What are your favorite love ballads of all time?

the Mamas and the Papas

oops wrong thread

Harry Nilsson's Don't Forget Me

It brings tears to my eyes.

Talking Heads This Must Be The Place hits all the notes for me.

Angel from Montgomery

This Used to be my Playground

Justify My Love

You’ll See

Take a Bow

Forbidden Love

Love Don’t Live Here Anymore

Loving for Love

Love Profusion

I’ll Remember

Love Tried to Welcome Me...

Just to name a few...

Endless Love

Close to You

Wonderful World

The Way We Were

What do you think of John Legend’s All of me ?

Genesis by Quah from 1974. God, it hurts to listen -- the one that got away in college.

A list at R6 of some of the most terrible songs ever recorded

Lost in love

Love the harmonies on this one, and the lyrics are wistful without veering into schmaltz (unlike some of her subsequent ballads...)

This from the Carpenters

Honestly, Shadow by Britney

Angie? Rolling Stones.

Not a love ballad, but it got me through a terrible breakup and introduced me to my husband. So yeah -- love.

You light up my life

From Camelot ‘I loved you once in silence’

Love Ballad

I truly feel that Elton John's "Blue Eyes" is one of the most beautiful songs ever written:

I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston

Janet Jackson - "Again":

Open Arms by Journey

"Valerie" by Steve Winwood:

Starship - "Sara":

"Ballerina Girl" by Lionel Richie:

"Penny Lover" by Lionel Richie:

Stylistics

Michael Jackson - "You Are Not Alone":

"If" by Bread.

"The End of the Innocence" by Don Henley:

"Goodbye Girl" by Bread:

"Nobody Knows" by the Tony Rich Project:

Penny Lover is such a glorious and sweet love song. Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Lionel Richie had such a good feel for melodie.

As far as love songs go, I can't think of a more perfect recording than this one:

Roberta Flack ‘First time ever I saw your face’

Sam Smith - insert song

Perfection

Missing You

Another Lionel Richie classic, sung by the amazing Diana Ross.

B.J.

r40 my favorite song sung by Diana 💗

Damn, y'all gonna have me in this thread all night. Great choices!

Roberta’s cover of the Stephen Bishop classic is pretty wonderful.

Now That I Have You - Luther Vandross

One of his lesser known songs, a gorgeous big ballad, very melodious and Luther on top of his vocal prowess.

When my husband and I got married 5 years ago, this was our first dance song. Both of our parents played it when we were kids and we both loved it.

Another town Another train

Ugh - I wish I had a huckleberry friend, too. Congrats R46. What year did you guys get married?

Oops didn’t see the five years ago, R46. Never mind.

Peter Paul and Mary “Leaving on a jet plane”

I Eat His Babies by Princess Vitarah

In The Dark W/You is a gem of a song by Greg Brown

I’m fond of the old chestnut ‘Hey There,’ from The Pajama Game. The reprise sung by Miss Doris Day tugs at my heartstrings.

Della Reese - Don't You Know

Never been a big fan of either her or the opera-to-pop adaptations that were popular in the late 50's/early 60's, but this one hits me in all the feels.

A DL favorite

R56, as a companion to yours, here's another great one:

Prince "Adore"

[quote]”The End of the Innocence" by Don Henley

I never thought of that as a love song, but I love it. For a lost-love song, my fave is Henley’s “The Heart of the Matter.”

This is exquisite:

And so is this:

Just Like Heaven

Fade Into You by Sam Palladio & Claire Bowen

Muskrat Love

Here's another version of "Leaving on Jet Plane."

I always thought Bread's "Everything I Own" was a nice little love song, until I realized David Gates is singing about his dead father, not a love interest. Now viewed through that prism, it's become one of my favorite songs.

Only the most romantic and melodic song ever....

Nothing breaks my heart like this song. "We've been through hell together..."

...except maybe this song.

Bee Gees "To Love Somebody"

We Built This City

Hooked on a Feeling - BJ Thomas

The Eagles: I Can't Tell You Why

Even though Ghost almost ruined it,this is still my favorite love song ever. One of my earliest memories was standing on my mothers feet as she danced me around the living room .

one of the best song of the 90's , unbreak my heart by toni braxton

you'll see by madona

I Have Dreamed from The King & I - Sinatra

TIny Dancer - Elton John

Stone In Love With You by The Stylistics

She's Got You Patsy Kline

One Step - Aretha

Take a Bow : Madonna

Skylark Linda Ronstadt

In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning - Sinatra

Do You Remember? by Phil Collins

Say something, haunts me.

I Drove All Night

Also, since others aren’t posting actual ballads, I will add Stevie Wonder’s Overjoyed.

It Must Have Been Love

Tupelo Honey

Alison

Some of you here don’t understand what a ballad is.

Air That I Breathe by The Hollies

When I Fall In Love—Celine Dion and Clive Griffin

Can't Help Falling in Love

Stevie and Don, Leather and Lace

Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole - "Unforgettable":

Yaz, Only You

For self-love, this one by Alanis.

This one makes me bawl.

Somewhere Out There

God Only Knows, The Beach Boys

Plus a few other good ones already mentioned. (There are also some musical abominations already mentioned.)

Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Frankie Valli

Really, r95? That song and Phil Collins in general make me vomit.

My wedding song: All My Life

My wedding song: All My Life

For Emily Wherever I May Find Her

Love Is Everything

If one is in the mood for a hauntingly gorgeous ballad in a minor key.

I think this is Lady Gaga's best song. Her only great ballad.

Baby Can I Hold You Tonight

All Too Well

So Amazing - Luther Vandross

For OP

Pale Blue Eyes

Bon Jovi I'll be there for you.

Something

"Crazy For You" - Madonna

THE FLAME - Cheap Trick 1988

Janet Jackson - LONELY. Beautiful, lush Spanish guitar, Spanish spoken background vocals, gorgeous harmonies. It could have easily been one of the landmark singles from her 1814 album.

In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel. The lyrics bring tears.

Prince "The Beautiful Ones." Haunting. Magnificent. His longing is palpable. The segue from calmness at the beginning and middle to the storm of shrieking emotions at the end is jarring. An amazing tour de force.

"Tougher Than the Rest" by Bruce Springsteen.

My favorite song when it first came out:

The Very Thought of You by Nat King Cole, When I Fall In Love, Nat King Cole

The lyrics to the old classic, "Stardust." Oh, hell. Just get the Nat King Cole play list and listen. Great stuff.

The Divine Miss M

I just love this by Elton John I cry when I hear it. I want them to sing it at my funeral.....

Dianne Reeves - Willow

I first heard this song on a rainy night, playing on an obscure, static-y, distant radio station, sitting in a car in a bank parking lot, waiting for my first lover while he performed an ATM transaction. It was 1985. Something about it just hit me. I could barely hear it, the reception was so poor, but what I could hear seemed to speak to what I was feeling, or what I was trying to feel or thought I was feeling, at the time.

In those pre-internet days, it was hard as hell to track down a song when you didn't know the title or the artist...especially one as obscure as this, but I eventually figured it out and bought the album, upon which I learned the composer was Joan Armatrading. Her original version is better known, but I'll always prefer this one.

"Why" - Annie Lennox

Classics 4

Climax

Aretha

Paul

Natalie

Carpenters

Minnie Riperton

Boz Scaggs

Three Degrees

"The Sweetest Gift" - Linda Ronstadt (with Emmylou Harris). A mother's love for her son.

Little River Band

"Boulder to Birmingham" - Emmylou Harris

"I would walk all the way From Boulder to Birmingham If I thought I could see, I could see your face."

This live version of "Thunder Road," from 1975:

My most favorite is probably John Denver's "Annie's Song," but the person with whom I associate that song is long dead, so sometimes I can hardly bear to listen to it. My second pick would have to be "It Might Be You," by Stephen Bishop.

"Keep Me in Your Heart" - Warren Zevon

Come Undone

Endless Love. Lovely.

I love Sinead O'Connor's cover of Dolly Parton's "Dagger through the Heart." She transforms Dolly's melancholy into rage.

Slave to Love

"Don't Know Much" - Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville

Be My Baby - the Ronettes

Then He Kissed Me - the Crystals

I actually thought it was going to be this easy. Or, at least, this simple.

Aretha and George Benson

"Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" - Frankie Valli

Frankly, I don’t think many of these are ballads.

Wilson Pickett - I'm in Love

Aretha had the bigger hit with it, but Wilson did it first and, in my opinion, better.

Live version from Soul Train in 1972:

Do they have to be about erotic love?

One of my favourites is, ‘I See A Darkness’; either version, by Johnny Cash or Bonnie Prince Billy. It’s a melancholy, moody, downbeat song about a fraternal friendship.

Ten Sharp- You

Makes me so nostalgic for my idealistic youth, and the love I had then.

Stevie

Marvin

Smokey

I Wished on the Moon

Ok call me a corndog but this one is so touching — it makes me cry every time.

Bertha Tillman - Oh My Angel

Any Latino who grew up in the Southwestern U.S. knows this one for sure, it's part of the lowrider oldies canon. Probably unknown in the rest of the country.

It's a very simple late 50's/early 60's doo-wop style ballad.

What always made it stand out for me was the deeply mournful quality of her voice. She sings in a very understated style, but her vocal sounds like it's drenched in pure heartbreak.

For us naughty lovers

Since we have strayed away from ballads I'll post this one. Night and Day by Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66

I got a true ballad

"You Still Believe in Me" - the Beach Boys

My Cup Runneth Over

O Mio Babbino Caro

Dindi- Antonio Carlos Jobim

"The Rose" - Bette Midler

Texas - Put Your Arms Around Me (Autumn Breeze Mix).

I love this song. I first heard it at the end of the movie Ever After starring Drew Barrymore in a take on the Cinderella story. I've loved it ever since. I prefer this Autumn Breeze Mix to the original. Sherry Spiteri from Texas has a lovely voice.

I wish I could master posting links, I want everyone to have a good cathartic cry over this one.

"Ghost in This House", the Alison Kraus version. I love her intro in the concert version on YT, she talks about how pitiably sad the song is!

It makes me weep every damn time. Reminds me of the hell of living with my ex, and how I no longer recognized him or the person his craziness had made me, in the months before before I left him.

Not a ballad, but a warped song about love (but not Courtney Love, 'love' with a small 'l').

Nirvana's Drain You.