"No More 'I Love You's" is a song written by British musicians David Freeman and Joseph Hughes and recorded by them as the Lover Speaks. It was released in June 1986 as the lead single from their self-titled debut album. The song was covered by the Scottish singer Annie Lennox and became a commercial success for her in 1995, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart.
The Lover Speaks version Writing "No More 'I Love You's" was the first song which David Freeman and Joseph Hughes wrote together as the Lover Speaks in 1985. The song originated with Freeman, who came up with the chorus and the bassline, and Hughes then had the idea for the "do-be-do-be-do-do-do" hook. Freeman had the lyrics for the chorus completed at an early stage and wrote those for the verses later on.
As with each track on The Lover Speaks album, "No More 'I Love You's" is based on a concept in Roland Barthes' book A Lover's Discourse: Fragments (Fragments d'un discours amoureux). In 2015, Freeman recalled of the lyrics, "When you say to someone 'I love you', it could be to your kids, your lover, your parents, usually, you hear, 'I love you, too'. And then one day you say, 'I love you', and there's silence because that person has reached the 'no more 'I love you's' stage'. They cannot say 'I love you, too'. It's as simple as that. All I did lyrically, I think, was put it in Gothic terms."
Recording The song was first demoed on a portastudio during a rehearsal studio session, with Robert Farrell on guitar, Barry Gilbert on keyboards and Pete King on drums. It was then demoed again at Pathway Studios in August 1985, with Farrell on guitar, Ian Thomas on drums and Hughes' ex-girlfriend, singer June Miles-Kingston, on backing vocals. The Lover Speaks signed to A&M Records in early 1986 and began recording their debut album with Jimmy Iovine as co-producer. The Pathway Studios demo was used as a guide for the studio version of "No More 'I Love You's". Freeman later released the Pathway demo, with additional recording in 1992 and 1996, on his fifth solo studio album, Apart & Together (1996).
Music video The song's music video was directed by Matt Mahurin and produced by David Naylor and Sharon Oreck. Joseph Hughes told Record Mirror in 1986 that the duo wanted to "create a bit of mystery" with the video and give it a "dark, dreamy quality". He said, "We wanted to make a video which wasn't so obviously promotional, but one which people might watch and be able to say 'that's beautiful'." In the US, it achieved active rotation on MTV.
Release "No More 'I Love You's" was released as the Lover Speaks' debut single on 30 June 1986. It reached its peak at number 58 in the UK Singles Chart on 24 August 1986, becoming the duo's only UK top 100 chart entry as both their debut album and successive singles failed to chart. The song achieved both BBC and regional airplay. It was originally added to BBC Radio 1's 'C List' for the week commencing 21 July 1986 and was promoted to the station's 'A List' the following week, where it remained for four consecutive weeks.
On 21 March 1988, the song was reissued as a single in the UK only, but it failed to reach the top 100. It spent a single week on BBC Radio 1's 'B List' in early April 1988.
Critical reception Upon its release, the Bury Free Press awarded the single a 7 out of 10 rating and described it as an "intriguing piece of summer pop with a swaying rhythm and catchy back-up". John Lee of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner called the song both "a totally over-the-top heartbreak ballad which demands to be a monstrous hit" and a "paced-up love anthem [which] is the Walker Brothers in 1986 – big, bold and brilliant". James Belsey of the Bristol Evening Post named it "single of the week" and described it as a "gloriously over-the-top, over-romantic, over-rich song and production with a wildly hummable hook". The Newark Advertiser noted that the "backing comprises a high pitched effect in contrast to the butch bass" and the chorus is "more orthodox, with a punchy backing". The reviewer added how Freeman "shows quite a range" and "there is a startling revelation inasmuch as [his] voice starts in a very low pitch". The Lancashire Evening Telegraph called it an "unusual single" which is "almost poetry to music", with an "easy on the ear background tune that sounds familiar". In the US, Billboard listed the single under "new and noteworthy" and wrote, "A dreamy, eerie, British beat ballad that carries rock overstatement to splendid heights and misses no Spectorian trick; towering walls of sound." Cash Box considered it a "captivating debut" which has a "good shot at CHR" with its "hooky female refrain and powerful lead vocal".
Reviewing its March 1988 reissue, Tom Doyle of Smash Hits selected "No More 'I Love You's" as the "single of the fortnight". He noted that it "originally flopped without dignity, but at least the Lover Speaks have the rather good sense to realise this record deserves to be top five". He added, "You're sure to recognise it, and whimper and blub at the tale of lurve gone mouldy which unfolds." Betty Page of Record Mirror named it one of the "singles of the week" and praised it as an "epic pop song" which "sounds like Phil Spector-meets-Lord Byron in Tamla Motown". She stated, "Pay attention this time around to David Freeman's exquisite wordplay, wistful voice and playful girly backing vocals and be moved." Jonathan Romney of NME described the "deconstructive tearjerker" as "a colossal, nay Wagnerian, record" on which "very weird chipmunk vocals sing the most contorted hook in history". He concluded, "Buy this and put some Barthes in the charts." John Lee, reviewing again for the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, applauded the reissue, noting it would have been a "criminal waste of a haunting, magnificent, Walker Brothers-esque big ballad". He commented on the "inexplicable failure" of the single's original release and believed it had "got to be a hit in '88".
In a retrospective review of The Lover Speaks, Michael Sutton of AllMusic praised the song as "stylishly crafted, soulful pop" which is "elevated by Freeman's booming voice" and also noted the "soaring, heartbreaking chorus". Imran Khan of PopMatters noted the difference between the original and Lennox's version, with the original "opting for a far more baroque and windswept drama of romance and pop" which he considered to be "an apt description of exactly what the Lover Speaks was all about".
Track listings 1986 release 7-inch single (UK, Europe, US, Canada and Australia) "No More 'I Love You's" – 4:04 "This Can't Go On!" – 3:49
12-inch single (UK and Europe) "No More 'I Love You's" – 4:04 "Of Tears" – 3:37 "This Can't Go On!" – 3:49
1988 UK reissue 7-inch single "No More 'I Love You's" – 4:04 "Tremble Dancing" – 4:16
12-inch and CD single "No More 'I Love You's" – 4:04 "Tremble Dancing" (Extended) – 5:17 "Every Lover's Sign" – 4:38 "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten" – 4:50
Personnel David Freeman – lead vocals, backing vocals June Miles-Kingston – backing vocals Robert Farrell – guitar Joseph Hughes – bass Steve Jordan – drums
Production Jimmy Iovine – production The Lover Speaks – production Fred Defaye – engineering Marc O'Donoghue – assistant engineering Joe Chiccarelli – mixing Craig Engel – assistant mixing
Other John Warwicker – art direction, design Matt Mahurin – photography Atelier Koninck – typography Vivid I.D. – design (1988 reissue only)
Charts Chart (1986)Peakposition Netherlands (Dutch Top 40 Tipparade) 3 UK Singles (OCC) 58 US Cash Box Top 100 88
Annie Lennox version
Scottish singer and songwriter Annie Lennox covered "No More 'I Love You's" and released it as the lead single from her second studio album, Medusa (1995), in February 1995 by RCA and BMG. The song features slightly altered lyrics from the original version and added background vocals that can be heard around the 2:50 mark of the song.
Lennox's version, produced by Stephen Lipson, was a commercial success, topping the singles charts of Canada, Israel, Italy and Spain, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart, and becoming a top-20 hit in at least 10 other countries. In the United States, the song reached numbers 18 and 23 on the Cash Box Top 100 and Billboard Hot 100, and peaked atop the Dance Club Songs chart. In 1996, the song won Lennox the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards. The accompanying music video was directed by Lennox with Joe Dyer, based on an idea by Lennox. It depicts the singer as a courtesan at an old time London bordello. "No More 'I Love You's'" was also featured in the very first episode of The Sopranos.
Background In a 1995 article she wrote for The Independent, Lennox stated why she chose to record her own version of the song:
David Freeman said in 2015, "When Annie Lennox covered 'No More "I Love You's', she nailed it! She has the ability to be camp and soulful. We were very lucky that she recorded our song." The success of Lennox's version earned Freeman and Hughes a BMI award each in 1996, as well as three Ivor Novello award nominations for "PRS Most Performed Work", "International Hit of the Year" and "Best Song Musically and Lyrically". It also generated some renewed interest in the Lover Speaks, which in turn prompted Freeman to independently release some of his solo material across six albums in 1996.
Music video Lennox co-directed the music video for the song with director and cameraman Joe Dyer. In an interview with The New York Times, Lennox described it as 'a fantasia on the whole "mythology of love"'. The concept for the video was all her idea. She searched out an abandoned music hall in London and created a turn-of-the-century bordello modeled after paintings by Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. In the video, Lennox appears as a courtesan surrounded by different characters, such as male travesti ballerinos (one of whom is played by actor Jake Canuso), in a homage to Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The video was nominated for an MTV award in the category for Best Female Video. Gavin Report praised it as a contender for "video of the year". Music Week viewed it as a "hugely effective if slightly unsettling costume video". Michael Althen of Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote, "We're at a masked ball set sometime in the last century. Annie Lennox plays the Queen of the Night, and while heavy guys play easy girls on the stage, the finer gentlemen in the stalls and in the boxes amuse themselves with less fine ladies. The whole thing looks as if Fellini had gone through all the motions: decadence and dabadaba-dupdupdup."
Critical reception