In 2006, when Nas rapped “Hip Hop Is Dead,” R&B lovers were left wondering if there was a coffin for new R&B music too. Although LL Cool J, Nelly and Ja Rule were successfully able to carry a tune and rap, even they knew there was a huge difference between holding a note and legitimate singing.

Since the early 2000s, hip-hop has been drowning in singing rappers via vocoders or Auto-Tune, and T-Pain took a lot of the blame for it early on. Meanwhile, the majority of these sing-songy rappers could never effectively sing Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” nor win The Masked Singer. T-Pain was one-of-one no matter who copied his Auto-Tune style.

So this left R&B singers in a weird space. Should they start rapping to stay relevant, or continue to sing and just hope someone pays more attention to a genre that was slowly being ignored? So far, Chris Brown and Lauryn Hill are the only legitimate R&B singers who are equally good at rapping, with Billboard hits to back that statement up. Other R&B singers just weren’t believable rappers. Once again, both genres were spiraling into an identity crisis.

But in June 2022, R&B got a much-needed pat on the back from two R&B songwriters and singers: Tank and J. Valentine’s podcast R&B Money. Their weekly podcast is intended to celebrate both new and old singers, and other entertainers who love R&B, for actually singing. And one of the best parts of the show is the “Top 5” segment when entertainers have to share their top five R&B singers, top five R&B songs and create a Voltron R&B artist. R&B lovers are back to celebrating soul, rhythm and blues.

And the 10 songs on this list could arguably be considered the best love songs of all time.

1. Quincy Jones, Al B. Sure, Barry White, El DeBarge, James Ingram “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)”

Out of all the R&B artists on R&B Money podcast, Cool & Dre may have had the best top-five lists ever. Even J. Valentine and Tank were speechless over some of Cool’s choices, one of which was such a sleeper R&B hit that made Tank want to leave the studio to find his wife. How could anybody ever go wrong with a song that kicks off with Barry White’s baritone voice? An entire sitcom (Ally McBeal) revolved around Barry White’s voice, from work pep talks to club nights. And the other four legendary singers on “The Secret Garden” are just as incredible individually, never mind together. There’s no reason to not consider this hit one of the best love songs of all time, especially with such a legacy.

2. Luther Vandross “I’m Only Human”

R&B singers hear a whole lot of excuses for why somebody broke somebody’s heart, why somebody cheated, why somebody should take another person back and why they should be together. Luther Vandross has plenty of those songs too, but taking the logical approach about how humans make mistakes could buy him some time before the arguing would start. Plus, the way “I’m Only Human” opens makes it next to impossible to stop two-stepping. And if he can manage to “take her out” by the time the song ends, bonus!

3. LSG “My Body”

9-1-1-0-0-2-4. Any song by Gerald Levert, Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill is going to be amazing individually. But put them together in a group, and you get this level of sexiness. Released in October 1997, this was LSG’s most successful song, reaching number four on Billboard’s Hot 100 for three solid weeks, even blocking out Usher‘s “You Make Me Wanna…” from the charts. If you don’t do a body roll while you’re listening to this, you’re not listening to the song quite right.

4. Donell Jones “U Know What’s Up”

Will Smith gets a lot of credit for “Summertime,” and the song is worth every bit of applause. But Donell Jones crooning about the very first day of summer is such a feel-good love song for an outdoor date night. As much as Left Eye brought her A-game on every single song with TLC, something about this one puts “U Know What’s Up” (Remix) in her top five raps ever. In all the times that Donell Jones was shattering hearts, it was fun to hear him playfully flirting. “I’m digging you and I’m wanting you, so tell me what’s up.”

5. Michael Jackson “Butterflies”

The King of Pop singing anything R&B is going to be a treat regardless. But this song was both sultry and poetic. What made it even more special was the cute story behind who inspired the song. Marsha Ambrosius gave the everyday man an extra special smile on their faces, knowing she wrote this song about her crush on a McDonald’s employee.

6. Brandy “Sittin Up In My Room”

It is very rare for a song from a teenager to still work as an adult, but Brandy’s “Sittin Up In My Room” is one of those songs. Whether you’re watching Waiting To Exhale, where it was one of the soundtrack songs, or hanging out with your significant other on the front porch, it’s such a breath of fresh air. The bass intro from Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone adds an extra layer of funk to a timeless love song.

7. Musiq Soulchild “Teachme”

While Musiq is one of those artists who you could stream an entire catalog from and never go wrong, there’s something particularly special about a man being vulnerable enough to not tell someone how he loves. Instead, he’s wide open about his lack of affection and hesitancy to share but wanting to change for the better. This mindset easily makes “Teachme” one of the best love songs of all time.

8. Anita Baker “Caught Up In the Rapture”

What better way can there be to tell someone you love them than saying, “I want you in my life for all time”? She starts the song off talking about how magical their first meeting was and how she wants him in her arms. Not only is her voice beautiful on everything, but this is the song you do an old-school radio dedication to solely to boost the listener’s ego for the rest of the day.

9. Shanice “I Love Your Smile”

If you can keep a straight face while hearing Shanice go on and on about a smile, somebody needs to check your pulse. Even the heartless Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz had to feel something while listening to this one. Ignore the rap in the middle, blast the saxophone and turn the volume way up to hear her crooning away until the end, when it cements itself as one of the best love songs of all time.

10. Al Green “Simply Beautiful”

You’ve got to be really brave to even humor the idea of singing Al Green’s perfection on “Simply Beautiful.” I was immediately skeptical. But then Queen Latifah released a jazz album as “The Dana Owens Album” clear out of nowhere and sang the song as well as he did and had him in the music video. By the time Al Green crooned, “Queen, you know how I feel about you,” listeners were totally sold, pointing our own fingers during the “right there” part.

While these 10 songs are all worth a listen and a cuddle, any time a top five, top 10 or top 20 list is created about the best love songs of all time, there’s always a zillion more that could’ve made the cut. Luckily, there’s so much R&B greatness out there that will never die. It just needs someone to play it to remind that special someone how incredible the artist (and the significant other listening along) is.