Some Good Music for Relationships

Whether you're "over the moon in love" or have a broken heart, music can help the heart a little bit. Here is a small list of what I would consider some of the best "relationship" albums that span the genres. Relationships have been the stuff of many of the greatest songs in Americana. There is something for every heart here, every couple in every stage of their walk together.

Dan Fogelberg - Exiles. This album was written on the heels of a breakup and the emotion is raw here. Dan is at hardest here on "She Don't Look Back" and his most sensitive and vulnerable on "Lonely in Love", "Hearts In Decline" and "Seeing You Again". These are songs that are rife with pain, cathartic in fact. I've never heard a songwriter be this painfully honest. A great broken-heart album.

Reba McEntire - Read My Mind. Reba has always been one of the great country "relationship" singers. Her unique sound and interpretation has always been special with these kinds of songs. This album is one that I pull out from time to time. There are up-tempo take-charge numbers like "Stand In Line" and "Why Haven't I Heard From You". But there are also the country cry-on-the-jukebox numbers like "Read My Mind", "And Still", and "She Thinks His Name Was John".

Jim Brickman - My Romance. This is a nice one to cozy up by the fireplace with. Several nice tunes throughout: Love of My Live (w/Donny Osmond), Valentine (w/Olivia Newton-John), Change of Heart (also with ONJ). A very nice feeling album for a low-key romantic evening. Brickman seems like an old friend who you've invited over for the evening to play his piano just for you and your significant other.

Nancy Lamott - What's Good About Goodbye? (1995). Released after Nancy's death from cancer in 1995, this album is a compilation of different tunes from different sources. Stellar versions of "Too Late Now", "What's Good About Goodbye", "Your Love" and "Something We Never Had Before" are here, as is a neat cover of Petula Clark's "Downtown". A moving live version of "We Live On Borrowed Time" closes this beautiful and bittersweet collection.

Billy Joel - An Innocent Man. This album might be a curious inclusion here, since everyone knows it as Joel's retro-album with hits like Uptown Girl and Tell Her About It. But a deep look reveals some really poignant tunes like the title track and Leave A Tender Moment alone. A classic album.

Patsy Cline - The Ultimate Collection. Cline's songs of heartbreak and love-gone-wrong have nursed many a broken heart on jukeboxes through the years. I chose this album because all the classics are here: I Fall To Pieces, Crazy, Sweet Dreams, Leavin' on your Mind.

George Benson - Tenderly. This is a rare find; out of print in many circles. George is at his finest crooning here on standards like Stardust, You Don't Know What Love Is, and a nice cover of the Beatles's Here There and Everywhere. (FYI, this is one of two classic jazz albums Benson released during the late 80's and early 90s - the other being Big Boss Band).

Steven Curtis Chapman - All About Love. This album is about love on many levels, love for God, love for spouse, love for children and more. This is kind of an SCC greatest-love songs collection, but it's newly redone. Chapman has long been one of contemporary Christian music's best songwriters, and this album continues that trend. See "I Will Be Here", "We Will Dance" and "When Love Takes You In".

Music can always help soothe a heart, and in a relationship whether good or bad, healthy, broken, or healed, our hearts can always use a little love.