Ten romantic rock songs to learn for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is coming up fast. If you still need a surprise for your person, grab your guitar and start learning one of these romantic rock songs!
One of Irish band U2’s most popular songs ever, “With or Without You” was also used in NBC’s sitcom “Friends” as the theme song for Ross and Rachel’s relationship.
Extreme lead guitarist Nuno Bettencourt described this song as a warning that the phrase “I love you” was becoming meaningless.
“People use it so easily and so lightly that they think you can say that and fix everything, or you can say that and everything’s OK,” he told the AP in 1991.
“Sometimes you have to do more and you have to show it—there’s other ways to say ‘I love you.’
Sweet Child O’ Mine – Guns N’ Roses
Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash came up with the guitar riff for “Sweet Child” as a joke, saying it was a “circus melody”.
Within an hour, it was well on its way to being a full song – lead singer Axl Rose finished the lyrics by the next afternoon, basing them on his girlfriend Erin Everly.
Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper 
Singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper was inspired by a movie name she saw in TV Guide, “Time After Time”, and was inspired to write this song for her debut solo album. The track has landed on several lists of “The Best Love Songs of All Time”.
The organ chords used in this 2007 track are the same from the soundtrack for “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”.
According to Snow Patrol lead singer Gary Lightbody, the phrase “chasing cars” came from his father’s advice about a girl Lightbody was infatuated with. Lightbody said his dad said, “”You’re like a dog chasing a car. You’ll never catch it and you just wouldn’t know what to do with it if you did.”
Dreams – Fleetwood Mac 
Stevie Nicks wrote “Dreams” in about ten minutes while the band was recording their celebrated “Rumours” album.
Layla – Eric Clapton
Another Clapton track, “Layla” was inspired both by a 12th century Persian poem and his secret love for Pattie Boyd, who was married to his friend George Harrison at the time.
Iris – The Goo Goo Dolls
The Goo Goo Dolls’ signature song, “Iris” was written for the 1998 movie “City of Angels”. Lead singer John Rzeznik wrote the song after watching an early cut of the movie, saying in a 2013 interview, “I was thinking about the situation of the Nicolas Cage character in the movie. This guy is completely willing to give up his own immortality, just to be able to feel something very human. And I think, ‘Wow! What an amazing thing it must be like to love someone so much that you give up everything to be with them.’ That’s a pretty heavy thought.”
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