Is romance even possible without music? The right song can put you in the mood or else help you process and relive the romance after the fact. As Valentine’s Day draws nearer, it is of extreme importance that your playlists are ready and romance-ified. Here are six songs that perfectly capture what I love about love. Click on the title of each song to listen to it!
1) The Gambler by Fun.
This is my favorite romantic song of all time, because it’s the story of completed love. It’s easy to believe in the first blush of attraction, but my heart really swoons at this story of a married couple with grown children looking back at their beginning and forward to their ending. It’s absolutely beautiful.
You come home from work, and you kiss me on the eye
You curse the dogs, you say that I should never feed them what is ours
So we move out to the garden, look at everything we’ve grown
And the kids are coming home so I’ll set the table; you can make the fire
Before we get to the lyrics, I have to mention that the sound of this song is exactly the bouncy, giddy feeling of new love. It’s just a lovely song of the hyperbole of love, of wanting to be everything for the person you’re enamored with, of seeing love everywhere.
If I were a song, I’d be in just the right key.
I’d be all the best instruments in sweet harmony.
Oh, I’d play oh so loudly in hopes that you heard,
Because music is love in search of the words.
3) The Luckiest by Ben Folds
This one is a sucker punch to the heart. I adore this song, and its melancholy melody is perfect for its contemplative lyrics.
What if I’d been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I’d be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?
And in a white sea of eyes, I see one pair that I recognize
And I know that I am, I am, I am the luckiest
4) Come What May by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman
If there were ever a movie that shaped my perception of romance (for better and for worse), it was Moulin Rouge. This song stuck deep in my soul, and for years I wanted it sung at my wedding. This may…still be the case. What a great anthem for enduring love, even when prostitution, class wars, and disease stand in your way.
Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing?
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you until the end of time
5) Giving Up by Ingrid Michaelson
It can be easy to slip into a “grass is always greener” mentality, especially with a decision as big as romance. Is this person the “right” one? Will I find someone better? I really admire this song’s stance in saying, “It doesn’t matter. I choose you, so I’m going to stop comparing.”
I am giving up on making passes and
I am giving up on half empty glasses and
I am giving up on greener grasses
I am giving up
6) Anchor by Mindy Gledhill
Man, every verse of this song is meltingly adorable. For those of us who feel weird or misunderstood, there are few things as attractive about love as the possibility of someone loving our eccentricities.
There are those who think that I’m strange
They would box me up and tell me to change
But you hold me close and softly say
That you wouldn’t have me any other way
What is your favorite romantic song? Leave a comment and let me know!
Valentine’s Week Posts
February 8: How to Plan a Galentine’s Day Party
February 9: Top 6 Romantic Songs
February 10: Top 6 Heartbreak Songs
February 11: “Romance” in Senegal
February 12: Top 8 Romantic Books
February 13: A Romantic Ideal: Harold and Jean Stark
February 14: Happy Valentine’s Day!
It Is Trish 
6 thoughts on “Top 6 Romantic Songs”