Sorry for the delays once again, folks. Today I’ve got spicy puzzle that doesn’t care about your crossword rules, man! What follows in the rest of this post is actually a play-by-play of how this puzzle’s theme came together. Warning: it contains spoilers. So go solve the puzzle first before reading on.

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I’d built the initial template of this grid last year, but didn’t go for much of a cohesive theme set beyond “rebus puzzle with phrases that contain the word LOVE.” Some of the original answers inside the heart were LOVE SEAT and the Lady Gaga song “LoveGame.” But earlier this week I realized that IN LOVE was the title of a Ronnie Milsap song, and that I could fit the Dean Martin classic “THAT’S AMORE” at the original space for 2-Down, so I went off and running to find other appropriate lovey-dovey song titles.

Filling the heart itself proved to be very challenging at first. Instead of just any LOVE-related phrase, I needed three specific songs. I refused to use the aforementioned Lady Gaga song for theme consistency — I didn’t like how LOVE became contained in a single word in that entry where it would be a free-standing word in the others. I also refused to use LOVE SONG by The Cure just because, strangely, it would have been too apt; it would describe every other theme entry in the puzzle, but it would be off-center in the grid, and plus I already had a separate revealer down below. After trying various combinations with titles like LOVE BOMB by AC/DC, REAL LOVE by Mary J. Blige, THIS LOVE by Maroon 5, and LADY LOVE by Lou Rawls, I got a working theme set as seen in the actual puzzle where I could fill it successfully and reasonably well.

(And as for ADORING right in the middle? Totally unplanned. But it worked out neatly.)

The exterior of the grid was a bigger problem. THAT’S AMORE was a good Valentine-y title, but I was having major trouble getting a matching title on the other side. At that point, the grid looked like this:

What I needed was a 10-letter love song title that fit multiple conditions: the third letter was an A; it could not use the word LOVE (or ADORE); it had to be something at least reasonably well-known for a crossword puzzle, though I would have accepted something that was at least gettable; and above all, it had to scream “love song” in the title. Surprisingly, there were almost no good choices that I could find for a 10-letter love song title beginning with I WANT or I HAVE. Even a 10-letter love song beginning with HEART- just wasn’t happening. HEARTLIGHT by Neil Diamond seems like it could be decent option, but that’s a song about the movie “E.T.” (because of his glowing heart…..yes, it’s true).

What I wanted most was a well-known title that unambiguously hinted at the theme of love — as in, you don’t need to know the song or the lyrics to think it was a love song. That proved to be just about impossible. The best options I could in my search find were:

• STAY WITH ME by Sam Smith — a big hit last year, though it’s more of a song about lost love, and the lyrics say “This ain’t love.”
• STAY MY BABY by Miranda Cosgrove — this song never made it to the Billboard charts at all, I don’t think.
• CRAZY ON YOU by Heart — this was probably my best option and it is about love among other things, but I doubt people normally think of it as a love song. Of course, it is by Heart, and that would be appropriately Valentine-y.
• I’M ALL YOURS by Jay Sean — only #85 at its peak on the Billboard Top 100, but it does have 27+ million views on YouTube.
• TE AMO TANTO by Flex — perhaps not terribly well-known for those who don’t listen to Latin music, but it has 32+ million YouTube views. It also has AMO where I already had AMORE in another theme answer.
• I CAN’T LET GO by numerous artists (Air Supply, the Hollies) — I didn’t think the title sounded love-y enough.

So what did I do in this situation? I crowdsourced for help to get an alternative, and even offered to give someone co-constructor credit if they could get a good one. Multiple friends (listed below) offered to go on a similar search with me. And guess what? Just about everyone had as much trouble as I did. Some decent alternatives they suggested were HEARTQUAKE by Mads Langer, which is pretty obscure; and HEARTBEATS by The Knife, which the lyrics suggest is actually a pretty dark song (not to mention obscure). CHANCES ARE by Johnny Mathis is a classic love song, but the big problem with that was that the title itself doesn’t unequivocally suggest the theme of love like THAT’S AMORE does.

Finally, solver Peter Abide suggested that I look for 13-letter song titles with LOVE in a rebus square. While I was a little worried about using LOVE rebus squares that were unchecked in some cases and crossed in others, I thought that was a better problem to have than a long theme entry that was iffy by design. Plus, there were a lot more song options to choose from this way. Peter found WHAT ABOUT (LOVE) by Heart (a good choice) and I WANT YOUR (LOVE) by Chic. Now all I needed were crossing titles with LOVE in it. After dropping in a couple of cheater squares, I got (LOVE) IS and MY (LOVE). Perfect.

Because of some issues with filling the grid cleanly, however, I went with a couple of different song titles than what Peter originally suggested: SAVE YOUR (LOVE) and PART-TIME (LOVE). Still, he gets major credit for helping me make my theme more cohesive.

I need to also thank the rest of those who volunteered their time to help me search for a good theme entry. In alphabetical order, please stand up:  Adam Bergman, Peter Broda, Matt Gaffney, Jesse Lansner, Roy Leban, Paul Melamud, Alex Miller, Tony Orbach, Dani Raymon, Bruce Ryan, Jeffrey Schwartz, Jill Staunton, and Brad Wilber. You’re all heroes. As you can see, sometimes it takes a village to make a crossword. If I left your name off of this list and you’d like credit, my apologies — just let me know and I’ll add you here.

Happy 14-Across, y’all. There will be a new Devil Cross puzzle on February 21.

Update, 2/16/15 @ 5:20 pm ET: A solver points out that 56-Across should begin [1976 tune…], not [1978 tune…]. I’ve fixed that.