Best Valentine’s Day Rock Songs
The Pretenders: “I’ll Stand By You”
The song reached the Top 20 in several countries, including the United States. The Pretenders Chrissie Hynde mentioned her embarrassment at having set out to write a “hit.” But she felt better about it when Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher said, “he wished he’d written it.”
Nickelback: “Far Away”
The track is from “All The Right Reasons.” Nickelback singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger said “Far Away” was the “only real love song” that Nickelback has. He described other songs as “being about love” but not solely about “being in love.”
3 Doors Down: “Here Without You”
“The song’s about being away from someone or missing them,” said the band’s Brad Arnold, one of the track’s composers. “And it really doesn’t matter if you’re here without them for all day or all month. It’s about the loneliness and missing of somebody.”
.38 Special: “Caught Up In You”
It was the first single released from their 1982 studio album, “Special Forces” and their first #1 on the Billboard Top Tracks Rock chart. It also reached, #10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Shinedown: “I’ll Follow You”
“Really it’s a love song pure and simple,” noted Shinedown vocalist Brent Smith. “I’ll do whatever it takes; I’ll follow you anywhere and everywhere.”
“Lyrically, it is about the person in your life who… you will always be there for and they will always be there for you,” added bassist Eric Bass.
Cheap Trick: “The Flame”
Written by songwriters Bob Mitchell and Nick Graham and produced by Richie Zito, the song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July of 1988, No one in the band was in favor of recording the song so Zito had to “sell” it to each member individually.
Halestorm: “Here’s To Us”
A power-ballad anthem “We wrote this song literally as our personal anthem,” Hale told Rolling Stone. “We’ve been through a lot together as a band, and we’ve learned to celebrate the low times as well as the highs.”
Mr. Big: “To Be With You”
According to the band’s Eric Martin the lyrics were inspired by a girl he once knew “This girl had a lot of boyfriends who treated her like shit. I wanted to be the knight in shining armor, wanted to be with her. She wasn’t having it. It never came to play.”
Aerosmith: “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing”
Heard in the blockbuster “Armageddon” film, the song went to #1 on multiple music charts worldwide. Composed by legendary songwriter Diane Warren it was inspired while she was watching a Barbara Walters interview of James Brolin and Barbra Streisand. Brolin said he missed Streisand when they were asleep, and Warren wrote down the words “I don’t want to miss a thing.”
Guns N’ Roses: “November Rain”
Epic love song with a music video co-starring GN’R singer Axl Rose’s then-girlfriend, Stephanie Seymour, the tune dwells on unrequited love. One critic wrote that GN’R “have wisely chosen to play to their female constituency.” The song, said to have been influenced by Elton John’s “Funeral For A Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding,” features a 50 -piece orchestra.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
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