The Book of Love

Rose Cousins and Rose Polenzani sing Magnetic Fields' 'The Book of Love', Nov 29, 2006
(Via YouTube)

I haven't heard a lot of Magnetic Fields stuff, but I know a few tracks from the 69 Love Songs album and my favourite is 'The Book of Love':

The book of love is long and boring
No-one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing

But I, I love it when you read to me
And you you can read me anything

The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb but

I, I love it when you sing to me
And you you can sing me anything

The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know but

I, I love it when you give me things and you
You ought to give me wedding rings
I, I love it when you give me things
And you you ought to give me wedding rings

Stephin Merritt's world-weary delivery in the original version suits the lyrics perfectly - perfect if a jaded lady like me ever needed a wedding song. YouTube has a clip of it set to a bunch of images from 1970s lovers' manuals.

This version, sung by Rose Cousins and Rose Polenzani is just beautiful - more melodic than the original. (If it all gets too emotional for you, check out their blooper reel!)

There's also an acapella version sung by a group at Colorado College, which ends in a proposal, and a montage of Harry Potter clips set to Peter Gabriel's cover version which uses X Files clips to look ahead to Harry and Ginny's future together.