How we wrote ‘I’m Not In Love’ by 10cc’s Graham Gouldman

10cc’s Graham Gouldman: “A good song makes everything easy”

With an interesting title, a bossa nova rhythm and some studio magic, the seeds of a chart-topping hit were sewn

One of the most successful British acts of the 1970s, 10cc were built from their foundation of two songwriting teams. On the one hand Kevin Godley and Lol Creme tended to be the more experimental pair, while Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart had that magical knack of coming up with unforgettable pop diamonds. Once the idea for a song had been started, the quartet would work on it together, combining to create the unique 10cc flavour that has helped them sell 30 million albums globally.

Records such as Sheet Music, The Original Soundtrack and How Dare You! showcased the depth and breadth of what the quartet were capable of over the length of an album, but they were also adept at writing standalone hits. Scoring their first No. 1 in 1973 with Rubber Bullets, 10cc went on to top the charts on another two occasions with I’m Not In Love and Dreadlock Holiday. Stemming from it’s unusual title, I’m Not In Love is an example of the group’s creative chemistry – a simple (not) love song brought to life with the help of some studio magic…

Read our full interview with 10cc’s Graham Gouldman

Released: May 1975
Artist:10cc
Label:Mercury
Songwriters: Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman
Producer: 10cc
UK Chart Position: 1
US Chart Position: 2

“We’d actually resisted writing a straight love song up to the point that we wrote I’m Not In Love. It seemed like kind of a cliché. But Eric came up with the perfect title, which was I’m Not In Love. With a lot of great songs, a really great title can give you quite a lot of information. First of all, why are you not in love? What’s the reason why you’re saying that you’re not? Also, it creates a mood. You know it’s not going to be a very uptempo song. Maybe you could write an uptempo song, but you wouldn’t celebrate the fact that you’re not in love. So it immediately tells you it’s something more ballady.

“I had these opening chords, this suspended B to a B, but I played it with open E and B string, so they kind of ring out and slightly rub against each other. That creates this really nice feeling. So I had these chords and that created a kind of a mood and Eric had these major and minor sixth chords for ‘I’m not in love,’ and then minor, ‘But don’t forget it.’

“I then had the chords for the, ‘It’s just a crazy phase…’ bit, because I used to love the [Barbera Streisand] song The Way We Were and it has an echo of that. I love that sort of lifting up progression, and so that was added in. Then we got to the end of the first verse, and I had this chord sequence this E to A, to a sort of E minor sixth, back to A. That links the two verses and then we carried on with the words.

“Lyrically, Eric really led it. I did write some of the lyrics, but it was more his concept. When you’re writing with someone else, if someone’s on a roll, you leave them alone. You don’t want to interfere. But then we got to the stage where we needed a release from the verses, and I wrote the, ‘Ooh, you’ll wait a long time for me.’ The words and the music to that just came out. I wasn’t even sure at the time how it related to the lyric. But looking back, I now can see it.

“So we had the song and recorded it. But it was a slightly different rhythm to the record that you know; we recorded it as a kind of bossa nova, almost. We recorded it and hated it. Unfortunately, in retrospect, anything we didn’t like we erased, we didn’t want anybody to get hold of it. I think it would have been nice to hear that original version. But as far as I know, it doesn’t exist.

“Then, two ideas came from Kevin and Lol. One was to slow it down and do it the rhythm that it is and the other one, which was part of the genius of it, was to do it with voices rather than with instruments. But to do it with voices, we needed to have a rhythm track to sing to; the idea being we’d do all the voices to the rhythm track and then take the rhythm track off. What happened was, we did the rhythm track, which was myself playing electric rhythm guitar, Eric playing keyboards and Kevin playing a Moog synthesiser on a bass drum sound. And even that was imbued with some sort of magic.

“Then we came up with the method of doing the voices, just basically making loops of all the notes and putting them back through the desk. We actually were playing the desk when we were mixing all these voices down. Because it was such a good song, all the production ideas worked. A good song makes everything easy. And the opposite is true – you can force yourself to try and make it better, but if the song is no good… We knew this one was good and we ended up with something that we thought was absolutely brilliant.

“We used to turn the lights off in the control room, lie on the floor and play it back to ourselves, but at no point did any of us say, ‘Oh, this could be a massive hit,’ or anything like that. We just knew we’d done something really, really special. Looking back on it, to be not only the co-writer but to be in the studio and be a part of the creation of that production idea that has been copied quite a bit, was something special as well.

“It’s a bonus [that it became a massive hit]. I’m recording a new album now and the pleasure of writing and recording is great. I call it my very expensive hobby but it’s absolutely fantastic to do it. My reason for doing it is not to sell a million records, because I know that isn’t going to happen.

“It’s a beautiful song that’s done so much for us all. I’m very proud of it and happy to perform it. It’s wonderful. Some songs are imbued with this special quality that they transcend other songs that, on the surface, you might go, ‘That’s a lovely song as well,’ but it doesn’t come close. Some songs have this special magic and why they’re imbued with them, I have no idea. But I’m very happy that that one is. We created it but it’s almost like there’s some other outside source that blesses it.”

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