As Valentine’s Day approaches, I’ve been listening to CD compilations of Love Songs. First Love (2013) includes some hits from the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these songs are engraved on my mind because I listened to them on my transistor radio hundreds of times! Classics like “I Got You Babe” by Sonny & Cher and “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys never get old to me. And hearing “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me” by The Miracles–a song I don’t hear very often on our Oldies radio station–brings back a lot of memories.
Ultimate Love Songs Collection: The Power Of Love (2003) includes more recent love songs. Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and “When Will I See You Again” by The Three Degrees–a group as cool as our current weather!–always tickle my ears when I hear them.
Whether you’re in the mood for some great love songs from the Fifties and Sixties, or more current songs, these two CD compilations bring the Love into this February! Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+ (for both)
TRACK LIST:
- 1. Unchained Melody – The Righteous Brothers
- 2. At Last – Etta James
- 3. My Guy – Mary Wells
- 4. Stand By Me – Ben E. King
- 5. Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel) – Roy Orbison
- 6. My Girl – The Temptations
- 7. Great Pretender, The – The Platters
- 8. What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong
- 9. You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me – The Miracles
- 10. I Heard It Through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye
- 11. Book of Love, The – Dusty Springfield
- 12. When a Man Loves a Woman – Percy Sledge
- 13. Just One Look – The Hollies
- 14. God Only Knows – The Beach Boys
- 15. I Got You Babe – Sonny & Cher
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | Céline Dion– | The Power Of Love | 5:45 |
| 2 | Oleta Adams– | Get Here | 4:37 |
| 3 | Mariah Carey– | Vision Of Love | 3:32 |
| 4 | Neil Diamond– | Heartlight | 4:26 |
| 5 | Michael Bolton– | How Am I Supposed To Live Without You | 4:16 |
| 6 | Phil Collins– | Groovy Kind Of Love | 3:30 |
| 7 | Billy Joel– | This Is The Time | 5:01 |
| 8 | Gloria Estefan– | Anything For You | 4:05 |
| 9 | REO Speedwagon– | Can’t Fight This Feeling | 4:57 |
| 10 | Heart– | These Dreams | 4:16 |
| 11 | Cyndi Lauper– | Time After Time | 4:01 |
| 12 | Bonnie Tyler– | Total Eclipse Of The Heart | 5:37 |
| 13 | Dan Hill With Vonda Shepard– | Can’t We Try | 3:59 |
| 14 | Paul Young– | Everytime You Go Away | 5:26 |
| 15 | Jack Wagner– | All I Need | 3:31 |
| 16 | The Doobie Brothers– | What A Fool Believes | 3:44 |
| 17 | Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes– | If You Don’t Know Me By Now | 3:29 |
| 18 | The Three Degrees– | When Will I See You Again | 3:02 |
I love that songs from 35+ years ago are considered “more current” 😂. However, I much prefer the songs on the earlier CD. Although on both CDs there are songs I would definitely not classify as “love songs”—more about heartache and heartbreak. I guess this Valentine’s Day, I’ll be sticking with Sade’s Greatest Hits.
Deb, I totally agree with you on Sade’s GREATEST HITS. Great love songs!
I was struck by the same time-dilation as Deb…though I first started paying close attention to the music around me around the time the Three Degrees song was released, so in a sense many of these were personally experienced as being almost contemporary (though I realized they were not).
I also remember a decade+/- later when “Total Eclipse” was released and how immediately off-putting the song was, along with Tyler’s other work; the world did provide us with Sade Adu about the same time, so that more than helped.
FIRST LOVE knocks it out of the park for me, with fourteen out of the fifteen songs among my favorites — I could well do without Percy Sledge. I found the ULTIMATE LOVE SONGS collection truly hit or miss; some decent stuff there (“If You Don’t Know Me by Now”) among much lesser tunes (I have an aversion to Celine Dion and Mariah Carey; sorry)
Looking back, my first love? Ice cream, followed closely by The Cisco Kid and Hopalong Cassidy
Jerry, I’m with you on ice cream. But I was a HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL fan followed by MAVERICK. And I fell hard for Emma Peel (aka, Diana Rigg) in her leather catsuit!
I’m with Deb and Jerry. Give me the first one ( and ice cream). By coincidence, I heard both “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me” and ” My Girl” yesterday – both co-written by Smokey Robinson – on Sirius FM yesterday.
Jeff, I’m listening to Sirius FM every time I’m driving around doing errands. One of my favorite stations is “Smokey’s Soul Town.”
A real mix n the second CD. Harold Melvin, Three Degrees, Paul Young on one hand, Bolton, Celine, Neil, Mariah on the other. Don’t recognize the Joel title. “What a Fool Believes” is a love song? Somebody was smoking too many doobies.
Fred, I also question some of the song selections on ULTIMATE LOVE SONGS COLLECTION. Firstly, they are NOT Ultimate. Good, listenable, familiar mostly. But not ULTIMATE!
“These are the last Love Songs you’ll ever hear,” intoned the ICE agent…
Some of these wonderful songs I heard while still at school like Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel) and later of course “Unchained Melody” and now I have to admit that sometimes I still watch them on youtube.
I got you Babe is a favourite too and I was really down when I read about the problems many of these peopple had – Cher and her husband or the stories on Phil Spector who had weiten To Know him is to love him when he was just 18 years old.
Really fond memories!
Wolf, same here. Where I heard these songs, it takes me back to Happy Days and fond memories.
“…Know Him…” being sparked, supposedly, by the inscription on his father’s tombstone. But Spector managed to create more tragedy and worse, after making his mark in music, sadly.
Some great ones, but no mention of my favorite: peaceful easy feeling by the Eagles. It was written by an alumni of my high school, Jack Tempchin. I’ve met him as he’s still living in San Diego County and is very nice. When I’m not listening to audiobooks in my car, I usually have the Eagles greatest hits CD on. I’m guessing I’ll need to replace it in the future when it wears out
Maggie, the Eagles are Diane’s favorite group and she plays their music on a regular basis. THE EAGLES: GREATEST HITS is one of the best selling albums ever!
The first CD is better, except for the Sonny and Cher inclusion! I disdain her and despise him! The Beatles covered You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me, which I hear on their channel every couple of weeks!
It’s Diana Rigg! Dang autocorrect!
Bob, thanks for the heads up! The WordPress auto-correct demon torments me every day!
The second anthology does have some very low points, indeed (Bonnie Tyler, Jack Wagner, Bolton, Diamond), but the first one is pretty solid…surprised the Miracles song doesn’t get much play on your favorite feeds. The Monotones (too right a chorus name) did the “Book”…Dusty Springfield’s fine hit was “The Look of Love”…
Todd, Dusty Springfield captured my heart with “The Look of Love” and thrilled me with her “Son of a Preacher Man” hit. Her ending was sad, too…