The Supremes
A pastoral love song built on borrowed classical melody (adapted from a Baroque minuet traditionally attributed to Bach,…
idealized romance nature as backdrop for love devotion and permanence
Randy Newman
A jaunty, unguarded pledge of loyalty written for the Toy Story soundtrack, sung in the voice of a companion (originally Woody,…
loyalty friendship as identity reassurance in the face of fear
Minnie Riperton
A love song built around the gap between feeling and expression, in which the narrator worries that her devotion isn't landing…
communication anxiety reassurance devotion
Lauryn Hill
This is Lauryn Hill's rendition of the 1967 Frankie Valli classic, placed on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as a brief,…
infatuation gratitude vulnerability
The xx
A sparse, almost hymn-like love song built around a single repeated claim of devotion, sung by a narrator who seems…
devotion the ineffability of love fear of loss
Jason Isbell
A recovery ballad disguised as a love song, in which the narrator counts the cost of his old chaotic life and credits a specific…
addiction and sobriety redemption through love domesticity as safety
Cat Power
This is Cat Power's slowed, hushed reinterpretation of a Velvet Underground song, stripping away the original's arrangement in…
faith and doubt devotion persuasion versus surrender
Seal
This is Seal's cover of the Ben E. King soul standard, reworked as a lush, string-laden vocal showcase for his 2008 covers album…
loyalty fear of abandonment cosmic/apocalyptic imagery as metaphor for hardship
Otis Redding
Otis Redding takes the Irving Berlin standard and rebuilds it as soul testimony, stretching its plain, nostalgic lines into…
nostalgia longing devotion
Kacey Musgraves
Kacey Musgraves' rendition of this 1961 standard, recorded for the 2022 Elvis biopic soundtrack, strips the song down to its…
surrender to love fate versus choice vulnerability
Ann Peebles
A gratitude-soaked soul ballad in which the narrator credits a lover with rescuing her from despair and teaching her what love…
redemption through love gratitude rebirth/renewal
Al Green
Al Green frames a romantic relationship as a sacred event, thanking a higher power for a love that feels chosen rather than…
sacred love gratitude devotion
The Beach Boys
A love song built on an admission rather than a boast: the singer refuses to promise eternal devotion outright, instead…
dependence and self-erasure in love uncertainty as a form of honesty devotion expressed through negation
Smokey Robinson
A straightforward declaration of romantic devotion, built on the classic Smokey Robinson template of certainty and fidelity. The…
romantic devotion certainty/fate fidelity
Ethan Whitney
A straightforward pop declaration of romantic devotion dressed up in comic-book imagery. The narrator pledges protective,…
devoted love self-sufficiency vs. support escapism
Roberta Flack
A slow, hymn-like meditation on falling in love, told through three escalating 'first times' — seeing, kissing, and lying with a…
romantic awakening the sacredness of intimacy time and permanence
Depeche Mode
A slow-burning devotional track that blurs the line between spiritual ecstasy and self-annihilation, using the imagery of…
surrender and self-dissolution transcendence through love or faith mortality
The Rolling Stones
A weary declaration of devotion dressed up as a refusal: the singer insists he won't be exploited or taken for granted, even as…
emotional labor in relationships self-worth and insecurity devotion disguised as protest
Abbey Lincoln
A standard-era torch song built on a single plea: seize the present because permanence is never guaranteed. Abbey Lincoln's…
carpe diem uncertainty of the future mortality
Lucinda Williams
An early Lucinda Williams ballad addressed to an idealized poet-lover, mixing plainspoken country-blues devotion with a fantasy…
idealized love escapism artistic admiration
Peter Gabriel
A love song that treats romantic devotion as a form of spiritual salvation, where another person's gaze becomes the only stable…
romantic devotion as salvation spiritual longing expressed through eros restlessness and escape
Maxwell
A quiet devotional love song built almost entirely from offers and conditionals, in which the narrator surrenders control to a…
devotion and self-surrender vulnerability in love unconditional availability
D'Angelo
A slow-groove love song built almost entirely from a single circling phrase, promising that romantic devotion is enough to…
romantic devotion as survival domestic intimacy sensuality
Gregory Porter
A meditation on a love the narrator can't will himself out of, even when guilt, fatigue, and a bruised past argue for release.…
involuntary devotion emotional exhaustion guilt and self-reproach
Brandi Carlile
Brandi Carlile's title track builds a life's worth of scars and travels into a single argument: experience is meaningless…
intimacy as validation hidden suffering behind a public self devotion and destiny
Curtis Mayfield
A slow-burning soul ballad built almost entirely around a single plea, this track works less through storytelling than through…
romantic devotion vulnerability refuge from hardship
The Beatles
A quiet reckoning with memory, this song moves from cataloguing remembered places and people to settling on a present love that…
memory and nostalgia mortality the present versus the past
Bill Withers
A short, riff-driven soul cut in which Bill Withers turns groaning and moaning — sounds normally associated with pain or…
romantic satisfaction understated devotion surprise at being proven wrong
The War on Drugs
Red Eyes is a rush of ecstatic, half-legible sentiment stitched to a driving, anthemic rock arrangement, where the lyric's…
devotion under strain spiritual/emotional darkness self-doubt
Neutral Milk Hotel
A meditation on love, mortality, and impermanence that blurs the line between romantic address and elegy, filtered through Jeff…
mortality and impermanence romantic devotion memory and loss
Pearl Jam
A quiet acoustic meditation on mortality and gratitude, in which the narrator confronts the certainty of death by turning toward…
mortality and impermanence gratitude romantic devotion
A song about watching long marriages calcify and making a private, almost superstitious vow not to let that happen to your own.…
marital decay willed devotion nostalgia
Tom Waits
This piece reads less like a finished lyric than a raw studio artifact: a repetitive, formulaic love song built almost entirely…
longing distance repetition as devotion
Frank Sinatra
A love song that uses cosmic imagery as an elaborate courtship metaphor, translating grand celestial longing into the plainest…
romantic devotion longing and desire the vastness of space as metaphor for feeling
Queen
A ballad of direct, almost naked pleading, structured as a repeated appeal to a departing lover rather than a story with events.…
romantic loss pleading and supplication devotion despite rejection
The Smiths
A restless plea to be driven anywhere but home turns into a swooning fantasy about dying alongside the person behind the wheel.…
homelessness and unbelonging romantic devotion as self-annihilation loneliness disguised as humor
My Morning Jacket
A falsetto-driven meditation built entirely from the phrase 'I'm amazed,' the song lists private tenderness alongside public…
media distrust personal devotion vs. public decay spiritual/moral drift
Sade
Sade builds an entire song out of a single sustained image: a lover as bedrock stability amid emotional chaos. The lyric barely…
emotional refuge isolation vs connection stability in love
Billie Holiday
A standard from the World War II era, delivered here as a hushed vow of remembrance rather than a jaunty farewell. Holiday turns…
separation and longing memory as consolation wartime parting
The Temptations
A mid-80s Temptations single that reworks old-fashioned courtship etiquette into a slick, upbeat pitch. The narrator presents…
chivalry and gender roles nostalgia for traditional courtship masculine self-presentation