Whether you spent Valentine’s Day with the love of your life or your math homework and chocolates you bought for yourself, everyone can appreciate love songs and the emotions they often evoke. For couples, there is often that one song that embodies their relationship.  

Perhaps it’s the song that came on the radio when they were on their first date, or when they sat under the stars and a romantic song played in the background.

Personally, I am in a long-term relationship with BonChon, but sadly for us, we don’t have a song.

I set out to find couples at the school and ask them about that special song that embodies their relationship and reminds them of good times.

Couple Number 1: Joelle Compeau and Nick Bray

When I asked junior Joelle Compeau if she and senior Nick Bray had a song that meant something special to them (a rather awkward question to ask, by the way), she responded simply with “the Pina Colada song.”

Dumbfounded, I googled “the Pina Colada song,” which I found out was officially titled “Escape” by Rupert Holmes.

The song is about an unhappy couple who both publish ads in a newspaper about looking for another partner to run away with (odd right?). They eventually find each other’s ads and decide to run away from their original relationship, only to be confronted by the same person they ran away from.

Bray first played it in his car, and although he felt like it was “a bop” and “super catchy,” Compeau didn’t like it as much.

“I could tell Joelle did not appreciate the first few verses the first time I showed her the song,” Bray said.

Compeau found the lyrics a bit contradictory to a successful relationship, but she enjoys the song because it brings back memories.

“I thought it was special because he played it when we were on the way to the beach,” Compeau said. “He really liked the song and knew every word and I thought it was really cute.”

On the other hand, Bray believes that the overall message of the song is one that couples should always keep in mind.

“The song is about your partner’s aspirations that you didn’t know about,” Bray said. “It reminds us that we are separate people with big goals and encourages good communication.”

Couple Number 2: Kay Jewler and Santiago Dutro

When senior Santiago Dutro first heard “Sunflower” by Rex Orange County he knew his girlfriend senior Kay Jewler would enjoy the vibe of the song.

“I knew that Kay would like it as well,” Dutro said. ”It just has such a warm feeling without being too "lovey-dovey", and I just felt that she would appreciate it as much as I did.”

The song highlights the singer’s near obsession with his significant other and uses a metaphor of a sunflower to symbolize purity, beauty and delicacy.

Although the song began as just another love song, it led Dutro to take Jewler to a Rex Orange County concert last November at The Regency Ballroom.

Although the concert was crowded, they had a blast and will always remember that night.

“It was really hot and crowded because we were in the general admissions pit but it was still so fun,” Jewler said. “[Rex Orange County] did a cover of ‘No One’ by Alicia Keys which I listened to a lot when I was kid, so it was a cool combination of my taste of music now and what I listened to growing up, making the night even more special.”

Couple Number 3: Ashley Feng and Nick Patil

Senior Nick Patil has always been a Frank Ocean fan, so when the artist dropped a cover of “Moon River,” a 1961 ballad performed by Audrey Hepburn, a day after Valentine’s, Patil quickly told his girlfriend, senior Ashley Feng, to give it a listen.

The song was written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer and sung by Hepburn’s character Holly Golightly during a short but impactful scene from the iconic 1961 film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”  

Feng fell in love with the song when she first listened to it, and it is now one of her favorite romantic, slow songs, even though it’s completely different from her usual style of music, which consists of bangers from Aminé and Travis Scott.

“It was a little sad but sweet and definitely more of Nick’s style than mine,” Feng said. “It was one of the first love songs he ever showed me, so it always brings up loving memories.”