When rock bands turn their attention to matters of the heart, they make songs that come in many shapes and sizes -- some tunes celebrate romance, while others mourn the loss of true love. With that in mind, here are the 10 best love songs in contemporary rock, picking hits that have stood the test of time as well as some personal favorites that never made the charts.
10. Oasis - "Wonderwall"
Photo courtesy Epic.
For years, fans of this acoustic ballad from Oasis were led to believe that Noel Gallagher wrote it for his girlfriend. Only in 2002 was it revealed that Gallagher had actually meant the song to be intended for "an imaginary friend who's gonna come and save you from yourself." But even if it isn't technically a love song, millions have embraced "Wonderwall" as an intimate conversation between lovers trying to survive a rough patch in their relationship.
9. Slipknot - "Snuff"
Photo courtesy Roadrunner.
Beneath the bruising surface of Corey Taylor's songs is a sense of a man trying to find connection with a world that scares him to the core. This song off All Hope Is Gone reveals a vulnerability you rarely hear in a Slipknot song, as Taylor sings twisted lyrics about a love affair that seems doomed thanks to his own self-loathing and her inability to cope with his failings. "Snuff" sure isn't romantic, but it feels very, very real.
8. Buckcherry - "Sorry"
Photo courtesy Eleven Seven.
Buckcherry are notorious for raucous bar-band rock that pays homage to bad girls, but they do write the occasional love song, too. On "Sorry," singer Josh Todd apologizes to his woman while asserting all the reasons why she means the world to him. Next time you screw up in your relationship, play your significant other this song.
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge"
Photo courtesy Warner Bros.
At a low point in his life, Anthony Kiedis wrote a ballad to the one thing he knew he could count on: the city of Los Angeles. "Under the Bridge" is best known as a tale of drug addiction and self-doubt, but it's also a love song to a place that gives Kiedis a reassuring sense of community. For many brokenhearted souls, this Red Hot Chili Peppers track has been a source of comfort during hard times.
6. Guns N' Roses - "Sweet Child o' Mine"
Photo courtesy Geffen.
A love song both hopeful and despairing, "Sweet Child o' Mine" is a startlingly pretty ode to a relationship that reminds Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose of the innocence of childhood. That mixture of love and innocence are then juxtaposed with Slash’s searching guitar solo and Rose's worries about whether something so wonderful can last.
5. Foo Fighters - "Walking After You"
Photo courtesy RCA.
The Foo Fighters album The Colour and the Shape detailed Dave Grohl's crumbling marriage, but the record was never more gorgeous than on this acoustic tune. "Walking After You" pinpoints that moment in a failing relationship when both sides are past the point of reconciliation but can't quite let go of one another. The song is painful and beautiful all at once, seeing the end in sight and crying all the way.
4. Stone Temple Pilots - "Sour Girl"
Photo courtesy Atlantic.
Stone Temple Pilots leader Scott Weiland has a knack for emotional love songs, but "Sour Girl" is the band's very best. A love affair has ended, and Weiland tries to figure out what went wrong, guessing he's probably the one to blame. Stone Temple Pilots mix acoustic and electric guitars with a deceptively bouncy rhythm section, and the melody is so wistful that the song's heartbreak seems to be happening in real time.
3. Metallica - "Nothing Else Matters"
Photo courtesy Elektra.
For diehard Metallica fans, "Nothing Else Matters" is better known as The Song Where Metallica Totally Sold Out. James Hetfield risked his credibility to attempt his first love song, and the results are striking -- an unabashedly romantic salute to finding your soul mate. "I never opened myself this way," he admits, but this ballad argued that such candor suited him well.
2. Smashing Pumpkins - "By Starlight"
Photo courtesy Virgin.
Buried near the end of the two-disc epic Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan unleashed his most beautiful romantic pledge. Corgan was always more openhearted than his songwriting contemporaries, and "By Starlight" is the man at his purest, showering his lover with affection and admiration, while at the same time wondering if one person can ever truly know another completely.
1. Pearl Jam - "Black"
Photo courtesy Epic.
One of the first songs Pearl Jam ever wrote was this crushing tale of a love affair gone bad. Eddie Vedder tries to go through the routine of a regular day, but everything just reminds him of her -- kids at play, sheets of empty canvas. The crystalline guitars convey deep wells of loss and regret, while Vedder lets fly with a vocal performance that's wounded without being whiny. Best of all, this is that rare breakup song that refuses to be bitter. Vedder sums up his still-abiding affection and pain with these eloquent final lines: "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life/I know you'll be the sun in somebody else's sky/But why why why can't it be/Can't it be mine?"
