The real summer of love: Which year had the most number ones with ‘love’ in the title?
Love songs, endless bloody love songs. Are they so commonplace because the very emotion defines why we create art in the first place, or are they daft platitudes that prove most artists are just motivated by what sells?
Well, if it’s the former, then you might expect love songs to have boomed in times conducive to romance: the post-war rekindlings of the 1940s and ‘50s, the eponymous Summer of Love in 1967, or in the immediate aftermath of the Adam Sandler smash 50 First Dates back in 2004.
Sadly, the results imply that ‘what sells’ might worryingly determine their evergreen presence more so than songwriters being moved by an upswell of spiritual sunshine. For instance, when the UK charts began in 1953, an age recalled as a hotbed for bequiffed flings following the hardship of war, the only song with love in its peculiar title was ‘Comes A-Long A-Love’ by Kay Starr.
The following year, you also only had one single starring entry: ‘Secret Love’ by Doris Day, which focuses primarily on the covert side of a romance more so than anything Byronically beautiful. But by 1964, pop culture had finally arrived in full swing. Teens were suddenly flush enough to determine commercial successes, and this marked a dramatic swing in the songs that proved chart-toppingly popular.
Pivotally, 1964 was the first year when four songs with ‘love’ in the title topped the charts. The first of which was The Beatles’ classic ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. Obviously, there are plenty more reasons why this anthemic track has gone down in history, but it also seemed to mark the moment that love songs transitioned from a rather dated romance novel typology to a more catchy ambiguity.
The record-breaking song sold over one million copies in the US on the day after its March release. That was also a pivotal moment. The single represented a new lucrative boom. It was worth trying to match its magic. So, labels got more hands on with subject matters, not just song types.
Shortly after, the long-forgotten duo Peter & Gordon offered up ‘A World Without Love’ that went to number one, whatever the hell it is. Then you had the Searchers joining the swoon with their track ‘Don’t Throw Your Love Away’. Finally, the love-in of 1964 made history with its fourth love-dovey entry, and the best for that matter, ‘Baby Love’ by The Supremes.
But all things happen in trends, and as The Beatles grew self-conscious of their ‘teenybopper’ image and headed for the hills of experimentation, the charts largely followed suit. In 1967, when love was apparently all around, only ‘All You Need Is Love’ proved to be chart-topping.
From then on, love pretty consistently popped up in number one titles at an average of 1.3 per year for the next 18 years. But in 1985, there was another love-in foursome. Power pop was proudly in fashion, and its cheesiness lent itself perfectly to gushing anthems with weepy vocals. Punk lay floundering in a basement. Cocaine abounded.
Once again, there was a cyclical pushback. 1986 and 1987 saw only one apiece. The grunge and alternative years didn’t go in for it much either. But lately, commercial trends and algorithms have found ‘love’ roaring back into style, ironically, while it goes out of style in the real world. 2012 saw four trite love titles rise to the top, as did 2014.
Strangely, since then, love has disappeared entirely from number one titles, with ‘Savage Love’ by Jawsh 685 & Jason Derulo back in 2020. Why? Well, listening to the atrocity of ‘Savage Love’ might provide a hint. Beyond that, is love simply too commonplace to stand out in an age where 100,000 songs are released every day? Weirdly, seven of the number ones this year have been a single word – has our attention span reached a sorry point where titles like ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)’ no longer resonate?
Regardless of the whys and wherefores, love is seemingly out of fashion yet again, but which year when it was in bloom had the best soppy songs?
The years with the most love songs at number one:
1964
- ‘Baby Love’ – The Supremes
- ‘Don’t Throw Your Love Away’ – Searchers
- ‘A World Without Love’ – Peter & Gordon
- ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ – The Beatles
1985
- ‘Saving All My Love For You’ – Whitney Houston
- ‘The Power of Love’ – Jennifer Rush
- ‘Easy Lover’ – Philip Bailey & Phil Collins
- ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’ – Foreigner
2012
- ‘The Power of Love’ – Gabrielle Aplin
- ‘Let Me Love You’ – Ne-Yo
- ‘This Is Love’ – Will I Am
- ‘Feel This Love’ – Rudimental ft John Newman
2014
- ‘Lovers on the Sun’ – David Guetta ft Sam Martin
- ‘Crazy Stupid Love’ – Cheryl Cole
- ‘Nobody to Love’ – Sigma
- ‘My Love’ – Route 94
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