Thursday, February 15, 2024

February 15, 2024: AmericanStudying Love Songs: “Storybook Love”

[I know it might not be very 2024 of me to say, but love is in the air, and not just because it’s Valentine’s week. If you’re feeling it too, or maybe if you need a little help getting into the V-Day spirit, this week I’ll quickly highlight the AmericanStudies stories behind a handful of our great past love songs, leading to a special post on current ones that have hit my heart. Add your Valentine’s tunes in comments, please!]

It’s no coincidence that the first song I highlighted in this week’s series, “At Last,” made its debut as part of a feature film, as the relationship between love songs and movies is a longstanding and multilayered one (far beyond just great soundtracks for romantic comedies, although that’s part of the story to be sure). Mostly those are existing songs that the films adapt to their own purposes, but sometimes an original love song is written for a film—and an even rarer sometimes that song is both beautiful on its own and a pitch-perfect accompaniment to the movie in question. Checking off every one of those boxes for me is “Storybook Love,” a song written by singer-songwriter Willy DeVille and arranged by Dire Straits’ lead singer and guitarist Mark Knopfler for the closing credits of The Princess Bride (the beloved 1987 Rob Reiner film for which Knopfler wrote the whole soundtrack). My favorite thing about “Storybook Love” is that it is a love song about love songs, and more exactly about how those songs (and films as well) present an idealized vision of romantic love and partnerships—but how, as I can very well attest, reality does occasionally and amazingly live up to those ideals.

Last love song tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Other love songs you’d AmericanStudy?

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