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Valentine's Day is here and love is all around us. At this most romantic time of the year, we can't help but wonder... what is the greatest Broadway love song ever? BroadwayWorld continues our great tradition of finding that consensus- and this year we have more answers than ever! We've gathered responses from over 1500 performers, composers, industry professionals, and entertainment personalities from all over the world. 

This year's list is presented by The Notebook, now in previews on Broadway. Based on the best selling novel that inspired the iconic film, this new musical follows Allie and Noah, both from different worlds, as they share a lifetime of love despite the forces that threaten to pull them apart, in a deeply moving portrait of the enduring power of love.

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BroadwayWorld | Broadway Beat
I think the most romantic love song is "The Music That Makes Me Dance" from FUNNY GIRL. If you are fortunate enough to have that deep kind of love for someone,which the song is clearly addressing, it is pure magic. It works for me because I have been dancing to the same music for 28 fantastic years and there is nothing better. Happy Valentine's Day.
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Performer
Hadestown | The Life | Chicago | How To Succeed... | Once On This Island | Dreamgirls | Cats | Barnum
"With Every Breath I Take" from CITY OF ANGELS. Ahhhh - it's pretty, romantic...gut-wrenching. It goes to different places musically - and stretches the singer too. The melody is haunting and the lyrics by David Zippel are incredible (they just say it all) - and they remind you what really being in love is about. You take a deep breath and you just sigh...it's also soulful and jazzy.
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Performer
Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular | Marie Christine | Kiss of the Spider Woman | Les Miserables
"Spankin'" from ENG: FANTASY 101 is my personal favorite (look for it to be on Broadway soon!), but "Dulcinea" from MAN OF LA MANCHA makes me cry.
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Performer
First Date | Wicked | Saturday Night Fever | RENT
"Say It Somehow" from LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA because the music and lyrics are just beyond beautiful. "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" from THE SOUND OF MUSIC, because it reminds me of how young and free love can make you feel.
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Performer - Zoot Suit | Amadeus | Exec. Producer/Associate Director - Five Guys Named Moe | Miss Saigon | Les Miserables
Without a doubt, for me, it's Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Some Enchanted Evening", from their musical, SOUTH PACIFIC. Growing up, I remembered my parents trying to explain to me the passion everyone remembered - seeing Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin sing this song together, on the stage. People SWORE they were having an affair. Do I know? Of course not. The song itself is a magical love song because it's FULL of POSSIBILITY. Just what you want when "chemistry" is at play. When Bernadette Peters and I first faced the R&H songs, to begin making choices for the BERNADETTE PETERS LOVES RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN recording ... all she had to do was sing it once, in her apt. w/ just the piano, and I was a mess!
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Performer
On a Clear Day | The Little Mermaid | Altar Boyz | Miracle Brothers
"Someone To Watch Over Me". It may be a bit cliche, but the lyrics are so simple, and the intent is so clear......anyone can sing it and relate to that need. It would be the best if Judy Kuhn sang it!
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Creative
The Water | Upcoming: My Mercury | Sing Me a Happy Song
I'm a sucker for the obvious standards, the ones that I'm sure are going to be mentioned a zillion times. I love "My Romance" because it's a perfect blend of lyric and melody and it expresses the idea that simplicity is best. And "All The Things You Are" is a bit more harmonically complex but is also a simple statement of honor and romance. But the most romantic songs are the silly songs that people write and sing to each other to make them laugh. My husband wrote a song for me about how corny it was that I like Barry Manilow, and it's far and away the most romantic (if completely stupid) song I've ever heard.
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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee | Henry and Mudge
The first song that popped into my mind is "With So Little To Be Sure Of" from ANYONE CAN WHISTLE. The song is all about the moment. We may not always have each other, but we do now, and isn't it "marvelous". It also has that beautiful lyric: "The more I memorize your face, the more I never want to leave." Wow, I'm a bigger sap than I thought!
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Adrift in Macao | Contact | Sunsert Boulevard
"Tonight" from WEST SIDE STORY. It's so in the moment. Immediate, dangerous and fleeting. Everything that makes new love so irresistible. My favorite score by the ultimate "dream team."
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Performer
Grease | The Life | The Producers | The First Wives Club
Can't pick one. Having been in a splendid and amazing relationship for nearly 11 years, (5 of the best years of my life!), my idea of romance lead me to choose: "You'll Never Get Away From Me" from GYPSY, because it has the humor and committment necessary to true, long term romance - It says "Whatever happens, I ain't going anywhere. I love you and we're stuck!." Also, "Not While I'm Around," from Sweeney Todd, which really captures the selflessness you have when you're truly in love. Staying with Sondheim, "Anyone Can Whistle", while not a typical love song, is about the kind of trust required to have the real thing - "I am flawed, I am scared, maybe you can help me be better." Good stuff. And finally, and mostly, Kurt Weill's "It Never Was You," which just kills me. Typically, I chose a song about lost love. But then, you're talking to someone whose song lists in concert and on cds read like one long suicide note. Even my uptempos are just tragedy with a beat...
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Performer
Newsies | Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me | Caroline | or Change | The Look of Love | The Civil War
Ok, I'm torn between "Not While I'm Around" from SWEENEY TODD - the melody is just gorgeous and the bridge takes my breath away -and "Maria" from WEST SIDE STORY - well, the simplicity is just awesome and talk about romantic? Having someone say your name over and over and exclaim how it's the most beautiful word? Well, no more to say on that. Happy Valentines Day!
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Industry
Producer: Catch Me If You Can | The Wedding Singer | Caroline | or Change | Hairspray | Triumph of Love | On the Town | Angels in America | Jelly's Last Jam | The Secret Garden | 3 Penny Opera
"Timeless to Me", of course. That song celebrates the depth of love for the long haul. (would you expect me to say anything else!) A close second is "I Could Have Danced All Night". It captures the exhilaration and promise of the very first moment of falling in love.
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Performer
Composer: Big | Baby | Starting Here | Starting Now | Closer Than Ever
Hard to pick just one - there are so many that I love. But if pressed, I'd have to say: "All The Things You Are" - Happy Valentine's Day!
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Performer
Jazz Pianist | Composer | Vocalist | Recording Artist | Algonquin Regular
"If I Loved You" from CAROUSEL... In the show, that song wasn't a declaration, it was an "if". I thought that it was very tenderly done, because it was discussing how they'd feel "if", even though the audience knew that they were clearly falling in love.
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The Drowsy Chaperone | Hello | Dolly | My One and Only | House of Blue Leaves
I have always responded most strongly to lyrics. There is a particularly moving phrase in the finale of LES MISERABLES that I think is so beautiful - it's when Jean Valjean sings "To love another person is to see the face of God."
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Creative
Minnie's Boys | Snoopy! | Goodtime Charley | A Doll's Life | Grind
My choice for the greatest love song ever heard on Broadway is simple: IF I LOVED YOU. The idea that the 20 minute scene following the unsung prologue contains three songs... two charmingly setting up the two main female characters.... then building to the rapturous duet between Julie and Billy remains, to me, the masterpiece of modern musical theater writing. Hammerstein's simple lyric, set to Rodgers' broad, Puccini-esque melody, wherein the they declare their love, all qualified by the word 'IF'.....dazzles me as it first did to me as a child. (I must add that 'Carousel' was the first show I ever saw...and remains my favorite.)
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Jersey Boys | The Who's Tommy
These lyrics say it all: "Are you my love, has life begun for me? Are you my love, the moon and sun for me? Are you my joy, are you my pain, are you my universe, earth and heaven? Are you a dream, that's overtaken me? If you're a dream, then don't awaken me. My heart must know or miss a beat. Are you my love, my sweet?" With a gentle, seductive melody to match. Rodgers and Hart, 1936. For my forever valentine, Melissa.
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Performer
The Coast of Utopia | A Safe Harbor for Elizabeth Bishop | Three Sisters | Broken Glass | Heartbreak House | Amadeus
Mark Lester singing "Where is Love" in the 1968 Carol Reed film, OLIVER!. I was experiencing my first love at the time, and my heart heard the lyrics before my brain, a sensation better than chocolate, I discovered. It was the moment I found out that I was a hopeless romantic.
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Producer / Host of Upright | an L.A. Cabaret
"I'll Cover You" - RENT. This song came into my life when I fell in love for the first time. I was liberated. Full of adolescent passion, unabashed trust and unequaled daring. This song reminds me of how wonderful that time was.
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Performer
E! Entertainment Red Carpet Coverage | Sally Marr...And Her Escorts
I love "76 Trombones" because it reminds me of 76 trombones and that always makes me cry. P.S. Can you get me out of here? The nurse won't let me communicate with the outside world.
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Best Selling Jazz Vocalist
It's so hard to pick a favorite, but I guess I'll have to say "Til' There Was You" by Meredith Wilson. I just love how the characters' entire view of the world changes because of their love....an entire world opens up that they never knew was there. So romantic!!!
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Beauty and the Beast | Hairspray
"If Ever I Would Leave You". I haven't experienced it yet, but I would like to be loved like that. Beautiful.
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It Shoulda Been You | Gypsy | The Opposite of Sex | The Play About The Baby
To me, the most romantic Broadway love songs have a main common theme - death. I have two: "Forever Yours" by Flaherty and Ahrens (ONCE ON THIS ISLAND the lead character offers her life in exchange for his), and "So in Love" by Cole Porter (KISS ME, KATE what lyrics - "Taunt me, hurt me, deceive me, desert me, I'm yours till I DIE!"). Creepy, maybe, but death and love the most powerful things we have on earth.
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Industry
Bernard Telsey Casting | Inc: The Color Purple | Sweeney Todd | The Odd Couple | Dirty Rotten Scoundrels | Wicked | Hairspray | Rent
"I'll Cover You" from RENT
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Producer
Hairspray | The Wedding Singer | Cry-Baby | The Crucible | Amadeus
"I Have Dreamed" from THE KING AND I - it's melodically transcendent and heart-piercing all at once.
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Three Days of Rain | Wicked
"The Next Ten Minutes" from THE LAST FIVE YEARS is the most romantic song to me. The lyric, "Will you share your life with me...'til there's no one left who has ever known us apart!" is what makes this song so beautiful to me. That line captures the hope and love of marriage and the deepness of commitment it will take to make it last. The song moves me every time I hear it. As a matter of fact, I need to put it on now.
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Performer
Spamalot | Side Show | Sunset Boulevard | Les Miserables
Hands down, "The Music That Makes Me Dance" from FUNNY GIRL. But I also love "Some Girls" from ONCE ON THIS ISLAND. When he says... some girls you marry, some you love... Gets me everytime.
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Acting President - Outer Critics Circle | Playbill Photographer
That would be a song I've used to romance women with. It's a cute song - "I Get A Kick Out Of You" (ANYTHING GOES) - it's a fun song to get the girl in the mood. That's my love song for any beautiful woman that I'm dating on Valentine's Day. Cole Porter knew his stuff. He also wrote the lyric "Let's do it!"- which is my theme song.
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Performer
Legally Blonde | Ragtime | Falsettos | City of Angels | Sweet Charity | Pippin | Putting it Together | The Happy Time
I think one of my favorite love songs has always been "I've Never Said I Love You" from Jerry Herman's DEAR WORLD. The melody is terrific and the last few lines are great: "I've never said 'I love you'/when I say 'I love you'/He'll know I've never loved before/He'll know I'll never love again." Gets me every time!
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Industry
Film Producer: (TV) SMASH | A Raisin in the Sun | Gypsy | Annie | Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella | Music Man | (Feature) Chicago | Hairspray | The Bucket List Broadway: Promises | Promises | How to Succeed in Business...
There are so many great romantic love songs from Broadway shows... I could make an endless list. But my favorite, by far, is "Yours, Yours, Yours" by Sherman Edwards from "1776." Every time I see a production of the show or hear it on a Broadway Cast Recording, it leaves me in a puddle. That song destroys me every time.

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