Hi Melanie! Thank you so much for having me as your guest today on bookworm2bookworm!
I’m a sucker for a great love song. I suspect most romance fans are. There’s something so beautiful about the quintessence of love refined down into a three-minute burst of melody and heartfelt lyrics.
In honor of my seventh historical romance, SEVEN NIGHTS IN A ROGUE’S BED, out 25th September from Forever, I’m listing my seven favorite love songs. It’s really difficult, though – after all, most great songs are love songs. There’s something about the romantic urge that lends itself to melody!
7. Undisclosed Desires by Muse: this song played constantly in my head when I wrote MIDNIGHT’S WILD PASSION. There’s a savage tenderness in the lyrics and in the music that really hit me hard and so suited the love building between Ranelaw and Antonia.
6. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol: skinny Irish guy lying on pedestrian crossings in New York, singing about longing. What’s not to like?
5. Heroes by David Bowie. The bleak, doomed romanticism of this one always gets me right in the solar plexus. There’s something about Bowie’s tortured baritone above that wall of sound – like the Berlin Wall he’s singing about perhaps? – that cuts straight to the heart. Definitely one for the tragic romantics!
4. If I Loved You by Rodgers and Hammerstein: I love that this song from CAROUSEL is about NOT being in love, but by the end of it, they’re both head over heels. Not that it does them much good. It’s not the jolliest of plots, CAROUSEL. Actually I could have done a whole post featuring beautiful love songs from musicals. Oh, well, next time I write a book with ‘seven ‘in the title.
3. I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Frank Sinatra (and Cole Porter): oh, no, more longing. What is the story? The lyrics of this one are just gorgeous and I think Frank Sinatra’s version gives a wonderful balance between the unconvincing outer “I really don’t care” to the hidden message of “You’re breaking my heart.” Sigh.
2. Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers: who doesn’t love this song? It reappears as a hit with every generation and I’m not at all surprised. It’s simple but it’s heart-wrenchingly beautiful. A true classic. And it must have done wonders for enrolments in pottery classes!
1. Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You by Frankie Valli: hard to pick a number one love song but this one is just breathtakingly beautiful and with its simple lyrics, so true and sincere.
Oh, no! I haven’t been able to fit in Something by the Beatles or Angie by the Rolling Stones or… Perhaps next time I’ll have to write 14 Nights in a Rogue’s Bed! I’m sure my hero and heroine won’t mind!
OK, that’s my seven favorite love songs (for today anyway). Any favorites of yours in the list? What are your seven favorites? What do you think makes a great love song? One commenter today wins a signed print copy of SEVEN NIGHTS IN A ROGUE’S BED which includes lots of scenes with Jonas and Sidonie making beautiful music together. International giveaway! Good luck!
To learn more about Anna, please click on her pic, or get in touch with her on Facebook, Tweeter or her website! She loves hearing from her fans!!!
A great love song reaches into your heart and will always bring you back to a special place/time whenever you hear it!
So right, CateS! All of these brought so many great memories….
Mel
Mel, you made the post look absolutely fantastic! Thank you for digging out all the videos! Thanks for having me as your guest today. I’ve been really looking forward to it.
Cate, I so agree with you, The tough thing was limiting myself to 7. Originally I had a much longer list including a couple of Scottish folksongs. I think some of those are such beautiful love songs too.
Anna!
It was such a pleasure to have you over! All the songs you chose brought such great memories…One of my favorite love songs is ‘Everything I do, I do it for You’ by Bryan Adams…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGoWtY_h4xo and ‘Lady in Red’ by Chris De Burgh … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMNpihKljio&feature=related…I just melt when I hear those….
There are so many more though…like Melissa Etheridge’s ‘Come to my Window’ just http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbMnRzIsf9I&feature=related…WOW!!!!
I could go on, and on, you know!!!
This was such a great post!
Mel
Great choices Anna and great post! I often listen to music while writing, sets the mood. Love songs are the best~
Thanks for saying you like my picks, Karyn. Had real trouble getting down to just 7! I listen to classical music or soundtracks when I write – I find the words distract me. But I definitely find inspiration in a great love song.
I so agree! I loved this post!!!
Are they not? They can make us feel…things we might not even want to feel, yes?
some great selections (can never go wrong with Sinatra or Unchained Melody) don’t think I’d ever heard that song by Muse, pretty cool song & works well for romance novels
Donna Ann, so glad I introduced you to Muse. My Bandita sister Trish Milburn introduced me to them – I think there’s a really old style passion in their songs filtered through the glam rock image. I always liked glam rock – give me David Bowie or Marc Bolan any time!
Actually I could have done a whole post of Frank Sinatra songs. I think his voice is magic and he chose such great music.
OMG! I also never heard of the MUSE until the other Saturday when they guest starred on SNL…
Hey, Mel, how cool that the universe is telling you to check out Muse! They’re great!
Great picks. I must be getting old, but my favorite love song is “Perhaps Love.” I have it as performed by John Denver and Placido Domingo. A strange combination, I know, but the vocals are magnificent.
Bettye, what a lovely gentle selection. Actually I know it got to be a bit of a cliche but I always had a soft spot for Annie’s Song too. Lovely lyrics and there’s something about John Denver’s reedy tenor that makes it so touching.
There are so many beautiful love songs out there but my favorite has to be If I Loved You.
Ruth, I could have actually done 7 Rodgers and Hammerstein songs for this. They really wrote the most beautiful love songs. Something like One Enchanted Evening could have easily made the list. Glad one of your faves is one of my faves.
Hey Anna! You know how much I too love the Rogers and Hammerstein songs. I’m particularly fond of Something Good from Sound of Music, and People will Say We’re In Love from Oklahoma, and Surrey, from Oklahoma. :> Happy Talk from South Pacific…Okay, I’ll stop now! Grins.
Jeanne, you can’t keep a good show tune down, can you? We should have a singalong one day!
What a great selection!
I love the Frank Sinatra selection especially. I don’t think anyone else sings it the way he did. 
May, so glad to meet another Sinatra fiend. One of my fave things to do is pour a nice glass of wine, run a bubble bath and lie back listen to him serenade me from the stereo in the next room. He really had a way with a lyric, didn’t he? Like he was talking to you!
Hi, Melanie and Anna!
Great playlist, Anna! I *love* Bowie and ‘Heroes’. Favourite lurve songs I play while writing/revising include Bryan Ferry’s ‘Slave to Love’ (gorgeous video too), Duran Duran’s ‘Come Undone’ (written for Simon Le Bon’s wife, Yasmin), ‘Bring It On Home to Me’ by Sam Cooke, ‘Cool’ by Gwen Stefani, Japan’s version of ‘I Second That Emotion’, ‘Into My Arms Again’ by my hubby’s band the Model School, and for the black moment, ‘All I Want Is You’ by U2.
Fun post! Congrats on the release of lucky # 7, Seven Nights in a Rogue’s Bed! x
Vanessa, what a fabulous list. I love Slave to Love – you’re right about the video. It’s got a few real awww moments. Knew you had to include Duran Duran! LOL!
Hee-hee–you know me all too well. x
Ohh, Vanessa, I love Same COoke and so manyof the song you mentioned!
Jeanne, do you remember that lovely scene in Witness where they dance to a Sam Cooke song? So romantic and such sexual tension!
Hey Anna! Great post! There are so many songs to choose from! I’m terrifically fond of Berlin’s Take My Breath Away, and Bryan Adams All For Love. :> There are some fab country songs too – Honey Bee by Blake Shelton is bouncy and fun and just wonderfully evocative of how lovers compliment one another. And Rascal Flatts God Bless the Broken Road is that journey to the “Right One” in one song. Love it! No need to enter me in the draw as I have 7 Nights already, but this was so FUN!!
Hey, Jeanne, lovely to see you here! Hey, what a great selection. I don’t know those country songs I’ll have to check them out. The Berlin song takes me back to a specific time in my life when I was living in London and it was just everywhere.
Duchess! I adore Bryan Adams!!! I think I have all his CD’s ;D
Hi Melanie and Anna!
I decided to take you back to the 1970′s and throw in one from the 1980′s since my husband and I were married in 1970!
1. The Impossible Dream from the musical The Man of LaMancha
2. You Are So Beautiful – Joe Crocker
3. I’ll Be There – Jackson 5
4. Still the One – Orleans
5. You’re the First, My Last, My Everything – Barry White
6. You Are the Sunshine of My Life – Stevie Wonder
7. Endless Love – Diana Ross & Lionel Rickie
How about you? Do you remember where you were and who you were with the first time you heard “my” favorite love songs?
Oh, Jeanne! (The OTHER Jeanne!) I love all those songs, esp. Man of la Mancha’s Impossible Dream. I adore Dulcinea from that soundtrack too. Can’t remember where I might have been when I heard them all, but La Mancha was probably at home as my Daddy loved that album and played it often. I’ll Be THere, I was probably at the swimming pool we belonged to when I was a kid, hangin’ out, listening to the radio. :>
Jeanne -
Did you ever get the chance to read Don Quoixte by Cervantes? When I was in High School it was “assigned reading” and he is considered the first “historical romance” author!
If you ever get a chance be sure to either see the Musical Don Quixote which is still presented at quite a few regional playhouses or rent a copy of the movie The Man of LaMancha!
Jeanne, Dulcinea is gorgeous, isn’t it? And I always feel ready to take on the world after the I am I, Don Quixote, the Man of la Mancha song. Such a stirring tune!
Jeanne M (compared to Jeanne A!), I haven’t seen the movie for years. But I loved Peter O’Toole in that. For some reason, he’s always really appealed to me! I read DQ when I was in Spain – it was really amazing to actually be in La Mancha reading about the Man of La Mancha!
Jeanne, what a great selection. I play The Impossible Dream on the piano – it’s a great one for thumping out the day’s frustrations. Actually I think the lyric of that is beautiful. Really heartfelt. To reach the unreachable STARRRRRRR! It’s funny how songs can take you place – one of my fave 80s love songs was by a now obscure singer called Feargal Sharkey. It’s called A Good Heart and just hearing it and I’m back driving through the West Country in the rain. I particularly remember being in a bar at Tintagel where King Arthur was born digging into my Lancelot Burger while my friend at her Galahad Chicken Nuggets (I kid you not!) and someone kept playing that on the video jukebox. I didn’t have a TV so I was utterly fascinated by seeing the film clip! Oh, memories! Hey, that’s another lovely love song!
Anna -
Memories – that does just that doesn’t it? Which was your favorite the one by Barbara Seisand or Elvis?
Jeanne, I’ve seen it on stage, on screen, on stage…grins. :> I love Man of La Mancha and have also read Cervantes. Loved it. :>
Jeanne, I think I’ll go for Streisand. Was so sad a few months ago when Marvin Hamlisch died. He was such a talent!
Anna, these are great songs! The lyrics to Undisclosed Desire are perfect for Midnight’s Wild Passion.
One of my favorites isn’t exactly a love song, “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler. There are so many great songs to choose from. “When Darkness Turns to Light” by All American Rejects. “Tonight” from West Side Story.
Hey, thanks, Nancy. I think they had me at the bit where he talks about her hiding behind a mask and how he was going to wipe away that shell of control and expose her undisclosed desires. Thats the story of Midnight in a nutshell, isn’t it? I’ve never really had a song as the inspiration behind a book before but that song played in my head the whole time I wrote Midnight. Oh, lovely songs. Did you know West Side Story’s movie is 50 years old this year? I love that movie. When you’re a Jet!!! Actually a song i love from WSS is Maria. I think that’s a really beautiful love song.
Did you see that our Trish introduced me to Muse? She’s great for music recommendations!
Nancy, I adore Holding out For a Hero. Particularly loved it as used in Shrek II Ha! Hadn’t heard Darkness, but listened to it on Youtube. Very cool. LOVE West Side Story, of course.
Nancy! When that one came out, we all went nuts! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap7m1CYzS6A&feature=related…oh, and how about…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpC81-SJcvo&feature=related ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’????!!!!
Nice choices, Got You Under My Skin is great.
My top picks would be:
Alive by Adelita’s Way
Fix You by Coldplay
I’ll Follow You by Shinedown
Sword and Shield by Sister Hazel
Never Gonna Be Alone by Nickelback
I’d Come for You by Nickelback
Raindrops by Lifehouse
Hi Lexi! Love the Coldplay song. I love Yellow by Coldplay too. Although some of that is the video of him on the windswept beach which I think is just right for the song. I dont’ know some of your others – I’ll have to do a YouTube session. Thanks for playing. I’ve loved seeing everyone’s favourites!
Anna, Nickleback is one of my favs. It’s not a love song, but my working music right know is Burn it To the Ground. Grins. If you YouTube it, you’ll see why I like it. I also adore If Today Was Your Last Day. Their song Far Away is got to be one of my all time favorites and it’s a love song.
Ha ha! Surrounded by Nickleback back fans here, I see! I’m off to YouTube!
Yay Nickelback! I wonder what you will think of it, I don’t think it is your usual but you never know.
..and while you’re all heading to YouTube…how about Meatloaf?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tuYKUgBZEc ‘I Will do Anything for Love’…oh, and how about…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0N93-HNWME&feature=related…
Hi Anna, what an interesting mix. I think Unchained Melody has to be one of the best love songs ever. If we’re talking old love songs I think you can’t beat some of the duets performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Just gorgeous and such fun. And I know it’s not soulful but 500 Miles by the Proclaimers always strikes me as a great proof of love song.
Annie, I love that Proclaimers song – partly because it tempers the romance with humour. Great Scottish wit in that. Actually when you mention Ella Fitzgerald, you made me think of Etta James singing At Last. Wow, is that romantic! Thanks so much for swinging by!
Awesome selection, Anna! Love Muse. To the list I would also add SEAL…with that voice, every song sounds like a love song.
minadecaro@hotmail.com
Mina, Seal’s got such a distinctive voice, hasn’t he? Love Kissed by a Rose. Oh, no, I could see myself picking 700 fave love songs at this rate. Glad you’re another Muse fan. I think they’re great!
Wow, Anna and Melanie, what a fabulous blog! It’s great to have not only the song named but then the clip to follow. I think you have set a new standard–not just song or movie titles but clips to follow will become mandatory!
What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong is “our song” for my husband and me. I think it was played in a movie we went to on our first date–we think it is very romantic and the world has always been more romantic for us since the other has been in it.
I never play songs when I am writing, I have to have silence!
Congratulations Anna on your seventh book. I have read the first six and loved them and can’t wait to read SEVEN NIGHTS IN A ROGUE’S BED (fabulous title, BTW.)
Hey, thanks, Kandy, for saying you’re looking forward to Rogue. I hope to send you a copy VERY soon! Louis Armstrong was such a wonderful artist, wasn’t he? And that smile absolutely lit up the world. How lovely about you and your husband. I can’t write to lyrics. I like music but no words. So it’s classical or soundtracks.
Kandy and Anna,
Just to make you both jealous I got the chance to hear Louis Armstrong in the 60′s but a the ear before he performed Wonderful World when I went with my boyfriend at the time to a college week-end at Union College in Schenectady, NY. We ended up sitting directly in front of the stage on the floor because it was so crowded!
It was a free concert paid for by a group of fraernities and better than any other concert I’ve ever attended. He loved the audience so much that he ended up singing way into the night! When you think of the organized concerts in big areans they have today you realize how fortunate we were back then!
I guess that’s what they were talking about when our parents talked to us about when we were young ourselves about “the good old days!”.
Jeanne, you lucky thing, that Louis Armstrong concert sounds so wonderful–what a memory to have!
Wow, Jeanne, that’s the sort of experience that is pure gold. How fantastic! And of course, now that he’s passed away, it’s an experience that can never be repeated. How very lucky you are! You’re right. I’m green with envy! And how lovely that he loved the audience so much and kept singing just for the sheer joy of it.
Kandy!
Thanks so much! I just had to do it! She gave us such great songs, and some I had no idea about, so when I went to check them out…it was like, got to do it!
I do like the one you mentioned ;D
Check it out!
Ooh, I like Annie’s pick–the Proclaimers 500 miles is a great one
As for my favorite love songs, Josh Groban has a couple lovely sounding ones–In Her Eyes and You Are Loved are ones I like hearing. And I love Celtic Thunder’s The Voyage–for some reason, it usually brings tears to my eyes 
Fedora, is that the Peter Gabriel In Her Eyes. I have to say I LOVE his voice and his music. I played So until it was saying back to me So What?
There’s something about that Celtic music that cuts straight to the heart, isn’t there? I mentioned above that I had a few Scottish folk songs in my original ist – Loch Lomond and Annie Laurie. Both absolutely gorgeous but make me howl every time.
Nice list of songs. I’d say any song by Celine Dion.
BN, thanks for swinging by! I know it’s corny but I love the Heart Will Go On. I think the sountrack of Titanic was an unsung (ha!) hero of that movie.
LOVE HER! pick a song, and I love anything by her!
Here’s ‘our’ song…
I think of my DH every time I hear it!
Brilliant selection, Anna! I’ve just had a lovely time listening to those – and Angie is playing as I type. I’m a Rolling Stones fan from way back! And Unchained Melody – how gorgeous is that song!
I love Someone’s Knocking by Terri Gibbs, Nothing Compares to You by Sinead O’Connor, Bedroom Eyes by Kate Cebrano, When A Man Love a Woman by Percy Sledge… mmm, must be time I raided the CD collection and played some loud music! LOL
Yay on your lucky 7th, Anna! May you still be going strong for number 7×7!
Sharon, laughing at having written 49 books! That seems a long, long way away. Hey, love your additions. You played me Someone’s Knocking back when you were working on one of your books and I remember thinking what a great theme it was for a romance. Isn’t Angie beautiful? Love when his voice cracks on “But, Angie, I still love you, baby.” Sob.
LOL! One of my all time faves …
Mel
Hey Anna, my iTunes just gave me another that I had to share – Josh Turner’s Would You Go With Me. WONDERFUL song!! And the video will bring you to tears. Plus Turner is a bass, that deep rich, soullllllful bass. OMGosh, it’s fab.
oh, Jeanne, that’s fabulous – I had to go and listen! Great choice!
Jeanne, isn’t that gorgeous? Thanks for sharing. I’d never heard it before. Oh, man, lots of great music out there, isn’t there?
Love them all, thanks! I have over a thousand songs on various flash drives and computers. I’ve recently discovered a bunch of really amazing things from the ’70s and the ’80s. I’m very excited though, because a co-worker in his 20s is going to share some of his playlists with me. I may find all sorts of new inspirations!
Julee, I love it when people share great music with me. Because there’s so much out there, it’s quite easy to miss out on something wonderful. So wonderful to meet another music fan and have fun with your golden oldies!
Have to admit I’ve not heard of a few of the songs on your list Anna (oops). I love Il Divo’s Every Time I Look at You. In fact I love all their songs.
There’s something wonderful about a man who can sing, isn’t there, Linda? And with Il Divo you’ve got a whole bunch of them!
Hi Anna – two of your choices are also mine (and had me in tears as I listened to them) – Unchained Melody has always made me cry and I never really knew why, then when I entered a long-distance r/ship it all made sense. Chasing Cars just struck a chord from the first moment I heard it. You have great taste!
Darren Hayes ‘Insatiable’ is another awesome love song.
Andra, great choice in Darren Hayes. I love his voice. LOVE the Savage Garden stuff. They wrote a few noteworthy lovesongs too, didn’t they? Yeah, Unchained Melody always breaks me up – Chasing Cars has a similar feel to me. Like feeling too great to be expressed in words somehow. Hey, you clearly have great taste too!
Hi Anna! I agree ‘If I Loved You’ is such a beautiful song. ‘ Till There Was You’ from The Music Man, ‘ We Kiss in the Shadows’ from The King and I and ‘When You’re In Love’ from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers are amongst my all time favourites.
Carol, I see you’re another musical fan! Love all the sings you mention. Actually another song from musicals that I love is If Ever I Would Leave You from Camelot. Beautiful!
Great songs Anna, one of my favorites is Endless Love by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross.
,
Don’t know what I’d do without love songs, they just make our days much happier
Thanks for the chance to win your book!
Lorelei, great choice! I agree with you – I love love songs. There was a Paul McCartney song years ago about how much he loved silly love songs and I have to say I’m with him. Nothing like a great love song!
Wonderful clips! I love music – I wonder if someday digital books will come with a soundtrack like movies have. I often put music on in the background – softer, non-vocals if I.m reading, but rousing music if I’m working around – really helps keep up the energy level.
Diane, I’m a music fiend as you’ve probably gathered. And I pretty much listen to anything especially if it’s got a melody. I write to music – at some stage I should do a blog on my writing inspirations. It’s a question I’m asked quite often. Thanks for swinging by. Glad you enjoyed the clips – all Mel’s doing. I just gave her the list. I was stoked when I came to the post and saw she’d gone to all the trouble to find the clips.
Okay y’all I think I can go on and on, and ON!
How about I give you one more…and no surprise it’s BRYAN ADAMS…and every time I hear it…Johnny Depp pops up in my head ;D
ENJOY!
Mel, old Bryan A has lots of fans here, doesn’t he? Actually I’m surprised at quite how old school most of us are. There aren’t a lot of really recent songs in the mix. Clearly the oldies are goldies! Again, thanks so much for hosting me here. I’m having a blast!
Those are all great choices. One of my favorites is Chantal Kreviazuk – Feels like home. Beautiful!
HL, I don’t know that one. Looks like I’m due a trip to YouTube. I’ve definitely discovered some beautiful music via this post!
I love Unbreakable by Westlife
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=rLERXFjSp5w&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DrLERXFjSp5w&gl=GB
Carol, I didn’t know that one either. Had to check it out on You Tube. I love that it’s such an easy way to access great music! Thanks for swinging by!
One of my favourite love songs is Let’s Stay Together by Al Green. Also love Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis.
Spav, Can’t Help Falling in Love always makes me think of Unchained Melody. Great choice!