100 Greatest Songs of the 70’s #43 10cc – I’m Not In Love

Released: 1975

Even thinking about seventies pop can make you wince; from The Bay City Rollers’ switchblade bubblegum, the dog-whistle pitch of Minnie Ripperton’s Loving You to the Bee Gees wholesale evisceration of Studio 54’s esprit de corps, this was a decade where the lowest common denominator could often be found adjacent to the floor.

10cc emerged from England’s north-west in it’s early part, originally made up of Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme and known as Hot Legs, their jokey track Neanderthal Man becoming a huge surprise hit. Joined later by Graham Gouldman, initially all four of them were more interested in the fledgling science of the studio; operating more or less independently of the establishment and self producing, they released two maverick, idea packed albums in 10cc (1973) and Sheet Music (1974).

Having signed to a major label in their wake it looked superficially like I’m Not In Love was the quartet’s response to suit pressure, but far from it. Originally they laid it down as a bossa, Manilow-esque slug of pure cheese, before a rethink meant the use instead of hundreds of vocal loops and the accidental creation of a spacey ambience which transformed the song into their career’s high watermark. So, who cared if The Smurfs and Brotherhood of Mann were clogging up the u-bend of Top of The Pops – this was pop, but not as they knew it.