"I Wanna Learn a Love Song" | ||||
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Single by Harry Chapin | ||||
from the album Verities & Balderdash | ||||
B-side | "She Sings Songs Without Words" | |||
Released | August 1974 | |||
Recorded | 1974 | |||
Genre | Folk rock | |||
Length | 3:39 | |||
Label | Elektra Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Harry Chapin | |||
Producer(s) | Paul Leka | |||
Harry Chapin singles chronology | ||||
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"I Wanna Learn a Love Song" is a song written and performed by Harry Chapin. The song was included on his 1974 album, Verities & Balderdash. The song is about a guitar teacher who gives guitar lessons to a woman who is falling in love with him.
The song is a true story about how Chapin met his wife Sandra Chapin. The song starts out showing a guitar teacher who only has his guitar to "Keep his belly still". For each lesson, he got a "crisp ten dollar bill". The woman in the song says that she wants to play the guitar and hear her children sing with her. As the song goes on, he tried to teach her some chords, but she only wants to listen to him and his guitar. He can hear her husband In his den, "playing stud poker with the boys". Finally, she met him at the door when the "den was dark" suggesting her husband had left. [1] Towards the end of the song, it is implied that he and the woman had sex. [2] There was a significant change to the first verse when Harry performed live - the album "Greatest Stories Live" Is an example of this, where the second and fourth lines of the first verse are altered to a more "adult" version. Instead of "Lean and lazy/little bit crazy" the live version Is "Crass and Corny/Little bit horny"[ citation needed ]
Cash Box called it an "intriguing short story" that "teaches us a lesson about life and love and it's eminently listenable," saying that it has a "great sing-along chorus and a big production." [3]
Simple Song is an unreleased version of the song. It was removed from the album, Sniper and Other Love Songs. The song itself is very much similar to "I Wanna Learn a Love Song", with some lyrical changes and is sung in a much softer voice. The song was released in a 2004 double album with Sniper and Other Love Songs and Heads & Tales, but only to Europe. It included a total of 8 unreleased tracks (1 from Heads & Tales and 7 from Sniper and Other Love Songs). [4]
Chart (1974–75) | Peak position |
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Australia | 75 |
Canada | 36 [5] |
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 7 [6] |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 44 [6] |
U.S. Cash Box Top 100 | 40 |
Chart (1975) | Peak position |
---|---|
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 276 [7] |
Harold Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, has sold over 16 million records worldwide.
Sandra Gaston Chapin is an American poet/songwriter and activist. She is best known for her songwriting collaborations with her second husband, singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, and is also the mother of singer Jen Chapin.
Sniper and Other Love Songs is the second studio album by the American singer/songwriter Harry Chapin, released in 1972. The album's title song is a vaguely fictionalised account of Charles Whitman's shootings from the clocktower of the Main Building of the University of Texas at Austin in August 1966. In 2004 it was released as a double CD package with Heads & Tales featuring several previously unreleased out-takes.
"Delta Dawn" is a song written by musician Larry Collins and country songwriter Alex Harvey. The first notable recording of the song was in 1971 by American singer and actress Bette Midler for her debut album. However it is best known as a 1972 top ten country hit for Tanya Tucker and a 1973 US number one hit for Helen Reddy.
"And I Love Her" is a song recorded by English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It is the fifth track of their third UK album A Hard Day's Night and was released 20 July 1964, along with "If I Fell", as a single release by Capitol Records in the United States, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Bell Bottom Blues" is a song written by Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock, and performed by Derek and the Dominos. It deals with Clapton's unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend George Harrison, and appears on the 1970 double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Issued as a single, backed with "Keep on Growing", the song reached number 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. A re-release backed with "Little Wing" peaked at number 78 on the same chart.
"I Write the Songs" is a popular song written by Bruce Johnston in 1975 and released on his album Going Public in 1977. Barry Manilow's version reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1976 after spending two weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart in December 1975. It won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year and was nominated for Record of the Year in 1977. Billboard ranked it as the No. 13 song of 1976.
"Help Me" is a love song written, produced, and performed by Joni Mitchell and released on her 1974 album Court and Spark. The song was recorded with jazz band Tom Scott's L.A. Express as the backing band.
"I've Gotta Get a Message to You" is a song by the Bee Gees. Released as a single in 1968, it was their second number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart, and their first US Top 10 hit. Barry Gibb re-recorded the song with Keith Urban for his 2021 album Greenfields.
"Taxi" is a song written by Harry Chapin, released as a single in early 1972 to coincide with the release of his album Heads & Tales. It is an autobiographical ballad using first-person narrative to tell the story of a taxi cab driver meeting an old flame from his youth when he picks her up in his cab.
"Shortnin' Bread" is an African-American folk song dating back at least to the 1890s. James Whitcomb Riley published it as a poem in 1900, building on older lyrics. A "collected" version of the song was published by E. C. Perrow in 1915. It is song number 4209 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
"Dink's Song" is an American folk song played by many folk revival musicians such as Pete Seeger, Fred Neil, Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Cisco Houston as well as more recent musicians like Jeff Buckley. The song tells the story of a woman deserted by her lover when she needs him the most.
"Sniper" is a ballad written by Harry Chapin and first released on the album Sniper and Other Love Songs in 1972.
The Gold Medal Collection is a 1988 two-CD compilation album featuring various songs and interviews by singer-songwriter Harry Chapin. It was released by Elektra Records to commemorate Chapin for being posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work and campaigns to end hunger. The album has been certified platinum by the RIAA and has sold over 1 million copies.
"Corey's Coming" is a song written and sung by Harry Chapin. It was released on his 1976 album On the Road to Kingdom Come.
Story of a Life is the third posthumous compilation album released featuring Harry Chapin, released in 1999. It was released as a box set containing 3 CDs and a 76-page booklet.
"Sentimental Lady" is a song written by Bob Welch. It was originally recorded for Fleetwood Mac's 1972 album Bare Trees, but was re-recorded by Welch on his debut solo album, French Kiss, in 1977. It is a romantic song, originally written for Welch's first wife. Welch recorded it again in 2003 for his album His Fleetwood Mac Years & Beyond.
"Sunday Morning Sunshine" is a song written and performed by Harry Chapin. The song was included on his 1972 album, Sniper and Other Love Songs. The song was released as a single the same year as his top 20 hit, "Taxi" and debut album, Heads & Tales. Cash Box described it as a "realistic look at city life." Record World said to "look for this melodic self-penning to be covered often and well." The song charted on the Billboard Hot 100, however it received more commercial success when it charted as a top 30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary. The song has also been included on numerous posthumous compilation albums. King Biscuit Flower Hour recorded a live performance of the song for the show.
"Halfway to Heaven" is a song written and performed by Harry Chapin. The song was included, but not released as a single, on his 1974 album, Verities and Balderdash. The song is based on a true conversation he had while at a train station about sexual morality.
"Could You Put Your Light On, Please" is a song written and performed by Harry Chapin. The song was included on his 1972 album, Heads & Tales. It has also been included on numerous posthumous compilation albums.