If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974)

Performer: Olivia Newton-John                              Writer: John Rostill
Highest US Chart Position: #5                               Label: Brotherly Love
Musicians: Mike Sammes                                      Producer: John Farrar

Despite any negative criticism about living in the seventies, it was generally an optimistic time, and the music reflected that. There was an enthusiasm inherent in playing music and trying to get signed, and a wide-open radio platform in which to get discovered, one nearly free from the formatting straightjacket of today. As such, the seventies were a tremendous time of crossover for country artists who were able to create a real presence on the pop charts. One of the most successful was Olivia Newton-John, who seemed to burst onto the U.S. airwaves in the early seventies out of nowhere, but had actually been putting out singles and albums for over two years prior to that, even managing to make it to number twenty-five with a cover of George Harrison’s “If Not For You” in 1971. But it wouldn’t be until late 1973 that she would hit the charts in earnest, with songs written specifically for her. The first was “Let Me Be There,” a straight-ahead country tune with a distinctive bass vocal by Mike Sammes. The follow-up, “If You Love Me (Let Me Know),” would notch one spot higher and make it to number five in the spring of 1974, finally peaking in late June and early July that summer. Not only was she a joy to listen to, but a pleasure to look at, a fresh-faced country girl out of Australia singing pop songs disguised as country, and selling millions of records despite the prominence of pedal steel and flat-picked Telecaster guitars behind her.

This tune is the title track from the album If You Love Me, Let Me Know. It announces its country presence right from the start, with a twangy electric guitar intro supported by a wash of pedal steel in the background. Yet, when Olivia Newton-John comes in on the verse, her voice couldn’t be any less country. The verse is supported by solid acoustic guitar strumming and piano, while the pedal steel plays call and response with Newton-John’s vocals. She sings about a man she’s fallen deeply in love with, and yet he has failed to profess his love for her. Like her previous hit, the chorus is made very distinctive by the bass vocals by Mike Sammes pushed up forward in the mix. In it she asks to be loved with equal passion or released from the promise of their relationship. The first half of the second verse is preceded by the same intro, but this time the vocals are sung over a fingerpicked guitar, again with pedal steel responding but further back in the mix and a string section underneath. Then the drums come in on eighth notes, bringing the rest of the band, with the addition of a tambourine on the fourth beat of every measure, along for the second half of the verse. The second chorus is followed by the intro again, and then a final turn around on the last phrase as the band fades and Sammes puts his vocal into the basement.

I’ll never forget walking by my sister’s room--in my memory it’s late May or early June--and she was playing the 45 on her record player. Of course I’d heard the song a dozen times by now, but when I went into my room I left the door open and just listened. At that time, my last year in grade school at the end of sixth grade, I had absolutely no interest in country music, but this was something else. It sure didn’t sound like the Tammy Wynette or Buck Owens albums my folks had played on their stereo once upon a time. She could alternately be breathy and almost whisper the lyrics, but there was also a full-throated quality she had that was just beneath the surface. Not quite Ronstadt, but certainly nothing like the Southern drawl so prevalent in the music coming out of Nashville at the same time. Olivia Newton-John was from Australia, but British by birth, and maybe that had something to do with it. The song was written by another Briton, John Rostill, who wrote a bunch of hits for her including “Let Me Be There,” as well as the number three hit from 1975, “Please Mr., Please.” Tragically, he died in 1973 before any of these songs hit the charts. The B-side of the single, “Brotherly Love,” is an absolutely bizarre pastiche of oom-pah band and military march set to synthesized horns and strange percussion. The song had been pulled from her previous U.S. album, Let Me Be There. Ultimately, Olivia Newton-John was a pop singer, and so her transition into that genre was effortless. “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” was actually the highest charting song she ever had on the country charts, while she would be a fixture on the Top Forty for another decade.