3rd Annual Valentine's Day Playlist... Awwww Yeah!

I've been doing this every year since I started working for The Utah Statesman. I don't do that gig anymore, but this love song thing has stuck with me as an annual tradition. I originally claimed that this was to "impress your significant other by showing some unique taste in music while showing your corny emotions at the same time." I suppose I really just make these to humor myself. My audience mattereth no longer.
Here are links to my previous 2 playlists:

2014 http://bluenotesusu.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-valentines-day-playlist.html
2015  http://blogoscottys.blogspot.com/2015/02/love-songs-2015-ed.html

2014 had 10 songs. 2015 had 11 songs. This year has 101/2 songs. You'll see.
Here's this year's playlist:

'I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY' -Whitney Houston
I had just gotten back from a run while working at Redfish Lake Lodge last summer. I was covered in sweat and in my running clothes. Someone was having a wedding reception at the lodge that evening, where I could hear this song cranked up. I wanted to bash the wedding and make a scene by going totally bananas on the dance floor among grown men in tuxedos. I ran to the entryway, ready to look the biggest fool in the room. However, my Jamaican co-worker Marlon Taylor had beaten me to this title. Ah well. But I promise you-- if you play this song around me, I will dance like a madman.

From its epic music video.

'I LOVE YOU, HONEYBEAR' -Father John Misty
(sigh) This song always takes me to another place. It's an instrumentally gorgeous piece of music and the lyrics fly everywhere-- love, marriage, sex, smoked chicken, Cadillacs,  schizophrenia-- it's all fair game. 34 yr-old Josh Tillman is madly in love with his wife. His entire universe and imagination is wrapped around the fact that he got to marry her. Oh, honeybear, honeybear... whether or not I'm ever in love, this song will force me to feel that way anyway.

'MORE STARS THAN THERE ARE IN HEAVEN' -Yo La Tengo
+/- 90% of all Yo La Tengo's songs are love songs. I could have picked any of them. This is a personal favorite of mine. Nearly 10 minutes of hearing the same, chugged-out couple of chords while the lines "We'll walk hand in hand" slowly get repeated. And if the shoegaze guitars aren't enough for you to fall in love, listen for Georgia's vox vocal effect in the background.

'LOVE ON TOP' -Beyonce
I remember my sister introducing me to this song shortly after my mission. I didn't get it. It's like Beyonce was purposely trying to rip off Mary J. Blige and Whitney Houston. Maybe she is. But even if that's the case, who better to succeed at this imitation? This is serious high-quality studio music. A beat you won't forget. Shiny keyboards. Shiny (fake) horns section. And Bey's unstoppable vocals on top. This song's my JAM. I only cringe a tiny bit knowing this is a song about Jay-Z.

'SMALL PLANE' -Bill Callahan
Bill Callahan's voice sounds like a narrator for a documentary. This isn't so much a love song as it is a puzzle of lines that hint at a love song. I mean, it could be about his dad. Or some close friend who taught him how to fly planes. It's all possible. But his wedding following this album's release kind of narrows it down. Hearing the aging 90s songwriter crisply pronounce "I really am a lucky man" is a pure moment of zen for fans and new-comers alike.

'REALLY LOVE' -D'Angelo
This song has a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year! R&B homeboy D'Angelo getting his just rewards! Anyways... D'Angelo is too old to be the sex god he used to be, so on his new album he resorts to sincere, age-old sentimentalism. Here, with a simple snap-driven beat, string quartet and Spanish guitar, he nails it. I also love his '98 Lauryn Hill duet "Nothing Even Matters" (forced music reference for a friend of mine, whom probably won't read this).

'HEROES' -David Bowie
Had to put a pitch in honour of Bowie this year. As brilliantly weird as the recording technique for this song is, "Heroes" is a love song on the most epic scale. She is a temperamental queen, he is an alcoholic king. Nothing will keep them together. The couple kisses by the Berlin Wall in hopes that they won't get shot and their love will be sealed forever. Now nothing can tear them away. With production and songwriting help from Brian Eno, Bowie made what was possibly The Greatest Song of the 1970s.

'INTO MY ARMS' -Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
First line of the song: "I don't believe in an interventionist god."
Trust me, this eventually becomes a love song. Just keep listening.

'BEST OF MY LOVE' -The Emotions &/or 'BEST OF MY LOVE' -The Eagles
DID YOU KNOW THAT...
Both of these songs are #1 US hits from the 70s with and have the same title. Also, both songs were written by people who have passed away in the last month.
The Eagles' country twanged soft rock ballad "Best of My Love" was co-written by the band's co-founder Glenn Frey. The Emotions' R&B wedding reception classic "Best of My Love" was written by Earth, Wind & Fire's Maurice White.
NOW YOU KNOW!

'THIS MUST BE THE PLACE (NAIVE MELODY)' -Talking Heads
I used to think the production in this song was cheesy, but that's just me being picky. Because we know what ambitious things the Talking Heads can do and this song is beyond an exception. It's a lyrical grab-bag of instant classic one-liners. Hearing David Byrne sing about love in his own beautifully neurotic way pulls me heart-strings every time. Wedding Songs for the Anxious 101. And oh yeah-- reggaeton!

Byrne singing this song to a lamp.