Healthiest and Unhealthiest relationships in songs?

This is great fun, thank you OP BernardBlacksMolluscs!

OK, here's a speciality one, a showstopper for the still-closeted young dyke I used to be - Doris Day, wearing trousers and a tie, singing
Once I had a secret love..
..Now I shout it from the highest hills
Even told the golden daffodils
At last, my heart's an open door
And my secret love's no secret anymore
💓💓💓

One of my favourite songs😍

Jesus H Christ. People still think the 60s was all love & laughter.

The antidote to this song is All My Loving.

There must be more songs about bad than good relationships because of the Anna Karenina rule.

If ever I feel my blood pressure isn't high enough, I just have to think of Burt Bacharach's 'Wives and Lovers' and be glad it's no longer 1963... 🤬🤮

Hey, little girl
Comb your hair, fix your make-up
Soon he will open the door
Don't think because
There's a ring on your finger
You needn't try any more

For wives should always be lovers, too
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you
I'm warning you

Day after day
There are girls at the office
And men will always be men
Don't send him off
With your hair still in curlers
You may not see him again

For wives should always be lovers, too
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you
He's almost here

Hey, little girl
Better wear something pretty
Something you'd wear to go to the city
And dim all the lights
Pour the wine, start the music
Time to get ready for love

Oh, time to get ready
Time to get ready
Time to get ready
For love

Jealous Guy by John Lennon gives me the creeps, funnily enough I don't have the same ick when it's sung by Bryan Ferry. It's still creepy though

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go

'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Verse one was going so well, bit of a turn around in the second

Ruby Tuesday by the Rolling Stones - not noted for their respectful lyrics😠
is unusually accepting of a woman's freedom to live her life the way she wants to.
Don't question why she needs to be so free
She'll tell you it's the only way to be
She just can't be chained
To a life where nothing's gained
And nothing's lost..

Also a beautiful song.

Performed ('sung' doesn't come close to describing what she does to the song) by a woman, Melanie Safka, it takes on a different dimension

[yes that's the same Melanie who did 'I got a brand new pair of roller skates'!'

Easier to find the bad ones,

How about - King of the groaners - Elvis Costello, I want you

On the positive side

Van Halen - Why can't this be love?

'I'm going wash that man right out of my hair' very progressive for its time (40s I think?)!

Ballad of a Teenage queen by Jonny Cash confuses me a little. Is it good that the successful young woman married the guy who worked at the candy store rather than one of her admirers? I suppose it is true love if she did! Or did she feel obligated...Hmm I like to think it was the former. A bit like 'teenage dirtbag'. She chooses the nice guy she relates to--but is this women settling?

I quite like 'Little Green Apples' by Roger Miller. He appreciates her love albeit acknowledges that he's a bit crap sometimes.

'Baby is a headfuck' by the Wildhearts sends a good message in a more cryptic way. I guess just making a catchy song out of a toxic relationship without valorising or glamourising it as a PP said.

It really is the ultimate f*ck you breakup folksong!

Let him go to his old mother now and set her mind at ease
I hear she is an old, old woman, very hard to please
Ah ’tis fighting me and talking ill is what she’s always doing
Because that I was courting her great big ugly son.

You go gurl!😁

I was just thinking aboit Meatloaf and where his songs fit!

Two out of three ain't bad - healthy or unhealthy? He doesn't love her but he's honest and seems to want to be with her...

Dead Ringer For Love - i was a bit worried she's using him to piss off her father

@BernardBlacksMolluscs if you are only just discovering Magnetic Fields you are in for such a treat! Plenty of songs for the unhealthy list as well ... Stephin Merritt is an amazing lyricist. Can say the most complex things with the simplest words.

Healthy again - Papa was a Rodeo . Magnetic Fields again. I'm not posting the lyrics because I don't want to spoil the song's journey for a first time listener!

Also very unhealthy: No One Else by Weezer

My girl's got a big mouth
With which she blabbers a lot
She laughs at most everything
Whether it's funny or not

And if you see her
Tell her it's over now

I want a girl who will laugh for no one else
When I'm away, she puts her make-up on the shelf
When I'm away, she never leaves the house
I want a girl who laughs for no one else

'Lover Du Jour' counterbalanced this a little!

An old song -

Let him go
Let him tarry
Let him sink
Or let him swim
He does not care for me
And I don't care for him
Let him go and find another
Which I hope he will enjoy
For I'm going to marry
A far nicer boy