Love Songs for Tu b'Av - II (Longing)

It seems that we are always longing for our beloved or lamenting our beloved's loss. What, no songs about love requited? Seemingly not, such a boring subject.

Here are the Ronette's singing one of Pop's all time classic songs of yearning, Be My Baby, written by Ellie Greenwich, who passed away a little less than a year ago at the age of 68.



Here is John Lennon's completely different take on Be My Baby, complete with a driving, syncopated bass rhythm.



The young Supremes sing Baby Love. It's pretty funny to see dorky, rhythmless,  white teen-agers dance as the future super stars sing.



What every teenage girl wants to know, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? One of Pops most enduring songs of longing, made famous by the Shirelles, who here sing it live.



There have been many renderings of this classic song. Here is Slutty McSlut, Amy Winehouse, singing it more like a threat than a question.



Here Minnie Driver sings it sweetly and tenderly from her movie, Beautiful.



The number 1 Pop song, for me, of love unrequited is Unchained Melody, sung live here by the Righteous Brothers, who made it famous. The climax which begins at 2:47 makes my blood run cold every time I hear it.



A few weeks before he died Elvis did a concert tour which was recorded for TV. Here, looking bloated and ill, he gives a tour de force solo performance of Unchained Melody extemporaneously from the piano. At 1:45 he flashes one of his trademark smiles that can still light up the whole hall. One can begin to see the crushing weight of adulation that finally brought on his untimely end. (This is worth watching in full screen mode.)