Greatest love songs ever: #34 “Hello”

By Tom Quiner

Lionel Richie was perhaps the finest American balladeer of the late 20th century. His songs were romantic, combining irresistible melodies with romantic lyrics focused on the human condition. “Hello” was a 1984 #1 hit single that was one of his best.

Richie was the last great writer of pop love songs before the Roe v Wade generation took over in the 90’s and essentially abandoned the genre. Only two songs on my list were written more recently than “Hello” and only by a couple of years.

His lyrics grab you instantly, accompanied as they are by a melody in a brooding minor key:

“I’ve been alone with you

Inside my mind.

And in my dreams I’ve kissed your lips

A thousand times.

I sometimes see you pass outside my door …

Hello! Is it me you’re looking for.”

Good stuff! I love the way he rhymes the last line of the verse with the first line of the refrain. How many people have ever had a crush, perhaps a very deep crush, on someone without having any idea if the feelings were reciprocated?

This is the essence of life

This is the essence of the adventure of living a life fully alive, as our hearts long to love, and be loved in return.

When love is returned, the circuit is complete and power and meaning flows into everything we do. Let’s say you have a repetitive, boring job. Let’s say you wash dishes (as I did in my teens), the boredom is so much easier to manage when your loved one is alone with you inside your mind.

Of course, the circuit is always complete, married or single, if we simply let God into our lives. God is at the heart of every love song, because God IS love. Sadly, we often block God.

Who is doing the whispering?

Sometimes the words you hear in your mind …

“Hello, Is it me you’re looking for?”

… may be GOD whispering in YOUR ear trying to get your attention. That wasn’t Richie’s intent. He writes about romantic love, as he said in an interview:

“I write about love. It’s non-political, simple and universal. ‘I love you’ are the corniest three words you’ll ever use, but the whole world is looking for it and can’t wait for someone to say it to you.”

This observer humbly disagrees with the maestro’s assertion that the words “I Love You” are corny. Nothing could be further from the truth. Love is anything but banal or merely sentimental. It is the foundation of our existence. Jesus spelled it out in Matthew 22:37-39:

“Thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God with thy heart, and with all thy soul, and all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Emphasis added.)

But that’s not enough. Jesus continues:

“… Thou shalt LOVE thy neighbor as thyself.”

Twelve centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas built on this last sentence. To ‘love’ is to will the good of the other, or in other words, to love like God loves. Abortion is the antithesis of love, especially when the unborn are realized as our tiny neighbors growing and thriving in their mother’s wombs.

Love is more than a feeling

Contemporary songwriters present love as a feeling or an urge. It’s so much more. One of the most poetic explanations for what love is came from the novel, “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin,” by Louis de Berniéres. Contemplate his words.

“Love is a temporary madness.
It erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.
And when it subsides, you have to make a decision.
You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together
that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.

Because this is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness,
It is not excitement,
It is not the promulgation of eternal passion.
That is just being “in love” which any fool can do.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,
And this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground,
And when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches,
They find that they are one tree and not two.”

You can watch these words performed (not verbatim) in the scene below from the movie by the same name with John Hurt and Penelopé Cruz:

What Lionel Richie gets right, as does Paul McCartney (“Silly Love Songs,” #52 on our list) is people LOVE love songs. Richie wrote a slew of wonderful love songs, including “Endless Love,” “Say You, Say Me,” “Truly,” “Lady,”  and “Three Times a Lady” to name a few.

Among these, “Hello” holds a special place.

As this countdown continues, be sure to let me know what are your favorite love songs? Leave your picks in the comment box below.

Next week, we’ll take a look at a song written shortly after I was born by a songwriter you probably don’t know, who is still alive as of this writing at the tender age of ninety-eight. But you’ll probably know the phrase he coined, because Justin Timberlake stole it! Til then, continue to bask in the love. Remember, love is the antidote to abortion.

And if God whispers in your ear today, “Hello, is it me you’re looking for?” … what will your answer be?

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