“I’m Not in Love” is a song by English group 10cc, written by band members Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. It is known for its innovative and distinctive backing track, composed mostly of the band’s multi-tracked vocals. Released in March 1975 as a single from the band’s third album The Original Soundtrack, it became 10cc’s breakthrough hit worldwide, reaching number one in a dozen countries and number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
Stewart came up with the idea for the song after his wife, to whom he had been married for eight years at that point, asked him why he didn’t say “I love you” more often to her. He said, “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”, 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.”
Once the musical backing had been completed, Stewart recorded the lead vocal and Kevin Godley and Lol Creme the backing vocals, but even though the song was finished they felt it was still lacking something. Stewart said, “Lol remembered he had said something into the grand piano mics when he was laying down the solos. He’d said 'Be quiet, big boys don’t cry’ — heaven knows why, but I soloed it and we all agreed that the idea sounded very interesting if we could just find the right voice to speak the words. Just at that point the door to the control room opened and our secretary Cathy [Redfern] looked in and whispered 'Eric, sorry to bother you. There’s a telephone call for you.’ Lol jumped up and said 'That’s the voice, her voice is perfect!’.” The group agreed that she was the ideal person, but she was unconvinced and had to be coaxed into recording it, using the same whispered voice that she had used when entering the control room. Many felt it was the touch that made the song unique and timeless. Later those whispered lyrics would serve as the inspiration for the name of the 1980s band Boys Don’t Cry.
While recording The Original Soundtrack, 10cc was already being courted by Mercury Records to leave the small UK Records label where they were struggling financially. Stewart said: “I rang them up. I said come and have a listen to this track. And when they did they freaked, and said, 'This is a masterpiece. How much money, what do you want? What sort of a contract do you want?’ On the strength of that one song, we did a five-year deal with them for five albums and they paid us a serious amount of money.” Despite all this, Phonogram felt that it was not suitable for release as a single due to its length, and released “Life Is a Minestrone” as the first single instead. However, many influential figures in the music industry were demanding that “I’m Not in Love” be released as a single, and Mercury eventually bowed to the pressure. 10cc were forced to edit the track down to four minutes for radio play, but once it charted, pressure from the public and the media caused radio stations to revert to playing the full version.
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