"It's Only Love" | ||||
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Single by Cheap Trick | ||||
from the album The Doctor | ||||
B-side | "Name of the Game" | |||
Released | November, 1986 | |||
Format | 7", 12" | |||
Genre | Rock, power pop | |||
Length | 3:28 | |||
Label | Epic Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander | |||
Producer(s) | Tony Platt | |||
Cheap Trick singles chronology | ||||
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"It's Only Love" is a single by American rock band Cheap Trick, released as the lead single from their 1986 album The Doctor. The song was written by guitarist Rick Nielsen and lead vocalist Robin Zander.
Taken from the album The Doctor, the album had initially sold 88,000 copies, only peaking at #115 in America and is widely considered the band's worst album.
The album's lone American release single, "It's Only Love" failed to chart, but many blame the album and single's poor success on the record label's lack of promotion. Despite the commercial failure of the song, the music video is notable for the use of American Sign Language.
For the album, Epic Records had hoped the track "Kiss Me Red", written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, would be a potential hit single for the band, where it was released in Europe only. In America, "It's Only Love" was the only single from the album, where it would be the band's last American release with bassist Jon Brant as original bassist Tom Petersson would rejoin the group in 1988. This was also the band's last release in America until 1988 when the band scored a number one hit in America with "The Flame".
"Kiss Me Red" was originally supposed to be the lead single from the album in America, but it was replaced by "It's Only Love", backed by "Name of the Game" in November 1986.
The single was released as a 7" vinyl in America only although both an American promotional 7" and 12" vinyl exists.
On "The Doctor" album, the song's album version duration was 4:44 whilst a single version was created for the song's single release, editing the song down to a duration of 3:28. On the American promotional 12" vinyl, the a-side used the single version, titled "It's Only Love (SV)" and the album version on the b-side, titled "It's Only Love (LP Version)".
The b-side "Name of the Game" was featured as an album track on the same album, written by Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander. For the single, the b-side was exactly the same as the album version.
Both tracks were produced by English producer Tony Platt who had previously mixed the band's previous 1985 album "Standing on the Edge".