http://www.mydearvalentine.com/top-10/classic-romantic-love-ballads.html

"Ballads were once long stories told in song, given to the tune of minstrels plucking their lutes in days of yore. In the nineteenth century, a ballad came to mean any sentimental song that was popular and well-known to everyone. Once the great age of music recording arrived in the twentieth century, the songs that were termed as ballads were recognized as being smooth to sing, with a slow tempo and with lyrics that spoke to the emotions of love."

Nice list of ballads on this site My husband and I danced to #6 at our wedding before it became a wedding reception standard

Judy wrote:
Perfectly said JenL. I bet you are a really great mother. Have you ever been a teacher?

Why thank you Judy! I don't know about the 'really great' part, but I do try. Hopefully they won't need too extensive therapy when they get older LOL

As for being a teacher, I homeschool my kids, does that count?

Although as much as I wish I could take credit for this definition of a ballad, I really just copied and pasted it from the website I Iinked.

And going through the list of ballads on that site... my husband likes to make fun of me for this, but I still think Karen Carpenter had about the most perfect female voice ever. (Not that he's making fun of her, but how I always say her voice was so 'warm'.) If God had gifted me with a singing voice, I'd have wanted one like hers. Or Chrissy Hynde, because she's just flat out cool. But when it comes to ballads, Karen Carpenter could sing it like no one else.