MCA 411
Producers: John Farrar and Bruce Welch
Track listing: If You Love Me (Let Me Know) / Mary Skeffington / Country Girl / I Honestly Love You / Free the People / The River’s Too Wide / Home Ain’t Home Anymore / God Only Knows / Changes / You Ain’t Got the Right
October 12, 1974
1 week
Olivia Newton-John’s solo career did not get off to a promising start. If Not For You, her 1971 American debut album, peaked at number 158 and only stayed on the chart for four weeks. By 1974, however, the British-born, Australian-bred singer’s luck began to change. The title track from her second U.S. album, Let Me Be There, climbed all the way to number six, but the album didn’t fare as well, stalling at number 54. Still, the single represented an artistic breakthrough for Newton-John.
“I was kind of establishing a style for myself up to that point,” she says. “In England there wasn’t a country chart and a pop chart, there was just one chart. My producers and my manager were trying to establish a style for what they thought suited my voice best. It seemed to be country and folk.” On Newton-John’s third album, If You Love Me, Let Me Know, the singer continued explore those genres. The breakthrough track was a song written by Peter Allen and Jeff Barry called “I Honestly Love You.” Says Newton-John, “That came to me with a pile of demos that were sent to my producer, John Farrar. We used to sit and Wade through them and one day John said, ‘I found this song and I think it’s great.’ I remember the first time I heard it. I thought, ‘This is a knockout song, I’ve got to do it.”
If You Love Me, Let Me Know was recorded at EMI Studios and CSS London. “I Honestly Love You” was recorded at the latter studio. “It was such a small studio,” Newton-John says. “John and the engineer were sitting above my head and they couldn’t move while we were recording, because you could hear the squeaking of the floorboards, through the microphones.” Although John sang the song three times, it was the first take that made the album.
For other material, Newton-John turned to some of her favorite writers, including the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, represented with “God Only Knows,” and Gerry Rafferty, whose “Mary Skeffington” is featured.
The album also includes “Changes,” a Newton-John original. “That was the first song I ever wrote that I recorded,” she says. “John [Farrar] taught me a few open-tuning things and I was playing around with a guitar and the song came to me. I had a girlfriend next door who was going through a divorce. I played it to Bruce Welch and he liked it a lot.”
The public was also taken by Newton-John. On June 29, 1974, the album’s first single, “If You Love Me (Let Me Know),” reached number five, becoming the biggest hit of her fast-rising career. That was only the beginning. The second single, “I Honestly Love You,” reached Number One on October 5, 1974. A week later, If You Love Me, Let Me Know went to Number One as well.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of October 12, 1974
1. If You Love Me, Let Me Know, Olivia Newton-John
2. Not Fragile, Bachman-Turner Overdrive
3. Can’t Get Enough, Barry White
4. Bad Company, Bad Company
5. Caribou, Elton John