'90s Love Songs

Love may be timeless, but for proof that the '90s was a banner decade for tunes as cozy as a flannel shirt and as sweeping as the World Wide Web, just check out our '90s Love Songs, wherein we profess our undying devotion to Céline Dion's eternal heart-stopper "My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme from 'Titanic')," savor the sweetness of Faith Hill's crossover country caress "This Kiss," and crumble with weak-kneed abandon before the high-harmony seduction of Boyz II Men and "I'll Make Love to You." Even rockers like Extreme — who croon the tender acoustic surprise "More Than Words" — knew that, no matter the date, music speaks where speech fails.

Let your heart go on into Next Steps for more great '90s love songs.

The beautiful thing about '90s love songs is that, just like love itself, they transcend time and place. So while Shania Twain and Bryan White blend hearts and voices into an endlessly glorious future on "From This Moment On," Mr. Big captures the here-and-now urge to shout it from the mountain tops with the sing-along strains of "To Be With You." The infinite allure of "Crash Into Me" transforms the Dave Matthews Band from jam mainstays to come-hither paramours, while UB40 updates a treasured '60s swooner for a new generation of lovers and beyond, with "Can't Help Falling In Love."

For when you're in deep — more enduring '90s love songs in Deep Cuts.

"I Finally Found Someone," sing Barbra Streisand & Bryan Adams, and if it took Babs all the way 'til the '90s to locate her one-and-only, you know the decade's something special. That's why we've time traveled on the wings of love to bring you the best of its soul-baring power ballads (FireHouse and "Love of a Lifetime"), its intimate confessions (Selena and "Dreaming of You"), exotic expressions (Sade and "No Ordinary Love"), and feelin'-so-good-you-gotta-move groovers (Usher and "You Make Me Wanna . . ."). "You Are Not Alone," sings the late, great Michael Jackson, and with '90s love songs, you're never at a loss for words either.

Maybe because it was the last decade of the 20th century, of the millennium even, the '90s inspired artists to new love-song heights. Maybe since email, cell phone, and texting were all still in their infancies, music had to pick up the message-of-love slack. Maybe watching Ross and Rachel ignite their meant-to-be Friends soul match made everyone feel all warm and glow-y inside. Whatever the reason, the '90s was ripe with those heart-pounding, head-spinning, butterfly-fluttering expressions of love everlasting — soaring tracks, like Aerosmith's 'til-doomsday blockbuster "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Whitney Houston's powerhouse pledge "I Will Always Love You," and Mariah Carey's debut smash "Vision of Love." Our '90s Love Songs Essentials boasts the best of 'em, from alt-chanteuse Sinéad O'Connor's incomparable "Nothing Compares 2 U," to the Backstreet Boys' and "As Long As You Love Me."