Love makes the world go around. All the world's religions point to the power of love as central to what it means to be alive.

Life offers us so many courses in love, so many chances to refine and expand our practice and understanding of it. We start in the nest of the family when we bond with our parents. Friendship and first love open our eyes to new possibilities. Marriage and parenting give us a chance to get love right in another family setting. And all along, we are encouraged to practice loving in our everyday relationships.

Valentine's Day comes in February and so it is traditional to celebrate love this month. We'll be doing so by featuring a love song a day on our homepage, using videos we've found on YouTube, and building the whole list on this page.

Falling in love is magical, and we do it again again and again. Educator Gertrud Mueller Nelson has observed: "It is heady stuff that launches ships and makes the world go round. It is a powerful taste of the divine as we experience it in another." Spiritual writer Matthew Fox proposes that we fall in love several times a day. That's not a bad idea to put into practice during this month.

The writer Isaac Bashevis Singer has stated: "The best contact with humanity is through love and sex. Here, really, you learn all about life, because in sex and in love character is revealed more than anywhere else." Love songs explore this turf in a variety of ways. Singers and songwriters trace the flutterings of eros, desire, yearning, union, and loss.

Finally, Tolstoy wrote in his classic novel Anna Karenina: "As there are as many minds as there are heads, so there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts." We hope you enjoy our collection of songs illustrating many kinds of loves and hearts. (See also our collection of quotes on The Heart.)

Love Song Videos

• The Beatles: All You Need Is Love
• Placido Domingo and John Denver: Perhaps Love
• Nada Surf: Always Love
• Queen: Somebody to Love
• Matt White: Love
• Elton John: Your Song
• Cream: Sunshine of Your Love
• The Righteous Brothers: Unchained Melody
• John Denver: Annie's Song
• John Lennon: Love
• Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender
• Jack Johnson: Better Together
• Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton: Islands in the Stream
• Gladys Knight & the Pips: Best Thing


Love Songs
• Watch/Hear a Playlist of songs for practicing love.