I always thought this was a clever song. The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK, and #1 in Canada. The overall wash sound was achieved by a total of 256 vocal overdubs in the background.
It was written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. Eric Stewart came up with the song by his wife telling him that he didn’t tell her he loved her enough. Eric said if I say it too much it would not mean anything.
From Songfacts.
“I met this gorgeous girl called Gloria at Halifax town hall. I was 18. She was 16. Three years later, we got married. A few years after that, Gloria told me: ‘You don’t say ‘I love you’ much anymore.’ I told her that, if I said it all the time, it would sound glib. But I started wondering how I could say it without using those actual words. So ‘I’m not in love’ became a rhetorical conversation with myself – and then a song.
I wrote the lyrics in a couple of days. The line, ‘I keep your picture up on the wall, it hides a nasty stain’ was about the crack in my bedroom wall at my parents’ house in Manchester. I’d put a photograph of Gloria over it. When I took the song to the band, they said: ‘I’m not in love’? What the f–k is that? You can’t say that!’ But Graham Gouldman, our bass-player and chord-master, agreed to work on it with me. We both liked The Girl From Ipanema, so we gave it a similar bossa nova style. Then Kevin Godley, our drummer, said it was crap.
We were about to scrap it and wipe the tape but, as I walked around the studio, I heard the secretary singing it and the window-cleaner whistling it. I knew we had a tune: we just hadn’t captured it properly. Kevin suggested doing it again, but with banks of voices. I thought that meant hiring a choir, but Lol Creme, our keyboard player, said we could do it using tape loops.”
I’m Not In Love
I’m not in love
So don’t forget it
It’s just a silly phase I’m going through
And just because
I call you up
Don’t get me wrong, don’t think you’ve got it made
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because..
I like to see you
But then again
That doesn’t mean you mean that much to me
So if I call you
Don’t make a fuss
Don’t tell your friends about the two of us
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because..
I keep your picture
Upon the wall
It hides a nasty stain that’s lying there
So don’t you ask me
To give it back
I know you know it doesn’t mean that much to me
I’m not in love, no no, it’s because..
Ooh you’ll wait a long time for me
Ooh you’ll wait a long time
Ooh you’ll wait a long time for me
Ooh you’ll wait a long time
I’m not in love
So don’t forget it
It’s just a silly phase I’m going through
And just because I call you up
Don’t get me wrong, don’t think you’ve got it made
I’m not in love
I’m not in love
Beautiful song. There’s so many influences I can hear. The Beach Boys. Phil Spector’s wall of sound production, #9 Dream, Todd Rundgren. I’ve always appreciated 10cc. Liked Godley and Creme’s 1980’s recording too.
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It does have that dreamy effect. 256 audio vocal overdubs. I don’t know if Bohemian Rhapsody has that many. That took me by surprise but it paid off in a wall of sound.
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romantic and beautiful music. That whole LP rocks.
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It does… I like the layers of sound they do
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fantastic song and really quite unique for that era. I believe at the time it was considered the most expensive song ever recorded (but it paid off!) although Queen may have eclipsed that shortly thereafter. And wow- I didn’t know there was a Canadian connection – the Halifax girl! Cool song, cool story!
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256 vocal overdubs…that is crazy even for digital today. But like you said it paid off.
I thought you would like that!
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A great sounding record. I read once somewhere that Elton Hercules John said it was his favorite song of all times.
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It fits.. I forgot about “Hercules”…
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