People’s opinions vary on gushy romantic songs, but a good love ballad can certainly be iconic, and maybe even increase your chances of getting your special someone in a romantic mood. We’re on a mission to find out the most popular love songs – so we’ve conducted research into some of the nation’s favourite swoon-worthy hits. We measured our test subject’s heartrates, to see which songs got hearts racing… and the results may surprise you.
From our list of romantic songs, the one song that got heart rates rising and pulses jumping was You’re Still the One by Canadian songstress Shania Twain, which made volunteer’s heartrates bump up to an average of 71.9 beats per minute, rising 9.5 compared to their average resting heartrate. Shania might not be the first thing you think of when you think ‘romance’ but the data is clear!
In fact, Canadians seem to have the key to romantic song writing – three of the five top artists to make heartrates jump are from the Great White North, with Bryan Adams making a double appearance with both Heaven and the classic ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’ from the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Movie moments seem to set pulses soaring, with Phil Collins’ ‘Against All Odds’ from the movie of the same name at number two, and Celine Dion’s classic ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from the iconic Titanic coming in at the number four spot, setting pulses soaring by 9.2 and 8.8 beats per minutes respectively.
Some of the big hits are familiar classics that you might expect, like ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ by Bonnie Tyler, clocking in at number six, but more modern songs still made the cut, like Alicia Keys’ ‘No One’, which made heartbeats increase by an average of 8.2 beats per minute.
Did your favourite love song make the list? If not, maybe these tracks are the key to your beloved’s heart – and a very romantic night in.
Methodology
The score and data was collected using the tool Spotify playlist miner http://playlistminer.playlistmachinery.com/, using the term ‘love song’ and the filter prefer more distinctive love song tracks.
Respondents were then asked to track their average heart rate using heart rate monitoring equipment. Respondents then played the top 20 songs and their heart rate was taken again as a comparison. Study was conducted in December 2020.
