Iconic '60s Love Songs That Went Gold

If it's done correctly, a love song can be eternal — even one recorded in the tumultuous and confusing 1960s. It all starts when composers and musicians are hit with inspiration, whether a real-life love or an idealistic notion of true romance. Then they turn it into a profound expression of emotion that resonates with audiences in the here and now and for decades after the fact. The songwriters active during the '60s seemed to be particularly favored by the love muse, because that decade is the origin of some of the most interesting, truthful, and just plain well-made songs of romance and affection ever put to vinyl.

Some songs from the '60s have aged terribly, but not these. All of our choices examine, embrace, and promote love from various angles and points of view. Here are five of the most popular and best-selling love songs of the '60s, so much so that they sold at least 500,000 copies each to earn a gold record from the Recording Industry Association of America.

The very mid-'60s "I Got You Babe" is the 21st-century phrase "couples goals" in musical form. Real-life couple Sonny Bono and Cher really loved each other at the time, and those feelings are undeniable in the recording of their lilting, sappy, and exuberant love song. Duets are surprisingly rare in the world of romantic tunes, which is unfortunate because they work so well in telling both sides of a love story. In "I Got You Babe," Sonny and Cher describe their love as paramount — a rock-solid foundation of their lives that will never crumble, despite their youth and the animosity of naysayers.

The song's droning, sing-songy clarinet riff rings out against the inoffensive soft rock instrumentation. It's clear that the makers of "I Got You Babe" wanted something that would appeal to older listeners with more old-fashioned tastes as well as the tuned-in teens and proto-hippies of 1965. The result is an unabashedly corny song that tries to be hip, and it succeeds on all counts. Not only did "I Got You Babe" launch the Sonny and Cher entertainment empire, but it also became entrenched in the canon of definitively '60s songs, capturing the spirit of the counterculture before it took off. "I Got You Babe" spent three weeks at No. 1 in 1965, and that year, the RIAA awarded its writers a gold record to mark sales of 500,000 copies.

Audiences of the mid-1960s instantly embraced and praised "When a Man Loves a Woman," a confessional and brutally serious love song. Percy Sledge so effectively sold the pure and raw feelings he conveys on the track that a few weeks after the soul classic completed its two-week run at No. 1 in the summer of 1966, the RIAA confirmed the recording's gold status. One of the most powerful and moving songs of any kind, Sledge's bones-deep love ballad runs the emotional gamut, delivering an ambitious exploration of the nature of love. To Sledge, a man loving a woman includes moments of both happiness and anguish as well as a loss of self, a rethinking of priorities, and newfound powers of empathy, among other shifts.

"When a Man Loves a Woman" works as a love poem, but it's the music that allowed the song to permanently find a home in the minds and hearts of millions of romantics in the 1960s and onward. Slow and deliberate, the studio musicians playing on the track sound like they're crying tears of joy (and a bit of pain) into their instruments, transforming the notes into layered expressions of love. But it's those horns that go toe-to-toe with an increasingly riled-up Sledge that really take it over the top.

As sweet, plaintive, and innocent as love itself, 1967's "I Say a Little Prayer" showed off not only Dionne Warwick's impressive vocal chops but also her preternatural ability to interpret songs and make them her own. Composed by prolific pop composition duo Hal David and Burt Bacharach, "I Say a Little Prayer" captures that moment after the initial crush and giddy highs of a new romance — when they give way to a serious "they could be the one" conversation a person has with themself. In short lyrical bursts, Warwick's character talks about how she can't stop thinking about her beloved, so much so that throughout her daily routine of mundane tasks, she recites small prayers wishing protection or just giving thanks. At first, the singer is restrained and a little quiet because she's so overwhelmed. But eventually, the song builds to joyful bursts of celebration and gratitude, two concepts that are relatively rare in love songs.

Music buyers of the 1960s appreciated and delighted in multiple versions of "I Say a Little Prayer." Warwick's pop-oriented recording was certified gold by the RIAA in February 1968. Eight months later, Aretha Franklin's more gospel-tinged take on "I Say a Little Prayer" was also awarded a gold record.

Ray Charles' 1962 hit "I Can't Stop Loving You" was his third No. 1 single in as many years, but it didn't sound anything like his other chart-toppers, "Hit the Road Jack" and "Georgia on My Mind." Written and originally performed by country star Don Gibson in the late 1950s, Charles transformed a sweet and straightforward meditation on heartbreak into something epic and devastating. He could expertly handle most any kind of music, and he uses elements of country, pop, blues, and soul to get across the complicated themes of the song. Lovelorn listeners apparently relate to this track about someone looking back on the great love of their life now that it's over. And more importantly, deciding to reject the present and instead hang out in their memories, both real and romanticized, about how great life used to be — all because of love.

With an angelic choir and a gentle musical accompaniment, Charles' howls of appreciation and regret make for a lush package that flutters by in a dreamlike way. "I Can't Stop Loving You" was the first of many gold and platinum records awarded to Charles. In 1962, "I Can't Stop Loving You" was certified gold for sales of 500,000 copies.

Not only is true love a very real thing, as 1966's No. 1 smash "I'm a Believer" would have us believe, but so is love at first sight. This hit song from the Monkees was actually written by Neil Diamond before he became a superstar. Underneath the laid-back, hook-laden, pop-rock trappings that made The Monkees huge, "I'm a Believer" is about getting one's life and worldview absolutely rocked overnight by the arrival of love. The way Diamond sets it up, the narrator of the song is very skeptical of love, romance, and all those other mushy things because they've never experienced it themselves. They go so far as to dismiss it as a plot device in old, trite stories aimed at children. But then comes the moment of epiphany. In what's presented as akin to a religious or spiritual awakening, the narrator is a believer in love and romance mere microseconds after he sees the face of his soulmate for the first time.

The public was as instantly hooked on "I'm a Believer" as the character in the song got hooked on love. It was futile to resist the charms of this track, which ascended to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 just under two months after it was released, where it stayed for seven. The 45 also quickly sold enough copies to be certified gold by the RIAA while the song was still climbing the chart.