“Be quiet. Big boys don’t cry.” That line was whispered during the bridge, as it turns out, by the receptionist at the studio where they were recording.
It also turns out they almost threw this song away after first recording it with instruments in a proper arrangement. The original demos in that setting were all erased, as half the band hated it. Instead, songwriter Eric Stewart recorded all four band members singing “ahhs” in a 12 note scale, spliced into a loop. So the background “music” is actually a synthesized 48-voice choir, hauntingly pulsing through the Moog. The wiki entry has all the nerdy details. Go there to learn the story behind the lyrics, which isn’t at all what you think.
Rather interesting…..thanks Mark!
Wow, that’s really interesting isn’t it? Genius. Whatever made him think of that. I never really paid attention to what was playing in the background, just mainly the words. Apparently I didn’t even pay good attention because my take all these years was just he was saying he wasn’t in love, but was. I still am not sure if he did love her or he’s giving all these other reasons but he knows it wasn’t love. I wonder if they are still together.
There are tons of stories in the music industry like this. Thanks for posting this.
I thought for sure the voices were coming from a Mellotron.
Always loved the hat tip to 10CC at the beginning of this remix.
https://youtu.be/2D-ktrrNWUc