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There’s no shortage of songs about beautiful people — and beautiful women in particular — but in honor of PEOPLE’s “Most Beautiful” issue, we’ve collected a few different songs that have had something interesting to say about physical beauty. From James Blunt to Carole King, we’re offering a playlist of songs that celebrate or skewer perceptions about how pretty ladies should look.
Might as well start with the most obvious candidate, right? In 2005, Blunt scored a major hit with this strummy ode to a fetching but apparently unavailable woman, and it should only take those initial guitar strings to instantly make you recall that chorus.
Sample lyrics:“You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful / You’re beautiful, it’s true / I saw your face in a crowded place / And I don’t know what to do”
Sample lyrics:“You’re way too beautiful girl / That’s why it’ll never work / You’ll have me (in denial, in denial) / When you say it’s over”
Not every song about beauty need be about physical prowess or even a romantic overture. Aguilera’s 2002 ballad proved to be an uplifting ode to inner beauty.
Sample lyrics:“You’re beautiful / No matter what they say / Words can’t bring you down”
Sample lyrics:“A Goddess on a mountain top / Was burning like a silver flame / The summit of beauty and love / And Venus was her name”
Sample lyrics:“Now where did you find her/ Among the neon lights/ That haunt the streets outside/ Stay with me/ Beautiful girl/ Stay with me”
Not only is King’s 1971 song featured on her first award-winning albumTapestry, it also went on to become the titular song of the 2014 musicalBeautiful: The Carole King Musical. The inspiration for the song, according to King, came to her on the N.Y.C. Subway, and was a sort of mantra to fend against how she perceived others reacting to her own visage.
Sample lyrics:“You’ve got to get up every morning / With a smile in your face / And show the world all the love in your heart / Then people gonna treat you better / You’re gonna find, yes you will / That you’re beautiful as you feel”
Sample lyrics:“Pretty woman, walkin' down the street / Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet / Pretty woman, I don’t believe you, you’re not the truth / No one could look as good as you”
OK, so she was singing about Austin Powers. To some fans, that was a very beautiful thing back in 1999.
Sample lyrics:“Haven’t we met / You’re some kind of beautiful stranger / You could be good for me / I’ve had the taste for danger”
This sweet (for Snoop, at least) tune was on heavy radio rotation in the early Aughts. Yes, beautiful people everywhere were getting their dance floor and beach groove on to this jam back in 2003.
Sample lyrics:“Beautiful / I just want you to know (Oh!) / You’re my favorite girl / Oh yeah, there’s something about you”
Sample lyrics:“Tall and tan and young and lovely / The girl from Ipanema goes walking and / When she passes, each one she passes goes ‘ah’”
Sample lyrics:“Will you still love me / When I’m no longer young and beautiful? / Will you still love me / When I got nothing but my aching soul?”
source: people.com
