The perfect love song playlist, according to Haim
Before Estelle, Danielle and Alana Haim were globally recognised for their moving lyricism and prolific musical talents, they were three sisters raised in their San Fernando Valley, California, beginnings, by parents who held their own music aspirations.
Their father, Mordechai, was a drummer while their mother, Donna, won a talent contest in the 1970s on The Gong Show, singing her rendition of a Bonnie Raitt song. Danielle was the first to be inclined towards an instrument, showing her talents on the guitar at a young age, which prompted their father to prescribe Este the bass.
The family formed a band, Rockinhaim, with Mordechai on drums and Donna on guitar. Performing covers at local charity fairs, their set lists featured The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ and Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’. Raised on classic rock and Americana records from the 1970s, the sisters had a rich musical knowledge that instinctively saw them inclined towards a soft rock sound, an early indication of the sound they would later hone in their own band.
Emerging on their own as Haim, they merged their childhood love of rock ‘n’ roll with a wider spectrum of sounds. Pop and indie rock melodies would weave into their songs, as they experimented with technologies including drum machines, synthesisers and Garage Band programming to root their guitars into a pop structure.
Their multifaceted approach worked: Haim grew into a band with a classic sheen to them, not so much concerned with genre as they were with crafting songs that could prove resonant across all walks of life… Lyrically, they share stories of their traumas, pains and hardships with a vulnerable gaze that could only be conjured among the three of them – Haim’s most recent album, 2025’s I Quit, hears lyrics written in this same spirit, communicating difficult emotions into songs that could, at the same time, revive spirits.
“All of our songs are about our collective trauma and going through it,” Alana told GQ in 2025. “A lot of our last album was us grappling with going to therapy for the first time and these emotions that had been bottled up for so many years, and I think with this album, we’ve done the work on ourselves, and now it’s time to party.”
They have even found a champion in one of their mutually respected heroes, Stevie Nicks, who asserted to GQ that the sisters could have easily fit into Fleetwood Mac’s lineup. “It starts with Danielle’s voice – it is just stunning,” Nicks enthused. “She’s the first part of the puzzle, but then the percussion that Este and Alana wrap around her turn all of their songs into percussive masterpieces. [They are] something that I have never heard before.”
With love songs being among the most universal – of which Haim are all too familiar with writing, from their breakthrough hit ‘The Wire’ in 2013 to the aptly-titled ‘Relationships’, a breakup song from their latest album – it is fitting that the sisters would have some of the best romantic recommendations.
Curating a list for The Guardian, Haim begins with an immediate surprise in choosing Justin Timberlake and TI’s ‘My Love’, contrasted by the sister duo Patience and Prudence’s hit ‘Tonight You Belong To Me’. A classic from the same era, ‘Love Me Tender’, crooned by Elvis Presley, follows suit, before Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham introduce the aforementioned Fleetwood Mac with ‘Hold Me’.
Across their playlist, Haim invokes a nostalgic gaze on love and all of the heavy emotions that come with it. Find the full playlist of Haim’s romantic favourites below.
Haim’s perfect romantic playlist:
- ‘My Love’ – Justin Timberlake, TI
- ‘Tonight You Belong To Me’ – Patience and Prudence
- ‘Love Me Tender’ – Elvis Presley
- ‘Hold Me’ – Fleetwood Mac
- ‘Sometimes Always’ – The Jesus and Mary Chain
- ‘I’ll Stand By You – The Pretenders
- ‘Fade Into You’ – Mazzy Star
- ‘Do You Realize??’ – The Flaming Lips
- ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ – The Smiths
- ‘If Not for You’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘God Only Knows’ – The Beach Boys
