Love Songs and At Last

It's February, so everyone is starting to get focused on hearts and chocolates and lingerie or whatever it is people do these days.

(We celebrate every year on the 15th, thanks to a rapper client and a missed Castle Hill dinner reservation on an early Valentine's Day.)

Last summer, I realized I had hundreds of love songs, but they were not all equal.

There are basically four categories of love songs:

1. Songs about falling in love.
2. Songs about being in love.
3. Songs about being in love with someone not in love with you.
4. Songs about being out of love.

Each category appears to be further divided into happy, melancholy, and sad. (No, really.)

I am often surprised by how few people apparently listen to the lyrics, the performance, and the musical arrangements of love songs. If you were, say, picking your wedding song, would you listen carefully to the lyrics before selecting? And if so, why would you ever pick "At Last" by Etta James?!!!

Does it sounds happy? No. It's a lovely song about the end of spinsterhood. With an extremely sad arrangement. The strings are funereal. Plus, it's not exactly joyful and uplifting to hear her audible relief that "my lonely nights are over . . . "

My favorite is attending a youthful wedding, where this is "their song." Really? Really?

Etta James, At Last.

Buy it on Amazon here.