What’s the best love song of all time? Phoenix New Times polls readers

If you don't make your voice heard, we're cancelling Valentine's Day 2025.

February 11, 2025

Image: A rather old songbook about love/romance.

A rather old songbook about love/romance. Wikimedia Commons

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If you Google "best love songs of all time," your computer will practically explode with a deluge of answers. There's lists that lean more toward alt rock, lists for Phoenix artists only and a billion or so other half-cocked listicles that attempt to encapsulate a singular truth: people really friggin' love to be in love.

Yet all of these lists miss out on another rather important truth: love is hard. You get one truly great love in your lifetime (if you're lucky), and these pieces try and let you have your Valentine's Day-themed cake and eat it too by providing multiple choices. So, in the name of making it as hard but rewarding as any proper love affair, we're giving you just one shot to pick the best love song — according to Phoenix New Times' own criteria, of course.

That means we're not just going to let you nominate any ol' ditty; the following list is a thoughtfully constructed collection of old and new gems culled from a healthy cross-segment of genres. Have you heard of all of these songs? Maybe not. But are they good and important enough to be the one song that celebrates love in all its many forms both splendid and awkward? Sure. Either way, it's an exercise in trusting someone else and surrendering to a moment, and that's about as close as we could ever get to being in love with each and every one of you.

We'll run the poll through Thursday, Feb. 13 at 10 p.m. local time. Be sure to send it along to any friends, family and exes you can still communicate with amicably.

Chris Coplan spent time as the Phoenix New Times music editor in early 2025. He has been a professional writer since the 2010s, having started his professional career at Consequence. Since then, he's also been published with TIME, Complex, and other outlets. Chris started freelance writing with New Times in 2018 about all things music. He lives in Central Phoenix with his wife, stepdaughter, a dumb but lovable dog, and two bossy cats.

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