Valentine’s Day at Manulife Centre. You’d probably think of flowers from Bloorstreet Market, a card from More Than Words…, maybe dinner at the The One Eighty? You’d probably never think of speakers from Bay Bloor Radio.

And that would be a mistake.

Music maketh mood.

Romantic evenings to hot nights, the tunes set the tone. Some restaurants know this and curate their playlists as carefully as their wine lists. And what a cool gift to give your love – a soundtrack for Valentine’s Day and a new Bluetooth or wifi speaker to hear it.

So what makes a song romantic?

We took another informal poll over the last week to find out what sweeps people here off their collective feet. But because romance means something different to everyone, we had no idea what we were going to get. It made asking the same question for seven hours kind of exciting.

There were a few definite trends:

• A majority said it had to be slow. But the ones who were against that hard-and-fast rule were VERY against it.
• An overwhelming majority said the song had to be about love, but only 55% said it had to be a happy song.
• 70% wanted the song to be under 4 minutes.

But there are also a few super unexpected answers:

• One woman said every song’s romantic when it’s played live because of the way performers and audiences connect.
• An older gentleman thought a romantic song should have a piano and not an electric guitar.
• A group of girls we spoke to said it’s not the song that’s romantic but the singer. It’s an interesting thought. Could Beyonce make you swoon with Yellow Submarine?

The best answer we got was from a 40-year-old guy who was with his wife: “There’s only one truly romantic song.”

Follow You, Follow Me by Genesis. That was their song. That was on their soundtrack when they met, and six months into their relationship, he was recruited overseas. He told her. And she followed him. Sixteen years later, they’re still together.

And they’ve never not celebrated Valentine’s Day. How cool.