5 Love Songs From 1960 That Sound Even Sweeter Today

What is it that makes a love song special? Sincerity? Sensitivity? A sense that the singer knows what it actually feels like to be in love? We'd say all of the above, plus music that matches the words. And while each decade of the 20th century has produced some lovely love songs, certain songs from 1960 stand out as sweeter than ever.

We already outlined what we're looking for as far as music and lyrics are concerned: sincerity, sensitivity, and authenticity. This covers any good love song. But for a tune to stand out as sweeter to modern ears, it's got to have some special quality that distinguishes it from its contemporaries — something that'll surprise 21st-century people in a way that wouldn't have surprised folks back in 1960. It's likely that this could relate to cultural values that have changed over time (reflected in Billboard's list of Top 50 love songs of the 21st century), which we touch on as needed but are otherwise beyond the scope of this article. And as far as genres or musical stylings are concerned, anything goes. In the end, we've chosen a song that counts amongst love song royalty that's been covered hundreds of times, as well as several songs that justifiably reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. We've also got a posthumously released, beautifully sweet song from a singer who died far too early.

Etta James' legendary "At Last" is a testament both to the power of love and the power of a person making a song her own. Released on James' 1960 debut album of the same name, the tune flows and sways with dreamy, heady strings and sparse bass and piano chords. What remains is the perfect amount of space for James' voice to burst through. And burst through it does, but not in a tasteless way where she's dominating the track with relentless belting and senseless vocal runs. She knows how to hold back and craft tender moments that let the song actually shine. This is all made even more impressive because James didn't write "At Last."

James' definitive version of "At Last" is a cover, and the song has been revived hundreds of times over the years. Songwriters Mack Gordon and Harry Warren wrote the song for the 1941 film "Sun Valley Serenade," a romantic comedy that featured the Glenn Miller Band playing in the film. But in the hands (or voice) of James, the song took on a deeper, personal-sounding meaning. Interestingly, this didn't happen because the song reflected James' love life but rather her feelings about breaking apart from her abusive upbringing and relationships and into a new phase of her career (part of her tragic real-life story).

And yet, "At Last" feels exquisitely suited to romantic love, right down to bride-and-groom dances at weddings. Certain lyrics stand as especially beautiful and swoonworthy, like, "My heart was wrapped up in clover / The night I looked at you." And of course, the track's famous line: "And life is like a song."

Simply put, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by the Shirelles is a tender, innocent-sounding love song the likes of which you'd never hear nowadays. It's sincere without being saccharine or naive, familiar without being too cliché, and threads the line between bubbly joy and wistful longing. It sounds precisely like what the lyrics describe: The initial feelings of falling love and the vulnerability/fear that it fosters. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, even though Shirelles' lead singer Shirley Owens didn't want to do it at first.

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" came from singer-songwriter Carole King (music) and her husband Gerry Goffin (lyrics) shortly after they were married, which explains why it feels so authentic. In general, King is a very gentle writer whose lyrical sensitivity was on full display in later songs like "Child of Mine," a '70s song of hers that nails the meaning of life. Even so, Owens felt the song's music needed a touch-up before the Shirelles recorded it. Her instinct, combined with the reinstrumentalized song and King and Goffin's core songcraft, drove "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" to No. 1 in 1960. It was also the first song from a Black girl group to do so. 

As for the song's lyrics, they're nuanced enough to sound like real experience lived behind them but general enough to fit different listeners' situations: "Tonight with words unspoken / You say that I'm the only one / But will my heart be broken / When the night (When the night) / Meets the morning sun? (Meets the morning sun?)." Those kinds of lyrics simply wouldn't get written today.

We could easily choose two or more Elvis songs from 1960 for this article, with "Are You Lonesome To-Night"? being the obvious, somewhat sappy romantic ballad. But it's "It's Now or Never" that stands out not just for its sweetness and Elvis' vocal delivery but also for its music. Close your eyes and give it a listen: You'll swear you're listening to a version of the well-known 1898 Italian song, "O Sole Mio." But Elvis' song has a rhythmic pulse that feels like a dizzy dream of romance, and when he hits the word "tomorrow" in the first verse (and the song shifts to an A-minor), the music becomes overwhelmingly beautiful. Plenty of folks felt the same, as "It's Now or Never" was a massive hit: In 1960, it stayed at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for five weeks.

Remember we mentioned "O Sole Mio"? Well, that's no coincidence. "It's Now or Never" actually derives directly from "O Sole Mio" by way of "There's No Tomorrow," Tony Martin's 1949 English version of the Italian song. Elvis heard this version during his stint in the U.S. military, where he served a standard tour of duty in West Germany from 1958 to 1960. Elvis told his publisher that he wanted to reprise the song for himself, so songwriters Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold got on it, and they finished in no more than 30 minutes. 

Elvis' uptempo version reaches swooping emotional heights in part thanks to blatantly Latin instruments like the marimba and flamenco guitar. It's an unusual twist over typical radio love song fare, but one that makes it stand out from its peers. And yes, we've got to hand it to Elvis' signature baritone for adding an intimate gloss to the whole song. 

Younger folks might recognize this song from crooner extraordinaire Michael Bublé, who did a (very different) rendition of it in 2005. But full credit goes to songwriter Doc Pomus and the Drifters, the latter of whom released "Save the Last Dance for Me" back in 1960 on a four-song EP. It not only reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was such a big hit that the quartet rereleased it on its 1962 album and named the album after the tune.

"Save the Last Dance for Me" stands out from other love songs of its time — and the others in this article — because it's not a clear-cut track about lovey-dovey feelings. As its lyrics say, it's about the singer watching his girlfriend dance with other men as he watches from the sidelines. It's all good, he says, "But don't forget who's taking you home / And in whose arms you're gonna be / So darlin' / Save the last dance for me." This doesn't sound particularly sweet on paper, and at worst folks could interpret it as an embarrassing song about some guy being cheated on. 

But it's the music of "Save the Last Dance for Me" that shapes its story into something different. The rumba-inspired song sounds vulnerable but trusting and even joyous. It's as though the singer knows everything is ultimately okay and is glad about it (but can't help issue a request, anyway). Add to this Ben E. King's gentle yet confident vocal performance, and the whole thing comes across as reassured, charming, and sweet.

We might have saved the most purely sweet song for last, and not just because it cites something as Disney-like as "true love" in the title. Indeed, there's a movie score quality to "True Love Ways" by Buddy Holly, which sounds like the tale of a bashful young boy asking someone to the school dance, shaky voice and all. The song is bright but not brash, cute but not sappy, and even playful thanks to some instrumental flourishes like trumpet licks and harp glissandos. It also has the honor of being the only song in our list written by the person who performs it, Buddy Holly. He wrote it for his wife, Maria Elena Santiago Holly, when they got married. It was released in 1960 on "The Buddy Holly Story, Volume II," after Holly died in a plane crash while his new wife (and later widow) was pregnant.

Holly recorded "True Love Ways" in 1958, the same year that he and Santiago Holly got married. The song's lyrics read like a rephrasing of wedding vows, with lines like, "Sometimes we'll sigh / Sometimes we'll cry / And we'll know why / Just you and I / Know true love ways." Such lyrics are obviously simple, but their simplicity adds to the sweetness of the song, as though they encompass much more that's unspoken. That's a very good description of what it's like between two people who are comfortably together and in stable love. There's even a Holly-based stage production in London's West End named after Holly's song, "True Love Ways." On Theatre Royal Windsor, Santiago Holly speaks highly of the show, saying that she's just happy to see people enjoying her late husband's music.