3 Wildly Inappropriate “Love” Songs You Shouldn’t Play on a First Date

Plenty of famous songs through the years have been labeled “love” songs, only for them to become wildly inappropriate to add to a romantic mixtape in later years. That’s definitely the case for the following three songs. If you weren’t listening closely, you might have missed the fact that they’re particularly unromantic and maybe even downright offensive.

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“Run For Your Life” by The Beatles from ‘Rubber Soul’ (1965)

“Run For Your Life” was written by John Lennon and released on The Beatles’ 1965 album, Rubber Soul. And Lennon is on record saying that he basically hated the song. After a close listen to the lyrics, I can see why.

“Run For Your Life” has the musical energy of a rock and roll love song. But, lyrically, the song describes a man who is ready to kill the object of his affection should she stray to another man. Lines like “Well, I’d rather see you dead, little girl / Than to be with another man” would make a date particularly awkward at best and terrifying at worst.

“Hello” by Lionel Richie from ‘Can’t Slow Down’ (1984)

Here’s an example of a love song that gets quite a bit less romantic after you watch the music video. In the video for “Hello”, Lionel Richie plays a teacher who has fallen for a blind student and takes advantage of her disability to follow her around (effectively stalking her) without her being able to see him. It’s strange and unsettling, and I haven’t been able to listen to the song the same way since. 

Still, when it first dropped, “Hello” was a huge hit. It peaked at No. 1 on the pop, R&B, and adult contemporary charts in the US.

“Cherry Pie” by Warrant from ‘Cherry Pie’ (1990)

How about some classic and somewhat cheesy glam metal on our list of particularly inappropriate love songs? “Cherry Pie” has stood the test of time, and it’s easily Warrant’s biggest metal anthem and one of the most recognizable metal songs of the 20th century. And one bad metaphor has earned this song an entry on our list, and that metaphor (which I’m sure you can figure out) led to a trend of food-based sex puns in music that couldn’t die off sooner.

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