cause i love you by Lenny Williams
the end
My vote is for “The Search is Over” by Survivor.
I just can’t get into “Your Song.” It bugs me to hear, “These things I do - you see, I’ve forgotten if they’re green or they’re blue.” It was this message board that clued me in to the fact that the singer has forgotten the color of his loved one’s eyes, and not the color of the things he did.
I also hate the awkward phrasing of “If I were a sculptor, but then again, no, or a man who sold potions at a traveling show…” and that line of thought pretty much goes nowhere, anyway…I can tell he’s saying that his means of expression is songwriting rather than scupture or potion-making (Snape loves Lily!!!) but he just leaves the “if” to dangle rather than saying what he’d DO if he were these things.
You can either take all these as problems and clumsiness in the writing, as you apparently do, or as the genius of Taupin’s lyrics, expressing the awkwardness of the character singing the song. This, I think, is how the OP and the song’s other fans see it.
I’ll have to second the Beatles’ In My Life, and Randy Newman’s Marie, which was the motivation for this thread a couple of years ago. In the past few months I’ve learned to sing and play it on the piano, and I don’t cry over it any more. But it’s still a great song.
(I thought of the following after the edit window closed.)
The character singing Marie has some of the same awkwardness that the singer of Your Song has, although in a much darker vein. In the second verse he praises Marie with some rather unpoetical metaphors:
You’re the song that the trees sing
When the wind blows
You’re a flower, you’re a river
You’re a rainbow.
No serious poet or lyricist would put these words down in a love song. I think of them as “dumb-guy poetry.” But in their unadorned simplicity and plainness they have a honest beauty that’s rather startling.
He then goes on to confess a whole string of sins that no one else has ever admitted in a love song:
Sometimes I’m crazy, but I guess you know,
And I’m weak and I’m lazy, and I hurt you so
And I don’t listen to a word you say.
When you’re in trouble, I turn away.
But he redeems himself (or tries) the only way he knows how:
But I loved you the first time I saw you,
And I always will love you, Marie.
While “Your Song” is up there for me, I think my all time fave has to be “Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney/Wings, tied with “Goodbye” from Def Leppard. It’s not what you think, the chorus goes:
“You won’t ever have to say goodbye,
You won’t ever have to say
‘I’ve wasted all my time’
If the dream you dream ain’t what it seems
Just look into my eyes,
You won’t ever have to say goodbye.”
How about The Way You Look Tonight by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh?
It’s the way boys are when they have crushes on girls. They stammer. They stutter. Their hearts beat so loudly they can hear the thumping in their own chests. They open their mouths to say things they’ve practiced all day, and all that comes out is silly and embarrassing tongue-tied nonsense. But love finds a way to jump from their chests and into the air. How wonderful life is while you’re in the world!
Liberal, commasense, et al, I can certainly understand that you might see the awkward phrasing as a good thing. Me, I like my songs to express thoughts clearly. I guess I’m just weird that way.
Maybe clarity is subjective. It’s very clear to me. 
Fortunately Bernie Taupin edited out the final stanza:
And now that I’ve finished, at last you can claim
This song that I wrote for-- what the hell is your name?
I can’t seem to recall if you’re pudgy or svelte
Maybe I’m thinking of somebody else
That’s hillarious! 
For the pragmatic, there’s “Fat and Forty, but Lordy, Lordy, You’re My Meat”, covered by Joe Jackson on Jumpin Jive.
As opposed to Friday I’m In Love?
While Your Song is terrific, one of my standards to measure how romantic a song is, is to imagine how heartbreaking it would be for someone to sing the song for a dying or recently passed away lover. In which case Cole Porter standards get my votes, like After You, Who? and So In Love, or the aforementioned The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.
I love Your Song, but it is hard to decide on the single best love song. Two more worthy of consideration: Mama Cass singing Dream a Little Dream of Me and many renditions of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? I like the one by Carly Simon.
I’m glad someone mentioned The Beatles’ Till There Was You. IMO, a great song, and their most underappreciated.
I also think The Ink Spots’ I don’t Want to Set The World on Fire deserves mention. As does* Leaving on a Jet Plane* by Peter, Paul & Mary/John Denver, Ravel’s Bolero, and* To Love Somebody *performed by James Carr in the movie The Wrong Man. I keep searching iTunes for this song, but to no avail.
As an aside, I will note that The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Dream A Little Dream also make great lullabies.
As far as love songs, I love a lot of them mentioned. But my fave hasn’t had a mention yet: the Pretenders’ I’ll Stand By You. I like it because it’s a love song that acknowledges that the beloved has, y’know, flaws, and stuff.
Hey! I was at that concert, too! (We actually lived in Glen Burnie at the time, but for Elton John and Billy Joel, I think we’d have made the drive down from Cumberland).
I think you just might be right.
“Your Song” is, at best, annoying.
Much better song. Only problem is, it’s to someone you’re leaving or has just left you.
“The Way You Look Tonight.” Jerome Kern
No love song has ever topped “TV Set” by The Cramps.
Yes, with the lyricist Dorothy Fields. In a previous post I assumed she had written it with Jimmy McHugh, but you’re right, she wrote it with Jerome Kern.
To bring this full cycle, what about “Something About the Way You Look Tonight” by Elton & Bernie