A Brief History of Love Songs: Part II

Ancient Love Songs  |   Song Of Songs  |   Greek Love Songs  |   Roman Love Songs

The Troubadours  |   Renaissance Love Songs  |   1600s  |   1700s  |   1800s

Gay Nineties & Tin Pan Alley  |   1930s   |   1940s  |   1950s  |   1960s  |   1970s  |   1980s

1990s and beyond...

"They Can't Take That Away From Me"

Music: George Gershwin / Lyrics: Ira Gershwin
from Shall We Dance 1936

There are many many crazy things
That will keep me loving you
And with your permission
May I list a few

The way you wear your hat
The way you sip your tea
The memory of all that
No they can't take that away from me

The way your smile just beams
The way you sing off key
The way you haunt my dreams
No they can't take that away from me

We may never never meet again,
on that bumpy road to love
But I'll always, always keep the memory of...

The way you hold your knife
The way we danced till three
The way you changed my life
No they can't take that away from me

"I've Got you Under My Skin"
Cole Porter
from Born To Dance 1936

I've got you under my skin.
I've got you deep in the heart of me.
So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me.
I've got you under my skin.
I'd tried so not to give in.
I said to myself: this affair never will go so well.
But why should I try to resist when, baby, I know so well
I've got you under my skin?

I'd sacrifice anything come what might
For the sake of havin' you near
In spite of a warnin' voice that comes in the night
And repeats, repeats in my ear:
Don't you know, little fool, you never can win?
Use your mentality, wake up to reality.
But each time that I do just the thought of you
Makes me stop before I begin
'Cause I've got you under my skin.

Love Songs of the Great Musicals (1930s)

Some of the most expressive love songs ever written come from the Broadway musicals of the 1930's and 1940's. The golden age of American musical theater is sometimes said to have begun in September, 1925. In a single week four major musicals opened on Braodway: No, No Nanette which gave us the charming love songs "Tea For Two" and "I Want To Be Happy" plus offerings from Rudolf Friml, Rodgers & Hart, and Jerome Kern. They were light-hearted affairs but they differed from the vaudeville and revue-style shows of the previous decades in that they blended storyline, character, and song in a seamless entertainment experience. The audience no longer simply waited for the next big razzle-dazzle moment; they cared about what happened to the characters on stage. Songs grew out of the plot, rather than the simple need to be louder, faster, or funnier. Of course there were still star turns, but every show also included one or more love ballads sung by characters who connected with the audience's feelings. Love songs were finally able to reclaim their humanity after the somewhat dehumanizing era of blackface minstrel shows and burlesque bubble dancers.

In 1927, a show opened that would change the face of American musical theater - Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's "Showboat." This singular show altered both American theater and popular love songs. Its stellar score included five (Count 'em, five!) love songs: "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man Of Mine," "You Are Love," "Bill," "Why Do I Love You," and "Make Believe." These love ballads expressed yearning, loyalty, hope, desire, and fatalism - a whole host of human emotions. In the lyrics, we hear the honest voices men and women. They speak to the heart in a direct, immediate way that invites us to identify with them: I know how you feel; I've felt that way, too.

Although it would be several years before Broadway would see another musical as serious (or controversial) as "Showboat," love ballads in general took on a more heartfelt and expressive tone. By the end of the 1930's, a body of songs had been created that stands to this day as the best of the genre. Here are a few of the songwriters and their songs...

Cole Porter's love songs combined world-weary sophistication with genuine emotion. They were a perfect vehicle for Fred Astaire with his debonair persona yet charmingly unaffected voice. His rendition of Porter's brilliant "Night And Day" written in 1932 for the Broadway show The Gay Divorcee is pure magic. Other Porter love songs written for musicals and films of the 1930's include: "I Get A Kick Out Of You," "All Through The Night," "Begin The Beguine," "I've Got You Under My Skin," and "At Long Last Love." This is an astonishing string of not just good love songs, but great ones!

Porter was not alone. Irving Berlin made the transition from Tin Pan Alley to Broadway, writing "Cheek To Cheek," for the musical Top Hat in 1935), followed by "Let's Face The Music And Dance for Follow The Fleet in 1936, "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" in 1937, and this flow of great material continued right into the 1940's with "You Keep Coming Back Like A Song" for Blue Skies 1943 and a string of marvelous love songs for Annie Get Your Gun and Easter Parade. Berlin did not write exclusively for Broadway and film; some of his greatest songs were one-offs, just like in his old Tin Pan Alley days. Songs like "How Deep Is The Ocean" and "White Christmas," though later used in musicals, were originally written to be recorded on disc and sold as sheet music.

Of course, Jerome Kern didn't stop with Showboat. He continued to collaborate with Oscar Hammerstein II on Broadway musicals and Hollywood films, turning out such love song standards as "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" and "The Song Is You." With Otto Harbach, he created the brilliant "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" for the 1935 film Roberta. With Dorothy Fields, he wrote "The Way You Look Tonight" featured in Swingtime in 1936.

George and Ira Gershwin filled Broadway theaters and Hollywood films with great love songs throughout the 1930's: "But Not For Me," "Embraceable You," "Love Walked In," "Our Love Is Here To Stay," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," and the incomparable score for Porgy and Bess in 1935 which included "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" and "My Man's Gone Now."

Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II -- the 1930's were an embarrassment of riches. And yet there is more, much more. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart hit their stride in that decade, penning such classic love songs as "Dancing On The Ceiling," "Isn't It Romantic," "My Funny Valentine," "Where Or When," "Falling In Love With Love," and "This Can't Be Love."

Musical theater and Hollywood films would continue to be a source of great love songs throughout the following decades but the 1930's still stand as THE decade of the classic love song. Between 1927 and 1940, the popular love song went from novelty tune, sentimental tear-jerker and ersatz folk song to a finely-crafted, sophisticated work of art, the foundation of a multi-billion dollar music business. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, Irving Berlin -- these writers created love songs that are still being recorded and performed today, and selling millions of albums. The combination of craftsmanship and emotional honesty in these songs is the standard by which all love songs of today are judged.

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"Don't Get Around Much Any More"
Ellington/Russell (1940)

Missed the Saturday dance
Heard they crowded the floor
Couldn't bear it without you
Don't get around much anymore

Thought I'd visit the club
Got as far as the door
They'd have asked me about you
Don't get around much anymore

Darling, I guess my mind's more at ease
But nevertheless, why stir up memories

Been invited on dates
Might have gone but what for
Awfully different without you
Don't get around much anymore

"Laura"
Mercer/Raksin (1945)

Laura is the face in the misty lights
Footsteps that you hear down the hall
The laugh that floats on a summer night
That you can never quite recall

And you see Laura on the train that is passing through
Those eyes how familiar they seem
She gave your very first kiss to you
That was Laura but she's only a dream

Love Songs of the Big Band Era (1940s)

If the 1930's invented the classic love song as we know it today, the 1940's refined it. This was not a period of innovation for the love song; the Big Band era belonged to the arranger, not the songwriter. New voicings, complex rhythms, unusual instrumental textures were applied to songs written in previous decades. Hollywood films recycled the songs of Berlin, Gershwin and Kern. No longer did a song "belong" to a star, the song WAS the star; it stood on its own and thrived because of, or in spite of, whatever was done to it. Possibly the best example of this is "Stardust." Hoagy Carmichael originally wrote and recorded it as an uptempo instrumental in 1927. It stiffed. Then Mitchell Parish added lyrics in 1929 and the song began to see some success. During the 1930's it was recorded by many bands in varying tempos. By the end of the decade it was enormously popular. There were over 50 commercial recordings between 1938 to 1941 according to the Stardust web site. (At this site you can also listen to 634 recorded versions of the song!) But it was the 1940's that established the song's reputation as THE quintessential love song. Artie Shaw's 1940 recording is considered by many to be the definitive recording, selling over 2 million copies. During WWII, the song followed American G.I.s around the globe and, throughout the decade of the Forties, it consistently topped the juke box polls. The song is a challenge for even the best of singers. Sliding through a series of interval leaps within a very short space, the melody line actually sounds as if it would be more at home played on a sax or clarinet. But its lyric, filled with longing, and the slowed-down tempo which eventually became the accepted one, turn it into a lilting paean to lost love.

Despite the mania for re-working earlier songs, there were still great love songs being written in the 1940's, some by the arrangers themselves. Duke Ellington wrote and performed with his band throughout the 1930's but really hit his stride in the Forties when he co-wrote and recorded such standards as "I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "I'm Beginning To See The Light," "Ring Around The Moon," and "The Wonder Of You." In 1939, he hired arranger Billy Strayhorn who helped to define Ellington's sound and set it into the musical history books. Strayhorn composed several brilliant instrumentals for the Ellington band but also found time to write a few great love songs including "Love Like This Can't Last" and "After All."

No discussion of 1940's love songs would be complete without acknowledging the contribution of composer, lyricist, and singer Johnny Mercer. Mercer collaborated with practically all the great songwriters of the decade including Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, and Harold Arlen. With these illustrious collaborators, he wrote such classics as "Fools Rush In," "Come Rain Or Come Shine," "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)," "That Old Black Magic," "Too Marvelous For Words," "How Little We Know," and "Something's Gotta Give." Together with film composer David Raksin, he collaborated on the Academy Award-winning theme song for the 1945 film noir classic, "Laura." In this exceptional song, Mercer and Raksin create a mood of haunted romanticism, a dream which exists in spite of the jaded worldliness of high society life swirling around it, a love that longs for what it can never possess, indeed for that which may not even be real. For me, this song stands out as a watershed. Its only precursers are the luminous, ghostly love ballads of the 1600's, such songs as "She Moved Through The Fair" and "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair." Its successors are ultra-romantic contemporary love songs like Stevie Nicks' "Rhiannon" and Everything But The Girl's "Missing (Like The Deserts Miss The Rain)."

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"Come Fly With Me"
(Cahn/Van Heusen)
Recorded by Frank Sinatra (1958)

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away
If you can use some exotic booze
There's a bar in far Bombay
Come fly with me, we'll fly, we'll fly away

Come fly with me, let's float down to Peru
In lama land there's a one man band
And he'll toot his flute for you
Come fly with me, we'll float down in the blue

Once I get you up there
Where the air is rarefied
We'll just glide, starry-eyed
Once I get you up there
I'll be holding you so near
You may hear angels cheer
Because we're together

Weather-wise it's such a lovely day
You just say the words, and we'll beat the birds
Down to Acapulco Bay
It's perfect for a flying honeymoon, they say
Come fly with me, we'll fly, we'll fly away

"Don't Be Cruel"
(Otis Blackwell)
Recorded by Elvis Presley (1956)

You know I can be found,
Sitting home all alone,
If you can't come around,
At least please telephone
Don't be cruel to a heart that's true.

Baby, if I made you mad
For something I might have said,
Please, let's forget the past,
The future looks bright ahead,
Don't be cruel to a heart that's true.
I don't want no other love,
Baby, it's just you I'm thinking of.

Love Songs Cool and Hot (1950s)

As the decade of the Forties came to an end, the Big Bands faded along with it. But for a handful of vocalists in those bands, the party was just beginning. Some, like Ella Fitzgerald, would enjoy long and distinguished careers in music; others, like Frank Sinatra and Doris Day, would become mega-stars. All would become identified with the love songs they sang.

Frank Sinatra enjoyed enormous success in the 1940's. He was mobbed by screaming bobby-soxers wherever he sang and his records sold in the millions. But by the end of the 1940's he was embroiled in a notorious affair with Ava Gardner and was accused of having mafia ties. The unfavorable publicity led to the loss of his record contract and radio show; he virtually disappeared. His career remained in shambles until 1954 when he made a phenomenal comeback, rapidly establishing himself once again as the dominant entertainer of an era. The two albums he made next, In The Wee Small Hours and Songs For Swingin' Lovers, defined the ultra-cool style of the mid-Fifties. But Sinatra trailed behind him the shadow of the Forties crooner; the two albums consisted of new arrangements of love song standards, this time with Nelson Riddle as arranger. The established songwriters of the Forties created love songs specifically for Sinatra throughout the 1950's, harking back in style and content to their earlier work.

Although Sinatra was a matchless singer, his contribution to the history of love songs was not musical; it was attitude. He combined the romanticism of the previous decades with a mature sexuality. His voice seemed to caress and linger on each note, gently nudging the rhythm, always conveying an underlying masculine energy. He was a lover, a swinger, cool and collected, nursing a broken heart in the intimacy of a late night bistro or painting the town with a beautiful woman on his arm. His listeners saw themselves as sophisticated adults. Sinatra's audience and style of love song were about as far as could possibly be imagined from the raucous, immature, brash music scene that was about to erupt like a belching volcano.

In 1954, the top ten singles included Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Doris Day, and Rosemary Clooney. In 1955 the same top ten chart included Bill Haley & His Comets and Fats Domino. In 1956, just two short years later, it was dominated by Elvis Presley who held four out of the top ten spots with "Heartbreak Hotel," "Don't Be Cruel," "Hound Dog," and "Love Me Tender." Perry and Eddie and Rosemary would continue to hold onto chart positions, but there were now two very distinct kinds of love songs, each with its own audience.

The existence of love songs created for a specific age group was a unique phenomenon; something that had simply never existed before the Fifties. But then, the idea of teenagers as a separate group, one with its own culture and taste, had never existed before either. For the first time, movies, clothing, music, and books were created for and bought by teenagers. The music was a blend of African-American blues and country-western swing. New stars suddenly appeared - Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, and Richie Valens. The music was vital, original, honest, and naive. It was NOT sophisticated and cool. "Peggy Sue" and "Don't Be Cruel" may have been more about the beat than lyric content but they got their message across nonetheless. A number of these hits - such as Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" and Ritchie Valens' "Donna" were written by the singers themselves. Although this was accepted practice among blues and folk singers, it was unprecedented in the mainstream music industry. It gave these songs a directness and honesty that had gone missing in commercial music, and it spoke powerfully to young people everywhere. Rock and roll love songs would soon spread to every corner of the world.

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"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"
(Goffin/King)
Recorded by The Shirelles (1960)

Tonight you're mine completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow

Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment's pleasure
Can I believe the magic of your sighs
Will you still love me tomorrow

Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I'm the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night meets the morning sun

I'd like to know that your love
Is love that I, I can be sure of
So tell me now and I will not ask you again
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow

"MacArthur Park"
(Jimmy Webb)
Recorded by Richard Harris (1968)

Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed,
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

CHORUS
MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

CHORUS

There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one.
I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky.
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why.

Instrumental Break

CHORUS

Make Love Songs, Not War (1960s)

The musical revolution that began in the mid-Fifties continued into the early 1960's, although it received a serious setback with the tragic deaths of rockers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. After that, mainstream record labels quickly softened its rough edges by introducing ersatz-crooners like Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Even Elvis the Pelvis toned down his act with schmaltzy bits of fluff like "Teddy Bear." But teen love songs found a voice and a champion in a new generation of songwriters: Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann, Jerry Lieber, and Mike Stoller. Like their Tin Pan Alley counterparts, they reported for work each day, pounding out their songs in small offices with tinny pianos, songs that would sell hundreds of thousands of 45 RPM singles. The offices were located in New York's Brill Building at 1619 Broadway. There some of the best love songs of the early 1960's were penned; songs like "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (Mann/Weil/Spector), "Take Good Care Of My Baby" (Goffin/King), and "You're My Soul and Inspiration" (Mann/Weil). The film Grace Of My Heart released in 1997 is a fictionalized account of the Brill Building era.

Teen love songs ran the gamut from the over-the-top melodrama of "Leader of the Pack" and "Teen Angel" to the very serious "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" which captured the confusing mix of first love, raging hormones, and dangers of sexual experimentation that dominated the lives of teenagers. Amid the catchy hooks and simple lyrics, there was an honesty and frankness that listeners craved.

At the same time, in Detroit, Barry Gordy Jr. was creating Motown, a record label with a uniquely identifiable sound. His stable of songwritiers and music producers included the legendary Smokey Robinson and the prolific team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. H-D-H arguably defined the Motown sound, penning ten Top 10 love songs for The Supremes, including "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," "Stop! In the Name of Love," "I Hear a Symphony," "My World Is Empty Without You," and "You Can't Hurry Love." But it was Smokey Robinson who emerged as one of the finest songwriters of the era and whose work has influenced many others over the years, including such greats as Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie. Among Robinson's outstanding love songs are "I Second That Emotion," "Ooo Baby Baby" "The Tracks of My Tears," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," "The Tears Of A Clown," "My Guy" and "The Way You Do The Things You Do."

On a Sunday evening in February 1964, teen love songs, till then relegated to malt shoppes and drive-ins, suddenly became a global phenomenon. That night the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show singing "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "I Saw Her Standing There," "All My Loving" and "She Loves You." The next morning the book of love songs had a new page! As good as the songwriting teams of the Brill Building and Motown might be, Lennon and McCartney outstripped them all with apparent ease. Their sense of playful fun, driving energy, and self-mockery masked an enormous talent for melodic and chordal innovation. They created a sound that seemed to leap from one surprise to the next - using dynamic contrasts, key changes, and unusual harmonies. However, for all their innovation, it's interesting to note that their Ed Sullivan appearance also included their performance of "Till There Was You," a love song standard from The Music Man. McCartney, in particular, was influenced by the standards of the 1940's and 50's. In fact, it is the mix of sophisticated chord progressions from these songs blended with the energy and drive of rock and roll that is in large part responsible for the characteristic sound of early Lennon/McCartney songs. Certainly the types of song forms they used and chord transitions between song sections owe a great deal to the work of Richard Rodgers and Cole Porter.

By the mid-Sixties, the revolution in love songs was complete. The charts were dominated exclusively by love songs written by and for the youth culture. In 1964, the top act was The Beatles followed by The Beach Boys, The Supremes, and The Dixie Cups. But even as one change swept the music scene, another was brewing. In 1965, the charts included The Rolling Stones' sassy complaint "Satisfaction" and The Righteous Brothers' magnificent recording of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" but a third chart-topper, The Byrds' "Turn, Turn Turn," heralded the arrival of Folk-Rock, and with it one of the greatest poet/songwriters of all time, Bob Dylan.

Many people associate Dylan primarily with his early protest songs - "Blowing In The Wind" and "Masters Of War" - or with his later, mellower work on Nashville Skyline but his greatest and most influential love songs were released at the height of his electric rock period on the 1966 album Blonde On Blonde. "Visions Of Johanna" and "Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands, a 26-minute epic paean to an unattainable beloved, launched a generation of songwriters on a quest to express a luminous, mythic love in poetic terms.

With the advent of psychedelics and free love in the late 1960's, love songs took some pretty strange turns... In early 1970, Steven Stills' "Love The One You're With" took the pragmatic view, while in 1967 The Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" celebrated a girl with kaleidoscope eyes. At the same time, new love songs in the classic style were being written by the likes of Burt Bachrach and Hal David. The late Sixties was a crazy-quilt of love song styles. There was something for everyone!

Jimmy Webb, one of the finest songwriters to come out of this period, epitomizes the divergent styles of the era, writing the mainstream pop hit "Up, Up And Away" for the Fifth Dimension and less than a year later creating that masterpiece of other-worldly psychedelia, "MacArthur Park." Even Webb does not attempt to explain the lyrics of "MacArthur Park" but it was delivered with such power and commitment by Richard Harris in his hit recording that few questioned it; those who did found layers of meaning in such beautiful images as "the yellow cotton dress / Foaming like a wave / On the ground around your knees ..."

Nothing expresses the wildly mixed bag of Sixties love songs like the top 20 songs of 1969. These included the pop-psychedelia of the Fifth Dimension's "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In," the Motown sound of the Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You," the bluesy whine of the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women," the bubblegum hooks of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy," and Elvis Presley's lushly paranoid "Suspicious Minds."

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