Welcome to another heart-flipping, tear-dabbing, smile-sparking entry in my sonic diary, where love letters come with backup vocals and heartbreak gets a killer chorus. Read between the lyrics… or just hum along like everything’s fine.
| Title | Artist | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| It Started With A Kiss | Hot Chocolate | Written by Errol Brown. A reflection on love lost and nostalgia. Hot Chocolate, a British soul-pop band, was known for their emotional lyrics and smooth delivery. The song recalls a first kiss that never led to lasting love. |
| Sealed With A Kiss | Brian Hyland | Written by Peter Udell and Gary Geld. Inspired by summer separation. Hyland, a New York-born teen idol, captured youthful longing in this sweet, melancholic tune. Geld stated it was “based on, but not totally based on, a Bach finger exercise.” |
| Love Letters In The Sand | Pat Boone | Written by J. Fred Coots, Nick Kenny & Charles Kenny. Inspired by fleeting love. Boone, a clean-cut pop crooner from Florida, brought wholesome charm to this melancholy classic. |
| P.S. I Love You | Bette Midler | Written by Johnny Mercer and Gordon Jenkins. A lyrical love letter. Midler, a dramatic vocalist and performer from Hawaii, added new life to this vintage romantic standard. |
| Return To Sender | Elvis Presley | Written by Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott. A year after the release, postal “Zones” were replaced by Zip Codes, making the line, “No such number, no such zone” outdated. On January 8 1993, the US postal service released a stamp commemorating The King’s 58th birthday. Enterprising stamp collectors put Elvis stamps on letters that day and mailed them off with false addresses so they would be sent back marked “Return To Sender” and become collector’s items. |
| Tous les garçons et les filles | Françoise Hardy | Written by Françoise Hardy. Inspired by youthful loneliness. Hardy, a French icon of yé-yé pop, voiced the quiet heartbreak of being left out of love. On April 25, 1962, Françoise Hardy, at 18, recorded this first 45 rpm in just three hours. As she did not read music, the song was declared to SACEM by the conductor Roger Samyn. The music video, shot by Claude Lelouch, caused a scandal due to the wind blowing up the skirts of young girls on swings at the Foire du Trône. |
| Somos Novios | Lolita | “Somos novios” is a bolero classic about blossoming love, written and performed by Mexican singer-songwriter Armando Manzanero in the early 1960s and recorded by him in 1968. It was translated into English by Sid Wayne and recorded in English by Perry Como in 1970 under the title “It’s Impossible”. Lolita, a flamenco-rooted Spanish artist, gave this romantic standard emotional depth. |
| Por El Amor De Una Mujer | Danny Daniel | The music was written by Danny Daniel with lyrics by Cholo Baltasar. A romantic tribute to the sacrifices made for love. Daniel, a Spanish singer-songwriter, is known for heartfelt ballads. |
| Honey | Bobby Goldsboro | Written by Bobby Russell. Inspired by the death of a young wife. Goldsboro, an American pop and country singer, became known for sentimental hits. The song narrates grief through everyday memories. |
| Up Where We Belong | Joe Cocker (ft. Jennifer Warnes) | Written by Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Will Jennings. A love anthem about rising together through hardship. Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes brought soulful grit and grace to this movie ballad, originally recorded for the film “An Officer and a Gentleman” |
| Un homme, une femme | Nicole Croisille (ft. Pierre Barouh) | Written by Francis Lai and Pierre Barouh. inspired by the film’s romantic melancholy. The song “Un homme et une femme”, the soundtrack to the film of the same name from Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven, is inseparable from the famous “chabadabada chabadabada” sung by Nicole Croisille, a French singer, and Pierre Barouh, a lyricist/actor, delivered a timeless chanson of connection. |
| Needles And Pins | The Searchers | Written by Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche. Triggered by heartbreak and lost love. The Searchers, part of the British Invasion, gave jangly pop-rock charm to emotional ache. American singer Jackie DeShannon (born Sharon Lee Myers; August 21, 1941) recorded it first in 1963 and Petula Clark released in 1963 a French cover of the song called “La Nuit N’en Finit Plus”. |
| A World Without Love | Peter & Gordon | Written by Paul McCartney. A teenage heartbreak anthem. Peter & Gordon, a UK duo, soared with McCartney’s melancholy lyrics about isolation without love. |
| Paperback Writer | The Beatles | Written by Lennon–McCartney. Inspired by Paul’s fascination with authorship and storytelling. A satire on fame and ambition from the world’s most famous band. |
| Everyday I Write A Book | Elvis Costello & The Attractions | Written by Elvis Costello. A clever metaphor for romantic progress and revision. Costello, a sharp-tongued British songwriter, delivers literary love with groove. He claimed it was written in ten minutes and stated “‘Everyday I Write the Book’ is a knockoff of Nick Lowe’s ‘When I Write the Book’ with a little Rodgers and Hart thrown in.'” |
| I Wrote the Book | Beth Ditto | Written by Beth Ditto. Inspired by reclaiming narrative after heartbreak. Ditto, former frontwoman of Gossip, delivers disco-tinged empowerment with swagger. |
| Broken Wings | Mr. Mister | Written by Richard Page, Steve George, and John Lang. Mr. Mister blended philosophy with synth-pop drama, inspired by a book the lyricist John Lang read called The Broken Wings, which was written by the Lebanese poet-philosopher Kahlil Gibran. |
| Pour que tu m’aimes encore | Céline Dion | “Pour Que Tu M’aimes Encore”, a plea to recapture lost love, was written by French singer-songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman. French-Canadian songbird Celine Dion, a vocal powerhouse pours heartbreak into every note. In France, it topped the charts for a staggering 12 weeks and went platinum. |
| Without You | Nilsson | Badfinger members Peter Ham and Tom Evans wrote it. Badfinger was signed to The Beatles’ label Apple Records. Nilsson also had a Beatles connection: He and Lennon enjoyed a destructive time together from 1973-1975 that became known as the “lost weekend.” The Badfinger original wasn’t released as a single, so most people weren’t familiar with it. Nilsson’s version, laced with lush orchestration, became a huge hit, |
| I Want To Know What Love Is | Foreigner | Written by Mick Jones. Inspired by longing for emotional truth. Foreigner, a British-American rock band, created an enduring power ballad with gospel undertones. The New Jersey Mass Choir was brought in to sing the backing vocals, becoming the first gospel choir to appear on a #1 pop hit. R&B singer Jennifer Holliday sang backup. |
| Sometimes When We Touch | Dan Hill | Written by Dan Hill and Barry Mann. Hill penned one of the most dramatic love songs of the ’70s, a confession of emotional vulnerability. After the 19-year-old Dan Hill failed to win the heart of the 22-year-old object of his affection with this song, the Canadian balladeer took it to his music publisher, who had him work with the songwriting legend Barry Mann. |
| How Am I Supposed To Live Without You | Michael Bolton | Written by Bolton and Doug James. Inspired by heartbreak and unrequited love, “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” was supposed to be recorded by Australian duo Air Supply, the track was originally recorded by Laura Branigan in 1983, |
| Wooden Heart | Joe Dowell | Joe Dowell topped the pop chart in 1961 with his recording of “Wooden Heart” from the Elvis Presley movie G.I. Blues, written by Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Kay Twomey and German bandleader Bert Kaempfert. It was based on the German folk song, “Muss Ich denn”, originating from the Rems Valley in Württemberg, south-west Germany, and arranged by Friedrich Silcher. Marlene Dietrich recorded it in the original German version, as a B-side on her 1959 version of her single “Lili Marlene”, |
| Lili Marlene | Marlene Dietrich | The words of “Lili Marleen” (also spelled “Lili Marlen'”, “Lilli Marlene”, “Lily Marlene”, “Lili Marlène”) were written in 1915 as a poem of three verses by Hans Leip (1893–1983), a school teacher from Hamburg and it was set to music by Norbert Schultze in 1938 and recorded by the Swedish singer Lale Andersen for the first time in 1939 as “Das Mädchen unter der Laterne” (“The Girl under the Lantern”). Marie Magdalene “Marlene” Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer. |
| Je T’attends | Axelle Red | “Je T’attends” is written by French brothers Daniel (lyrics) and Richard (music) Seff. Red haired Belgian singer Axelle Red (born Fabienne Demal on February 15, 1968 in Hasselt), observing people around her in the city and wondering where they are going and what they see at the end of their journey, is inspired by longing and unfulfilled love. |
| Éblouie par la nuit | Zaz | Raphaël Haroche wrote this poetic tale of wonder and emotional blindness. French singer Zaz (born Isabelle Geffroy on 1 May 1980 in Chambray-lès-Tours) blends gypsy jazz and chanson with her signature raw vocal style. |
| Send One Your Love | Stevie Wonder | “Send One Your Love” by American and Motown musician and singer Stevie Wonder is a 1979 oldfashioned love song straight from the heart, with an unusual sound that gets better each time you hear it . |
Sources
The information sources of the song facts include, but are not limited to, Wikipedia, songfacts.com, discogs.com, secondhandsongs.com, YouTube and artists’ related websites.
