes me righteous, yes it makes me feel whole, yes it makes me mellow down into my soul, she give me love, love, love, love, crazy love…”

“How Deep Is Your Love,” The Bee Gees, 1977

The Brothers Gibb were writing and recording songs for their next album when producer Robert Stigwood asked them to contribute songs for the soundtrack of a movie he was producing about the disco dance culture.  They offered three dance tracks — “More Than a Woman,” “Night Fever” and “Stayin’ Alive” — and this shimmering ballad, and they ended up as the anchor songs on the most successful movie soundtrack of all time, “Saturday Night Fever.”  All three Bee Gees have said this was their favorite from the LP:  “I believe in you, you know the door to my very soul, you’re the light in my deepest, darkest hour, you’re my savior when I fall, and you may not think I care for you, when you know down inside that I really do, and it’s me you need to show, how deep is your love…”

“For Once in My Life,” Stevie Wonder, 1968

Although this upbeat track became one of Stevie Wonder’s best loved among his early works, reaching #2 in 1968, it was actually recorded first by The Temptations as well as The Four Tops, but their versions went nowhere.  Wonder’s extraordinary harmonica solo, captured in his televised performance of the song on “The Ed Sullivan Show” that year, took “For Once in My Life” to another level:  “For once in my life, I have someone who needs me, someone I’ve needed so long, for once unafraid, I can go where life leads me, somehow I know I’ll be strong…”

“Can’t Help Falling in Love,” Elvis Presley, 1961

Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, seasoned New York songwriters on their own, were commissioned to team up to create a song for Elvis in 1961.  Little did they know “Can’t Help Falling in Love” would be not only the best-selling song of 1962, but recorded by dozens of other artists in the ensuing years. It reached the top of the charts a second time three decades later in a reggae arrangement by British band UB40. Sample lyric:  “Like a river flows surely to the sea, darling, so it goes, some things were meant to be, take my hand, take my whole life too, for I can’t help falling in love with you…”

“Sweethearts Together,” The Rolling Stones, 1994

There are precious few songs in the voluminous catalog written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards that would qualify as romantic, but there are exceptions (“As Tears Go By,” “Wild Horses,” “Angie”).  Much later in their career arc, The Glimmer Twins surprised us by offering their prettiest ballad yet, “Sweethearts Together,” a tender ode to eternal love.  This one is a delightful break from their usual badass rock stance:  “Sweethearts together, we’ve only just begun, sweethearts together, so glad I found someone, sweethearts forever, two hearts together as one…”

“At Last,” Etta James, 1961

Mack Gordon and Harry Warren wrote this classic in 1941 for the Glenn Miller film “Orchestral Wives,” which flopped at the box office.  It languished for nearly 20 years before blues singer Etta James cut her smoldering rendition and made it the signature song of her impressive career.  I still hear “At Last” frequently at wedding receptions when the happy couple takes their first dance as husband and wife:   “I found a thrill to press my cheek to, a thrill that I had never known, you smiled, and then the spell was cast, and here we are in Heaven, for you are mine at last…”

“Fire at Midnight,” Jethro Tull, 1977

Regular readers of this blog know I will try to sneak in a Tull track whenever I can, and although the band isn’t exactly famous for love songs, Ian Anderson has written a few endearing tunes that qualify. On his back-to-nature LP “Songs From the Wood” in 1977, he concludes with this short piece that affectionately paints a picture of how much he enjoys coming home after a hard day and cuddling up with the woman he loves: “Kindled by the dying embers of another working day, /Go upstairs, take off your makeup, fold your clothes neatly away, /Me, I’ll sit and write this love song as I all too seldom do, /Build a little fire this midnight, it’s good to be back home with you…”

“Follow Me,” Mary Travers, 1970

At the rehearsal dinner before our wedding, this was the song I chose to sing to my wife-to-be. John Denver wrote it and recorded it in 1970 as an album track, and it caught the attention of Mary Travers as she was compiling songs for her solo debut following the breakup of Peter, Paul & Mary. It wasn’t a hit single, but I heard it on her “Mary” album in 1971 and learned to play it on guitar. I found it to be very touching, deftly capturing the idea of sharing your feelings and experiences with a lifetime partner: “Follow me where I go, what I do and who I know, make it part of you to be a part of me, /Follow me up and down, all the way and all around, take my hand and I will follow too…”

“Grow Old With Me,” Mary Chapin Carpenter, 1995

John Lennon was known mostly as an iconoclastic rocker, from his lusty rendition of “Twist and Shout” to the strident “Revolution” and much of his solo catalog, but wow, he could sure write some beautiful ballads as well — “In My Life,” “Julia,” “Imagine,” “Beautiful Boy,” to name just a few.  In the months before he was killed in 1980, he wrote several dozen songs, many of which, sadly, were recorded only in demo form.  The best of these is “Grow Old With Me,” which Lennon intended to be, in his words, “a new standard to be played at 50th anniversaries.”  Mary Chapin Carpenter offered a sublime cover version on the 1995 LP “Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon”: “Grow old along with me, two branches of one tree, face the setting sun, when the day is done, God bless our love, God bless our love, spending our lives together, man and wife together, world without end, world without end…”

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