Valentine's Day -- Love Song Lyrics

I've written about words in music before, and I feel like doing so again because I've been receiving emails about Valentine's Day from mushy friends and acquaintances asking me to share "your song", that is, the song that you and your partner have made "yours, your own", as if we were Gollum coveting the One Ring.

(A note and a warning: many of the songs that will be mentioned here are old, reflecting my age and the time I grew up in. So there. No excuses. I'm old. Also, I know tastes are subjective, so my apologies to all the fans of the songs I'll be mentioning below; I'll try not to make faces while you're humming them)

My wife and I enjoy certain "love" songs, but we also hate "love" songs that the other one likes. We've engaged in friendly arguments over them. She thinks some of the songs I listen to are horribly mushy ("Why do you have The Carpenters in your iPod?"); but I counter that she's the one who's got the full collection of Roberta Flack. But let me tell you: the most fun we've had together has been dissing "love" songs we mutually can't stand.

I've gone on record saying that Air Supply songs make me cringe. Ditto for the missus. With no words exchanged and with just a glance of agreement, we've left stores and other public places together as soon as one of the duo's songs starts playing over their sound systems.

An instrumental version of Bryan Adams' Everything I Do, I Do It For You was the muzak playing on an elevator we once took together. We were in a shopping mall in British Columbia at that time.

"Aynako," my wife said.

"This is going to be a long elevator ride," I said. "Bryan Adams is Canadian, that's why they're playing this."

"Maganda naman, ah," my mother-in-law, who was also with us, said. So we just kept quiet the rest of the trip.

Remember The Bodyguard, that movie with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston? It was a big hit in 1992, the biggest movie of that year, I think. The soundtrack sold in the millions. I remember one of my older cousins saying that when they left the theater after the movie ended everybody was "singing that damn song." You know, the one that goes "And Iiiiii.....will always love yooouuuu...."

My wife and I weren't together yet in 1992, but a couple of years later, on one of our first dates, the instrumental, four-string quartet version of that song came on in the restaurant we were patronizing and our reactions were simultaneous and immediate:

"Inay," she said.

"Patay," I said.

In a way, that was a good thing, 'coz we smiled at each other's reactions and it guaranteed that I was going to get another date after that.

There was a local remake of David Soul's Don't Give Up On Us some years ago. My wife and I were in the car stuck in traffic, and while scanning for a station to listen to, the local version, which we had not yet known existed, came on.

"Stop! Stop there," my wife said.

"You're kidding, right?" I said.

"No. There's something different about it."

"Is there?"

We listened for a bit, and it did sound different, though still just as sugary-sweet. Diabetes runs in my family, and I remember feeling the sweat-beads forming on my forehead. My health! My health! I thought.

"Must be a cover," my wife said.

"Must be. Do you like it better now?"

"Naah. Go ahead, change. Change it now."

"Okay, good."

So really, my wife and I have no one "love" song, but going "anti" on certain "love" songs has certainly brought forth an understanding between us.

I'll leave you with two things: first, Yahoo has compiled its own list of The World's Cheesiest Love Songs. Enjoy! :D

Second, a friend of my brother's burned many copies of a CD which he entitled, "Songs You Said You Hated But Secretly Liked", and gave it away to his friends. On the cover of that CD are the following lyrics, which were passionately said, and not sung, during a bridge in the middle of the song:

Hey, you know what paradise is? It's a lie, a fantasy we create about people and places as we'd like them to be But you know what truth is? It's that little baby you're holding, it's that man you fought with this morning The same one you're going to make love with tonight That's truth, that's love...

A free copy of the coming PGS4 to the first one to correctly identify the title of the song, the name of the singer, the year it hit the top ten in the U.S., the year it was first released, the title of the movie it was used in, and the year that movie came out! Yes, I know, a lot of questions for a silly song, but put some work in for your free copy! The search engine is your friend.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! May your day be filled with a Total Eclipse Of The Heart!

Or not.:)

P.S. This blogpost is dedicated to Vin Simbulan, who is looking forward to finding his true love this Year of the Rat. He just called me again this morning, nagging me for his Jade Pixiu.

P.P.S. The contest is open only to those 26 years old and below. For anyone older, it's much too easy. And the winner will have to sing the song to a panel of judges (who will represent Paula, Randy, and Simon) before he/she gets his/her free copy.

Update: someone has already answered all the questions correctly over at pgenrestories.multiply.com, the mirror of this blog. Congratulations! I'll be in touch. Get your vocal chords ready!