Stewart later explained: 'Just at that point the door to the control room opened and our secretary Kathy looked in and whispered 'Eric, sorry to bother you. Heaven knows why, but I soloed it and we all agreed that the idea sounded very interesting.'

He'd said 'Be quiet, big boys don't cry'. Stewart said: 'Lol remembered he said something into the grand piano mics when he was laying down the solos. Only a few instruments were used: a Fender Rhodes electric piano played by Stewart, a Gibson 335 electric guitar by Gouldman, and a bass drum sound played by Godley on a Moog synthesizer.Īfter the song was finished, Godley felt there was still something missing. He also put gaffer tape across the bottom the channels, making it impossible to completely fade them down, creating constant background vocals. Stewart played each loop through a separate channel of the mixing desk, turning the desk into a musical instrument. Stewart created 12 ft long loops by feeding them at one end through the tape heads of the stereo recorder, and at the other end through a capstan roller fixed to the top of a microphone stand. Stewart spent three weeks recording Gouldman, Godley and Creme singing 'ahhh' 16 times for each note of the chromatic scale, creating a 'choir' of 48 voices for each note.Ĭreme suggested they could keep the voices going for an infinite time by using tape loops. The band later revealed that the conversation went like: It wasn't until they heard staff members humming the tune that they gave it another shot. Originally conceived as a bossa nova song with guitars, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were not fans, particularly Godley, who told him to abandon the idea completely. The other 10cc bandmates hated it at firstġ0cc (Left to right: Lol Creme, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman).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, I love you, blah, blah, blah', it's not gonna mean anything eventually'.' Read more: 7 fascinating facts about 10cc Written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, Stewart came up with the idea for the song after his wife of eight years asked him why he didn't say 'I love you' more often. To celebrate 45 years since it reached number one in the UK, here's the official story behind the song: But how was it made? And what was the song about? Who whispered the famous 'big boys don't cry' line?

I wont say im in love lyrics