10 Greatest Rock And Roll Romances

Most of the great rock and roll songs were born from a great (or, sometimes, a not-so-great) romance. Today we are considering The Top 10 Rock And Roll Romances, the latest edition of our weekly series Ray-Ban Legendary Lists in honour of Ray-Ban’s 75th Anniversary. From John and Yoko to everyone and Winona Ryder and plutonic love between two grown men, here are 10 legendary relationships of the hallowed denizens of rock and roll’s heavenly body.

1. MICHAEL HUTCHENCE & PAULA YATES

Apparently in the US there’s this whole other alternate universe where INXS was never widely popular. Apart from the fact that this is the most ridiculous thing we’ve ever heard, it’s also inexplicable given the atomic bomb of sexual energy that lit up the earth when Michael sat on Paula’s hideous cowhide bedspread in 1985. As with most flammable things, the result was lethal – two deaths so tragic they even managed to knock Princess Di off the cover of Woman’s Day.  To the crazed INXS fans still burning Paula effigies: you just can’t fight fate… or excruciatingly long names AKA Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence. RIP.

2. JOHN & YOKO

True love is… festering in your dirty pyjamas together for a week straight in the name of protesting war and promoting peace. These two are so famous they don’t need surnames anymore. For us jaded Gen X and Y’ers, they epitomize the romantic 1969 glory days of couples spruiking their fame for idealism rather than selling more shitty handbags. The result was this tune below describing their honeymoon “bed-in”, as well as more flower power than you can shoot out of a loaded hippie’s gun.
 

3. SID & NANCY

Sid and Nancy are another rock and roll couple so famous they’re on a first name basis to all pop culture enthusiasts. This is for slightly less warm and fuzzy reasons than John and Yoko. The story starts out like any famous 70s relationship: Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious meets stripper-cum-groupie Nancy Spungen and the two hit it off with the help of much heroin. What followed was a lesson in not dating dudes with ominous last names, with Nancy getting stabbed to death and Sid dead four months later in what he called “a death pact”. To this day the whole violent thing is still shrouded in mystery – something not really helped by this shoddy/awesome 80s movie based on Nancy’s mother’s version of events (starring Gary Oldman before he WAS an old man.)
 

4. MICK JAGGER & MARIANNE FAITHFULL

Granted, we could probably just dedicate this entire Top 10 list to Mick and his sexual conquests. Jerry, Bianca, Carly, Bebe, David Bowie… seriously, is there anybody this man hasn’t tried to pants? But there’s one relationship that stands out in terms of its artistic influence and sheer sexual tension: Marianne. A passionate, crazy, heroin-y affair; it’s said the blonde folk singer influenced The Stones’ epic, “Sympathy for the Devil” when she gifted Mick a copy of “The Master and Margarita” (good read). She also endeared “Wild Horses”, i.e. the love song every rational woman wishes was written about her. Time for a slideshow, please YouTube!
 

5. ALL OF FLEETWOOD MAC

One of the finest California-tinged albums of the 1970s is Fleetwood Mac’s terrific, timeless record Rumours, with its combination of gorgeous pop harmonies, big guitar solos, crisp production and compelling lyrics – most of which turned out to be true confessionals about the troubled relationships between band members. Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks broke up during the famously hedonistic and cocaine-fueled recording process, and the band’s other couple Christine and John McVie split after seven years of marriage, with longstanding rumours (ha!) that Nicks sought solace in the arms of Mick Fleetwood, while Christine and Buckingham hooked up. Nicks always said Fleetwood Mac did their best work when the band was at its most fucked up. Many would argue that that’s Rumours.
 

6. PATTI BOYD & ERIC CLAPTON & GEORGE HARRISON

Nothing says rock and/or roll like a good old fashioned love triangle. Technically The Beatles’ George got first dibs after meeting Patti on the set of “A Hard Day’s Night” in 1964.  Significant wooing, song dedications, and their marriage later; George’s fellow musician and good friend Eric also decided to have a crack at the blonde bombshell. He was promptly shut down and settled for her sister instead (classy, right?) but – come George and Patti’s eventual divorce in 1974 – was back on the scene quicker than you can say “Layla”. The duo married shortly after but also only made it to their 10th anniversary.
 

7. WINONA RYDER & EVERYBODY

We don’t know how she does it but somehow – without ever having picked up a musical instrument – Winona is the female Mick Jagger of the R&R world. As Courtney Love once infamously said: “you’re nobody in rock n roll if you haven’t played music with me or slept with Winona Ryder”. Her relationship/hot fling list goes on and on – Beck, Dave Grohl, Ryan Adams (allegedly), Jack White, Evan Dando, and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum.  All of them are epic because, no matter how much Royal Doulton she steals, she’s still the 90s legend that is Winona Ryder.  Pirner wrote the scathing “Just Like Anyone” about her. Probably Soul Asylum’s best song.
 

8. GWEN STEFANI & GAVIN ROSSDALE

It feels kind of weird putting Gwen and Gavin in this Top 10 list because they’re just so… normal (for celebrities).  What we love about this duo isn’t just that we can easily imagine them sitting at home together in trackpants eating ice-cream. They also represent a pairing where the woman almost outshines the dude’s talents.  First meeting on tour in 1995 when she was with No Doubt and he was with Bush; the two have survived ongoing tabloid rumours, two dubiously-named children, and many packets of Fudge hair-colour to remain married to this day.  Here’s a weird slideshow of their
relationship, pieced together by a very devoted fan, because love.

9. THURSTON MOORE & KIM GORDON

Last year when Sonic Youth stars Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon announced they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage it felt like the lingering memory of the alternative rock dream years had been swiftly crushed and buried. Does true love even exist? we wondered. The relationship may be over, but the legacy of their partnership is not. The two guitarists met at the start of the 1980s, formed one of the most influential bands of the 21st Century, pioneered a scene, and made beautiful noise together.

10. WAYNE & GARTH FROM WAYNE’S WORLD …Because sometimes the relationships we can learn the most from are fictional best friends bonded over a mutual love of Queen and public access television.
 

WITH A HONOURABLE MENTION TO…

DEBBIE HARRY & CHRIS STEIN
COURTNEY LOVE & KURT COBAIN
NICK CAVE & PJ HARVEY
AMADOU & MARIAM
CORIN TUCKER & CARRIE BROWNSTEIN (SLEATER-KINNEY)

Words by Emilia Terzon

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