The greatest love song of the pop era

Which do you think is the greatest love song ever written? As Time Goes By, The Way You Look Tonight, Someone to Watch Over Me, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, etc. or whatever. The answer to that question will yield you a list of thousands, maybe, even a cool million. There are so many beautiful love songs out there and every title mentioned comes shaded by personal tastes and memories.

Still there are some like Unchained Melody, When I Fall in Love and Stardust that emerged to be more popular than the others. It is still a long list. So I decided to narrow the parameters down and forget about the Our Love is Here to Stay era. The old favorites from 60 or 90 years ago are already classics anyway. And I can now concentrate instead on those songs of more recent vintage.

Honesty, One Sweet Day, Looking Through the Eyes of Love, Kahit Isang Saglit, Maging Sino Ka Man, Just the Way You Are, Ikaw, Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal, Forevermore, You are My Song, Feelings, Through the Fire, You, Chances Are, She Believes in Me, God Only Knows, Something, Terminal, You Make Me Feel Brand New, This I Promise You, Sometimes When We Touch, Can’t Help Falling in Love, I Want to Know What Love is, You are the Sunshine of My Life, Overjoyed, The Power of Love, I Honestly Love You, Emotion, Can’t Help Falling in Love and so many others.

A lot of people though were mostly in agreement with the song that is the greatest of them all. And that honor goes to My Heart Will Go On by James Horner and Will Jennings as recorded by Celine Dion for the soundtrack of the movie Titanic. It was really a tossup between My Heart Will Go On and The Way We Were by Marvin Hamlish. Both coincidentally were used in a movie and both went on to win the Best Song Oscar. The Way We Were was the theme from the film of the same title that starred Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand. It was Barbra, who recorded and made a big hit out of the song.

My Heart Will Go On won out for a number of reasons. One, The Way We Were is about love lost, but My Heart Will Go On is about love that goes on forever. Today is Valentine’s Day so let us not tempt the fates by dwelling on heartbreak. Second, it has now been exactly 10 years since Titanic was released. It opened in the Philippines on Feb. 4, 1998, ahead of all other countries and sent the whole country on a romantic spin with the love story of Rose and Jack. Of course, Leonardo DiCaprio will never again be as dashing or as tragic and Kate Winslet will never again be as beautiful.

I have never heard anything as manipulative or excessive as the arrangement and production of My Heart Will Go On but it also cannot be denied that it works. Not just very well, but tremendously so. You hear that sound of the foghorns in the intro and instantly you see in your mind this giant ship getting ready to sail and images of Rose and Jack and the great love that awaits them. And when you hear Celine’s vocals go into modulation in the last chorus you also feel the goosebumps coming.

Here is how it goes:

Every night in my dreams/ I see you, I feel you/ That is how I know you go on/ Far across the distance/ and spaces between us/ you have come to show you go on

Near far, wherever you are/ I believe that the heart does go on/ Once more you open the door/ And you’re here in my heart/ And my heart will go on and on.

Love can touch us one time/ And last for a lifetime/ And never let go till we’re gone/ Love was when I loved you/ one true time I hold to/ In my life we’ll always go on.

Near far, wherever you are/ I believe that the heart does go on/ Once more you open the door/ And you’re here in my heart/ And my heart will go on and on.

You’re here, there’s nothing I fear/ And I know that my heart will go on/ We’ll stay forever this way/ You are safe in my heart/ And my heart will go on and on.

Better late than never. Belated happy Valentine’s Day.