Songs That Changed Music: 10cc - I'm Not In Love

In the mid-seventies 10cc was one of England’s hottest bands. They put out five consecutive Top Ten albums between 1975 and 1978 – Sheet Music (1975), The Original Soundtrack (1975), How Dare You (1976), Deceptive Bends (1977) and Bloody Tourists (1978). They also had several successful singles including three number one hits. However, it was their innovative 1975 hit “I’m Not In Love” that brought the band chart-topping, international success including hitting the number one spot in the UK and Canada and the number two spot in the US.

The song was written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman who formed one of the bands two songwriting duos. While most groups are lucky to have a skilled songwriter or two among them, 10cc (between 1972 and 1976) had two distinctly talented pairs. Stewart and Gouldman gained a reputation as the more pop-oriented songwriters of the group, while Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were seen as the more experimental writers. With “I’m Not In Love” the band combined these talents, creating a captivating and artistic track that also achieved phenomenal commercial success.

The inspiration for the song came from a comment by Stewart’s wife. He explains:

“At that time my wife and I had been married about eight years….and she asked me ‘Why don’t you say “I love you” more often?’ I had this crazy idea in my mind that repeating those words would somehow degrade the meaning, so I told her ‘Well, if I say every day “I love you, darling, I love you, blah, blah, blah,” it’s not gonna mean anything eventually.’ That statement led me to try to figure out another way of saying it, and the result was that I chose to say ‘I’m not in love with you,’ while subtly giving all the reasons throughout the song why I could never let go of this relationship”

The ironic twist was only the first barrier Stewart faced when getting his bandmates on board with the idea. He recalls, “I wrote the lyrics in a couple of days. […] When I took the song to the band, they said: ‘I’m not in love’? What the fuck is that? You can’t say that!’” However, Gouldman agreed to give the song a try and the pair began their efforts on composing the song around those lyrics. At first they tried to give it a bossa nova feel but the other two members of the band still weren’t convinced.

The band scrapped the track and began working on other songs. However, when Stewart overheard members of the studio staff humming the song, he wanted to try again. Godley agreed that the melody was catchy, but that they needed to find a radically new way to envision the song. According to Steward, Godley had the brilliant idea for the ingenius vocal backdrop saying, “I tell you what, the only way that song is gonna work is if we totally fuck it up and we do it like nobody has ever recorded a thing before. Let’s not use instruments. Let’s try to do it all with voices.” Fortunately, the band had the iconic Strawberry Studies at their fingertips to make this idea a reality.

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[Producelikeapro]

Which songs would you like to see us cover in this series?

[ogma]

To this day, still one of the most beautiful love songs ever recorded.

[ImZiraTheFirst]

One word to describe the amazing sound of this song……lush.
It still sounds incredible almost 50 years later. ❤️

[daveo]

1977, my future wife and I were teen agers, riding in my Mercury Marauder, when she remarked that "some couples have 'their song', but we don't". I flicked on the car radio and out came "I'm not in Love". We both busted up laughing! "Honey it's our song!" We're in our 60's now and still in love and still listening to this brilliant piece of music. Also check out the album simply titled L by Godley and Creme.

[michaelferreri]

A song produced like no other before (or after) it. So unique. So beautiful. It's hard to believe this song is as old as it is. It still sounds refreshingly uncommon today. What they went through to end up with this glorious tune demonstrates what 4 incredibly talented individuals can achieve with open ideas. Genius!

[organicphoto]

As a non-musician and non-producer this was thoroughly enjoyable; I can only imagine how thrilling this is for recording artists and audio engineers.

[Topnikko]

One of my favorite songs of all time and it always hits me in the feels like no other.

[dexsmith]

I did one of the last recording sessions in Strawberry Studios in 1993 as engineer and producer. I was there for about a month and on the few late nights when no one was there, I secretly listend to some of the legendary master tapes that were stored there. One of them being "I'm not in love"

[billyhollister]

I was a 12 year old kid when that jam hit the airwaves in Chicago, Illinois and it was one of those songs that mesmerized me from the first time I heard it. It still mesmerizes me almost 46 years later!😄

[guitboxgeek]

The spacey sounding choir was just other worldly at the time. It had that ghostly, sad, ethereal feel that still to this day is unique. Another great tune and awesome analysis, Warren!

[AlexanderStemkowski]

This ABSOLUTE BELIEF in the song which has driven the band to spend weeks on just one arrangement element is overwhelming. Thanks for the episode, Warren.

[edalder]

I have seen other videos on "I'm Not in Love." No matter how many times I hear the in depth, it is stunning. Not how 10cc did it, but what technologically they had at hand. No samplers or Pro Tools at all. That's what always gets my respect.

[craigdovebloke]

Such a great band who never seem to get the praise they so rightly deserve

[sizzlemann]

That song had the "it" factor back then and still does to this day! Loved it from the first time I heard it after it was released in the 70's. Still one of my favorites today.

[northernbrother]

This is absolutely one of my favorite songs of all time, and a 70s soft rock masterpiece!

[EstudioPaisagemSonora]

I'm from Brazil and and proud to see that they mentioned João Giberto as an influence.

[kenlee]

They picked a great band name; 45 years later and I'm still grabbing that song to listen to as it sits at the beginning of my alphabetical list. Song is pure genius, too.

[TVsMrHappyTalk]

There was a melotron in a dark corner of Wessex no 2 studio when the Damned recorded Machine Gun Etiquette.. we were told it belonged to 10cc. Anyway, we fired it up and the lush vocal pads therein became the dreamy backing for I Just Can’t Be Happy Today. Thanks guys! 👍

[ReginatorNet]

"I'm Not In Love" and "Nights in White Satin" do it for me. A perfect blend of creativity and passion.

[petesawchuk]

I stumbled on 10cc as a kid via a full-page ad on the back cover of HIT PARADER or CIRCUS for their 1974 album, “Sheet Music”. It’s turned out to be my favorite album of all time, and my favorite song, “I’m Not In Love”, was to follow shortly thereafter. I was ripe to be musically branded for a lifetime, and that’s exactly what happened.

And what a pedigree; Kevin Godley & Lol Creme [inventors of the Gizmotron guitar attachment & directors of rock videos like “Every Breath You Take”, “Girls On Film” & “Rockit”], Eric Stewart singing lead on “Groovy Kind Of Love” with the Mindbenders and Graham Gouldman writing classic British Invasion songs [“For Your Love”, “Bus Stop” & “Heart Full Of Soul”, among others]. They had that fantastic creative tension & high standards the best bands have [as well as the best comedy groups: Monty Python also included 2 writing teams].

The tons of bubblegum music they’d recorded @ Strawberry pre-10cc got their studio thing together much like the Beatles laying their groundwork @ Hamburg’s Star Club. Stewart & Gouldman’s part ownership let them grab the virtually unlimited unbooked studio time [“Sure we’ll work around McCartney & Wings recording “Red Rose Speedway”] so essential to what they achieved. And that custom Helios desk! And knowing exactly what to do with it!

Also, thank you for citing the fact that “I’m Not In Love” is very much the vibe-father of Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are”. Two career-making songs born out of one.

And from that same “The Original Soundtrack”, album “Un Nuit a Paris” [1974] is a lovely precursor/companion piece to “Bohemian Rhapsody” [1975]. Art rock, art pop...art, for sure.

Warren, you guys have once again outdone yourselves. And given the amount of times I lobbied for this song, thank you for not considering a restraining order!