The Intro

With a thud resembling a human heartbeat it begins, and then the ethereal, icy voices float in around a warm, liquid electric piano line, enveloping the listener in a never-before-heard aural ecstasy. I’m Not in Love is not only 10 cc’s best number 1, it is their masterpiece, and one of the greatest chart-toppers of the 70s.

Before

Following the success of Rubber Bullets in 1973, the Mancunian quartet proved they weren’t a flash in the pan when The Dean and I reached 10 in the hit parade. Joined by second drummer Paul Burgess, they embarked on a UK tour before returning to Strawberry Studios to work on second album Sheet Music. Released in 1974, it featured the singles The Wall Street Shuffle (another number 10 hit) and Silly Love (24). Sheet Music helped the band make inroads in the US.

However, 10 cc were struggling financially. They were still signed to Jonathan King’s UK Records and haemorrhaging money due to a meagre royalty rate, so they needed a bigger label. Fortunately, they had a song that would blow the minds of record company executives.

I’m Not in Love was written in 1974 and stemmed from Eric Stewart’s wife Gloria complaining that he didn’t say ‘I love you’ to her enough. So he went away and tried to think of a clever way of saying it without making it explicit. A very 10 cc thing to do. The lyric about the picture on the wall hiding a ‘nasty stain’ refers to a photo of Gloria that he had used in his bedroom at his parents’ house

He wrote most of the melody and lyrics on the guitar, and asked Graham Gouldman to help him finish it in the studio. Gouldman suggested some different chords for the melody and came up with an intro and bridge. After two or three days they had a bossa nova guitar-led version to present to the other band members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. All four worked on recording the first version, with Creme on guitar, Gouldman on bass and Godley on drums. Stewart later recalled Godley and Creme didn’t like it, particularly Godley, who said ‘It’s crap.’ Stewart was taken aback and asked for something constructive to work with, and Godley told him to ‘chuck it’. So the original demo was wiped, which is a shame as it wold be fascinating to hear how the song developed.

Stewart and Gouldman instead helped Godley and Creme with Une Nuit a Paris, but Stewart noticed staff at Strawberry Studios were singing the melody to I’m Not in Love, and suggested they try again. Godley remained sceptical. He and Creme were considered the more ‘arty’ of the band, while Stewart and Gouldman came from a more ‘pop’ angle. Godley relented on the condition they ‘totally fuck it up’ and not use instruments, relying on voices instead. I’m Not in Love was back on.

Am acoustic guitar guide track was recorded first in order to help with the melody, but they then concentrated on creating a wall of vocal sound. Stewart spent three weeks recording Gouldman, Godley and Creme singing ‘ahhhh’ 16 times for each note of the chromatic scale, creating a ‘choir’ of 48 voices for each note. To keep the voices running through the track, Creme suggested tape loops, having become obsessed with them since Revolution 9 from The Beatles. Stewart created 12 , each 12 inches long, to play through separate channels of the mixing desk.

Godley backed down on the ‘no instrument’ rule, but they were kept minimal. Stewart played the electric piano, Gouldman used an electric guitar for the rhythm melody and Godley borrowed Creme’s Moog synthesiser for the heartbeat drum sound. For the bridge and middle eight, Creme played the piano and replicated some lyrics that were rightly omitted: ‘Don’t feel let down. Don’t get hung up. We do what we can – do what we must.’ Gouldman added a nice touch of bass, and a toy box was double-tracked out of phase for the middle eight and fade-out.

It’s interesting to note that after spending so much time on the production, they decided Stewart’s guide vocal couldn’t be improved on. It was so heartfelt they kept it in. Godley and Creme recorded the backing vocals. That haunting keyboard that comes in when Stewart sings ‘It’s just a silly phase I’m going through’? It’s not, apparently a keyboard, but a chorus of treated kazoos.

The recording was just about finished, but Godley felt it was lacking something. Creme remembered when testing the grand piano mics that he, apropos of nothing, said ‘Be quiet, big boys don’t cry’. Stewart soloed the line, and they felt they had something, but not the right voice. While considering this, their secretary Kathy Redfern entered the studio and whispered ‘Eric, sorry to bother you. There’s a telephone call for you.’. Creme jumped up and said she had the perfect voice. It took some coaxing but Redfern put down the famous whisper, and I’m Not in Love was complete.

Review

A common criticism of 10 cc is that, while they were clearly uncommonly stuffed with talent and brimming with ideas, their songs lacked heart and soul. You can’t say that here. I’m Not in Love was one of the most beautifully intelligent songs yet to top the charts, and a fascinating glimpse into the male psyche. Here, Stewart is steadfastly refusing to acknowledge his feelings, but he can’t stop the tide of emotion he feels. He may claim it’s a ‘silly phase’ but he doth protest too much, to the extent of being arrogant and cold. ‘Don’t think you’ve got it made’ is a pretty cocky way of making his point and telling the muse not to tell her friends suggests he’s ashamed of loving her.

Try as he might though, he can’t stem the tide of emotion, represented by the gorgeous sound of the celestial choir, a million voices telling him ‘don’t fight it, feel it’. Just at the point it sounds like it will completely overcome him, he comes up with another comeback, but the voices remain, and will always return. The ‘Be quiet, big boys don’t cry’ section is inspired, and it seems too good to be true that it was a happy accident. Or maybe Creme subconsciously said it because that is the very essence of the song? This man is unable to reveal his true feelings, be they love or hurt, because he was told as a child to ‘man up’. And a lifetime of thinking like that is doing him harm. When he sings ‘You’ll wait a long time for me’, it’s through gritted teeth.

Production-wise, I’m Not in Love is light years ahead of most if not all other number 1s from 1975. A lush mix of prog-rock and pop with far-out effects, but yet very commercial at the same time. Godley and Creme did a great job of fucking it up, and the use of the choir is so good it sends shivers down my spine, but at the heart of I’m Not in Love is a great pop song, with a beautiful performance from Stewart.

After

10 cc’s manager Ric Dixon invited Nigel Grainge, head of A&R at Mercury Records to Strawberry to hear the track and he was blown away. With the rest of the album The Original Soundtrack in the can, they signed with the label for a million dollars. This infuriated Creme – as far as he was concerned, 10 cc were about to join Richard Branson’s fledgling Virgin label, but he and brother-in-law Stewart were on holiday with their wives.

10 cc released Life Is a Minestone as a preview of their forthcoming LP The Original Soundtrack and it reached seven. 10 cc knew they had a great song to follow it, but at six minutes-plus, how was I’m Not in Love going to fare as a single? Stewart refused to edit it at first, but backed down and they made a four-minute version for the radio. I’d advise not bothering with the edit. It’s pretty clumsy. Fortunately, it began selling well, so well in fact, public demand meant the full version began to be played instead.

The Outro

Not only were the band vindicated when it spent a fortnight at number 1 in the UK, it also went to two in the US. A year later Godley was telling the NME that I’m Not in Love was his favourite 10 cc song, a far cry from the ‘crap’ judgement he originally had. By the time 10 cc had their third and final number 1, he and Creme were no longer members of the group.

The Info

Written by

Eric Stewart & Graham Gouldman

Producers

10 cc

Weeks at number 1

2 (28 June-11 July)

Trivia

Deaths

2 July: Actor James Robertson Justice

Meanwhile…

30 June: UEFA reduces Leeds United’s ban from European competitions to one season on appeal.

5 July: 36-year-old Ann Rogulskyj from Keighley, West Yorkshire is badly injured in a hammer attack in an alleyway.