Be Quiet, Big Boys Don’t Cry!

Be Quiet, Big Boys Don’t Cry!

This is a Tribute Blog to one of the all-time favourite love songs. Ironically, it is titled, “I’m Not In Love”. This May, it will celebrate its 50th Anniversary dominating the radio air waves.

You can say I’m In Love with “I’m Not In Love”.

Like all great iconic evergreen songs, “I’m Not In Love” has its share of genius moments, accidents, tragedies and luck.

I love the song so much I managed to buy the hard-to-find CD singles which feature different versions of the song. The 1995 Acoustic Version by 10CC as well as the Pretenders version, featured in the “Indecent Proposal” movie. I bought the Pretenders CD singles in Virgin Megastore in their Champs Elysees, Paris store in the 1990’s.

My hard-to-find “I’m Not In Love” CD collection (above image).

The CD Singles contain the Pretender’s Vocal/Instrumental versions (produced by Trevor Horn) and 10CC’s Acoustic/Rework of Art versions of “I’m Not In Love” (above image).

Listen also to Will To Power and Fun Lovin’ Criminals’ cool cover versions of “I’m Not In Love”.

Written mostly by Eric Stewart as a response to his wife Gloria’s declaration that he did not tell her enough that he loved her.

“I’m Not In Love” was originally conceived as a bossa nova song played on guitars, having been influenced by “The Girl From Ipanema”. Originally two members of 10CC were not impressed with the song and abandoned it. They actually thought the bossa nova version was crap and erased the tape so there’s no tape of the bossa nova version.

But after hearing a secretary singing the melody and the window cleaner whistling it in their Strawberry Studios, Stewart persuaded the group to give the song another chance. Kevin Godley then re-built the song based on a “wall of sound” comprising a complex arsenal of voices, complimented with only by a Fender Rhodes electric piano played by Stewart, a Gibson 335 electric guitar played by Graham Gouldman and a bass drum sound played by Godley on a Moog synthesizer that Lol Creme had recently purchased.

First the genius bitStewart spent three weeks recording Gouldman, Godley and Creme singing “ahhh” 16 times for each note of the chromatic scale, building up a “choir” of 48 voices for each note of the scale.

Then the spontaneous, whimsical bitKevin Godley felt there was something missing. Then Lol Creme impulsely mumbled “Be quiet, big boys don’t cry” whilst recording the piano solos. Stewart recalled, “Just at that point, the door to the control room opened and our secretary Kathy (Redfern) looked in and whispered “Eric, sorry to bother you. There’s a phone call for you.”

“Lol jumped up and said, “That’s the voice, her voice is perfect!” Kathy needed convincing at first but they got her to speak the part instead.

And the rest is Valentine’s Day history.

According to Eric Stewart, the line “I keep your picture upon the wall, it hides a nasty stain that’s lying there” was about the crack in my bedroom wall at my parents’ house in Manchester. I had put a photograph of Gloria over it”. Gloria has now been married to Eric Stewart for 51 years and counting. And every day Eric tells Gloria “I love you”.

Initially radio stations bulked at the long length of the song at 6:08 minutes. BBC had asked Eric Stewart to make a shorter version for broadcasting purposes. His reply, “Would you ask Mozart to chop Symphony No. 4?“. Three weeks later, it was No. 1 around the world.

“I’m Not In Love” went on to win three Ivor Novello Awards in 1976 for Best Pop Song, International Hot of the Year, and Most Performed British Work.

The song has enjoyed three million air plays in the US radio since it’s release in May 1975. Here’s a bit of math magic – given its 6:08 minute song length, it will take roughly 34 years to complete playing the song back-to-back.

Happy Valentine’s Day!