A Simple Love Song
I wanted to write a song for you
To tell you just how I feel
Cause now for the first time
It’s not just a dream
This love that I have is real
I wanted to put these thoughts of you
Into the words of a special song
The feeling is there and the music flows
But the words just keep coming out wrong
Chorus
It’s not easy writing love songs
Without words that you’ve used before
It’s not easy writing love songs
When you finally know for sure
I’ve been sitting here for hours
Trying to think of something new
But three simple words keep coming back
I love you
I know there’s no need to say a word
As I’m sure that by now you know
It’s just that I have this need to say
The words that my feelings show
For thousands of years now
Poets have tried
To soar on the wings of a bird
But from all of the beauty
That flows from their pens
We come back to the same three words
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG
This is probably the most popular of all my songs. I wrote it for my wife, Federika, soon after we first met in 1990. In most songs, I try to say something new, and although I am well aware that someone somewhere has said it all before, I can honestly say I have never knowingly copied anything. The problem is if most songs are written are about love, how do you find a new angle? How could I write the words “I love you” knowing that I had said the same thing to other women? The solution was to write a love song about how hard it is to write love songs.
In December 2015, I sang this song at a televised concert at the Kaboga Palace in Dubrovnik, and Frederika was sitting in the front row. At first, the cameraman zoomed in on the wrong woman, but when he finally found the correct target, Federika was looking up at the ceiling in an effort to stop herself from bursting into tears. It was the most touching moment of my career.