Top 10 Most Romantic Broadway Songs
They're the most romantic songs on Broadway. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Broadway show tunes that make us swoon.
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00:00Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger.
00:10Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the Broadway show tunes that make us swoon.
00:16There's a place for us, a time and place for us.
00:27Number 10. On My Own, Les Miserables.
00:31Without a hope, without a friend, without a face to say hello to.
00:36And now the night is near. Now I can make believe he's here.
00:45In a musical full of tragic figures, Eponine is one of the saddest.
00:49Her act two number, On My Own, almost instantly became one of Les Mis' signature moments.
00:54The poor, unfortunate daughter of thieving innkeepers, Eponine is in love with the young and handsome revolutionary Marius.
01:01He's in love with someone else. Even if he wasn't, he probably still wouldn't see her.
01:06And although I know that he isn't mine, still I say, there's a way for us.
01:18Anyone who's ever been on the losing end of an unrequited crush is sure to hang on every word of her show-stopping anthem to longing,
01:25and that hopeless head-over-heels kind of love.
01:28I love him, but only on my own.
01:43Number 9. All I Ask of You, The Phantom of the Opera.
01:47Let daylight dry your tears. I'm here with you, beside you, to guard you and to guide you.
01:59In this epic musical, The Phantom begins enacting a reign of terror on the Paris Opera.
02:04Christine Daae, the soprano with whom he's obsessed, flees to the scenic roof of the building,
02:09where her enamored childhood sweetheart Raoul finds her.
02:12A fever pitch of emotion follows, set to one of the musical's grandest melodies.
02:16Tell me, stay with me each night, each morning. Say you love me.
02:27Oh, I do.
02:30Christine and Raoul make their loving requests to one another, promising to be each other's light
02:35in a world full of murderous phantoms and screaming prima donnas.
02:39The song builds to a brilliant and overwhelming crescendo as they kiss, hit some near-impossible notes,
02:44and bring it in for an equally impossibly soft landing.
03:04Number 8. Suddenly Seymour, Little Shop of Horrors.
03:08Lift up your head, wash off your mascara. Here, take my Kleenex, wipe that lipstick away.
03:17This science fiction musical concerns plant store employee Seymour Krelborn,
03:21making a Faustian bargain with a carnivorous plant from outer space.
03:25Audrey's the bombshell he's in love with, but whose taste in men betrays a disturbingly negative self-image.
03:31In Suddenly Seymour, she realizes the soft-spoken Seymour may be the man she's been looking for,
03:36and he realizes she actually loves him back.
03:57Finally coming together, their duet is almost rapturous.
04:00You almost forget he's just fed her repugnant and sadistic boyfriend to the plant he named after her.
04:06Love forgives a lot of sins.
04:31Number 7. If I Loved You, Carousel.
04:52This is a true classic of the musical theater.
04:55Carnival barker Billy Bigelow and mill worker Julie Jordan have only just met,
04:59but their attraction is growing. They're unable to come out and say how they feel about each other.
05:04So If I Loved You is full of timid hypothetical situations.
05:08What would it actually feel like if they were in love?
05:22Between their moments of honesty, they sing about the weather instead.
05:26When Carousel was revived on Broadway a few years back,
05:29Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical generated considerable controversy, and with good reason.
05:34Billy and Julie are not exactly couple goals, but on its own, the song is one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's very best.
05:40Time and again I would try to say
05:45All I'd want you to know
05:53Number 6. I'll Cover You, Rent.
05:56In a total 180, this love song near the end of Act 1
06:00finds Professor Tom Collins and Angel Dumont-Chouinard confessing their love.
06:04Full of sweet harmonies and earnest feeling, the duet takes the form of a promise
06:09and a clever re-appropriation of the show's title and themes.
06:12I think they meant it when they said you can't buy love
06:16Now I know you can rent it
06:18At least you are my love on life
06:25The two know more than most about how precious life is.
06:28With whatever time is left on the lease of their lives, they'll be each other's comfort and peace.
06:33Wherever, whatever, I'll be your coat
06:37You'll be my king and I'll be your castle
06:41No, you'll be my queen and I'll be your moat
06:46If that doesn't make you cry the first time, the second act reprise of the song is another story.
06:51Collins vows to keep his promise, even if Angel is gone.
06:54Oh lover, I'll cover 525,600 dead
07:10One of the most acclaimed Broadway musicals is also one of the darkest,
07:14and yet still one of the most romantic.
07:16I was half convinced I'd waken
07:20Satisfied enough to dream you
07:24Happily I was mistaken
07:28Anthony, the idealistic young sailor, is struck by the image of Joanna at her window.
07:33She's a caged bird, and he's smitten by her and instantly realizes he must save her.
07:38I'll steal you, Joanna
07:47I'll steal you
07:51Singing this ode to Joanna's golden hair,
07:53Anthony promises he will take her away from the cruel and oppressive Judge Turpin.
07:57Until then though, he assures that he will be with her in spirit.
08:01Much like the rest of the show, his song for her is equal parts creepy and gorgeous.
08:06Till I'm with you then, I'm with you there
08:10Sweetly buried in your yellow hair
08:21When I'm close to you dear
08:27The stars fill the sky
08:33So in love with you am I
08:39Cole Porter is well known for his sophisticated wit and jaunty melodies,
08:43but he's equally at home with songs of unrequited love,
08:46like this standard from Kiss Me Kate.
08:48The musical centers around the personal lives and troubles of a group of actors
08:52putting on a production of The Taming of the Shrew.
08:54With my joy delirious
09:02When I knew that you could care
09:10Sung by the actress Lily Vanessie to her ex-husband Fred,
09:13it's a plea wrapped in a declaration of love.
09:16She's so in love with him that it's torturous and cruel.
09:19The numbers reprise and the second act finds Fred singing it back to her.
09:22It's intense, vulnerable, and earnest in a way that only the greatest love songs are.
09:27So in love, so in love
09:36So in love with you, my love
09:48Make of our vows one last vow
09:56Even death won't part us
10:04A musical based on Romeo and Juliet wouldn't be much of a success
10:07if it didn't have one of the most romantic scores of all time.
10:10Somewhere is a crowd pleaser,
10:12but you could argue it doesn't necessarily have to be about romantic love.
10:16Not so with One Hand, One Heart.
10:18The two star-crossed lovers vows to each other
10:20as they imagine what their wedding might look like.
10:23Now it begins, now we start
10:30One hand, one heart
10:38Composer Leonard Bernstein had actually composed the melody for another show,
10:42but loved it so much he found a place for it in West Side Story.
10:45It's clear why he couldn't let it go.
10:47It's a breathtaking piece of music.
10:50Even death won't part us now
11:09There were bells on the hill
11:14But I never heard them ringing
11:19Wedding playlists were never the same
11:21after the music man dropped this one on the world.
11:24Simple, elegant, and brimming with feeling.
11:26Librarian Marion Perreault's confession of love for the grifter Harold Hill
11:30is the definition of romance.
11:32The lyrics tell of Marion's shift in perspective since meeting Harold.
11:36But I never heard it singing
11:41No, I never heard it at all
11:47Till there was you
11:51Birds sing, bells ring.
11:53The world is full of beauty she didn't see or hear
11:56until he awakened it in her.
11:57Okay, well, if that's not a declaration of love, what is?
12:01This one was so irresistible,
12:03even the Beatles themselves got in on the action.
12:05When there was music
12:09And wonderful roses
12:12They had sent me
12:14Before we unveil our top pick,
12:16here are a few honorable mentions.
12:18What more can I say?
12:20Falsettos.
12:21Marvin ponders his love for Whizzer.
12:23I sing more on delay
12:29What more can I say?
12:32Loving you.
12:33Passion.
12:34Fosca admits that her love for Giorgio is her entire purpose for living.
12:38Gives me voice to say to the world
12:44This is why I live
12:49On the street where you live, My Fair Lady.
12:51Freddie's so in love, he'll wait for Eliza all night if he has to.
12:55The towering feeling
12:58Just to know
13:01Somehow you are near
13:04Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered.
13:06Pal Joey.
13:07An ode to how love makes you a little crazy.
13:10And wouldn't sleep
13:12When love came and told me I shouldn't sleep
13:16Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered am I
13:25Unexpected song.
13:27Song and dance.
13:28A soaring Andrew Lloyd Webber ballad famously performed by Bernadette Peters.
13:32I have never felt like this
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13:54Number 1.
13:55Some Enchanted Evening, South Pacific
13:58In this Rodgers and Hammerstein song,
14:00Emile Debecque woos Nellie Forbush with poetic imagery of strangers meeting in crowded rooms and hearing her laugh in his dreams.
14:07You know even then
14:12That somewhere you'll see her again and again
14:21Some Enchanted Evening moves with such ease that it almost feels effortlessly written.
14:26Of course, that's the trick.
14:28It's a perfect encapsulation of how the most stirring songs can be so simple.
14:32Who can explain it?
14:35Who can tell you why?
14:38Fools give you reasons
14:42Wise men never try
14:51Andrew Lloyd Webber himself cites the song as the best ever written for a musical.
14:55Countless covers by stars as varied as Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand and The Temptations
15:01is proof that the song's beauty can stand on its own.
15:04Never let her go
15:19What Broadway song makes you believe in love?
15:21Let us know in the comments.
15:23I long to discover
15:25Something as true as this is
15:31Do you agree with our picks?
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