Some readers have brought to my attention that I am very cynical when it comes to Valentine's Day, romantic love, and the pink and red drivel that comes with the holiday, and because of this, I have been unkind to lovers and have not given them the music that they need and crave for this most loving of days.  So I swallowed my natural aversion to all things sugary and saccharine (read contrived) and went into research mode to try to find the top love songs that should be on your iPod or radio, to mesh with the overwhelming feelings of love that greeting card companies have advertised so much to convince you that you feel on this day.

The first thing that I found was that I had set up something of a mission impossible for myself.  There are several thousand, if not several million, love songs out there, and trying to find love songs that are deep and moving without being so sweet that I want to hurl was a daunting task.  Then there were the questions of “Do I stay with happy love songs of love gone right?” or “Do I include songs of unrequited love?” or “What about love that never died, but your lover did?”  I decided that I would go with any song, as long as it spoke eloquently of love.

My first choice is a classic that I have adored since I first heard it in the movie Dirty Dancing: Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine."  This song is achingly beautiful, and it should not be judged on the basis that it was used in a movie that many say is the epitome of trite love stories.  The lyrics are full of the pathos that love can induce – just the opening alone can put a catch in your chest.  "These arms of mine / They are lonely, lonely and feeling blue / These arms of mine / They are yearning, yearning from wanting you."  Now tell me, who hasn't felt like that?

Staying in the same decade is another great love classic: "At Last," sung by Etta James.  Other artists have done this song, but Etta is the only one who has done it justice.  In a true dichotomy of song and voice, Etta sings the most joyful lyrics of love and manages to make them drip with pain and life.  "At last / My love has come along / My lonely days are over / And life is like a song."  If you haven't heard this song, then you don't know what you're missing.

Going forward in time to another decade entirely, we come to another song that is best known for its appearance in a movie: Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes."  This is a haunting love song with lyrics that match: "In your eyes / I am complete."  Oh, it makes me tingle just thinking about it.  And every time that I hear it, I picture John Cusack, standing in his trench coat with a boom box over his head, serenading the woman he loves.  You gotta love the eighties.

Actually, you gotta love a lot of the love songs used in movies throughout the ages.  Where would Casablanca be without Sam playing "As Time Goes By" to a world-weary Humphrey Bogart?  Or how about the ending scene in An Officer and a Gentleman, when "Up Where We Belong" is just as much a part of the scene as Deborah Winger getting carried away by Richard Gere?  I could name several more good movie love songs, but that seems like cheating, so I'll move on.

Oh!  But first, I have to mention one more song from a movie that I absolutely love, and I actually own the CD just so I can have this song.  It is Bryan Adams’ "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" from Don Juan DeMarco.  Bryan Adams does not seem to have the vocals to carry off a love song, yet for a while, he was the king of movie love songs.  And this one is, in my opinion, the very best of these songs.  I love the Spanish, acoustic guitar sound used throughout the song, but what really does it for me are the lyrics.  "To really love a woman / Let her hold you / Do you know how she needs to be touched? / You gotta breathe her / Really taste her / ‘Til you can feel her in your blood / Then when you see your unborn children in her eyes / You know you really love a woman."  Speaking as a woman…yup, that would work for me.

Speaking of which, no list of love songs would be complete without Barry White.  Although I use most of his songs as a vocal aphrodisiac, he has a couple of songs that are truly touching, one being "You're the First, the Last, My Everything."  I think the title says it all on that one, and no one can deny that Barry White could sing the directions on how to set up a VCR and make it sound romantic.

Well, that's about all the love songs that I can list without getting a toothache.  I'm sorry that there aren't some more modern love songs in this list, but I find that the really good love songs stopped being made once grunge rock hit the scene. I know that they are out there, but they are too difficult for me to find without having to listen to a lot of really awful crap, and I don't have the stomach to listen to all that bad to get to the good.  Maybe it is just that the concept of the love song is changing as people grow more cynical like myself, and though the singers and songwriters believe in love, they just don't want to sing about it.  I hope this article appeased those readers who have told me that I am too hard on Valentine's Day.

To all you Baton Rouge bands out there: If you have a band that plays somewhere other than your parents' garage, drop me a line and let me know where and when you will be playing, and I will come and review you.  Come on, local bands – be brave!