11 classic love songs with pretty creepy lyrics
Unpopular opinion: Sting’s lyrics may be problematic to analyze from a postmodernist standpoint. Some of his hits have made this list three times.
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“Every Breath You Take” — The Police (1983)
In a 1983 interview with the New Musical Express, Sting described it as “a nasty little song, really rather evil. It’s about jealousy and surveillance and ownership.” He wrote it at Ian Fleming’s desk in Jamaica after separating from his first wife, whose best friend Trudie Styler he was already involved with. One couple told him it was the main song at their wedding. He thought, “Well, good luck.” Best-selling single of 1983 in America.
“Roxanne” — The Police (1978)
A man decides a woman will stop working as a prostitute because he loves her. The track also features Copeland and Summers.
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” — The Police (1980)
A teacher reaches for Humbert Humbert from Lolita as the comparison that fits his feelings for a student. As an identification. In the chorus.
“One Way or Another” — Blondie (1979)
Debbie Harry was stalked. She wrote it from inside the stalker’s head because she had acquired firsthand knowledge of how it worked. I will follow you, I’ll be there when it gets light. It has been in car commercials. The bass line is extraordinary. These facts sit next to each other without resolving.
“Run for Your Life” — The Beatles (1965)
“I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man” opens the track. Lennon lifted it from Arthur Gunter, via Elvis, and put it at the start of Rubber Soul in 1965. In 1980 he told an interviewer it was the one Beatles song he wished he hadn’t written. Two weeks later he was shot.
“I Will” — The Beatles (1968)
One hundred and six seconds. McCartney committing to eternal love for a woman whose name he does not know and to whom he has never spoken. The recording stops before she responds.
“Hello” — Lionel Richie (1984)
The man has memorized her face from across a room without introducing himself and obtained her phone number through means the song declines to explain. He calls to ask if she is alone. The music video has a blind art student who sculpted Richie’s likeness from verbal descriptions.
“Don’t You Want Me” — Human League (1981)
Phil Oakey finds her waitressing and tells her so in the first verse. The second verse explains what happens if she leaves. Number one in Britain in 1981 and America in 1982.
“Obsession” — Animotion (1984)
You are an obsession, I cannot sleep, I am your possession. Obsession in psychiatry describes intrusive thoughts a person cannot stop having and experiences as unwanted. The song addresses whoever caused this condition as though she can fix it. Number six in 1985.
“Eternal Flame” — The Bangles (1988)
“I watch you when you are sleeping” is in the chorus. School dances. Late 1980s. Repeatedly.
“Still of the Night” — Whitesnake (1987)
Six minutes forty-one of Coverdale outside in the dark, watching, waiting. The marketing materials called it a love song and sent it to radio stations.
The bottom line
All eleven still on playlists. The music wins every time, which is either fine or not depending on how closely you listen.
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