I recently ran a question survey via SurveyMonkey and Goodreads to discover people’s ‘most romantics’. For the question ‘What is the most romantic love song?’, the results were as follows:

• ‘I Will Always Love You’ – 36%
• ‘Make You Feel My Love’ – 29%
• ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ – 18%
• ‘Fix You’ (Coldplay) – 7%
• ‘Wonderful Tonight’ – 5%
• ‘Come What May’ (Moulin Rouge) – 5%

Of course, music taste is a very individual choice, but I can see why the top three songs were so popular. Each is a classic, each has a simplicity and clarity that is touching, and each spans musical genres to achieve a timeless quality. Put the lyrics of the three songs together, and you get endless love, commitment, promise, tenderness, faith, sacrifice and a bursting-at-the-seams expression of the joy and exhilaration of new love. A powerful mix!

‘I Will Always Love You’ (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JWTaaS7LdU) was written by country singer Dolly Parton, and the version by Whitney Houston is the best-selling single of all time by a female singer and topped the UK charts for a record-breaking ten weeks.

‘Make You Feel My Love’ (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0put0_a–Ng) was written by Bob Dylan, and has been covered by Billy Joel, Garth Brooks and Kelly Clarkson, among others. But it is Adele’s recent version that most sticks in my mind – haunting and pure.

‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxREN8JUdI0) was a hit for Frankie Valli back in 1967. It has been covered an amazing 200 times since, by artists as diverse as Andy Williams, Lauryn Hill, the Manic Street Preachers and Muse.

So each of these love songs has been immensely popular worldwide. No wonder they feature in most top ten lists of favourite first dance songs for weddings.

What’s interesting about these love songs leading the poll is that each is not sung by a person already secure in their love. In ‘I Will Always Love You’, the singer is letting go of her love; in ‘Make You Feel My Love’, the singer is trying to convince someone to let love in; and in ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ the singer is wooing with words: ‘You’d be like heaven to touch’ says ‘I haven’t touched you yet, but oh how I want to’! The best love songs, it seems, touch on heartache and longing too. This quote by James Matthew Barrie, author of Peter Pan, springs to mind: ‘Let no one who loves be unhappy… even love unreturned has its rainbow.’